If Nobody In a Crowded Room Agrees With You and You Call them Ignorant, You Might Have it Backwards

I by no means am calling Stephen Douglas ignorant.  He certainly is a positive force in our community but I hate being called stupid because I don’t agree with someone’s ideas.  If you remember, Stephen put on  The Future Trend Auction .   There were countless people that “didn’t get it”.  I didn’t write an article on the original auction because I just didn’t have much positive to say and didn’t want to take away from what he was doing.  But yesterday’s post got my goat. These were the comments that got me.  According to Stephen yesterday

Although I heard of many negative comments about the Future Trend Domain Auction™, I didn’t see them because they were based on ignorance, and I don’t have time for ignorance. Those who commented negatively either fell into two camps:

1) Dang, I didn’t get any future trend domains to submit, and I don’t/didn’t have the time to actually look into this area of domain investing. Better go to a blog and make fun of those domains I didn’t understand.

2) Dang, I heard about investing in FT domains, but never really learned how to buy domains. This is my first domain investment run, and I just started buying without knowing what the hell I was doing. I thought I’d be rich by now.

I was critical of the names but I am in no way ignorant. I also didn’t fall into either camp.  I fell into my “I have better niches to throw my money into that I think will yield better returns over time”  I scan sales results every single day.  I too want to try and ride a trend.  Trading has taught me to “buy the rumor, sell the news”  and this applies to domains very well.  I want to sell to trend chasers because trends usually become fads and fads come and go.  You can make money on fads but it’s much harder to make a buck than with a domain that truly represents the future.  Future trends need time to develop.  If people are buying the names now they aren’t future trends, they are now trends. 3D is my mind is a fad.  It comes and goes every 10 years.  Think about this past week. How many things did you watch in 3D?  How many 3D tools did you use?  I can almost guarantee that if I ask you the same question in one year the answer will be no more than 1 more time per week if any increase at all.  Type in 3D is a fad and you’ll see my post at the very top of Google.  It was written over a year ago and so far I have been right.  3D hasn’t made any significant movements into our daily lives since it was written. Some of it was wrong like the glasses thing but the overall premise has stood correct. Perhaps it will come around in 5 maybe 1o years but I feel I can find a better/quicker return in that amount of time.   Yes names like 3DPrinter or 3DTV are worth millions but none of the names in this auction were anywhere near that quality.

“You have to have patience to make money on these names Shane’ somebody once told me.  Domains are being snapped up and speculative prices being paid many years before the technologies become commonplace.  If domainers thought there was any chance of something yielding a solid return at any point in the future they would be all over it.  This auction resulted in one 3d name at a price of $425.   So I ask this question.  If a domain auction that was given publicity at Elliots Blog, Berkens Blog, and Stephens Blog, not to mention being on Domaining dot com, and resulted in very little sales, what does that mean?  It certainly does not mean that the world is not ready or that something is ahead of it’s time.   If it were one person, two people, or even ten, maybe.  It was thousands of people that said “I see no value in these domains at the prices being offered”.  No more no less.  To claim anything else is in my opinion, being stubborn.

I do not know Stephen and have never met him and I absolutely have nothing against him but I don’t like being treated like we are the naive flock.  “Forget about your limited research on 3D, thinking that it only applies to television and movie features. It doesn’t, although soon it will” he writes.  These are domain investors he is writing for.  Does he not think that these guys and girls are doing tons of research to try and find out more information about new technologies to try and get in on new technologies in hopes of making a great return?  This is what we do for a living.  I can’t tell you how many words and names I’ve run through sedo and godaddy trying to see if the name of a new technology or trend is taken yet.  I may very well not have all the information available in certain technological areas but I can guarantee you I’ve done enough to know if I want to put my money into a certain name and what prices I want to pay for it.  I absolutely did enough research to know that I didn’t feel anyone would many if any of the names.  And I was right.

For the last time this isn’t a personal attack against Mr. Douglas.  Unfortunately he is taking the lack of bids and purchases personally.  For some reason, rather than go back and figure out what can be done to improve the future Future Trend Auctions he has decided to give us more information why we were wrong.  Giving more data on the trends and why they are the future.  All of it may be true.  All this may come to be.  He may have the last laugh.  But no matter what the future, time is money and you always need to take in the opportunity costs of money.  Money was invested in the auction and money was lost.  It happens to the best of them.  Learn from it and move on.  But don’t call everyone’s lack of action ignorance.

I will absolutely support anything Stephen does in the future because he IS pushing the envelope and that’s good for our industry. He’s a good salesman.  I will congratulate his success and give my opinions of opportunities to improve.  I just hope he is willing to listen.

PS I have turned off the comments for this post because I don’t want any slander and straight up personal bashing. If you have a comment feel free to email.