There must be countless stories of people who managed to snap up domain names – particularly single-word domains – back in the day for a low price. Many of those domains are likely now worth a lot more, but it doesn’t always follow that a domain rises in value over time. A lot depends on whether it is used and if so, what kind of site it is attached to.
In some cases, a domain name enjoys a varied life, always used for the same topic yet attached to different websites. One good example is Rebate.com, which recently sold for $500,000. The same price tag was attached to the sale of Rebates.com as well.
Quite a hefty fee, you’d think. And yes, you’d be right about that.
But when you realize that those two domains sold for the same fees in 2007 – 15 years earlier – you can see that domain name sales don’t always go in the direction you’d expect them to.
Of course, when figures of half a million dollars are involved, it’s a different angle. They’ve been active on a few sites revolving around – you guessed it – rebates of one kind or another.
But just as houses go up and down in value for all kinds of reasons, so do domain names. Short and simple domains have typically sold for the most cash – with Voice.com taking the top spot there, selling for a cool $30 million in 2019. As a sign of the times, NFTs.com sold for $15 million in 2022, as non-fungible tokens become more widespread and familiar to many.
In the title of this article, we posed a question, and you can see that the answer is no. Indeed, in this case, even though the price of the domains remained the same, their value went down over 15 years. A dollar is not worth as much now as it would have been 15 years ago.
Some people still make a living buying and selling domain names, but as with everything in the buying and selling arena, it’s easier said than done to figure out which domains are going to make the money. Trends have a lot to do with it as well.
Investing in domain names is not an exact science. If it was, we’d all be making millions from it. It’s fascinating to see how some domains are worth more than others, either now or in the past. Ideally, you want to get in and buy a domain that is just about to become popular… and then sell it when it peaks in price. Of course, few people can do this, and those that can rarely do it.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Rebate.com and Rebates.com next. The latter has a message confirming that a beta site is coming soon, so it looks as though this domain has entered the next stage of its long life. Maybe this new stage will lead to a rise in value?