Ask HN: How to sell a good domain? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to sell a good domain?

9 pointsBudVVeezer14 comments

I've got some nice (read: coherent, catchy) domain names having to do with parallel programming. I've also got absolutely no time to do anything with them, and it's starting to bother me.

How does one go about selling a domain name? I'm not looking to retire on the sale of these, but I also think they're worth something to the right company and don't want to just let them lapse only to find out they could have generated some income.

The domains are: parallel.io and concurrent.io, in case you're wondering.

View on HN

Just let them lapse. You've already prevented people who could've done something better with these names from doing so for the past years; why should you profit from them, too?

(Yes, I think "domaining" is abusing a common good, and am willing to burn some karma over it.)

I was walking alone in the woods one day, and I thought they were pretty. I thought, "I'd like a house here some day." So I bought the woods. Sadly, I never had time to build my house there. So now I'd like to sell my woods to someone else who may get enjoyment out of them.

While asking real estate agents the best way to go about selling my land, a developer overhears my conversation and says, "You should just give your land away. You've already prevented people who could have done something better with it for the past few years while you did nothing with it. Why should you profit too?"

I don't condone domain squatting for the sake of making quick and easy cash. But I bought the domains with good intentions of how to use them, and just never found the time to do what I had hoped. Now I'm looking to see who else wants them. I've not prevented anyone from implementing their own good ideas somewhere else.

Analogies have no place in a discussion. I'd consider your names "frontier land claimed for the price of a few poles", not "real estate" - and I wouldn't consider myself a developer, as I have zero interest in doing anything with (your) domain names. See how analogies just make us talk past each other?

Look, I understand that you had no ill intentions, and I understand that the things I said are not nice things. But: the fact is that nobody could use those names for a couple of years and anyone who wants to use it in the future will most likely have to pay you quite a bit more than the name would have cost when claimed directly from the registrar. Those are bad things, and I think steering you and others away from this course of action is appropriate.

Disagree, analogies do have a place in this discussion in placing similar situation out of context for comparative reasoning. I highly doubt you'd be giving away any land you purchased. Judging someone aggressively for doing something that had good intentions, probably has less of a place in a discussion--especially when its belaboring.

I'd much rather see a domain in the hands of a potential developer than an explicit domainer.

Now I'll probably lose karma over this one, but its worth it.

I would be telling you the same thing if you'd laid a claim on some "frontier" "unused" "common-good" land, not used it for years and then tried to sell it. See how an analogy can be used to support any point of view?

I completely agree that handing the domain to a domainer would make things worse, not better, though. I was under the impression that you just wanted to sell to the highest bidder, though.

I fail to draw the same comparison, but that's not unique my friend. :)

On the road, "frontier" "unused" "common-good" land delivers benefit to the general public by way of open spaces, natural resources, scenery, production of oxygen. On the internet, unused domain name provides very little in terms of benefit and/or detriment to the general public. To the professional domainer, an unused domain represents a potential market derived from a commodity who is waiting for the cost of production to be less than the inherent market value.

As domainers branch out from type-in-traffic, product category, lead gen asset purchases into generic/future brands, new TLDs, etc less and less of the commodity will be available for the general public.

I don't think either of those are worth very much. They're cool for sure, but unlikely to get the kind of buyer that would pay a lot.

Put a price on the front page of each of them and wait. Someone might give you a few hundred each, but I doubt much more.

You might find http://flippa.com useful. They have domain only sales and seem to be quite active.

*I'm not affiliated with Flippa! :)

Why not start but putting up a simple splash page advertising the fact that you are willing to sell the domain along with a method of contacting you?

Good idea!

sedo.com tends to have more big money domain names for sale and buyers who are willing to spend on premium domains.

I've bought and sold quite a few domains and I think you just reached out to your target audience right there.

My guess is anyone buying a .io is doing it mostly because nothing else was available, I don't see a huge demand for them. I wouldn't expect much of a price and it probably won't be worth it to make a large effort to find a buyer. Perhaps offer them to people at HN: whomever proposes the most upvoted idea and makes a $10/50/100 donation to a charity (you could choose or they could).

> . I've also got absolutely no time to do anything with them

Nice domains.

Send me an email (address in profile) if you're interested in a sort of JV - we'll do all the development and promotion. If you must sell, let me know an asking price.

The domains aren't 'great' domain names in my opinion. However, if you are looking to sell them then you should either sell them at Flippa, Sedo, Cax, MissDomain, Afternic etc. Additionally, you could also find a broker to sell the domain names for you (the usually charge a transaction fee), offer them to BuyDomains or place a "For Sale" sign on the domains and ask people to contact you offering you a price for them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com