Over the years, ever since I built my first web-page, I’ve searched for the perfect domain name. After going through four or five, I decided thatteamryan was the perfect choice. It contained my last name, allowed for possible future Ryans to use it, and didn’t box me in design wise. Unfortunately it was already taken by a realty agency. Realty agencies seem to love the ‘team’ concept. Pick a last name, add team to it, and that team will probably sell you a house. Why? Some things we will never know.
I kept my eye on teamryan.com and by some miracle (this wouldn’t happen today), the domain wasn’t renewed and became available to the public. I snatched it up, and though it’s taken a while, it’s finally up and running. I feel very lucky to have it, and I no longer feel homeless on the web.
About 6 months ago, I started receiving phone calls asking to discuss the possibility of my selling the domain. I had no interest and ignored the calls, but later received an email from the caller. The caller was actually the head of a web-design firm acting as a negotiator between me and, you guessed it, a realty agency. I emailed him back telling him that unless they wanted to make me a rich man (I was joking) I had no interest in selling. He responded with something along the lines of ‘working in the business and knowing what a fair price would be’. I wrote back a final time thanking him for the interest but clearly stating I had no intentions of ever selling the domain. He ended by thanking me for my time. He was polite and professional.
That’s the problem with putting a value on a domain name. ‘Fair price’ is a relative term. On the open market teamryan has some value, but not as much as it has to me. I doubt anyone will ever find as much value in the teamryan domain as I do, which means teamryan is not for sale today, nor, chances are, tomorrow.
(The realty company went on the buy the dot net version of teamryan. Since dot com is so ingrained in our minds I periodically get random meeting notes, client info, and software registration confirmations forms, almost enough to make me wish I had bought up all forms of teamryan, but I’m not a greedy guy.)