260.com Was Sold

Elliot Silver
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2

I noticed a Whois change on 260.com, and it looks like the domain name was sold. Previously it was registered to a company in Grand Cayman, and the new registrant is based in China.

I emailed the former owner to confirm the sale, but I did not hear back from him. I realized the email was sent to his old @260.com email address, so I am sure he did not receive my email asking about a potential sale. When I followed up with him using another email address, he confirmed that he sold the domain name, but he said he could not comment at all about the sale or sale price.

Three number .com domain names (NNN.com) have been selling for serious money the last few years. Although the Chinese domain investment market seems to be down a bit from highs achieved a couple of years ago, domain names like these are still selling for a lot of money. The most recent public

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Afternic Outbound Email Sales Tactic

Elliot Silver
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5

I was chatting with Adam Strong, and he let me know he has had some success selling domain names through Afternic. He just started listing some of the domain names from his portfolio a couple of months ago, and he has sold five figures worth of names. On one of his sales, he was chatting with the buyer, and she mentioned that she learned about his Afternic listing after receiving an email from GoDaddy.

I had not heard about this outbound sales tactic, and I have not received an email like the one that was described. With Adam’s permission (and encouragement), I emailed Afternic’s Alan Shiflett to learn more about this email campaign. He confirmed that GoDaddy sends out occasional emails to prospective buyers, and he was kind enough to share two examples of the email for me to share with readers. I asked Alan to mock it up using one of my own domain names because I don’t have permission to use someone else’s domain name listed on Afternic, so these two emails are samples:

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Hilco Streambank Announces Stalking Horse Bidder for Vanity.com

Elliot Silver
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1

In June, Hilco Streambank announced that it was selling Vanity.com and other assets related to the Vanity Shop’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Bids were due in July, but it doesn’t look like all of the business assets were sold.

Yesterday afternoon, I received an email from Hilco Streambank announcing the company has a $100,000 stalking horse bid for several of Vanity Shop’s assets, including Vanity.com, Vanity.net, and the Vanity.com trademark. The minimum overbid on this is $115,000. Should a higher bid fail to materialize, the stalking horse bidder will be able to purchase the domain name. If there are competing bids, an auction will be held on October 25. Details about the auction (if necessary) will be provided to any bidders who place bids higher than the stalking horse bid.

The company is also seeking a minimum bid of $75,000 for other assets related to the Vanity Shop business. This separate lot also includes the eVanity.com and VanityShops.com domain names.

According to the email I received,

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Thanksgiving.com Acquired by Grateful Ventures

Elliot Silver
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2

It looks like Digimedia, has sold another great domain name from the company’s portfolio. I detected a Whois change on Thanksgiving.com at the end of September, and it looks like the company that bought the domain name, Grateful Ventures, launched its website back in 2014.

Prior to the Whois change, Thanksgiving.com was owned by Builders.com, LLC, and it had a @digimedia.com email address. I believe Builders.com, LLC is a business operated by Digimedia.

According to a press release yesterday morning, Gannett made an investment (for an undisclosed amount) in Grateful Ventures. The release also mentions the Thanksgiving.com website:

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Alchemist.com: Nice Buy Now Landing Page

Elliot Silver
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11

One of my favorite breweries is The Alchemist in Stowe, Vermont. It makes the highly touted Heady Topper and Focal Banger beers (I am drinking a Focal Banger as I write this). While poking around, I found a really nice looking domain name for sale landing page on the generic (and valuable) keyword Alchemist.com domain name.

Have a look at a screenshot of the landing page:

The landing page is relatively simple. It lists the purchase price at the top, a reference to the licensure of Escrow.com below the price, a purchase form on the right side, and an explanation of the purchase process on the left side. There is no sales pitch about the domain name, but the nature of this exact match .com domain name may sell itself.

I am not sure if the landing page was created by

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Looks Like HAY Acquired Hay.com

Elliot Silver
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3

I noticed a Whois change this morning involving the valuable Hay.com domain name, which had been owned by Digimedia. Hay.com is now registered to an entity in Denmark. Based on some Google searching, it looks like the Hay.com domain name was acquired by an entity affiliated with a business called HAY, which operates on the HAY.dk domain name.

When I visited Hay.com after observing the Whois change, I was taken to a NetNames default landing page. A Whois search on Hay.com shows the registrant email address is @bestseller.com. Best Seller appears to be a clothier or clothing retailer based in Denmark. A subsequent Google search for “best seller” and “hay” led me to a website for a company called Nine United. On its company page, Nine United mentions both the BESTSELLER and HAY brands. This leads me to believe the buyer was related to the HAY brand.

Assuming this information is accurate, my guess is the company that acquired Hay.com will eventually

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