Jeftovic On Circle ID: Domain Names Are Not Investments, They Are “Just Speculation”
In a scathing post on domain names as an investment written by Mark Jeftovic on Circle Id, said:
“This is the reality that domainers have to face: Most of the activity in the space that is considered “investing” isn’t.”
“”In the domainer space, it’s all about speculation. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But let’s call it for what it is.”"
“”I can’t bear to see the word “investing” misused any longer when used in the same sentence as “domains.”
As proof for this theory the author looks to Tucows selling its domains it acquired from its customers under YummyNames.com, the falling price of shares of Marchex, Dark Blue Sea and LiveCurrent and the Sex.com debacle, as indications that domains aren’t investments just “speculation”.
Mr. Jeftovic then goes on to call out Rick Schwartz; Used Airplanes, Inc (the buyer of flying.com) and Aron Meystedt at symbolics.com
Finally he goes on to say simply that “The smart money domainers are liquidating domains.”
“Founder and CEO of easyDNS.com, an outsourced DNS provider since 1998. Former Director to Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), 2002-2005. Guitarist & founder of The Parkdale Hookers, the open source punk rockers from hell.”
One man’s speculation is another man’s investment.
Where shares of Lehman Brothers that went from $70 a share to Zero an investment?
Are shares of Apple or Google anymore of an “investment” than a domain?
Shares of those companies pay no dividends.
You buy shares of stock from someone who is selling them believing that the shares will be worth more in 5 years, 5 months, 5 days or 5 hours from now depending on your trading strategy.
Mr. Jeftovic; Domains are traded in the same fashion, no?
You buy a domain for $1,000 because you believe it will be worth more in the future.
So if I understand Mr. Jeftovic is you buy stocks, gold, silver, art, real estate, vacant land, or anything else its an investment but when you it comes to domains its speculation?
If you want to prove domain names are a bad investment then you need to look at actual sales from a few years ago and then show me the same domains that sold for less.
Lot of them.
Then lets do it for real estate.
Then lets compare.
Lets do it for Shares of Google which are still well off their high of $740.
Lets do it for Citibank now sitting at $4 after being over $40.
Lets not forget about GM.
Yes those were fine investments.
Are the smart domainers liquidating domains?
Sure but we always have been.
But we also keep acquiring more domains than we “liquidate”.
That is how you make good investments.
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“A guy could come into domaining today with a few thousand bucks and within a couple years time could be worth millions.”
could ? what are the chances ?
I’ll front the few thousand for a 5% stake in the first million.
“I believe I could start from scratch today all over again without one domain, and within a couple of years have a nice portfolio of domains generating monthly revenue and significant sales.”
Sure you have 10+ years of knowledge, insight and experience and have learned from yours and others mistakes.
Could a guy who walks in off the street do it ? Is there enough info for average Joe investor to pull that off w/a couple grand and some midnight oil to burn ?
You clearly have no idea what you are talking about. You will not be successful in any business with that attitude.
There are many, many letter combinationed “BRANDED” .coms that are not yet leased. The .com universe is abundent with opportunities. The only thing limiting anyones future success is their minds.
Gratefully,
Jeff
@Mark Jeftovic
I’m sorry my friend, you can’t come up with Bushism Wallstreet bullshit jargon to define the difference between “speculation and investments”. They’re both the same. Period. You invest, you take a chance, by SPECULATING that the investment you made will grow and make you more money than you invested.
Period. All the other “terminology” is just game playing, Goldman Sachs style.
When you buy domains, you’re investing in them. When you buy land, you’re investing in it. When you buy stocks, you’re investing in it, and for all of them, you are “speculating” that they will pay off.
Semantics doesn’t define a dollar amount when you’re making money on a good “investment”, my friend. Everything that takes your money and doesn’t guarantee you’ll get it back, is a “speculation”.
thanks for admitting this, and quitting the semantics marketing game. I’ve been there, I think you should be in politics!
Mark Jeftovic is talking out of his rear end
also a domain has the possibility to dramatically go up in value once developed
all are pieces of land in the first intance. land.com would be the equivalent of a nice plot next to piccadilly circus in london. that land is so valauble you can’t even buy anyway, just lease at astronomical rents, so it’s possible in the future the absolute cream domains are only available to lease, let alone buy
obviously something like land1.com is a piece of land in a cheap neighbourhood
landvffd.com is a piece of nuclear radiated land lol
weird thing about domains though is something like ‘myland.com’ can sell for a kings ransom if someone already had built up the .co.uk say or just had this name in mind and had to have it
or the owner really wanted to run with the name and built a kick ass site
one week earning $1 parked, next week earning xxx, 6 months later x,xxx
totally possible
thing is there’s too many factors to even factor in!
so to summise, if you never plan to develop you are just hoping you can sell for more than you bought, so , yes, an investment, like any other really
but imho the best thing you can possibly invest in
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