I raised this question the other day at Namepros after browsing the marketplace to analyse the availability of LLLL.com domains. It seems that demand for quad letter domains has slowed considerably at Namepros and the users that are offering domains for sale at a fixed price or in the offers only section are being forced to bump threads or reduce prices in an effort to gain interest from prospective buyers.
I certainly don’t see this as a problem however, and, in fact, it seems that this is only happening at Namepros and other domain forums while other market venues are showing excellent results. Why is this? It could be for a number of reasons…
- Buyers are seeing bigger returns and experiencing greater success with completed sales at other market venues.
- The premium LLLL.net buyout has temporarily overshadowed the progress of the LLLL.com market and the ‘any’ LLLL.net buyout continues to grow and avert peoples gaze away from their dot com counterparts.
- Domain registrants are expecting too much of their domains - many domainers want a $100 minimum wholesale price for any name too soon. Whilst this would be great, we are not there yet, and for those people that think every LLLL.com domain can command this value at this stage of the game is wrong. In fact overpricing your domains can only damage your sales rate unless every LLLL.com registrant uses the same strategy as you at the same time! It’s not going to happen!
- The four letter dot com market is still in a liquid state and has yet to stabilise and mature.
- Too many domains are available to buy. Supply is starting to out-way demand as many domainers believe they have invested enough capital in this niche and want to wait to see the market appreciate before buying more.
Any of the above points could be the reason behind reduced demand for quad letter dot com domains. I certainly believe that the excitement of the LLLL.net buyout over the past two weeks has made people concentrate on that niche more than LLLL.com names. I have certainly spent a lot of time scanning premium LLLL.net’s and taking part in LLLL.net discussions this month.
This aside, there are still numerous sales being reported every single day at Snap, TDNAM, Sedo, Afternic, and Ebay. Every sale looks promising and prices are still continuing to rise even though this rate has slowed. At the beginning of the month the growth rate for quad letter domains had dropped to just 10%. Reece of 4 Letter Noob has delayed his four letter domain price guide until the 17th this month but I am sure we will see him report a continued increase in the value of LLLL.com’s.
Sedo and Snap continue to see the highest value sales of LLLL.com’s, however Ebay is no longer the place to grab a bargain. I think the domain forums themselves are currently the best place to barter and buy LLLL.com domains although when the market stabilises and levels out over the coming months I think every market venue will return the same kind of sales reports.
It seems that this slowing of demand is only temporary and should not be a reason to start selling up. Infact to flood the market with even more LLLL.com domains for sale would only hinder its progress. The market is still in flux and yet to mature as many domainers are still looking to ‘quick flip’. If more owners hold their names we will once again see an increase in demand due to a decrease in supply, its just a matter of time and having the patience to watch the market mature.
February 14th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
It’s about time this happened… a temporary blink and “correction” from all that bubbly frenzy to smack everybody in head and start revisiting the fundamentals of the market.
In the case of quad letters though, this can probably mean a more informed examination of the market, just before it start trending upwards inexorably again. This time in a more sustained fashion because of the more substantive introspection and feasibility check done beforehand.
February 15th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
I’m seeing a certain decrease in demand, mostly due to the large amount of LLLL.com’s being offered and the fact that many big LLLL investors already got their fill and are sitting on their portfolios. People still want to buy quad premiums, but cvcv’s are harder to sell.
February 18th, 2008 at 9:12 am
The increase of LLLL dot nets has definitely picked up. This will only make the dot com world stronger as the year progresses. A lot of people that missed the dot com ship are coming in droves to start buying LLLL dot nets. There will not be any major flips in the dot net world, but I think it would be safe to say that most dot net buyers will be able to double their money this time next year.