It always interests me when I spot something in the drops list that highlights (more often than not) a failed business venture or idea.

A few years back there were over 70 domains that featured Walmart in the domain, that expired. They were names like (from memory), walmartsucks.com.au, walmartchildlabour.com.au etc...

They were all registered by Walmart via MelbourneIT, as a protective move to protect their Walmart brand. What is interesting about this is that when I was at the ICANN Paris, in 2008 (yes tough life), I was chatting with someone that told me about the tender Walmart had distributed that related to this very same domain drop I had recently witnessed.

So, the back-story was that Walmart was getting 'heat' about their business practices, so they decided to proactively register a bunch of domains to remove these domains from circulation. The tender included most of the popular ccTLDs. The person I was speaking with had actually tried to win that tender, which was worth a lot of money.

Now, with respect today's drop I see something interesting again. There are a whole stack of suburb+trade domains expiring.

EG:
AlbanyCreekElectrician.com.au
AlbanyCreekElectricians.com.au
AlbanyCreekPainter.com.au
AlbanyCreekPainters.com.au
AlbanyCreekPlumber.com.au
AlbanyCreekPlumbers.com.au
AlbionParkElectrician.com.au
AlbionParkElectricians.com.au
AlbionParkPainter.com.au
AlbionParkPainters.com.au
AlbionParkPlumber.com.au
AlbionParkPlumbers.com.au

This is repeated over many suburbs, and I lost count / interest at over 100...

I don't know the back story on this one yet, but it is clear that someone spent a lot of money, (in the thousands) on domains that clearly were not worth renewing. I have no idea how long these were registered, and whether they actually went through a number of renewal cycles (if so, then the cost goes up with each renewal cycle), or just one 2-year period.

Maybe someone on DN Trade can shed some light?

I liken looking daily at the Drop list for the past 5 years or so, to looking at the obituaries for many failed business ideas. Sometimes I can even visualize a bunch of mates at a BBQ exploring a "great business idea" over a beer. Ideas are plentiful, but you always need to be prepared to do the hard work too!

Best Regards,
George Pongas

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Very true. Exactly how I see the drop list, like a daily f*ckedcompany.com (if anybody here remembers that site - which is also f*cked now) list of f*cked companies/dreams/ideas.

Expect to see this featuring the term "3d" is a couple of years.

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at this point i am happy to hold 3dwebsite/s/com/au although happy to agree that domains like 3dsport3d may end up in the junk bin

yet in the usa seems to be many geos like above nycplumber/com or seattleelectrician/com ......etc etc

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Big difference between albany creek plumbers and nyc plumber. Population of 15,000 versus 8 million. Then you have big income/wealth differences as well.

How many plumbers does albany creek need? Maybe 2-3 dozen? What is the chance of any of them being interested in the name to warrant registering it for $10/yr? Very minimal in my view.

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Keep in mind, many of these suburb based locations have google local listings at the very top of the serps and the organic listings are below the fold on my laptop. That's why I've avoided location based URL's for the aussie market. Compare "driving school" with "sydney driving school" to see what I mean.

Because of that, I don't think they have any value if at all any.

Good point

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I have a rule with domains, if it does not make the money for renewal costs in a year I will drop it..It also pushes me for 100% development =) I mean I have domains which make their renewal cost in a day, some in a month some in a year lol

I mean I have about 75 domains in my inventory not much but 95% make their renewal costs =)

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I think this a good rule to have. Personally I try to keep the names that make less than reg fee to a minimum as well, under 10%. Really think twice before renewing those names.

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I'm trying to get all of my domains to the point where they pay their reg fee, but only about 10% of them do. Thankfully some of them pay for much more than their reg fee, so that subsidises the rest of the portfolio.

It's all about having the time and patience to work through them all I guess.