A while ago, I invested in a number of domains that were regular people's names (not anyone famous nor any business that is well-known or famous, nor any branded goods) and I saw that others had done the same, including one large domain owner that still holds theirs and is still buying more.
I had originally thought that the time would come when individuals would want to use the web for self-serving/promoting purposes, in a similar way to how businesses uses the web, such as career development, e.g. demonstrating or giving examples of their skill-set, previous work/projects, imaginative resumes, as well as for purely egotistically centered reasons. There would be other uses I am sure.
Whilst I have seen some examples of people using the web in this way (including some superb efforts and web designs), the idea hasn't really caught on in a big-ish way as I had thought (perhaps it still might).
There was also the propsect that very common combinations of forenames and surnames (e.g.such as john smith - (not mine though) etc) might be worth a premium due to the number of people with very common name combinations.
Perhaps the likes of myspace.com has served some of the above purposes, although I hadn't heard of this site until recently and it seems aimed at a younger market - do I need to get out more or mix with the young folk? - (gets a chill/goosebumps just thinking about the scary youngsters in his area :O

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Is there any mileage/future in owning/holding such domain names?