8 ms·
I sell onions on the Internet (2019)
- reactordev 9mo agoSometimes you start a business. Sometimes a business starts you. Awesome that the author saw this as an opportunity and not a down side to owning a name he never really wanted to begin with. Sometimes the right business just finds you and you’re at the right place at the right time to see it.
- dgrin91 9mo ago(2019)
- tomrod 9mo agoWhat a cool story. Not tech for tech's sake, but tech that grows into something simpler, more efficient, and more world-opening for something as wonderful as the Vidalia onion
- zkmon 9mo agoThat's very interesting. My domain purchased in 2015, finally seems to make some meaning due to recent tech advacnes. Time to do something with it.
- Imustaskforhelp 9mo agoWhat's the domain name if I may ask?
- qwm 9mo agoai.com
- derektank 9mo agoPeter appears to still be at it.[1] Very impressed by his commitment to the bit. [1] https://xcancel.com/searchbound/status/1996247844080996549#m https://xcancel.com/searchbound/status/1996247844080996549#m
- eightturn 9mo agopeter here... we're still at it... entering our 12th(?) year
- Imustaskforhelp 9mo agoHey good to see here! I have a quick question if I may ask but your whole journey and even the article starts with the "I’M ADDICTED TO DOMAIN NAMES" / Addiction to domain names. So I am wondering was there anything specific that caused this "addiction" (in a good way?) perhaps and has the addiction stopped after www.vidaliaonions.com/ or is it still continuing?
- eightturn 9mo agoWhat mainly caused it: I kept getting laid off, and that nonsense infuriated me. So I was actively trying to find ways to save myself. Great domains, via the expiry marketplace, slowly became an unfair advantage I could lean into and compete with larger companies, just because I owned this unique .com domain. Hope that makes sense. I've written a few essays on my experience being laid off, if you're bored and wanna read: https://www.deepsouthventures.com/how-on-earth/ https://www.deepsouthventures.com/how-on-earth/ ; https://www.deepsouthventures.com/on-being-laid-off-unplanned-entrepreneurship/ https://www.deepsouthventures.com/on-being-laid-off-unplanne...
- eightturn 9mo agooop, didn't see your 2nd question... yes, I still monitor expiring domain names... it's a very sticky habit, and ruthlessly fun... it's sortof like my morning paper.
- what 9mo agoWhere do you go to buy expired domains? Also, are there that few domains expiring on a given day that you can actually go through them?
- stephenlf 9mo agoAbsolutely insane way to start a business. “Let me blow 2 grand on a domain name. Not sure what it’s for, yet.”
- LunaSea 9mo agoI wonder how you can then produce onions as a side business.
- bigstrat2003 9mo agoHe doesn't. He partnered with a farmer.
- odie5533 9mo agoI wonder if the sunk cost worked in his favor here. If he'd only spent ten dollars on the domain, he probably would have built nothing.
- eightturn 9mo agoauthor here... you're correct - it's highly unlikely I would have built anything unless I had this unique, exact-match domain. I needed that unfair advantage to start, as the name sortof branded the project for me in the early days and helped drive new customers.
- chiefalchemist 9mo ago“ The way Faulkner treats his characters, I treat domain name projects. I buy them with an intention to develop. And I let them take the lead. They’re the inspiration for the business itself. They guide me towards what they need to become. I’m just the dude behind the keyboard (sorta).” To me it makes sense. Without a domain name, it’s just an idea. The domain name makes it real, and it’s a foundation the biz can stand on. Too many people try to start a biz without a foundation.
