Definitely a cool read. A bit of an aside. For those that don't know, you can't just buy "Vidalia onion seeds" and grow 'em anywhere. They only come out tasting like Vidalia onions, if they are...
Definitely a cool read.
A bit of an aside. For those that don't know, you can't just buy "Vidalia onion seeds" and grow 'em anywhere. They only come out tasting like Vidalia onions, if they are grown in the right soil, which traditionally means, in/around Vidalia, Georgia.
Presumably, there are other locations where the soil is correct to get Vidalia-like onions, but it's kinda like the "Champagne vs Sparkling Wine" meme-jokes. If it ain't grown in Georgia, it's not a Vidalia Onion; it's just a sparkling allium.
From the article: I checked Twitter and his blog and he's still doing it. He has a few other domain names.
From the article:
Back in 2014, the domain name VidaliaOnions.com expired, and went up for auction. For some reason the original owner abandoned it, and being a Georgia native, I recognized it ’cause I was familiar with the industry. I’ve been buying expired or abandoned domain names for a while, and enjoy developing them into niche businesses. This one was different though – I backordered the domain as a spectator, but for kicks & giggles, I dropped in a bid around $2,200 ’cause I was confident I’d be outbid.
5 minutes later, I was the proud owner of VidaliaOnions.com. I had no idea what to do with it. Ready, fire, aim.
I checked Twitter and his blog and he's still doing it. He has a few other domain names.
Okay, I saw the title, was slightly amused (as with most titles I tend to check into), and opted for the comment (as I only accidentally ever click the title/link - I want to see why it ends up on...
Okay, I saw the title, was slightly amused (as with most titles I tend to check into), and opted for the comment (as I only accidentally ever click the title/link - I want to see why it ends up on Tildes beforehand). Your simple quote got me to read it.
I now almost wish I didn't hate social media quite so much, but I've linked the site on my FB and to another friend, and am now looking to obtain 5 lbs of an onion I tasted once and thought was awesome, as I could eat it like an apple.
Coincidentally, I recently watched a fascinating mini documentary from 70 years ago on BBC Archive about a similar sort of gig selling onions door-to-door in the UK via bicycle. 1957: The onion...
Coincidentally, I recently watched a fascinating mini documentary from 70 years ago on BBC Archive about a similar sort of gig selling onions door-to-door in the UK via bicycle.
He is a man who lives half his life in France and half in Britain. In this film we follow the Breton onion-sellers - the distinctive "Onion Johnnies," with their bicycles, berets and strings of onions, from their homes in Roscoff, Brittany to the doorsteps of houses throughout Britain.
It's where the English stereotype of Frenchmen wearing berets, striped shirts, and carrying strings of onions and garlic around their necks comes from. And apparently Onion Johnnies actually even still exist today, although their numbers have greatly declined: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Johnny
The idea of casually saying something like "I regularly buy auctioned web domains for $2,200 minimum to turn them into businesses as a sidegig ! :)" is breaking me. I have no idea how to react to...
The idea of casually saying something like "I regularly buy auctioned web domains for $2,200 minimum to turn them into businesses as a sidegig ! :)" is breaking me. I have no idea how to react to that.
How do you just... do that as a casual thing? How much money does this person have that they can commit thousands of dollars to something that would completely change the direction of most other people's lives and treat it almost like it's a little hobby?
Is it just that I have a bad scale of the money and skills it takes to do this? This is crazy to me.
Did he mention $2200 as the minimum? I thought that was just a random bid. Until @Zorind mentioned the duderanch domain I was just assuming this was on the higher end and they were screwing...
Did he mention $2200 as the minimum? I thought that was just a random bid.
Until @Zorind mentioned the duderanch domain I was just assuming this was on the higher end and they were screwing around.
On the point of random side businesses... I did meet someone like that. She opened a retail store in a nearby town that's the same niche as my wife's store at about the same time. I met her once and she was talking about how she enjoys starting up businesses and stuff... I don't get it AT ALL and I think it was a case of having way more money than me. I don't know what her other ventures were but this retail store... she had a good handful of employees and it wasn't the kind of thing where she was there everyday. IIRC she had an employee who's main job was ordering and recieving stock. My wife does that AND is the sole person working in the store most days AND we're in a much larger city. It's like 2 full time jobs and my wife only paid herself maybe 3 or 4 times in 2025. We also have probably $50k of "our own" money in the business and the business probably has $50k in debt under its own name. The other woman is closing (or has already closed) her store this year meanwhile our business is finaly at the point where Im fairly certain it will survive.
