I just got a renewal bill from my registrar, Hexonet on some Minds + Machines domain names I registered last year at normal registration prices.
I have spent well into the six figures on new gTLD’s, so I put my money at risk all the time in the very speculative new gTLD space.
In this case there was an issue with the pricing sent over by the registry Minds + Machines to my registrar, Hexonet.
Along the way in the registration process the retail price got screwed.
Unlike mostly every domain name registrar on earth, Hexonet charged me the normal registration rate and ate the loss.
To their credit, Hexonet did the right thing.
Hexonet paid the extra registration fees that I was not aware of (and neither where they) and just charged me the regular registration rate. However now these domains are coming up for renewal, I got a bill Hexonet for the real renewal pricing , and the prices are well nothing less than staggering.
I would have to think about renewing any of these at normal renewal fees, but at the premium renewal prices they carry, I’m not renewing a single domain name.
If you want any of these domain names, they will available shortly.
Just bring a big, big check.
I would point to quarter.horse which at a $5,400 annual renewal fee is higher than the cost of an actual championship quarter horse and BigGame.fishing which at $2,700 a year is more than chartering a boat to do some real big game fishing.
Remember I’m on a huge discounted price with Hexonet.
The price at Godaddy or any other registrar will probably be 10%-30% higher.
Certainly these are not the type of domain names I have gotten though Donuts for prices many times lower. BigGame.Fishing is certainly not College.Football, Online.Dating or Free.Email for example.
As for Minds +Machines if you want to tell me drink.vodka is a bargain at a $2,700 annual renewal rate I’m all ears but I don’t think paying $2,700 a year for Drink .Vodka is a better buy than buying 60/ 1.75 litter bottles of Grey Goose at my local Walgreens which is running me a whopping $49.99 per bottle.
I actually reached for the Goose after getting the bill.
For the record I did not receive any offers for any of these domains, not one of them, in the year I held them even not knowing they had the ridiculous high renewal prices nor did any of these domains get any amount of significant traffic in the year I held them.
With that being said here are my Minds + Machines “premium” domain names at Hexonet that I will not be renewing:
ban.fishing $ 550.00
stop.fishing $ 550.00
drink.vodka $2,700.00
rods.fishing $ 65.00
the.rodeo $ 550.00
farm.fishing $ 65.00
the.fishing $ 125.00
vegas.rodeo $ 295.00
biggame.fishing $2,700.00
bullriding.rodeo $ 550.00
great.fishing $1,100.00
the.cooking $ 125.00
otb.horse $ 125.00
breeding.horse $ 125.00
harness.horse $ 295.00
sea.horse $ 550.00
dressage.horse $ 295.00
quarter.horse $5,400.00
auction.horse $ 295.00
colts.horse $ 295.00
