When buying or selling premium domain names, timing is everything. The domain market is an evolving market as the internet itself is relatively new. Buyer budgets ebb and rise, particularly for startups in various funding stages. The Chinese market for numeric domains has been extremely active as the Chinese internet market booms.

A generic startup in one space affects the value of other domains in that space. Domain values are primarily based on empirical information, but the market does affect those values. The domain market is not volatile, but .COM is barely maturing itself, and tremendous technological changes are introduced on a regular basis.

Thus, timing, timing, timing is everything. Each domain’s situation is unique, and that’s where a relationship with your domain broker is important. You may also want to refer to our in depth article about When to Sell & Why We Sold White.com. On a larger scale for today’s market, a thousand new gTLD extensions like .GREEN, .NYC, and .NEWS are becoming available within the next few years. For example, with the .GIFTS extension coming soon, Gifts.

TV is on the market now. In addition, there are a flood of brokerage requests for new gTLD domains which are only a couple of days or weeks old.  Some sellers already believe those domains are worth tens of thousands of dollars. Frankly, this outlook diminishes the professional standing of domain investment.

While it’s true that a domain like Taxes.pro has more value than the amount paid for registration, if a tax company already knew that today, they would have already purchased it. Investors should expect a longer return on these domains as companies acclimate to the new gTLD market. After all, it took .com more than 10 years to really “mature,” and in the scheme of things .COM is still coming of age. We believe there are very interesting opportunities in the new TLD space. We also acknowledge that each new extension will definitely have standout domains which create exciting branding and marketing opportunities for new and existing companies.

However, for investors, it is silly to believe that a domain you hand registered yesterday for $25 – $500 is immediately worth $25,000 without a solid reason behind the valuation. Consult with a domain broker before purchasing gTLds, especially if you’re thinking of selling them immediately. Perhaps an investor will find a better value per dollar in saving up for a few premium domains instead of a larger quantity with lower quality.