Bird.com has been sold for $2.5 million at today’s Right of the Dot live domain name auction. Fish.com was the next domain name up for auction, and that domain name was sold for $1.6 million. Based on the location information shown on the bidding page, the winning bidder appears to be the same for both of these auctions.
Right of the Dot is hosting an independent live domain name auction today at 12pm Central (1pm Eastern). The auction is being run on the HiBid.com platform in conjunction with auctioneer Wayne Wheat calling out domain names in a live auction format. Preregistration is a requirement of bidding on the platform.
Right of the Dot founder Monte Cahn shared the final list of 108 domain names that are included in today’s live auction:
I was on the Clubhouse domain investor chat organized by Jen Sale last Friday evening, and the topic of domain investing mistakes was brought up. I did not speak out in the Clubhouse room, but I want to share a domain investing mistake I have made many times and will continue to make in the future.
After selling a domain name to a buyer, I occasionally go out to look for similar domain names that I think could also be appealing to the buyer. By way of a hypothetical example, if I sold DomainInvesting.com, I might try to buy DomainInvestor.com or DomainInvestment.com in a private acquisition or future auction. Because of my past success selling the similar domain name, I tend to be more aggressive than normal in buying the subsequent domain name(s). After all, I have my own comparable sale to know the potential resale value.
Two weeks ago, I reported that Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation acquired Fairway.com in a deal that was put together by Andrew Miller. The seller in that deal was NBCUniversal. The Fairway.com acquisition came shortly after Fairway acquired Home.com.
Yesterday morning, Jamie Zoch reported that NBCUniversal acquired the Betcast.com domain name to go along with its Betcast brand. Andrew Miller replied to the tweet to confirm the acquisition since he was involved in that deal as well. While these two domain name acquisitions are unrelated, it is because of Andrew Miller’s dealmaking that they both came together serendipitously.
I reached out to Andrew to see if he could share some background about these deals without sharing confidential details, and here’s what he shared with me:
It’s not surprising that Hallmark Licensing, LLC, the company behind the iconic Hallmark brand, would want to have the Hallmark.TV domain name. In addition to owning various Hallmark-related entities, Hallmark Licensing operates the Hallmark Channel, and it uses the brand match HallmarkChannel.com domain name for this line of business. It may not need Hallmark.TV, but I am sure the company would want to own the domain name.
Hallmark Licensing, LLC opted to file a UDRP complaint to take possession of Hallmark.TV. The decision was published today, and while Hallmark Licensing prevailed, the rationale for why the company prevailed is upsetting to me.
Many domain investors use Efty landing pages to broker their own domain name sales. They receive inbound inquiries generated from their domain names, and they negotiate the sale of their domain names on their own. I enjoy negotiating a domain name sale on my own, but it is very possible I am leaving money on the table every time I do a deal.
In a blog post this morning, Efty announced a new brokerage partnership with Saw.com, the domain brokerage co-founded by Amanda Waltz and Jeff Gabriel. Efty users will be able to assign leads to a broker from Saw.com who will broker the sale on behalf of the domain registrant. Efty users will set a target price and a floor price, and the broker will work to close a deal on behalf of the seller at the desired price.
