I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately and when I talk to buyers and/or sellers, I usually do get the questions, "are domains a good place to park my money during a recession or hyperinflation"? My answer usually is "It always depends on which domain(s) you chose to purchase" and "it doesn't matter when you're buying domains, the internet is not going away" and "domain valuations are always increasing".
However, according to Investopedia, domains did not even make it to the list and part of me thinks the publisher probably doesn't even know about the overall domain aftermarket. You can see Gold came in first, followed by a number of traditional investment products like REITs, bods, etc... Little to they know the returns that some, not all, domain investors have seen.
Overall, I could not find any mainstream articles that tied domain investing with inflation but I did find an interesting article also by Investopedia on general domain investing found here. The article's main point is very good in that domain investing can take months and in most cases, years, so not everyone can jump right into domain investing unless money is never an issue. The question that I'm posing is, "will domain values continue to rise if we hit a bad recession"? I think that answer is "Yes". If someone wanted to pull $1M out of the stock market to buy a premium domain, it's pretty likely they'll be able to get a fair return on that investment if they're willing to wait it out anywhere between 5-10 years. Most people with that much money in cash can usually afford to do so. Regardless, even if you're paying top dollar for a domain now for a really good domain, you are bound to get your money back with a healthy return if you're willing to wait.
Here are my thoughts:
The internet is not going away.
Short memorable domains continue to sell for premium prices.
Free from taxes and insurance.
Very low overhead cost (no cost to maintain like traditional real estate).
Limit supply (there are only so many good domains out there).
Those are just the benefits I can think of off the cuff. Bottom line, while most of us think about where to park our money during a rough market cycle, I do think domains have traditionally been recession-proof vehicles that keep most investors afloat.
If you are thinking about purchasing domains, BrokersCrowd is selling some pretty nice premiums and all are open to competitive offers.
Verification.com
Mackerel.com
Swey.com
Reshaped.com
Sportsinstructor.com/net/org
ParentalControl.com
Bummed.com
Zug.com - Premium LLL ready to sell
Plane.com
Birthdaygift.co
CelebrityPhotos.com
AdvertisingAgency.com
CommercialTrucker(s).com
DiamondJewelers.com
FlightDelays.com
illegals.com
DVDS.com
HGN.com
Party.net
Skaters.com
Shores.com
Zuf.com
ZVV.com
CellularPhones.com
DomainLists.com
TypoTraffic.com
Manuals.com
RentalProperties.com
PainRelief.com
Cryptocurrencies.co
eGuide.com
Observer.net
WCCC.com
Best,
Frank
As someone who has been in the domain development and sales business for 25 years, and has experienced the rollercoaster ride of every trend, I can assure you that single word dotCOM names are a fantastic investment. Those are the "blue chip" domains. You can make money with other TLDs, but proceed with caution. In a recent list of corporate brand upgrades, every one of them was upgraded to dotCOM. That's because dotCOM is more than a TLD. It's now universally accepted as the worldwide default brand for the internet.
Great advice. Thanks for the article!