That turned into a weird rant, but like... I just don't get it either. The money and time involved in this stuff is wild and (for us at least) not all the money we've sunk into it is money we had, it's a line of credit.
Yeah, that jumped out at me too. Maybe he was more prepared to start a new business than he lets on? But if nothing else, he could probably have sold it and gotten most of his money back.
Yeah, that jumped out at me too. Maybe he was more prepared to start a new business than he lets on?
But if nothing else, he could probably have sold it and gotten most of his money back.
If you look through his other posts, he bought DudeRanch.com for close to $20,000 and turned that into a successful business venture back in like 2009 or 2013 I think? So that’s where he got the...
If you look through his other posts, he bought DudeRanch.com for close to $20,000 and turned that into a successful business venture back in like 2009 or 2013 I think?
So that’s where he got the money for the Onion thing. Not sure where he got the $25k for DudeRanch though
Definitely a cool read.
A bit of an aside. For those that don't know, you can't just buy "Vidalia onion seeds" and grow 'em anywhere. They only come out tasting like Vidalia onions, if they are grown in the right soil, which traditionally means, in/around Vidalia, Georgia.
Presumably, there are other locations where the soil is correct to get Vidalia-like onions, but it's kinda like the "Champagne vs Sparkling Wine" meme-jokes. If it ain't grown in Georgia, it's not a Vidalia Onion; it's just a sparkling allium.
From the article:
I checked Twitter and his blog and he's still doing it. He has a few other domain names.
Okay, I saw the title, was slightly amused (as with most titles I tend to check into), and opted for the comment (as I only accidentally ever click the title/link - I want to see why it ends up on Tildes beforehand). Your simple quote got me to read it.
I now almost wish I didn't hate social media quite so much, but I've linked the site on my FB and to another friend, and am now looking to obtain 5 lbs of an onion I tasted once and thought was awesome, as I could eat it like an apple.
Thank you for linking this!
Coincidentally, I recently watched a fascinating mini documentary from 70 years ago on BBC Archive about a similar sort of gig selling onions door-to-door in the UK via bicycle.
1957: The onion seller | Eye to eye: Onion johnnie | Classic BBC documentary | BBC archive
It's where the English stereotype of Frenchmen wearing berets, striped shirts, and carrying strings of onions and garlic around their necks comes from. And apparently Onion Johnnies actually even still exist today, although their numbers have greatly declined:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Johnny
ngl, I could not get much into it (though still watching) without thinking of the spaghetti trees!
edit: though, I so adore seeing stuff like this.
The idea of casually saying something like "I regularly buy auctioned web domains for $2,200 minimum to turn them into businesses as a sidegig ! :)" is breaking me. I have no idea how to react to that.
How do you just... do that as a casual thing? How much money does this person have that they can commit thousands of dollars to something that would completely change the direction of most other people's lives and treat it almost like it's a little hobby?
Is it just that I have a bad scale of the money and skills it takes to do this? This is crazy to me.
Did he mention $2200 as the minimum? I thought that was just a random bid.
Until @Zorind mentioned the duderanch domain I was just assuming this was on the higher end and they were screwing around.
On the point of random side businesses... I did meet someone like that. She opened a retail store in a nearby town that's the same niche as my wife's store at about the same time. I met her once and she was talking about how she enjoys starting up businesses and stuff... I don't get it AT ALL and I think it was a case of having way more money than me. I don't know what her other ventures were but this retail store... she had a good handful of employees and it wasn't the kind of thing where she was there everyday. IIRC she had an employee who's main job was ordering and recieving stock. My wife does that AND is the sole person working in the store most days AND we're in a much larger city. It's like 2 full time jobs and my wife only paid herself maybe 3 or 4 times in 2025. We also have probably $50k of "our own" money in the business and the business probably has $50k in debt under its own name. The other woman is closing (or has already closed) her store this year meanwhile our business is finaly at the point where Im fairly certain it will survive.
That turned into a weird rant, but like... I just don't get it either. The money and time involved in this stuff is wild and (for us at least) not all the money we've sunk into it is money we had, it's a line of credit.
Yeah, that jumped out at me too. Maybe he was more prepared to start a new business than he lets on?
But if nothing else, he could probably have sold it and gotten most of his money back.
If you look through his other posts, he bought DudeRanch.com for close to $20,000 and turned that into a successful business venture back in like 2009 or 2013 I think?
So that’s where he got the money for the Onion thing. Not sure where he got the $25k for DudeRanch though