This Weight Machine Represents That Domain You Were Going To Develop

See this weight machine?  It looks like a regular old weight machine but it’s also an analogy for that domain you bought because you are going to develop it out.  Both of them never got touched and just sat there wasting money waiting for something to happen that never did.

That weight machine is my weight machine.  Or WAS my weight machine.  It was sitting in my basement for 3 years.  I got it because I had this great idea that I was going to work out.  You’ve heard the story.  Heck, you’ve probably been the story. It’s told by millions of people this time of year.  “I’m going to get in shape this year”.  We also know the results.  This story is a little different though.  This machine was sitting at a friends house.  I came over and he was setting it up.  I laughed as he told me of how he was going to get in shape.  As a newly divorced man, we had always joked he’d be better off just not wearing both straps on his backpack and developing a solid three point shot if he wanted to impress the ladies (ladies love the long ball and the three point shot and you look seven when you where both straps on your backpack).   I told him that I would come over in a year and I guaranteed that thing would have more dust than the ceiling fan in his guest bedroom.  His response “if I don’t use this thing I will give it to you for free, even set it up for you”.   One year later there was a knock on my door and there was Andy, the machine in pieces, sitting in his truck.  And I’ll be damned if he didn’t set it up and get it working.

Fast forward three years later.  There it sits, gathering dust.  Sure, I used it for about a month three years ago. Doing some leg lift, some curls.  Eventually I quit using it.  I acknowledged it a few times.  Did a few chest crunches.  But I always chose to go running or biking or using the free weights in the basement.  Today I got rid of the weight set and it was due to a few things.  The major thing was a reminder from a domain that I had planning to develop.  I got an offer on it that was OK.  Not great but OK.  My first thought was “I don’t want to sell that, I’m going to develop it”.  But my maturity finally took over.   Reality is I don’t have a chance in hell of ever developing that domain.  Like the weight set, I took the domain from a guy who realized he would never develop it and ended up in the same place he did.  Maybe the next guy is actually going to lift weights with the domain, maybe it’s going to gather dust like when I had it,  but either way it’s time to get a little money out of it and move on.

So I sold the domain and I got rid of the weight set.  So what did I do with the weight set?  I sold it for scrap.  Literally.  I didn’t want to go through the whole Craigslist thing.  All the crazies emailing or calling me. Going through the countless questions. Having some stranger in my house taking it apart.  No.  I took it apart put it in my truck and took it to the scrap yard.  Metal is at $205 a ton right now (missed $250 a ton last month) and this thing was heavy. The plates alone were 250 pounds.  So I loaded it up and every other piece of metal I didn’t want any more.  An old satellite dish, a couple metal posts, and some other random things.  The result $96.  Ninety six dollars for cleaning my house.

That weight machine is a good analogy for the cleaning house that needs to happen in my portfolio as well.  In the past I purchased too many names that were non dot coms or good search quantities that were solid build out type names but not solid names on their own.  Their true value could only be reached by putting a website on them.  So it’s time to start moving those names.  The dust has gotten too thick and I’m better off putting them in the hands of the next guy that is ready to get in shape.  I may have gotten more for that weight set than I will for a few of these domains but I didn’t pay much to begin.  They are like the weight set, not really costing much money but taking up space.  Reminding me that I need to ask the question “Am I really going to use this/build this?” on each and every purchase.  The same question that millions of people will forget to ask this January as they attempt to lose weight or buy new domains.

PS: The bike in the corner?   It’s like my new portfolio, a little more money, better quality, and putting in the time it takes to see results.