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30 years ago today Steven Jobs (it was Steven then) introduced the first Macintosh computer, it cost $2495, that is $7053 in today’s dollars, what a visionary he was, it is really amazing how far Apple has come and how much these little gadgets have changed our lives, I am so glad I am here at this time to watch this all unfold.
In 1985 I was a finance and insurance manager at a big huge car lot in Los Angeles, the kind of car lot with bands and balloons and pony rides for the kids on the weekends, I was 23 years old and on top of the world, they gave me a 5.0 GT Mustang to drive around for free and paid me crazy money, I felt like Justin Beiber, and I was an amazing salesman, the kind of guy you WOULD trust to sell you a good car or get you a fair loan, trust me I am good guy and this is a great deal for you.
We didn’t have real desktop computers yet, we used a machine provided by TRW, the main credit reporting agency at the time, it was like a glorified typewriter with a small led screen and a printer attached, we could input info and print out credit reports and all the contracts and paperwork for the car sale, I must say it was pretty fancy at the time.
But then in 1985 my computer geek partner hooked up the huge car dealership I was working at with a network of PC’s, it was amazing, we could run credit reports with this thing, check inventory with the click of a button, communicate between departments, input info and print out dozens of forms, it was truly amazing, I had no idea at the time how much this little machine would change the world I was living in.
And it gave me an idea, to put little booth/info centers in all the malls across America, you know those little retail island kiosk things in malls that sell sunglasses and cheap jewelry, I envisioned a simple little setup where people could sit down, pay a few bucks, and get a printout and assessment of their credit report.
It wasn’t really a revolutionary idea, it seemed obvious, I was a Finance Manager and my job was to run peoples credit reports and try and get their car loans approved, I would sit behind my big bankers desk in a nice suit and tie with customers credit reports in hand and not a customer came through that didn’t want to see their credit report, they were always blown away by how much info I had on them, late payments, car loans, credit card debt, I knew it all because I had their TRW credit report, and they didn’t, but they wanted it, of that I was sure.
I tried pretty hard for 5 years to get that going but at the time I came up against too many roadblocks, TRW, the big credit reporting agency at the time, said NO WAY, credit reports are not for consumers and consumers certainly won’t pay for this information and we won’t be setting up any credit reporting franchises, so I gave it up and did other things, My Bad, 30 years later and this is one of the biggest money makers on the internet right?
So just for the record, in the late ’80’s early ’90’s TRW, the main credit reporting agency at the time, told me that consumers would not pay to see their credit report or score, and I fell for it. Anyway that is for another post, Great Ideas Bad Timing lol…
In other domain news I saw all the major news outlets today announce the introduction of some new G’s, probably not the best new G’s to announce but they listed the first 7 coming down the pike, .bike, .plumbing, .ventures, .clothing, .guru, .singles, .holdings, I prefer .web, .shop and .app. Is there a .pot? I would get in on that action.
And finally Elliot had his hand reg challenge recently, I didn’t participate because I am not good at hand regging domains, but I did hand reg a .net in June and I think I have it sold, they are at $500 I am at $1000 and I think we will make a deal, I won’t be getting rich on this one but selling a hand reg .net within a year is pretty cool. I also sold a .org for $3k that I hand grabbed when it expired last February, it was listed in my picks. I don’t sell many .org and .net so this was a nice turn of events.
Here are the domain picks dropping on January 25th 2014:
AAXP.com – Maybe AARP for retired pornstars
AndreasWorld.com – This one is for my friend Andrea
BananaCakeRecipe.com – Everybody likes a good banana cake recipe right?
Chinese-Sex.com – I think they invented it
CrushMatch.com – Does Match.com own the word match now?
DBON.com – An interesting 4L
HighGradeCannabis.com – Toby listed MedicalGradeMarijuana.com for $20k yesterday
HintsAndTips.com – Here’s a hint: Good Domain, here’s a tip: Go For It
MyDeposit.com – I like some my prefix domains
MyProduce.com – Do you sell produce?
WashingtonGanja.com – It’s legal
XLBR.com – Extra Large something?
Alexandar.net
Grandest.net
MiCasita.net
OrganicVegetable.net
PoolSpa.net
WeedCo.net
AllPoker.org
Blackholes.org
Conundrum.org
Convulsions.org
Estimations.org
Firmer.org
GreenhouseGrowing.org
iBling.org
iVintage.org
Moonshiner.org
NeoArt.org
Openers.org
Oxidizer.org
SecureStorage.org
TechSavvy.org
ABZ.me
Arteries.me
Azurite.me
Facade.me
Lymphoma.me
PNP.me
Punchbowl.me
Sarcoma.me
UMP.me
Enthusiast.tv
Foxes.tv
Kiddie.tv
Streamcast.tv
Swords.tv
SushiBar.info
Trenchtown.info
Canasta.us
Cellulose.us
Convenient.us
Darkness.us
FourWheeler.us
iClick.us
LegalWeed.us
Make sure you also check out Domain Shane’s Big List of names and Domaining.com for some other great domain blogs and domain name lists.
Domain of the day: DailyShots.com – Make me an Offer!
Thanks for visiting…
I have 3 Apple MAc 512K and 2 SE30 Macs and others…
all made in USA
worth lots of money and all running in mint condition
Have software on the floppy disks.
potdealers.com for $2million and I will buy potsmokers.com too
Mark,
Those were the days to reg names like CreditReport.com!
Thank you for AndreasWorld.com, but I’d prefer Andrea.com 😉
Ok well if I see Andrea.com I will probably change my name and keep it for myself, no offense, lol…
haha, I understand you
, no worries
What about if you see Mark.com then if you see Andrea.com
Would you still change your name as Andrea ? lol
Kevin Ham has Mark.com, Kevin and I used to collaborate and based on that first hand experience I would say I am safe changing my name to Andrea, I won’t be getting Mark.com anytime soon…
Awesome story….This cements the idea that entrepreneur’s should not take “no” as an answer…..Next time someone tells you “no”, let’s do it!