- chrneu 9mo agoI've been doing some version of this since college. ...holy shit that's almost 20 years. It started as a bit of a joke on the "That's a good band name" line. It became "That's a good domain name". Yes, I went to a stem college. Anyway, i've started 4 pretty decent businesses based entirely off that bit. My friends and I would be riffing out behind the pizza place/bar we frequented, someone would say something and then "That's a good domain name" comes out. I'd make a quick note and think about it for a few days. I found that if I come back to it after a week or so then it's maybe worth something. Business and domain names can make or break a company. On top of all that, i've also bought and then sold hundreds of domains for a profit based off this bit. I use various registars when they have sales, buy em up cheap for a few years, then park em. After reading the OP, it's kinda funny. I did something similar with a garlic grower back in the early 00's. I had a domain, my brother worked for a garlic farmer, the farmer wanted to export to asia. It worked out well for a few years.
- throwaway0x832 9mo agocorrection: https://x.com/searchbound/status/1007015211486900229?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1007015211486900229%7Ctwgr%5E483a0fdfa73c26f08bf4734b755446438bfddc00%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.deepsouthventures.com%2Fi-sell-onions-on-the-internet%2F https://x.com/searchbound/status/1007015211486900229?ref_src...
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- bell-cot 9mo ago233 points and 89 comments back in 2022 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32053044 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32053044
- johnfn 9mo agoIt got over 3000 back in 2019!! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19728132 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19728132
- Imustaskforhelp 9mo agoI feel as if 3000 definitely is one of the most highest rates https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=1&prefix=false&query=&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=1&prefix=false&qu... I checked and its the 47th most upvoted post in all of hackernews. (Btw each algolia page gives 30 articles so it could've been simpler for me if I didn't manually read till 30 :) but yea, hope it gives some context) 47th most upvoted story is wild but so true. I feel like although we might upvote AI and what not posts in HN which can casually reach 1000+ at times. Deep down what really sells us more isn't AI but rather a fever dream of sorts that one sells onions and maybe the freedom we attach to it
- dang 9mo agoThanks to both of you! Macroexpanded: I Sell Onions on the Internet (2019) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32053044 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32053044 - July 2022 (89 comments) I Sell Onions on the Internet - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19728132 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19728132 - April 2019 (435 comments)
- breadchris 9mo agoThis feels like a relevant wiki page to mention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Futures_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Futures_Act
- Breza 9mo agoI wonder how aggressively this would be enforced. Like, if this website let people place an order a year in advance for a specific price, would the regulators come knocking?
- bigstrat2003 9mo agoVery interesting page, left me with a lot of mixed feelings after I read it. First, it seems like the biggest issue was not onion futures per se, but manipulating the market. It seems like banning onion futures was just a band-aid while ignoring the true cause. Second, if it really is the case that onions' perishable nature caused the problem, why not at least extend the ban to all similarly perishable products? Again it seems like they attacked the symptom rather than the root cause. But those criticisms aside, I kind of love that the government back then was willing to shut down shady money making schemes from finance bros. That would never happen in America today, so that part was pretty cool.
- bencornia 9mo ago> The way Faulkner treats his characters, I treat domain name projects. I buy them with an intention to develop. And I let them take the lead. They’re the inspiration for the business itself. They guide me towards what they need to become. I’m just the dude behind the keyboard (sorta). I feel the same way about personal projects and blogs. A good idea tends to be self-reinforcing. It just needs someone to uncover it. Selling onions on the internet seems unusual but to the right person that idea is gold.
- voidfunc 9mo agoI buy domains and then forget about them only to renew them once a year for aspirational reasons. Its kinda like seeing my family at Christmas once a year.
- nxobject 9mo agoIt beats the FOMO of thinking about a good quirky name, and then seeing someone take a (close) variant of it years later. I think it feels like a word game - but with a reward you can keep.
- MarcelOlsz 9mo agoI still have no fucking idea what to do with saving.cash and it's costing me $500/year which is financially ruining me lol but I'd rather starve and keep the domain name. I'd never forgive myself for selling it. It's literally saving cash. It can't be anything other than what it is.
- ash_091 9mo agoHow about a site which parses your credit card / bank statement to find out where you're spending money and provides tips to save cash based on that spending (which could be sourced from community submissions + voting) E.g. I buy supermarket gift cards from a slightly obscure site which sells them at a 5% discount. Super easy way to save a few hundred dollars a year. The hardest thing was discovering that this was an option.
