How long is too long to keep?

[webber]

After holding it for almost 20 years, today I've agreed to sell one of the very first domains I ever registered.
The price isn't great, but it's ok. It was what I asked for so I can't complain.
Still, 20 years! I was a teenager when I registered it.
How long have you held on to domains?
How do you decide when to drop them, auction them, or sell them for lower than you hoped for?
How long is too long?

 

[ChrisMM]

Did the price you get for it cover the 20 years worth of renewals?

 

[webber]

Did the price you get for it cover the 20 years worth of renewals?

Yes, a hundred times over

About as long as it takes to flip it and make a profit to reinvest elsewhere.

That potentially reads as indefinite

 

[cloud]

Go in, hint to us the name. I'm intrigued

 

[webber]

The domain is not really relevant. It was a .ro
I only got involved in .uk in recent years

 

[ukbackorder]

I have a few domains like this. For example, yet again, I have a renewal coming up for registryoffices.com. At one stage I owned two others like it which I sold but this one I've been renewing since 2005... if I drop it I know it'll end up at namejet or somewhere but it doesn't appear I'm ever going to sell it. Maybe just another year's renewal........

 

[Helmuts]

Congratulations on the sale .. it was worth holding it for 20 years .. what was the .ro name and the price (if you are allowed to disclose it)?

 

[WalkinDude]

A lot of the most successful domain names were not obvious but end of the day someone believed in it and made it happen. Rationality only takes you so far in this game.

 

[Azam.net]

20 years is a long time indeed!

We've also held some domain names for 20+ years. Was originally intending to develop them into websites, but didn't get around to it. Therefore, in more recent years, tried to sell them. Some sold - most did not.

Luck plays a huge part in domaining, as we all know. Some of our biggest value sales came out of the blue, from an individual or corporation that contacted us and were very keen on a specific domain we held that, for instance, was their name or a brand they wanted to use for a business/website.

But can't keep holding on to domains holding out for the 'magic email' offering thousands/tens of thousands of pounds that will suddenly pop into one's inbox.

 

[aZooZa]

TraderTrust .com - 2022 is its 20th year.

 

[Chris Holland]

How long would you keep money in an interest bearing account at an AAA rated bank? Why put a clock on it and of course, prime single word .co.uk or .com domains are an even better asset.

I held groceries.co.uk for over 17 years before selling it to Jeff Bezos (personally) in 2015. The average age of domains that I'm currently selling to end-users is around nine to ten years.

On the one end of the scale there are the "lottery ticket domainers" who set £100K absolute minimum offers for everything versus the anxious flippers who start sweating like a paedophile in a Mothercare branch if they can't do a 10,000% flip on their latest DL £50 buy within two or three days.

 

[NiceNICDomainServer]

Wow, 20 years of holding time! That's a pretty remarkable time span, especially in the domain name investment space.

As for when to give up or sell a domain name, I think it depends on your personal investment goals, such as whether you want to get a quick return on your domain name investment or are willing to wait until the market is more mature. Whether you sell at a lower price than you expected or decide to hold on, the key is to know what long-term or short-term goals you want to achieve in your investment.