Whois NameMedia Inc? NameMedia owns one of the largest domain portfolios on the net. They are the central nervous system and the brains behind BuyDomains.com a domain sales platform, Afternic.com a huge domain auction house and brokerage (DLS) as well as ActiveAudience.com a domain monetization platform.
NameMedia Inc. AKA “BuyDomains.com” is on the prowl for domains, lots of them. In recent months they have been posting to the masses on forums such as NamePros and DNF in search of domain portfolios to acquire. I first noticed their calling to buy domains in a thread at NamePros forum two months ago. I responded via email as they requested with a short list of a several four letter .coms and four letter .nets. and a couple nice one word domains just to see what kind of interest they may have. Now, before I sent off this email I already had a preconception of NameMedia’s buying strategies. A fellow domainer friend of mine once referred to them as the “low ball kings”. Hearing this I was not expecting a positive response. Almost immediately I received a response with domains they were interested in, all listed individually with prices they would pay. I was a bit surprised, I had never had such a straight forward bulk buyer and the prices weren’t too unreasonable. Of course offers were in the reseller range and there were a couple were laughable low ball offers included. I replied with an edited list of individual offers that I would accept. Their representative emailed me back quickly with a “we have a deal” and requested authorization codes and payment info. That deal actually ended up fizzling out as contact was disconnected. I am glad to say that was ok with me as I sold one of those domains to an end user. Back to the subject, NameMedia. I actually did just finalize another deal with them that went through smoothly for roughly $20 per domain. It wasn’t huge deal but even at that price was still profitable for me.
NameMedia Inc is sometimes seen as the “big bad guys” preying on the domain industry. They have been acquiring many small portfolios from small time domainers that don’t want to cough up renewal money for their collection. Most domainers I know that have sold to them say something such as “Yep sold out to Name Media” like it was making them depressed or something. The truth is if you have sold to Name Media, you have gotten fair reseller prices assuming you have been careful. Make sure you really know the value and potential of your domains if you are selling to them as they will offer absurdly low prices on great names. I have noticed that NameMedia has really been buying heavily into “short domains” recently based on forum chatter and their acquisitions from me. I will say this about selling to NameMedia, it is nice to get straight forward individual offers on your portfolio and be able to pick which offers you accept. Just one piece of advice while doing business with NameMedia: Keep your gems away from them, as they will never pay top dollar for great names.
Michael Law
NameTalent.com
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Thanks for your comments Michael.
Indeed we’re buying names. We strive to be easy to work with and will pay quickly.
Names can be submitted for review (even the gems) to buydomains.com/sellYourDomainNames.do
Warm regards,
Ted
BuyDomains.com - a division of NameMedia
No problem Ted, glad to see you here.
The most useful information for me from this post is ” I have noticed that NameMedia has really been buying heavily into “short domains” recently based on forum chatter and their acquisitions from me”.
Really good news, and that is also the area where I focused
What types of LLLL.com’s & .net’s did you send them, and what ballpark were their offers in? Thanks.
Good article.
NameMedia also develops a number of websites and has purchased some thriving online communities. Other parking brands that are owned by NameMedia is SmartName and GoldKey
I’ve done business with them twice… sold over 60 domains in total. Ted’s great to deal with and payment is always prompt. You shoot an email with domains for sale, they send you offers, and go from there…
With a 1,500,000 domain portfolio, their selection process is bound to be fairly arbitrary, as they likely don’t have the time to pore over every single name submitted… In fact, having submitted some of my portfolio for review several times, they offered to buy some names at one time, while not making an offer for them at another…
If I have even a vague idea for development, I generally wouldn’t give up a name for a NameMedia price, but sometimes it feels nice to get 2x, 3x, or 4x price for a cool sounding name that you’ve registered only months prior but don’t know what to do with it and don’t have time to wait and look for an end user… 200% ROI by selling names to a company that buys in bulk? Yes indeed, domaining is just getting started…
Hmm nice post. I think I’ll have to contact them to maybe sell some of my 600+ domains..
Interesting post - Yes indeed, domaining is just getting started