- jrecyclebin 9mo agoGreat advertising for vidalias. I simply have to try one now.
- whoamii 9mo agoGood luck finding them anywhere right now
- chrneu 9mo agoThey're really good. The apple thing is no joke. Vidalia and Walla-Walla onions are top tier alliums.
- eightturn 9mo agoauthor here.. our Vidalia season usually starts in late April - FYI. If you visit our website, submit your email there and I'll drop you a note when our order lines are open.
- ohyoutravel 9mo agoGot these many years back after having been posted here. Very happy with the purchase, but wouldn’t order again as my wife hated the smell. Highly recommended everyone order these at least once.
- tantalor 9mo agoIt's kind of funny this guy doesn't understand his own business. It's not onions. It's lead generation.
- Forgeties79 9mo agoI love how I came into this thread going “it would be fun if this was actually about onions, but it is probably something about Tor” but was wrong!
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- glamp 9mo agoI love this post. I read it a few years ago and tried the same thing. I bought and then built riverreports.com (https://www.riverreports.com/ https://www.riverreports.com/).
- Fiveplus 9mo agoThe internet was originally promised as a way to disintermediate these kinds of supply chains, yet we often ignore these "boring" businesses for hype trains. The fact that he added a phone number and it sometimes out-sells the website is the cherry on top.
- chrneu 9mo agoI've found more and more often the last few years that a lot of the long time businesses I use still do most of their ordering by phone. Or some version that involves talking to actual person. The restaurants I go to still generally do phone ordering because they care about the quality of their ingredients. They want to discuss and talk about it with someone before placing an order. The engineering and consulting firms I work with are the same. The engineers I enjoy working with are all phone based, not a lot of emails unless there are details involved. I'm a bit of the same way. There is a lot of peripheral information that we miss out on when everything is done via automation/email. Those dead moments when our brains wander, then we ask a silly question, tend to bear fruit. It's gotten to the point where I generally don't order anything online anymore because I can't trust I'll get what I ordered. When I have to deal with support it's an automated system that only gives me 1 or 2 options, neither of which satisfy my needs so I have to make a compromise. I'm not interested.
- leonhard 9mo agocan you elaborate on the phone basis with engineers? I can’t really imagine how that wouldn’t be much more hassle discussing details without written documents, so I’m intrigued
- eightturn 9mo agoauthor here : ) happy to answer questions if you have any. We also have a twitter account here if you want to follow along: https://x.com/vidaliaonions https://x.com/vidaliaonions
- Breza 9mo agoHuge fan here! I read the article when it was new and was enamored with the story. I ordered a small box. The onions were terrific. So I order a large box every year.
- eightturn 9mo agowe also film a lot of the growing process here: https://www.youtube.com/@vidaliaonion https://www.youtube.com/@vidaliaonion
- busymom0 9mo agoIs your website accessible over the onion network by Tor?
- kfk 9mo agoHow would you market such a business in 2026? I am from an Italian region where farmer grow many special coltures, and I was always a bit surprised why they don’t try selling on the internet. I ended up convincing myself it is not a viable business model.
- rdtsc 9mo ago> Some folks can eat them like an apple. Most of my customers do. My grandfather and my cousin, who he pretty much raised were eating regular red or yellow onions like apples like that. I had never seen anyone else do that. They would make an onion "salad" which was just cut up onion with olive oil and salt.
- rootusrootus 9mo agoI love onions, but never tried a Vidalia. We have Walla Walla sweet onions out here and I suspect they’re pretty similar.
- devilbunny 9mo agoThey’re similar enough that my aunt, who has lived in the PNW for ages, but grew up in the South, described Walla Wallas as “basically just like a Vidalia, but grown here”. There’s nothing particularly special about the onion variety - it’s just a mild yellow onion. It’s the soil.
