

Namebox - sell your unwanted or unused domains - calvin
http://namebox.io/

======
dsirijus
Few suggestions.

Make "Browse domains" more prominent, not just in the footer. Have domains
under that somehow ranked. I'd suggest having price listed on click or on
visit, so you can grab on that data. Remove "any amount" \- that's psychology
101.

(plug & rant pending) I'm firmly believing synthmeat.com will some day be
worth much - [http://namebox.io/dsirijus](http://namebox.io/dsirijus) \- so
I'm squatting. Why is there a negative sentiment about that? It's an
investment, like any other.

~~~
solistice
Or just have example domains you're offering right now show up faintly on your
landing page.

(plug & rant response) I'm much more freaked out by burnakitty.com. What are
you planning to do with that domain?

~~~
dsirijus
Burn prints of cat images per request and for a fee.

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billpg
$24,999.00 for freepopemail.com?

Somehow I can't see a business based around free mail from the Pope ever
earning that much revenue.

~~~
whacker
free-pop-email.com in case you were being facetious.

~~~
thejosh
Next you're going to tell me expertsexchange.com isn't about gender
realignment.

~~~
hmottestad
Once they linked me to penisland.net

~~~
solistice
Their pen selection really lacks something. It's sorely missing in high end
pens.

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abcd_f
Does this offer an escrow service for transferring domain ownership?

Being able to list and browse available domains is nice, bootstrapping
negotiations is nice too, but the purchase closing is _the_ most tricky part
and the ownership transfer via a third party is an absolute must. GoDaddy
offers a service like this and it costs few hundred $ per transfer.

~~~
reustle
Why not just use escrow?

[https://www.escrow.com/services/domain-and-website-
escrow.as...](https://www.escrow.com/services/domain-and-website-escrow.aspx)

~~~
benatkin
It's "escrow.com", not "escrow". They try to do a funky thing with their logo
to separate the escrow part of it from .com, but they aren't brash enough to
leave off the suffix. If they did, I don't think it would fly.

I searched for "escrow.com" reviews and found some negative ones. So there's
one reason why someone might not use it.

Another reason would be that as a general escrow service they may not
understand the domain escrow process as well as a company that only does DNS
escrow.

~~~
larrys
"I searched for "escrow.com" reviews and found some negative ones. So there's
one reason why someone might not use it."

With all due respect (as they say) does this really add anything helpful to a
discussion? It's like "I've searched online and people say that wordpress has
security issues..."

First of all, as pointed out by others in this thread, that is not the case
with escrow.com who I have personally used over the years (and seen used) for
numerous transactions. And it is who people use for these transactions, is a
specialist licensed in all 50 states (no small feat). Additionally the process
is as close to bullet proof in terms of protecting both buyer and seller. And
they aren't so large (ala ebay) that if you have a problem you can't get
someone on the phone to rectify. Lastly, the President (Brandon Abbey) replies
to emails (and in fact adopted a suggestion that I had into escrow.com
service).

"Another reason would be that as a general escrow service they may not
understand the domain escrow process as well as a company that only does DNS
escrow."

Let me assure you that they know that process very well and the industry has
responded to that. They are used by buyers, sellers, attorneys, everyone. I
get the point you are making which in a general sense can be a valid one. But
not applicable here.

~~~
benatkin
> With all due respect (as they say) does this really add anything helpful to
> a discussion? It's like "I've searched online and people say that wordpress
> has security issues..."

I wasn't arguing against escrow.com. I was arguing against the comment I
replied to, where the author presented escrow.com as an obvious choice, with
the incorrect name, and no reasons in support of using them.

That's why I said "might" instead of "should". My point is that one can always
find reasons not to use something, in absence of reasons why they should use
things.

I don't want my comment to be taken without taking into account the comment I
replied to, and if that's the only way people are going to read it, I retract
it.

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mapleoin
Domain squatting made easy?

~~~
rll
Yeah, that was my reaction as well. Why legitimize and enable domain
squatting?

