Increasing My Non-.com Inventory

Earlier this week, I shared that I have been expanding my non-.com domain portfolio, and that I sold one of those domain names via Afternic. The domain name was transferred from my account at Namecheap, and I am awaiting the confirmation and payment emails from Afternic.

This is my first non-.com domain name sale since my .XYZ domain name sale back in 2022.

I have been expanding my non .com portfolio.

I have a non-.com domain name “On Hold” at @afternic. I paid a little more than $250 this year, and it’s pending sale at $4,595.

If it closes, it would be my first non-.com sale since my .XYZ sale in 2022.

🤞🤞🤞

— Elliot Silver (@DInvesting) May 27, 2024

Although I am not going to share the domain name or extension, I will say that I did not sell a .XYZ domain name. I want to expand a bit on why I am increasing my non-.com holdings.

From my vantage point, inventory-quality .com domain names are considerably more expensive to buy. The prices on expiry auctions have climbed over the last several years, and the overall ROIs have come down. Yes, I can still buy a name for $400 and re-sell it for $5,000 for a decent ROI, but if I am buying 10 of those a week, the portfolio costs have grown. I am still competing to buy .com domain names daily, but I am more strategic about those buys. I am banking on having a higher STR with non-.com domain names, albeit at a lower price point.

I have also seen many startups using non .com domain names. These might not be their ideal domain names, but they’re using them for better or worse. In looking at expiry auctions on Namecheap, Dynadot, GoDaddy, Sav, NameJet and others, there are decent prices to be had on meaningful keywords in non .com extensions. I believe I can pick up inventory-quality non-.com domain names at better prices right now. Mind you, my portfolio is still relatively small at around 2,000 total domain names.

I don’t consider any of the alternative extensions to be highly desired or premium. For instance, I wouldn’t list any of these domain names on my corporate investment portfolio page. As far as I am concerned, my non-.com purchases are generally in the $20 – $300 range with an expectation to sell for $1,000 – $5,000 +/-. These are inventory-quality domain names that I will be happy to churn.

Every day, I am still trying to buy good .com domain names in auctions and via private acquisitions. I am still a “.com maxi” if you will. When I see a funded, consumer-facing startup using a non-.com, it makes me grimace.

However, I’ve been buying some decent keyword domain names in non-.com extensions, and while this one sale could be an aberration, my bet is the return on my investment will be decent.