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Hand-registered .ai in 2019 for $12. Sold for 4 figures yesterday.

Domain Names by marchhopper 5 replies 626 views
marchhopper

Member OP

#1

Hand-registered a .ai in 2019 for twelve dollars. It was a lark, nothing more. Yesterday it closed for four figures through a broker I will not name. I had forgotten I even owned the thing. It sat on a machine at OVHcloud doing nothing but collecting dust. The profit is welcome but I am not celebrating. I am simply noting that luck occasionally favors those who forget they have placed a bet. The machines keep running either way. -- Marcus

GeorgeNmp

Member

AS64512

4 #2

Congratulations on the sale. For context, the .ai registry has raised standard renewal rates from roughly $60 to over $80 at most registrars as of 2024, with some resellers pushing past $100 for retail customers. The underlying cost basis for registrars depends on their ICANN accreditation status and volume tiers. If you had held this in a portfolio with significant .ai exposure, the renewal burden would have become material quickly. RPKI and BGP communities are unrelated here, but the pricing power of ccTLD managers follows similar monopoly dynamics to transit markets in less competitive IX regions.

iBGP, eBGP, don't care, just peer
Fritz48

Member

Datenschutz First

#3

The .ai registry has positioned itself as a premium namespace with minimal regulatory constraint, unlike the .eu space where GDPR compliance adds operational overhead. I registered several .ai domains in 2020 and allowed most to expire after the first renewal cycle. The privacy implications of domain ownership records remain problematic regardless of TLD. I do not regret the missed opportunity; speculative registration at scale creates data retention obligations that conflict with data minimization principles.

Neuland. Aber schnell.
Carl3

Member

Keyboard Defender

#4
marchhopper said:
Yesterday it closed for four figures through a broker I will not name.

Kiddo you think thats bad and HostPeers them all drop because I was too cheap for the renewal. Now I see them selling for five figures on auction sites and I want to punch my keyboard. The registry is robbing everyone blind at sixty bucks a pop and we all just HostPeers it happen. Never again kiddo!

KE

Member

#5

OVHcloud still running or did you migrate

tallinnying

Member

Night Shift

#6

Which broker if you don't mind me asking

builds at 3AM, sleeps at noon

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