~~~
jmathai
I don't think this makes squatting any easier than the existing tools to sell
domains. I'm giving the creator the benefit of the doubt and assume they did
this because, like me, they probably have tens of domains they don't plan on
ever using.

~~~
lsc
>because, like me, they probably have tens of domains they don't plan on ever
using.

So, you mean, small-scale squatters are okay; large-scale squatters are not?

~~~
nly
It's not squatting. Squatting is registering a domain for its own sake.
Sometimes you register domains for projects and then those projects never get
off the ground. I have a dozen domains (I defensively registered all the top
TLDs) expiring in 4 days for just that reason.

~~~
67726e
Squatting is squatting is squatting. You may have registered with the intent
to use it but now that you are not using it you think you deserve money for
the ability to rent it?

~~~
elliottcarlson
Do you deserve money for your old car that you are putting up for sale? You
obviously don't use it anymore. Or renting out that extra room in your
apartment? Why do you deserve money for that?

The person owns the domain, they can do with it as they please. So if they
want to rent it out, then they can ask money for it... It's your choice if you
agree to their terms and make any exchange.

~~~
67726e
All in all, drawing comparisons between something like a domain and real world
objects are disingenuous at best. I'm not going to detail how apple.com is
different from your Ford Pinto.

You do not own a domain. That is false right off the bat. And no, you cannot
do with it as you please. For example, buying a trademarked name and then
trying to extort money out of the owner of said trademark is not allowed.

If you are renting a domain with the sole intent to deprive someone else the
ability to use it unless they pay an extortionist fee, that is wrong. It goes
against the free spirit that the internet was built on. The fee charged is at
least in part to prevent a massive "land grab" of domains that are to be sold
off at absurd prices.

------
orik
A lot of these seem super overpriced. Not that that's a fault in the platform.

I hope people don't squat on domains to try to sell them on this.

~~~
ramykhuffash
I think a lot of people like me buy domains planning to do something with
them. Eventually we realize that time is limited, but we still hang onto the
hope of eventually finding the time to do something with the domains.

I'm guessing they are overpriced because people don't actually want to sell
their domains, but they would happily do so if someone was to offer a good
chunk of cash for them.

That's my logic anyway. I never bought any domains with plans to sell them,
but this site was so easy to use, I threw them up there and put big prices on
them, just in case :-)

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Jhsto
Million dollars for unwanted domain?

This could work so much better if you could only ask below the registration
price.

~~~
slig
I liked it.

Or if the domain is N years old, the max price should be (N + 1) *
registration price.

Also a simple DNS that I could point the domain to and it would serve a simple
page stating the price and linking to namebox.io.

------
jaredstenquist
I tried adding one of my domains (read.io), but having to create DNS records
for every domain I own is a huge pain.

I'm building a similar service now, which automates everything through WHOIS
and DNS resolution. The feedback on this post has actually been really
helpful.

------
colept
I think it would be valuable to see other potential bids, in case you wish to
"raise your maximum" and discourage unnecessary competitive pricing. Browsing
a list of domains that are overpriced would be very inconvenient after the
first page.

------
olssonm
Really nice and well done. However, there are multiple services like this – it
would be cool if there would be a cap on how much you demand for a domain,
like $200 or something. That way this really would be the place to load of
domains and give them to someone who might have more use of them than me.

Those complaining that this makes squatting easy – not true. I myself have
collected 30-40 domains over the years for projects that I want/will/should
build – but never have built... I keep renewing the domains "just in case",
but if I could list them for $50 to $200 each and know that someone else will
use them for a good purpose, I would.

------
array
The simplicity of this service and the free listing model could make it a real
contender as a Flippa.com alternative. As others have already commented, there
is still a lot of room for improvement (payment methods, improved bidding
system, etc), but I could definitely see this in future iterations of the
service if it were to gain enough traction.

As an immediate suggestion to the developer, it'd be nice if the registration,
login, and dashboard areas were secured (HTTPS). Everything appears to be
transmitted over HTTP at the moment.

In any case, kudos on the launch - this could definitely shape up to be a
pretty solid service.

------
goatsecx
Being able to sort/search by the price domain sellers have set is not terribly
useful. There are too many people out there who think their reg price only
domain is worth $1 million.

