Municipalities Shouldn’t Let Old Domain Names Expire

Elliot Silver
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1

Saving money is important for municipalities. Taxpayers tend to ask their elected officials to spend less money, and elected officials probably want to save money however they can. I urge municipalities to not let previously used domain names expire!

This afternoon, I noticed a domain name formerly owned by a local municipality coming up for auction. This .org domain name is a pending delete domain name, so I do not believe the former registrant can renew it at this point in time. The domain name appears to have been used as a website, but the website is now resolving on a different domain name affiliated with the municipality. The Twitter account for this town agency still has the old domain name listed in its profile (the domain name that is coming up for auction), and I presume there are probably quite a few backlinks that reference the domain name.

Once the domain name goes to auction, it is almost certain that a third party will own the domain name unless someone from the town (or a benefactor) decides to re-purchase it. My guess is that the backlinks give this otherwise

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Carrot.com Saved From Expiry By Industry Veterans (Updated)

Elliot Silver
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34

If you follow expiry auctions, you likely noticed that Carrot.com was coming up for auction via GoDaddy Auctions. Carrot.com is a fantastic domain name, and the auction price in the mid $60,000 range reflected how desirable the domain name is. The domain name was renewed at the last possible moment, so the auction was halted.

Expired domain names get renewed all the time, so having an auction taken down isn’t an uncommon occurrence. In the case of Carrot.com, it took quite a bit of effort from two domain industry veterans to ensure the domain name would not be lost by its owner.

A couple of days ago, I noticed that Name Ninja’s Bill Sweetman had posted an update on Facebook asking his network if they knew a Canadian artist or his family (out of respect for the artist’s family, I refrained from publishing his name). I realized why he was searching for the man, and I reached out to see if he had made any progress. Bill responded and told me he had been working behind the scenes with DotWeekly’s Jamie Zoch and some other people who Bill did not mention by name.

Yesterday afternoon, a friend messaged me

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Attributes I Look for in Expiry Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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7

I am a regular participant in expiry auctions. Expiring domain name auctions can be a good place to acquire domain names, although some would probably say that auction prices have gone up considerably during the last few years, squeezing out quite a bit of the domain investors might need. Buying expiring domain names can be more cost effective than trying to purchase them from domain owners though, and expiry auctions remain one of the better ways to acquire good inventory.

I want to share some of the things I look at when evaluating expiry auctions. I think every auction participant has their own set of attributes they consider, and here are some of the things I consider when backordering domain names and bidding on auctions. These are not necessarily in order of importance. Your additional thoughts are invited in the comment section.

Generic nature – It is very important to me to only buy domain names that are generic in nature. I have no interest in buying a domain name where there

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ImpeachTrump.com Domain Name in Auction at Flippa

Elliot Silver
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11

For the last several months, I have seen quite a few television commercials imploring the impeachment of US President Donald Trump. The multi million dollar ad campaign features a businessman named Tom Steyer, who discusses why he believes President Trump should be impeached. The website featured in the commercials is NeedToImpeach.com.

If Mr. Steyer is looking for a more obvious call to action domain name for his impeachment campaign, a better one is now on the market: ImpeachTrump.com.

According to a press release I received this morning, ImpeachTrump.com is now for sale via Flippa. The high bid currently stands at $250 but the undisclosed reserve price has not yet been met.

Depending on the reserve price and the reach of the marketing campaign promoting the auction, I would not be surprised to

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eBike.com Sells for $71,938 on DropCatch.com

Elliot Silver
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4

DropCatch.com had its second largest publicly recorded sale yesterday. eBike.com sold for $71,938 in an expiry auction on the platform. There was a considerable amount of bidding at the end of the auction, which kept the auction running for an extended period of time. According to NameBio, this sale is the second largest sale at DropCatch.com, behind the $220,950 sale of Lian.com in January of 2016.

For the past ten plus years, eBike.com had been privately registered, so it is unclear who owned the domain name prior to its expiration. Interestingly, in September of 2006 (the last time I can see the Whois record was public), eBike.com had been registered to “The GoDaddy Group,” according to the DomainTools Whois History tool. It looks like this entity is somehow affiliated with GoDaddy. I am not sure if that means the domain name had been owned by the company at the time or if that was some sort of generic or proxy Whois record I don’t recall seeing. I checked Archive.org and didn’t see a development history for this domain name.

eBike.com is a very

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Super.com Hits Reserve at NamesCon Auction (Updated)

Elliot Silver
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Super.com is arguably one of the top domain names listed in the NamesCon domain name auction. The domain name did not hit its reserve price of more than $1,000,000 during the live auction, but it looks like it hits its reserve price during the extended auction:

I do not recognize the leading NameJet bidder alias, evstratov. It is possible that the high bidder signed up specifically for the Super.com auction or perhaps the

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