Video Transcript
Tess: On today’s domain sherpa review, top brokers Andrew Rosener and Jeff Gabriel discuss domains recently bought or sold, different approaches to relationships in the broker-client relationship, and also we discuss the financial markets right now and how specifically to approach a domain sale and to structure it for Q4 2020. Enjoy the show!
Tess: Hey, sherpa network! Thanks for joining us today. I’m Tess Diaz, executive producer of domainsherpa.com and this is the DomainSherpa Review. This is a show where we get into the
minds of successful domain name investors using real examples so we can learn strategies and tactics to become better investors ourselves. We have three segments to the review. We’ll start off by learning what the sherpas recently bought or sold. Next, we’ll preview some domains going to auction soon at namejet.com. And for the third section, we will be discussing a little bit about the financial markets and some interesting conversations.
So joining us today, we have two past sherpas and industry thought leaders, Jeff Gabriel of Saw.com. Hi, Jeff! How are you doing?
Jeff: I’m doing great!
Tess: Good to hear. And Andrew Rose ner of Media Options. Hello Drew!
Andrew: Hello.
Tess: You guys are brief today.
Jeff: I know right.
Tess: No actually, they’re all out of words from all our pre-game conversations.
Andrew: It was not public appropriate.
Tess: (laughs) Part one, “What’s new, sherpas?” So what is one purchase or sale you’ve made over the past few weeks? And we want to learn what you’ve paid or received for the domain, why you thought it was a good deal, and how the negotiations progressed.
So Jeff, you are up first. No pricing, what’s the name you recently bought or sold?
Jeff: A name that we recently sold (now this one was under some discussion for a little while and it’s a very specific name) is called essiactea.com.
Tess: Wow, that is officially the most difficult name for the radio test.
Jeff: it’s spelled e-s-s-i-a-c-t-e-a dot com
Andrew: I feel like I’m at a tremendous disadvantage here since I have no clue it could be a billion-dollar industry or it could be four people on the earth that drink Essiac Tea.
Tess: Very interesting. Okay. EssiacTea.com. What we do know is that Drew has certainly taught me about the value of tea online. And we also know there is zero way that passes the radio test. So was this an acquisition or a sale?
Jeff: This is a sale.
Tess: A sale, so an outbound sale. Like you literally had to call multiple people and say, “Would you like to buy essiac tea?”
Jeff: We sold it
Tess: Okay, going in blind, what do you think?
Andrew: I’m going to say,
Jeff: This isn’t a world record here guys. This isn’t this amazing, unbelievable sale.
Andrew: Essiac Tea. I mean I’m gonna go out on a limb. My gut instinct is to say like 25, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say like 48.
Okay, Tess you should guess since we don’t have any other guests today.
Tess: Well Jeff i wish you hadn’t given your little hint of it isn’t a world record. I think generally saw.com doesn’t outbound broker names of super low value. I wonder if there was only one buyer. I know that for media options sometimes if there’s a specific buyer maybe you bought a domain for a different purpose and then a company develops with that same unique name. Maybe there’s some outreach. EssiacTea.com. I’m gonna go low um even though i don’t know why you’re bringing it up. I’m missing the psychology.
Jeff: I want to talk about a unique name. We have another name that we sold for the mid six figures and i think that’d be easy to talk about but i have this kind of this obscure one out of left field i thought it’d be more interesting to discuss.
Tess: okay I’m gonna say fifteen thousand dollars.
Jeff: you actually nailed it right on the nose. it was one of those we tried a couple places. um, this is a tea you drink if you supposedly have cancer and it helps cure it. but there’s absolutely zero proof that it does anything for anybody. so I found it to be you know and if you look at um spiced tea I think that’s owned by um the name find portfolio. and you look at some of the other sales that have occurred like organic tea and stuff that have sold for around that price or less. and it’s like wow you know so I thought that was just a good sale. um and it was a unique one because we don’t usually sell names like this um on a regular basis or even entertain trying to sell them. it’s not really that interesting to us but I thought you guys would find that one to be interesting.
Tess: so even though it doesn’t have a radio test people who have cancer and are really motivated looking at alternative unproven probably don’t work treatments, they’re gonna know this word they’re gonna know how to spell it. there’s probably some good search volume.
So what made you agree to take it on and how many buyers did you approach?
Jeff: um this is what we do as a company is that when we take on up uh what we do is represent usually typically an entire portfolio. so people will come to us and say we have you know 500 we own 500 names which one do you want to take on? and that’s not really the strategy that we take. so what we would say is we want to work with you on all 500 of your names and then put our for-sale landers on those. and then as opportunities come in or we see names that pique our interests that are priced at a reasonable amount, then we’re going to do some outbound on those particular names right. so like if media options was a name as part of drew’s portfolio and we said wait there’s a lot of different media companies out there that you know perhaps would be willing to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars that domain is worth. you know we would then do some basic you know outbound campaigning and working on that. and let’s say he has like a few super gems that are really nice and we would do like press releases and additional so this isn’t one of those that commanded you know the whole marching band. but it was worth doing some work you know to get the word out and to let people know and somebody nibbled. now there’s a lot of different other names within this portfolio that we were doing a lot of other outbound for as well to add that extra value rather than just you know kind of sitting there and waiting on all the names. which we do sit and wait on a good number of names as well you know. but there are others that seem like it’s a competitive spot so the idea would be drew gets an inquiry on one of his names or we get an inquiry on their name. The first thing you do what everyone does is they google it so if you see that there’s a lot of different companies offering this product or service or it’s brandable or named that then it would behoove you to then start to go and say hey are you interested. Because now you’ve come across something of value right. rather than just working with that buyer and potentially selling it short right.