~~~
hackerboos
>There are too many people out there who think their reg price only domain is
worth $1 million.

That's a problem in every domain market-place. People soon learn that unique
!= priceless.

------
mrmagooey
Isn't the ass going to fall out of this market once ICANN starts issuing an
increasing number of TLDs? Seems like "sell" would be the dominant intent
amongst squatters

~~~
dsl
Nothing really changed when .info, .biz, .pro, .xxx, etc. hit the market.

There are trillions of dollars in marketing behind .com, and we will likely
see no change in the standard user mentality (type brandname.com) for
generations.

------
eksith
$200 for "urrl.us" ? I wonder how much sh2.us would fetch ( currently hosting
my ramblings [http://www.sh2.us](http://www.sh2.us) )

While I like the idea of a simpler domain sales option (since GoDaddy is a
spammy nightmare) at present, I think what would really help would be a domain
valuation service. It's pretty hard to put an amount on something when you're
not sure how much it would really fetch on the market.

------
dersebbi
You could refine the search, if a search for e.g. coin would also show results
containing *co.in. I am thinking of something like
[https://domai.nr/](https://domai.nr/) Does this sound feasible?

------
stfu
There are already very successful domain trading platforms around
([http://www.sedo.com](http://www.sedo.com)). I can't really figure out what
namebox's unique value proposition is.

~~~
dsl
Twitter integration! Seriously the reason I prefer Sedo and BuyDomains is that
I don't have to deal directly with or have my personal info given out to
buyers.

I used to have my email address listed on some domains I had for sale, and
after rejecting a ridiculously low offer ($40 for a 3 letter .com) had some 14
year old kid and all his buddies emailing me and calling me at all hours to
try and harass me into accepting it.

------
EGF
This is great and hopefully opens up domain listing from folks here on HN.
Demand for domains is only increasing, and as someone that handles private
buying/selling for startups I see more and more of this need.

------
josephwachira
Seems pretty simple to use.

Since I have a couple unused domains I decided to list them here for any
suitable amount - [http://namebox.io/chaz](http://namebox.io/chaz)

------
matrixer
1.I can not add any domain now.

2.There is a bug.

when I clicked the blank area of the box "You haven't added any domains yet.
Add one.", an "edit domain" pop up dialog came out ...

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gscott
Putting in a plug for the domains i have for sale. I have to renew a bunch
today could use to sell one or two

[http://namebox.io/gscott](http://namebox.io/gscott)

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stevewillows
Of everything listed (mine included), task.io is clearly one of the better
domains posted. I don't doubt that everyone has a story behind their ideas,
but this was one of the few with a clear purpose.

------
apa-sl
I cannot verify my domain fashioner.com - TXT record was successfully added to
DNS 18 hours ago, I've checked it by char by char using some outside DNS
records viewer.

------
dangelov
Seems pretty simple to use.

I added a few domains to see how it goes >
[http://namebox.io/dangelov](http://namebox.io/dangelov)

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imwhimsical
Put hackerspot.org up there. Lets see how this works :)

~~~
stevewillows
The ideal resource for hackers with glaucoma!

~~~
aitoehigie
I have put up hacki.ng. I noticed that I have started getting dud purchase
requests from buyers. I.e. the email address gotten from the purchase mail
from namebox.io is false I.e. it doesn't exist. What does the owner of this
service intend doing to curb this?

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ionwake
The domains I added seem to be on my profile but have been removed from the
browsing list.

Any idea why?

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apa-sl
Please allow people to login using their alias OR email address! I have alias
only login :-)

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Splendor
Being able to sort by URL length would be nice.

------
pearjuice
I think the "Any amount" listing is a bit vague. You should make it required
to have at least a minimum amount. For example, video.io sells for "Any
amount" but I doubt that can be taken literally.

