Domain Auctions

Nice 10x on a .CO Auction Win

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If you pick the right domain names and win the auction for the right amount, there is still plenty of money to be made from expired/deleted domain names. Adam Maysonet illustrated this by sharing the results of a recent sale he made on Afternic:

Adam bought Spend.CO for just shy of $1,000. Using the Whois History tool at DomainTools, it would appear that Adam won the domain name in a Sav.com drop catch auction. He then listed the domain name for sale for $12,995 on Afternic, and someone bought it.

Backpage.com Sells for $259,500 on DropCatch

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A few days ago, I wrote about how the Backpage.com domain name expired and was in pending delete status. Prior to its expiry, Backpage.com had been seized by the US Department of Justice. Backpage.com wasn’t renewed, it fully deleted, and DropCatch.com caught the domain name and sent it to a three day auction.

The auction concluded this afternoon. After dozens of bids and backorders were placed, the auction closed with a high bid of $259,500. A screenshot of the final sale price was shared by Shane Cultra on X:

Be Mindful of TMs on .AI Expiry Auctions

Namecheap is now running the .AI expiry auctions following a deal with Identity Digital. It looks like the first swath of expired .AI domain names is hitting the auction block in the next few days.

There are some very good descriptive / generic .AI domain names coming up for auction. Among them are Server.ai, Point.ai, Food.ai, Rock.ai, Drill.ai, Shipping.ai and many more. These are empty vessel domain names, and I think they could each be turned into brands in multiple verticals.

In my opinion, these descriptive domain names are investible assets. In fact, I will probably be bidding on some of the descriptive terms, despite having a higher than usual annual renewal cost.

Backpage.com in Pending Delete Status (Update)

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Backpage.com was once one of the most popular classified advertising websites online. According to Wikipedia, “Backpage let users post ads to categories such as personals, automotive, rentals, jobs and adult services. It soon became the second largest online classified site in the United States.” It was also apparently a hub for illicit activities.

In 2018, the US Department of Justice seized the website and Backpage.com domain name. At that time, the USDOJ issued a press release announcing the domain name seizure with a link to the indictment. A screenshot of the landing page from Screenshots.com can be seen below with law enforcement seals and seizure notification:

TRC.com Sets Auction Record at Sav.com (Update)

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TRC.com expired at the end of November 2024. The domain name was apparently registered at a domain registrar that doesn’t have a deal with an expiry auction platform, so it was fully deleted from the registry. As a result, drop catching auction platforms competed to catch the domain name once it made it through the expiration cycle.

Sav.com caught the domain name, and TRC.com was entered into a ten day auction. After a great deal of extended bidding, the auction for TRC.com closed at $100,000. There were 304 bids placed by 22 different bidders.

Big Changes for .AI Expiry Auctions

Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall has shared many .AI domain name sales over the last year or so. NameBio lists more than 1,000 .AI domain name sales at Namecheap in its database.

This afternoon, Richard shared a handful of high value .AI domain name sales. He also shared some pretty big news about .AI expiry auctions going forward. Expired .ai domain names will now be auctioned exclusively at Namecheap. In addition, the auctions will be conducted daily rather than once a month as they had been running previously.

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