I read a great post on Daily Domainer yesterday entitled “If Only I Had Been Around in 2008“. The article talks about how the mid nineties was the best time to buy a domain as the internet was new and so many great domains were unregistered and how 2001 and 2002 was also a great time to purchase a domain as it just followed the dot com crash. The writer suggests that 2008 could be a great year to pick up domains because of the falling economy in most western countries.
I found this article very interesting as I was buying and selling a lot of domains around 2001/2002. Fast forward to 2008 and I’m aiming to buy more domains and get involved in domain trading again.
So is this the perfect time to start buying domain names again? Time will tell. I think it will difficult to tell if we are experiencing a low until you look back later on but the signs are there. A lot of internet companies are cutting staff and reducing their expenses so it’s probably safe to assume that domain prices will be affected as well.
I was reading a thread on DNForum which mentioned that sdcards.com recently sold for $3,112. I was surprised that the domain sold for such a low price, I assumed it would sell for around $10,000 or so.
Secure Digital cards have been out for years but they are still quite popular in low end cameras and phones. Even though these memory cards are being used less often, their replacement, the micrco-sd card, is becoming very popular. So there will still be a lot of people searching for ‘SD Cards’ over the next 5 years.
I’d happily have paid 3 grand for it. Have a look at ebay and you will see thousands of sellers selling SD cards every day. It would be very easy to throw up a basic information site on this domain and add loads of amazon and ebay affiliate links to generate some commissions. The buyer definately got a bargain.
Is this the perfect time to start buying Domain Names?
It’s difficult to tell if this is a good time to buy domains. There are a lot more people trading domains than 6 or 7 years ago so it’s more competitive. On the flip side, there are more people using the internet, developing websites and buying domains than 7 years ago so perhaps that isn’t a major concern.
I have noticed a few domainers say that prices are a bit lower than usual so it’s probably a better time to buy a domain rather than sell. What do you think? Do you think domain values will be much higher next year?