The domain industry can only prove so much, domain sales are reported to DN Journal, recorded by and sometimes reported to Namebio. Blogs will sometimes break a story with a domain sale that no one else knew about. All these platforms rely on trust to a great degree, there is not forensic accounting done to verify every sale.
From time to time I have had someone say they can tell me a lot about a sale but no proof or incomplete details. I usually say thanks but no thanks. Without the whole story what does it mean? The story I posted earlier about Kate Buckley has played out before, many big sales do get called out over time.
In the thread that sparked Kate’s open letter, one Namepros member wrote:
Questioning highly publicized sales should always be encouraged. Once questioning stops, fraud and nefarious behavior prevails. History teaches us that.
It should be a “badge of honor” to have to show proof of a large sale that is publicized.
Definately, those that question, should not be attacked and labeled for questioning.
Albert Einstein Quote:
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
They went on to say:
I am sorry that you feel that questioning a sale is bullying and/or sexist. Sincere apologies for posting to a discussion that you felt personally attacked. It was never my intention to cause hurt. Again, my apologies.
Questions
So very simply what percentage of sales reports that you read do you believe?
Secondly is it ok to question a sale and ask questions down the road when already being told the sale is under NDA?
For me, Ron Jackson is the authority on large domain sales. I personally send him any information he needs including signed contracts to help him verify the sale. Ron does not post leased sales until the final payment.
I’ve questioned some large sales in the past since I consider a sale as “cash only” and not as cash with partial shares or future sales commissions. Cash in the bank at the point of sale should be the Industry standard.
I’ve been involved in sales that have questioned by trolls. I’m ok with it.
I don’t feed trolls either. Think what you want. My bank account doesn’t care.
There’s really no point “working” in this industry if you don’t make the sales though. Your bank account doesn’t care about made up sales either and made up sales won’t pay your rent.
I’m ok with the questions. I’ve even questioned a few that seem suspicious.
Many of my private/unreported sales, I myself might give pause to believe if they were reported or “semi” reported (as in “this domain sold for 7 figures”). It’s crappy to have doubters / haters / trolls but it comes with the territory of success. I think we should always question reported sales.
SINCE I & MY BROTHERS HAVE NOT SOLD ANY NAMES (BEST GENERIC ONE WORD) SINCE 1998; I BELIEVE THAT MOST SALES ARE FAKE SO SMALL INVESTORS WILL KEEP BUYING & SPENDING MONEY ON STUPID NAMES. THEY ARE NOT GOING TO LET ANY SMALL BUSINESSES START ONLINE BUSINESS. PERIOD
What’s the ‘best generic one word’ you speak of?
shop.com.pk. Or food.com.pk. Or gift.com.pk. According to namebio, there are 4 .com.pk sales… ever. With pay.com.pk taking the crown at $4,500. The OP looks to be asking for a minimum offer of $50K on these domains. There are about 35,000 .com.pk registrations globally. Internet usage in Pakistan is 15% of population. Looks like business.com.pk is available for the taking. There may be a logical malfunction going on with this all caps reasoning.
Domain name sales reports are to a very large extent, on the up and up, DNJournal.com being the gold standard.
New gtld registration reports, on the other hand, not so much!
I belive most .COM sales, but I don’t believe most new gTLD domain sales.
Dnjournal is the most trusted source. Namebio is good but there is a lot of unverified sales. For example sort by price and there is lots of 1999-2005 million+ sales that they could not possibly have verified.
Least trustworthy source is registry reported new tld sales.
I wish you had given a few more vote options. I voted 100% but would have preferred a choice like 90-95% as in any database I am sure that a few got through that should not. But I have confidence in both NameBio and DNJournal and when I see a sale thee I believe them. I see some examples of people not wanting to believe sales that they don’t personally like. We should not be looking in sales data to prove some conviction we have, but rather as a source of insights to be considered with an open mind. Or at least that is how I view it! We should be fortunate that Michael has made NameBio publicly available and thank him for the superb interface and elegance off the site.
Bob
95 or 100 % what’s the difference really. Either way you are in the minority, most people believe half or less.
We should not be looking in sales data to prove some conviction we have, but rather as a source of insights to be considered with an open mind
You are entitled to that opinion but we all don’t share that opinion, I disagree with you 100% on the point you made.
I think the reports are mostly correct. I even see some of my transactions appear without explicitly report them.
I personally don’t report any of my transactions (not many anyway) so I believe the transactions numbers are a very small percentage of the actual number of domain name transactions.
I rarely question sales that make sense.
Domain names imo are way undervalued.
Although I am almost always skeptical if i see a new gtld sell for a high price regardless of extension.