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- Issue #18: September 1, 2025
Issue #18: September 1, 2025
Buying 5-figure domains; Charm pricing at Atom; Namecheap selling Handshake names; Who sells names?; Secret to finding valuable domains
Michael Cyger
September 01, 2025
Hi there, Happy Labor Day if you're in the USA celebrating today's holiday! Here are the most interesting 5️⃣ domain tweets from last week. Have a great week, Mike P.S. I publish my best posts and opinions in Cyger Says every Friday morning. #1️⃣ Buying 5-figure domains
If you think a domain is liquid at $50k~ with an upside of $300k-$600k in < 10 years then you should not be afraid to pay $75k. Few understand this.
Just says a lot of smart things. It's just you may not understand him with his accent. Ba-da-bing! 🥁 J/k, Josh. The upside for the buyer lies in the potential for significant profit, with Josh suggesting a domain valued at $50,000 today could fetch $300,000 to $600,000 in under 10 years if purchased for $75,000. I agree. This translates to a 4x to 8x return on the purchase price, equating to a $225,000 to $525,000 profit, or an annualized growth rate of 20-40%, which far exceeds typical investments like stocks (10% CAGR) or bonds (3–5%). The downside, however, includes the risk of overpaying by $25,000 upfront, which could become a loss if the domain’s demand doesn’t materialize or the market stagnates. Having said all of that, most investors overlook the potential for annual appreciation in single-word .com domains at this level, which can quietly compound value beyond the headline sale price. It might be just an interesting discussion point: few investors have the $75,000 to invest or the patience to wait a decade. For those that do, the odds are in your favor. #2️⃣ Charm pricing at Atom
It doesn’t seem like @atomHQ puts much weight on “charm pricing” in their Suggested prices for Premium Listings. @darpanmunjal - Does your sales data show that psychological price thresholds don't matter much? 
We've tested price endings like 95 and 99 across a large dataset and found no meaningful difference in STR. Interestingly, more "precise" prices like $3246 sometimes perform better, though that could be anecdotal - we haven't tested it at scale. That said, broader psychological thresholds like $5K, $10K, $25K, and $50K do have a meaningful impact. Some buyers have card limits, others filter listings below round numbers, and in many cases, there's a fixed budget cap set by procurement. Always better to price at $9,995 rather than $10,100.
It's interesting that charm pricing (e.g., $1,999) has negligible impact on sales-to-registration (STR) ratios at Atom. And that precise prices like $3,246 sometimes outperform round numbers, though untested at scale. I guess my take-away is there's no "one size fits all" answer for domain name pricing. I am going to consider considering lowering some of my buy-it-now pricing from, say $4,999, to $4,499 or $4,495 or maybe even $4,888, so that when an annual renewal is tacked on by the selling marketplace it's still below a threshold like $5,000. #3️⃣ Namecheap selling Handshake names
I won the domain pdf.api a few days ago, ready to spend big. But Namecheap canceled, saying it was renewed by the owner. Today, I found it available on Namecheap for $20 and bought it. I'm so happily confused! Will Namecheap take it back again? 😅 
I bid thousands to win a killer domain, but @namecheap just sent me an automated email saying the auction is canceled? Where is its integrity? 
First of all, I have a great deal of admiration for Damon. He's one of the developer/entrepreneurs I follow on 𝕏. Damon has two primary businesses, Testimonial.to and PDF.ai, amd they generate roughly $3.9M in annual recurring revenue. And he's a heck of a nice guy. But when someone as sharp as Damon gets confused about pdf.api being a real domain name or a blockchain name, there's an issue with marketing and communication. I wonder if the upside that Namecheap sees is worth the downside some customers experience. #4️⃣ Who sells names?
Of My Last 50 sales: Reg Path sales were 37 (13 - negotiated) Out of these: 28 sales generated from Godaddy Reg Path 5 sales generated from Namecheap Reg Path Rest were Dynadot 2 Porkbun 1 And reg IT 1
This post was from July, when (mainly) Namecheap and Spaceship were still selling domains through the Afternic and Sedo networks. Clearly, it is worth listing your names through SellerHub at Spaceship so you can get into the Namecheap search path. But don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Afternic getting you into the GoDaddy registration path is even more important. But only if you want to sell domains. 🤣 Secret to finding valuable domains
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