Domain Sales

Last Summer, a prospective buyer made an offer on one of my domain names that was too low for me to accept. I had sold a similar name for substantially more, and I told her my expected price range. Out of the blue in late December, she upped her offer substantially to a number that was in-range. I counter offered about 20% higher and did not hear back. After doing some research specific to the domain name and similar names, I came to the conclusion that her offer was very fair, and I sent her a purchase link via Dan.com.

When I didn’t hear back from this prospective buyer after a few weeks, I figured she had either chosen something else or opted to not reply as a negotiating tactic. Perhaps she thought that I might have even more flexibility if she came back in the future. She may have assumed that if I was willing to lower my price to her offer, perhaps I would be willing to reduce it further to salvage the deal. Another thought was that her offer wasn’t backed by any funding so she couldn’t buy it. Whatever the case, I let the deal die on the vine.

I was looking through some old purchase inquiries today to touch base and express continued interest in acquiring specific domain names. One such name I came across in my email is Republic.com. I tried to buy the asset a few years ago and did not have success with it. Upon checking to see how the domain name is being used today, I noticed what appears to be a new website.

A bit of research showed that the domain name was acquired by a crypto company called Republic. Its LinkedIn page says the company was founded in 2016. The startup had been using Republic.CO for its website, and I can only assume it must have spent quite a bit of money to acquire the brand match Republic.com domain name for its business. The .CO domain name is now forwarding to Republic.com.

The upgraded domain name was announced on the company’s Twitter page earlier this week, where it cited “a new phase of growth and maturity” as a reason for the acquisition and upgrade to Republic.com:

It would be difficult to pick the top domain name in the Digimedia portfolio. The company holds one of the most valuable privately-held domain name portfolios with hundreds of exceptional domain names. If I were asked to make a list of the top 10 domain names I have seen in the company’s portfolio, Make.com would likely be on the list. It appears that Make.com was sold by the company.

Digimedia infrequently sells its assets, so it is notable when I see one of the company’s domain names change hands. Over the weekend, I detected a Whois change via one of my DomainTools monitor alerts. Make.com transferred to United Domains with Whois privacy enabled. It had previously been registered to Digimedia at Tucows.

Dan.com announced on Twitter that customers will be able to show a “Request Price” button on their landing page in lieu of a buy it now price, make offer field, or combination. In its tweet, two preview graphics were shown so people can see how they look on a landing page:

A new selling option (Price Request) is landing in https://t.co/o5YCjcf7tw's seller accounts this week!

Here's a preview of what's coming: pic.twitter.com/Jn4qohnmVk

— Dan.com (@Undeveloped) December 22, 2021

I understand the idea behind Request Price but I doubt I would use it very often. I would rather either have a set BIN price for my domain names or a Make Offer field to weed out tire kickers.

In a Domain Monitor email from DomainTools last week, I saw that Lender.com transferred from Fabulous to GoDaddy under Whois privacy. I reached out to Brandforce Co-Founder & Vice President Louis Pickthall, who confirmed that his company sold the domain name. The sale price of Lender.com was $550,000. The sale was brokered internally by Stephen Byrne.

The Efty nameservers directing visitors to the customized Brandforce landing page did not yet change, so it is unclear who acquired Lender.com or how this domain name will be used.