In June of 2015, Heritage Auctions’ Aron Meystedt email me to let me know Blaze.com was being offered for sale:
“This is a great one-word name for investment or branding. Memorable and powerful.
The price is $115,000 for this asset. It’s tough to find a one-word .com that makes an impact in the $100K range.
it does receive type in traffic (300-400 per day), which can help launch your new venture.”
In August, Aron sent an email to announce a price reduction for Blaze.com:
“Blaze.com – very close to this selling. $70K would get it done.”
Less than a year later, Blaze.com reportedly sold for $253,000 at yesterday’s Heritage Auctions live domain name auction in San Francisco.
When Aron announced the price drop to $70,000, I was tempted to buy the domain name. Blaze.com is a short dictionary .com domain name that could be used as a great brand name. My hesitation was that it would be difficult to spend $70k on a name like this when it might not yield a profitable return for quite some time, especially when it had been on the market. There are better deals to be had, I thought. Apparently, I was wrong, as this domain name sold for nearly 4x its price in under a year.
Aron told me that a buyer acquired the name last year and then resold it in auction yesterday. Here’s more from Aron:
“The current buyer scooped it up around the price we discussed.
Local, Dallas buyer, and we talked and set the reserve at $100,000 thinking he may be able to flip it and make a small profit.
Apparently, we brought 2 or 3 motivated buyers to the table who competitively bid for the name.”
Congratulations to all parties involved in this deal. Hopefully it closes smoothly. There are still great returns to be made in the business of domain name investing.
It’s not only a great name by itself, but TheBlaze.com only pours gasoline to increase the blaze of it’s value.
TheBlaze it is then
Worldwide Media purchased blazed.com for ~ $10,000 last year.
Should see a nice return eventually there as well.
Was the name dropped in 2015 ???
————————————————
Whois blaze.com
Domain Name: BLAZE.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1351673_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Registrar URL: http://networksolutions.com
Updated Date: 2015-12-29T06:17:50Z
Creation Date: 2015-12-29T06:17:46Z <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2017-05-31T04:00:00Z
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
Registrar IANA ID: 2
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@web.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.8003337680
Reseller:
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: BLAZE, LLC
Registrant Organization: BLAZE, LLC
Registrant Street: 2019 N LAMAR ST STE 300
Registrant City: DALLAS
Registrant State/Province: TX
Registrant Postal Code: 75202-1738
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: 214-420-3390
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: nsi@dimant.com
Not sure where you found that, but I see: Created on 1998-06-01
See here: https://www.domaininvesting.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Screen-Shot-2016-04-20-at-3.38.01-PM.png
http://www.whois.com/whois/blaze.com
blaze.com registrar whois
Updated 17 hours ago
Domain Name: BLAZE.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1351673_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Registrar URL: http://networksolutions.com
Updated Date: 2015-12-29T06:17:50Z
Creation Date: 2015-12-29T06:17:46Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2017-05-31T04:00:00Z
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
Registrar IANA ID: 2
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: email@web.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.8003337680
Reseller:
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Look above that:
blaze.com registry whois
Updated 17 hours ago – Refresh
Domain Name: BLAZE.COM
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 2
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Referral URL: http://networksolutions.com
Name Server: NS-1016.AWSDNS-63.NET
Name Server: NS-125.AWSDNS-15.COM
Name Server: NS-1331.AWSDNS-38.ORG
Name Server: NS-1704.AWSDNS-21.CO.UK
Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 29-dec-2015
Creation Date: 01-jun-1998
Expiration Date: 31-may-2017
Why do WHOIS shows: Creation Date: 2015-12-29T06:17:46Z ???
Ironically, with the 15% buyer premium fee and 15% seller’s fee the auction house is walking away with more than $70k in commissions on this sale.
I find it interesting that the buyer at $70k was willing to accept selling it for a $15k profit (after commission) with the $100k reserve.
With many investments, a 20% ROI is good. Maybe the seller had confidence that HA would bring a new buyer.
I personally would have wanted to sell it for more, but that is just me.
While the BP isn’t negotiable, sometimes the seller’s fee is.
You are greatly overstating the commission we took in selling this item.
Plus, factor in the massive marketing expense for the entire auction, and the final revenue totals aren’t nearly as enticing as one might think.
Regardless, great flip for the owner and we’re glad we were able to
create a bidding war for the name! It’s fun when that happens.
Great story Elliot.
Aron
I admit I did not reread the T&C for HA, but in what I read I was not aware that the commission structure is flexible. I saw 15% seller’s commission unless the auction does not meet reserve and then the commission can drop to get a sale done.
HA T&C
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwijw5uEhp7MAhVB4D4KHfNhBDoQFggdMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ha.com%2Fc%2Fref%2Fterms-and-conditions.zx%3Fview%3Dterms&usg=AFQjCNHLJJiyCaynf_nqk8O0Isuu1q0Mew&cad=rja
After my deal with GD was locked down i won the domain name blazed.com for $10K on NJ, like that buy a lot more after this sale.
hello
what are marketing expenses and other expenses for live auctions in general ?
thank you
I can’t speak for Aron but I received a pamphlet in the mail.
This is a good example of why ‘estibot’ has no merit for higher quality domain names. The upper range is so individualized for premiums and is driven by factors that auto-appraisals can never account for.
Blaze Pizza probably bought it
That would be my guess.
don’t count it for advertising but italian.pizza could be very powerful alternative to branded names that could be difficult to understand for people who don’t know the brand ( blaze ) or are geographically remote…
i mean moving from blazepizza to blaze may just be an internal image win…
of course i may be wrong, but i have never heard of blaze / blazepizza even if italian food is the best i like !
Fitbit’s new watch is called Blaze also
Fantastic return. Hope for the seller that the sale goes through.
The action also produced an opposite result, though. Timeless.com sold for $52,900 as opposed to $150,000 in February last year.
I almost made an offer on it at the $70,000 price, but then did a search at http://tmsearch.uspto.gov and saw there are many trademarks for the word “blaze” so I decided it is too risky.
If that kept you from bidding, then you clearly don’t understand U.S. Trademark law very well.
I live in the US and am somewhat of an expert on US Trademark law as it applies to domains. Any one of the dozen or so “Blaze” trademark holders could easily file a UDRP against me for Blaze.com once I started using it. I would be using it for a different type of business, so I would not be violating their trademark, but they would still probably win the blaze.com domain in a UDRP decision because they started their “blaze” business before mine. Even if they lose, I would pay thousands in legal fees. And, that does not even take into account possible disputes from the hundreds of other trademark holders that have a trademark with the word “blaze” in it, but not just “blaze” alone.