A .org domain name came across my email this morning that caught my attention. RhodeIsland.org is listed as one of the most active pending delete backorders on NameJet. At the present time, there are 24 bids with a high bid of $101 on NameJet alone. Since most of the major drop catching platforms will likely try to catch this domain name, I presume there are many other bidders standing by ready to place bids on this domain name.



After seeing RhodeIsland.org on the most active pending delete list, l did a Historical Whois Search at DomainTools to see who previously owned the domain name before it went into the pending delete status. According to DomainTools, RhodeIsland.org was registered to Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation as recently as September 6, 2017. The Whois registrant email listed an @riedc.com email address. Very strangely, the registry expiry date is listed as June 24, 2018, so it doesn't look expired despite its "pending Delete" status.

I looked at Archive.org, and it does not look like → Read More

About a week and a half ago, I noticed a change in one of the headings on DropCatch.com. "Type" was one of the column headings, and I had not seen that before. I reached out to Jeffrey and Andrew Reberry, and they confirmed that the platform would soon allow domain owners to list their domain names for auction.

At some point in the next week or so, I hope to publish an interview with more details about the auction platform. Topics I plan to discuss include how domain investors can list their domain names for sale, safeguards the company is undertaking to protect the integrity of the platform, and information about the mechanics of listing and selling domain names via DropCatch.com.

As Shane Cultra mentioned last week, DropCatch.com is now doing beta testing to work out any bugs. I asked if I could participate in the beta testing, and listed 6 domain names for sale at no reserve beginning today and ending in a week. Depending on the results, I may list additional domain names for sale. For now, here are the 6 domain names I → Read More

It looks like the Fyre Festival's domain name, FyreFestival.com, is now in auction at DropCatch.com. If you visit FyreFestival.com, you will be automatically redirected to the auction page, where the high bid is currently $320 with 2 days to go. You can see this was the domain name used by the festival as it is referenced on the Fyre Festival Facebook page (screenshot above).

Interestingly, based on historical Whois records at DomainTools, it does not look like the domain name went through a standard "domain name life cycle." In May of this year, the Whois record shows that FyreFestival.com was set to expire in November of 2018. For some unknown reason, the domain name seems to have expired prior to when it was supposed to expire in 2018.



A current Whois record shows the domain name (more…) → Read More

I am not sure the reason why, but it looks like the single letter V.TV domain name expired and is now in pending delete status. Assuming one of the major drop catching auction houses is able to grab it, the domain name will go to auction tomorrow or Tuesday.

A Whois history search at DomainTools shows me that V.TV had been owned by Future Media Architects. It is unclear why the domain name expired.

I looked at NameBio, and I was able to search for public single letter and single number .TV domain name sales it has recorded. The largest sale is $18,000 for D.TV. The only other single letter .TV sale was the $17,500 sale of E.TV. There were 5 single number .TV sales recorded, ranging from $3,100 to $5,555. Although the volume of reported sales is very low, it is interesting to see that single letter names sold for much more than single number names. Of note is that there hasn't been a publicly reported single letter / number .tv sale since 2011, so the market has likely changed since then.

I am not entirely sure how → Read More

I saw an interesting name coming up for auction on NameJet, which was also mentioned in the DSAD auction list yesterday. PuffDaddy.com expired in late May, and it is set to go into auction this afternoon.  Sean Combs is a famous musician who was once known by the "Puff Daddy" moniker. His nickname has changed over the years (Puffy, P. Diddy, Diddy...etc) but many people would still recognize the Puff Daddy name.

Prior to its expired status, the domain name was registered privately, but before that, it was registered to a business called Puff Daddy Merchandising, Inc. I believe this business was associated with Sean Combs. If this wasn't some sort of oversight, I think it was a shorted sighted decision to let the domain name expire.

In my opinion, companies and brand owners need to continue to renew domain names that are relevant to their brand, even if they don't actively market the brand any longer. It is very likely that these domain names will be bought by someone unaffiliated with the brand. The short term cost is → Read More

The TrumpCasino.com domain name, once owned by Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc., has expired and is on auction at GoDaddy Auctions. The expiration was first reported by Jamie Zoch in a tweet this afternoon (with a link to the auction):

19 year old Trump Ent. owned domain name TrumpCasino(.)com domain expires, currently on public auction for $15 https://t.co/CH5AXXl1iX

— Jamie Zoch (@yofie) June 29, 2017

TrumpCasino.com was created back in September of 1998, making it nearly 19 years old. For the last few years, the domain name has been privately registered. Prior to the private registration, the domain name was registered to Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc., according to a DomainTools Historical Whois record. Archive.org shows that this domain name had been forwarding to TrumpCasinos.com, which is also registered to Trump Entertainment Resorts. That domain name has not lapsed.

I think this would be a very risky auction for anyone who wishes to monetize the domain name with advertising (or for someone who wants to → Read More