So there have been some good discussions about old timers and how they would do today, or if they are still relevant?
An article I wrote on TLDinvestors got a lot of engagement both on the blog and on Namepros.
A lot of the comments focused on Rick, some gave great praise, others went the other way with a gem like this:
These days Rick is more out of touch with the domain industry than Morgan. His opinion on something like this is worthless.
All Rick knows how to do is say “no” to $100k offers on domains worth $1 million dollars. Real hard (sarcasm). Has he sold any of the hundreds of domains he’s purchased in the last 5 years? NO, he has NOT.
He’s desperately trying to stay relevant at the sacrifice of competence.
Someone else stated:
NO!!!
Neither schwartz, berkens or schilling ever put a dime in my pocket.
On the flipside commenter JZ posted something that a couple of old timers mentioned to me and thought was post worthy.
Todays domainers are spoiled rotten with so much info out there. When Rick and guys like him started there was nothing. No drop lists, no “industry” to speak of. Do they understand what younger domainers have to go through? Probably not but they paved the road.
So how would the new breed that is dependent on technology have done in the early days?
There would be little to no discussion, no drop lists, no parking or domaining.com.
There was less liquidity back in the day and most people kept their secrets to themselves.
Today people seem to need things to happen faster, patience seems to have become a lost skill.
An article on QZ.com stated, Neuroscience confirms that to be truly happy, you will always need something more.
For domain investors that something more would be domain sales.
But Rick Schwartz had to not seek those sales in the old days, he had to turn down several offers for a name like eBet.com before he got to $1,350,000 in 2013. In a world of YOLO (You only live once) many newer investors might have said, “I paid $100 to reg this name, $20,000 sounds great!”
A lot of people today play the volume game that would not have been practical back at the beginning of domaining.
Both era’s have their pros and cons. It’s interesting to think of things in reverse to balance out the conversation.