- vednig 9mo agoI love this guy's marketing honest and compelling
- MagicMoonlight 9mo agoThis is the kind of thing I’d like to do. I have so many ideas, but I’m not sure how to actually make them happen. How much money does it take to start something like this?
- ciconia 9mo ago> Them: We leverage automated machine learning to enhance your existing BI visualizations with more proactive insights > Me: I sell onions on the internet That's exactly how I feel about AI! Instead of all that useless nonsense, just keeping it real, doing something that's actually useful for individuals and for society.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- selfmodruntime 9mo ago> but for kicks & giggles, I dropped in a bid around $2,200 ’cause I was confident I’d be outbid Boy do I wish I could just drop 2k on a whim for a vanity project
- chairmansteve 9mo agoA lot of people pay a lot more than that for vanity vehicles, kitchens etc
- pinkmuffinere 9mo agoNot to minimize the amount (2k is a lot), or obligations you may have (family, etc), but sometimes you can change your life in small ways to make those sort of impulse buys more affordable. Renting a room instead of a house, buying an old used car instead of new, etc. These kinds of changes are (to me) a small inconvenience, with big rewards
- pottertheotter 9mo agoThis crosses from quirky to unhinged: During a phone order one season – 2018 I believe – a customer shared this story where he smuggled some Vidalias onto his vacation cruise ship, and during each meal, would instruct the server to ‘take this onion to the back, chop it up, and add it onto my salad ‘.
- bell-cot 9mo agoEccentric at most. Unhinged would be chopping it yourself, at the table, with a Civil War cavalry sabre.
- petterroea 9mo agoIf I could run a few services like this that just provide useful and predictable services to a community of people I'd be perfectly happy with my life
- robofanatic 9mo agoI bought djangosquare.com with exactly the same thought a year ago and till today I haven’t done anything with it!
- Brajeshwar 9mo agoThis is one of those articles that pops up here once every few years, and I love it every time. I love these stories of low-hanging, boring businesses that succeed in simple, yet strange and satisfying ways. And of course, this helps me continue, like many others, to go domain-first on ideas that sound good at interesting times. I have enough domains to be ashamed of in numbers, but I will continue to register more, as more ideas hit me in the shower and on my walks. My wife has seen me walk out of the shower halfway more often than not to check availability and register domains. I’ve also had my share of well-sold domain names, so I don’t regret my hobby/obsession.
- davchana 9mo agoI have registered a one domain bydav in my cctld, and now all of my future apps are like timer.bydav.cctld
- pinkmuffinere 9mo agoThere is also a follow up article: https://www.deepsouthventures.com/part-two-i-sell-onions-on-the-internet/ https://www.deepsouthventures.com/part-two-i-sell-onions-on-...
- qwm 9mo agoI wonder what this guy would think of what I'm doing with poop.net
- b800h 9mo agoDo people still buy domain names and build businesses around them?
- lgvld 9mo agoVery probably. I am also curious to know wether a domain name still confers a solid advantage. Now that so many people use social networks like Instagram, does (the SEO or domain name, etc. of) your website remain a critical part of the process? Actually the SEO plays an important role in some areas, for sure.
- stevefan1999 9mo agookay, at first I thought you are selling Tor access or vanity hidden service domains as Tor stands for The Onion Router, but it turns out you are selling real onions
- ninalanyon 9mo agoThat was wonderful.
- pranavm27 9mo agoI rabbitholed into that another essay of buying domain names. The author juggles ideas by domain name. I have one called Banadana Girl .in and I was like sell bandanas lol - gotta check now the TAM for bandanas in india with women as TM. Give me ideas folks. Do you know of a bandana expert?
- liteclient 9mo agoI also recently bought liteclient.com just because it was available. Finally, decided to create a vs code extension around it; I don't even know how to make one but learnt so much in the past few weeks :)
- BrtByte 9mo agoI love the inversion of the usual startup narrative: domain first, idea second; purpose first, scale later (maybe never)