Andrew: you know i I’ve also actually recently changed my tune. but I’m beginning to change my tune across you know that sort of mindset um you know. we have a different strategy as you know but like I’m willing to take on some smaller names when I think that they’re interesting or it’s an interesting area. because I think like you know Chris and i talk a lot all the time about advertising. I just don’t find advertising to be a very effective channel for a domain broker. because like as a domain broker guess if you break it down your job is like you know 90 timing 10 you know work right. it’s like you gotta get you to know you gotta get the right name in front of the right person at the right time. and then you know the price matters but it’s less important than the timing. so um I feel like the type of marketing that’s actually effective uh is getting you know layups or smaller names even if it’s like all right. normally i’m not thinking about this in terms of commission is worth my time but it’s putting us in contact with more companies. especially if it’s an industry we want exposure in. and you know it’s just more conversations leads to more deals period. um in any type of sales right so more conversation more sales. so yeah I can look at a little bit like marketing on some of these smaller names. it’s like it’s just good marketing. just get you out there put your stake in the ground.
Jeff: I also think um me as a salesperson personally I like to have things going on and happening. you know if i did if i did one sale a year and made the same amount of money if I did 100.
Andrew: I’m sorry that’s the position you’re in man. yeah, right I wish I could help.
Jeff: but I’d rather be doing like averaging eight or 10 deals a month personally than doing 2 because you just get it just keeps you rocking and rolling. and like you know you’re feeling good.
Andrew: you’ve got to stay in a rhythm it’s all about staying in the rhythm.
Tess: I mean I respect the rocking and rolling and the rhythm. but on top of that, it’s the uh almost the muscle memory the practicing of overcoming objections. hearing what’s on the current market type. you know like google makes some tiny change there are all these new different objections. or maybe the political landscape is in turmoil and therefore there are some really interesting financial changes across the country.
you know you want to know what’s happening each moment. so good for you that’s pretty cool.
what was your asking price on it and why?
Jeff: Uh the asking price I believe was about 25 or 30 thousand dollars. it’s just one of those names like when I worked at you to for frank schilling it’s like you kind of just put some names into particular buckets and you just want to put a price on it. and whether it’s worth a little less or a little bit more you kind of just stick with that number. so it doesn’t blow away the buyer that you’re inquiring with. At the same time, it doesn’t sell it short right. so it leaves a little bit of breathing room in there for the negotiation.
Tess: nice good for you all right congrats. Essiac Tea. Don’t buy it – go see a doctor.
Jeff: well I mean my attitude would be if I was diagnosed with cancer and I saw this tea online that might help cure it. i mean even going through all the other stuff that unfortunately people have to go through I mean i’d probably be drinking a gallon of that a day. even if there’s a one-thousandth of a percent chance it’s gonna cure right. so yeah I’d be doing anything you know like jumping in a circle into if someone told me that works right.
Tess: yeah um make sense uh a good point.
Drew, what’d you buy or sell lately?
Andrew: uh oh okay uh I’ll talk about a sale uh it was a name we owned, uh and it just sold. It was interesting because I didn’t necessarily know that I had this domain price. I had priced an inquiry that came in through the Uniregistry marketplace five years ago somehow that got stuck as a buy now price. and so somebody came along and clicked buy it now and after that and the name sold and the name is roso.com r-o-s-o roso.com.
Jeff: A restaurant Italian company bought it?
Andrew: I don’t know if there’s anything on it actually yet.
Jeff: this is going to be an uninformed decision. r-o-s-o. i would probably say uh to buy it now i’d probably say like uh 22 000. thirty-two thousand dollars.
Andrew: uh this game is hard when there’s only one participant. it’s more like ping pong if there’s only one participant.
yeah uh so it was 38. which I thought was low, to be honest. I don’t hate that sale, but you know roso. repeating vowel very pronounceable nice little brand. I don’t know that’s anybody in that space and so it’s kind of a clean slate.
Jeff: I would think so but I mean with that pronunciation you usually have a double. so like Rosso or rossi yeah you know something like that. i mean i think it’s a good name. um, I wonder if it has a meaning. does that have any meaning in Spanish phonetically or anything?
Andrew: no it’s like some you know it’s it’s like a weird alternative form you know of the word red or pink. or something else in like a variety of different languages. but like you know it’s not like a primary form.
Tess: yeah yeah it’s not going to be used as a color but it connotes a color it has you know the repeating vowel
Jeff: you’re right you know r-o-s-s-o may be a misspell.
Tess: um it sounds like a restaurant a brand for just about anything. um what would you price it for today drew?
Andrew: not a ton more. i probably would have put it with a 75 000 ask and 50 000 low you know if i did it again. but you know it’s okay i you know i think four letter.coms are just like the holy grail. i think that you know they’re really the gold standard when it comes to brands. and so you know i i don’t know it’s just it’s getting harder and harder to find a four letter pronounceable whether it’s a word or not. said good clean 4 letter .com that’s easy to pronounce that just feels very cheap to me.
