Politics, Programming and Possibilities
17 Feb
I wrote earlier to let readers know about the availability of Libyan internet domains. There were a lot of open domains available at that time. There are still a good many to go, too. Taking on a $150 domain is a bit of a risk, however, so I hope you’ll consider the pros and cons before you act. I also hope that all of you who already took the plunge have had success.
A couple of weeks ago, I sold the “HO.LY” domain for $1,000 on ebay. While I don’t expect to get the same price for some of my other .ly domains, it’s been a valuable business experience as I’ve taken the “plunge” myself.
Some Thoughts on Domain Sales
Soon after my original post, someone accused me of being a bad person for snatching up the domains that I did and then re-selling them. I didn’t expect this reaction to be honest, although after some reflection, I can see why some people might be grumpy or upset. Perhaps it seems like easy and undeserved money when a domain sells above its registrar fee.
But grumpiness aside, the “mark-up” on ebay is profit taken for providing a service. It was actually a risk on my part to buy $750 worth of domains. I really didn’t know what they were worth—and neither did some of the appraisers I went to, for that matter. My service was to take a risk upon myself in order to find someone who would be happy to pay more than the $150 registrar fee for the domain. And as it turns out, someone in Florida was just the person. I’d like to think that without me, this fellow wouldn’t have been presented with the option of buying HO.LY and therefore may not have gotten the domain he wanted in the end.
I’ll continue to experiment with domain sales and other possibly profitable ventures. I’ll post about anything that comes up. And let me know if you have any ideas too, eh? ![]()
5 Responses for "HO.LY went for $1k on ebay"
Bah. People are silly.
If you didn’t buy HO.LY some SPAMtastic organization would’ve gotten it.
You provided a service for all the internet by reserving these domains for legitimate use.
And in the meantime you can make tons of money on google ads for viagra!
This is a very good idea!
Check out all these words ending in .ly!
http://wordnavigator.com/ends-with/ly/
Wow, Max… I was looking for that
I also found dict.org which does a good job (”match suffixes”).
Domain camping is really similar to buying up a whole lot of beach-side property for a really good deal and then selling it to developers for big bucks. Or buying house after house as soon as you can afford it, pushing up prices and leaving poorer people to live so far from the capital that they can’t afford to pay for transportation to get to their jobs.
There are moral objections to that, but at the same time, the only other investment that beats inflation is a risky stock. So if the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and you have the option to be the rich, should you take it?
I don’t know.
Legally, I think you can domain camp without being sued as long as you don’t pick a trade name.
I think you find the anti-profit crowd wherever you go. There is a good essay on the subject by Heilbroner in the book “The Worldly Philosphers”, unfortunately it’s copyrighted and I can’t find the full text on the net, but here is a segment:
“The question has come up whether a guild master of the weaving industry should be allowed to try an innovation in his product. The verdict: ‘If a cloth weaver intends to process a piece according to his own invention, he must not set it on the loom, but should obtain permission from the judges of the town to employ the number and length of threads that he desires, after the question has been considered by four of the oldest merchants and four of the oldest weavers of the guild.’ One can imagine how many suggestions for change were tolerated.
Shortly after the matter of cloth weaving has been disposed of, the button makers guild raises a cry of outrage; the tailors are beginning to make buttons out of cloth, an unheard-of thing. The government, indignant that an innovation should threaten a settled industry, imposes a fine on the cloth-button makers. But the wardens of the button guild are not yet satisfied. They demand the right to search people’s homes and wardrobes and fine and even arrest them on the streets if they are seen wearing these subversive goods.”
Back in the Medieval period the main culprit was the Roman Catholic Church. Piety was serving your fellow man and anything that could be construed as profiteering was a sin, punishable by death (and it often was punished by death). The French were especially cruel.
These days it seems like more of a liberal mantra. I’ve met a lot of people who just think entrepreneurs (”businessmen”) are rotten.
Leave a reply