I try to buy domain names at auction every day. I spend a lot of time bidding on auctions. More often than not, I come away with inventory quality domain names I opt to list for sale immediately. The vast majority of my domain auction wins are hardly memorable. I buy them to bulk up my portfolio to move inventory at nice returns.
Last week, Snagged.com posted a question on X that got me thinking for a very quick second:
It looks like the Meet.com domain name appears to have been listed for sale. If you visit the domain name, you can see an inquiry form that says “Meet.com is for sale!” and there is a price tag that indicates the purchase price is $2 million. The domain name was previously forwarding to to TsunamiXR.com, according to Archive.org.
I looked through my email, and I see that the domain name listed for sale in a couple of brokerage newsletters. I am uncertain if the domain name was sold when it had previously been listed, although I do not see any public sales history on NameBio.
Several major retail stores have filed for bankruptcy during the coronavirus. JC Penney also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week. This does not necessarily mean that the company is going to shutting down, but the company will likely close shops and will need to restructure if it wants to operate again.
I was curious to see what domain names JC Penney owns, and I found one that is not only valuable, but it also appears to be unused. In addition to the brand-associated JCP.com domain name that forwards to its website, JC Penney also owns Liz.com, Decree.com, and Gift.com. None of those domain names resolve for me right now, although it looks like Decree.com and Gift.com had been forwarding to the JC Penney website at some point.
At the beginning of this year, I discussed how I was bearish on the domain market. This year has turned out to be better than I expected for my business. I had several significant sales this year, but it feels like the lower to mid level sales were not as strong this year as in prior years. My perception is that inquiries were down year over year, but it wouldn’t be easy to really analyze this, and I don’t think an analysis of my inquiries would benefit anyone else.
Kim Kardashian announced a new brand that was set to be called Kimono. Smartly, the brand had acquired the brand match Kimono.com domain name in advance of the announcement. As a result of the backlash about the Kimono brand name, Kardashian announced that she would rebrand the company.
Now that Kimono.com will not be used for Kardashian’s brand, I would like to ask readers if they think the Kimono.com domain name is worth more or less (or the same) as before Kardashian had announced her branding. Some might say more because Kimono is now a more recognizable name with the provenance belonging to a Kardashian. On the flip side, people now know what a lightning rod that could be as a brand.
Vote in the poll below. I also invite you to share your thoughts about why in the comment section.
Thanks to Ivan Rasskazov for the idea for this poll question.
