The story behind the sale BirthdayBeerWelcome to the Behind the Sale blog series, a new Efty blog series. In this series, I interview domain name investors who reveal all the specifics of a recent transaction. You’ll find out how they purchased low and sold high, how the talks went, and a lot more.
Today, I’m speaking with Alex Verdea, a full-time domain name investor from Romania who now resides in the lovely state of South Carolina, USA.
for payments. I like to pass on “escrow fee savings” to my clients by not employing a third party or Escrow services unless the client specifically asks it.
Tell me a little bit about yourself, Alex.
I’ve been investing in domain names since late 2006, initially purchasing a large number of.tel and.mobi domain names. Flint Telecom Florida phoned me one day and said they wanted to buy Fling.tel (one of my first domain sales in the hundreds of dollars). I then lost hundreds of dollars with the brands TEL and MOBI. In my perspective, the.mobi,.tel,.xyz,.club, and other GTLDs are a BAD investment, hence I have solely focused on.com domains in recent years.
What is the name of the domain name you sold?
This past January, I sold BirthdayBeer.com on Efty. I use Efty for all of my leads/inquiries as well as my own little marketplace.
What did you spend for the domain and how much did it bring in when you sold it?
Early in 2016 I purchased BirthdayBeer.com on the GoDaddy marketplace as a closeout domain for $11, and I eventually sold it for $1,600. For ALL of my domains, I utilize the Kiffer create offer landing page design. Why “make offer” rather than “bring it as is”? The majority of the first bids I get range from $100 to $200, and that’s OK. A small company owner could be discouraged from submitting a contact form or even making an offer if you slap a $5,000–$10,000 buy it now price on your domain. I am really personable, and I consider and consider EVERY offer.
Can you describe the process used to negotiate this domain name?
I was first offered $200 for BirthdayBeer.com. I courteously answered, stating that my pricing was $1,600, good for 7 days, and providing a link to my online store AudiencePortal.com. Along with a BUY IT NOW pricing link, I inserted the name there. For 99% of my domain sales, I utilize Stripe. An hour later, the client made a safe and secure credit card payment. The customer received a good discount on this domain since BEER keyword domain names are HOT right now, thanks to the expanding microbrewery business. Everyone is concentrating on drones, cannabis, VR/AR, self-driving domains, and so on. Personally, I want to keep my portfolio diverse and avoid “trend” domain names, although I do hold a few of each (for example, DispensaryDrone(s).com, MapsByDrones.com, SelfDrivingSmartCars.com, and so on).
Thank you for sharing, Alex. Is there anyone else you’d want to mention?
My final “words of wisdom” for new domain investors would be to only invest in.com domains. There are just too many attractive prospects in the well-known.com extension to squander money on gTLD speculation. The value of.com domains is increasing by the day, while gTLDs are now a guess/shot in the dark investment. Before acquiring fresh domain names, I also recommend reading as much as possible and researching “comps”/past sales. I utilize sites like Namebio.com, Trademarkia.com, Namepros.com, and others on a regular basis.
Disclaimer: Efty is not in possession of user sales information. Therefore, we only provide data on sales that have been made public. Read about our complete governance here.
