Valuable Names are Tough to Sell

Elliot Silver
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19

People in the domain space tend to laud those who own the best domain names. I am regularly impressed by the quality of domain names some of my friends and colleagues own. There is one downside to owning valuable domain names – they are not easy to sell for full value.

The best domain names receive inquiries all the time. I would imagine the owners of top one word .com, LLL.com, LL.com, NN.com…etc. domain names receive inquiries and offers every day. It is reassuring to receive regular inquiries for top domain names, but the vast majority of these inquiries will not lead to deals. Virtually all offers are either from people who either don’t understand that these domain names are ultra high value or they simply do not have the budget to buy the domain name.

Obviously an advantage of

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Looks Like SE.com was Acquired by Schneider Electric

Elliot Silver
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1

It looks like George Kirikos has discovered another high value domain name sale. Based on some observations made by George that I can also see, it appears that Schneider Electric may have  acquired the high value SE.com domain name:

For quite some time until mid-2016, SE.com had been registered and used by Centralnic. In mid-2016, the Whois record for the domain name went private. Within the last couple of weeks, the domain name registration moved from one privacy service to another. It is now registered to Nameshield Proxy Service. SE.com is not currently being used, aside from a default landing page provided by the domain registrar.

Some of the factors that lead George to believe the domain name was acquired by Schneider Electric are:

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Bought for $350, WashingtonJournal.com Sold for $75k

Elliot Silver
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4

Mike Mann reported another solid domain name sale this morning. His company reportedly sold WashingtonJournal.com for $75,000. The sale was reported by Mike via Twitter:

What is is most notable about this sale is that Mike announced that the domain name was acquired in 2005 for $350. I checked NameBio this morning, and there are quite a few (keyword)Journal.com domain name sales in its database. Impressively, the WashjngtonJournal.com sale is the largest by far. Here are the top five publicly reported similar sales according to NameBio:  

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GoDaddy Reintroduces Valuation Appraisal Tool

Elliot Silver
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6

GoDaddy LogoGoDaddy Auctions is set to reintroduce an updated valuation appraisal tool for its expiring domain name inventory. If you visit GoDaddy Auctions  later on this evening, you will be able to see the “Valuation” column will be populated with a valuation range. Previously, the Valuation column was essentially useless because it was based on a parked earnings algorithm that didn’t take the intrinsic value of the domain name into account. In fact, I described GoDaddy valuations  as “laughable” in an article I wrote last year.

According to GoDaddy Vice President Paul Nicks, the new and updated valuation tool’s algorithm uses the (presumably) massive database of Afternic sales to determine the retail price range of the domain names for sale in GoDaddy’s expiring domain name auctions. Essentially, the valuation tool is predicting what the domain names would sell for at retail prices if they  were listed for sale on Afternic.

The Valuation column will offer  a valuation price  range rather than a single number. Domain names that the tool appraises at  less  than $1,000 will be  listed as under $1,000 rather than a more specific range. Additionally, domain names the tool appraises at $25,000 or more are in the $25,000+ category rather than having a more specific price range.

One added benefit of the  tool for domain investors

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Did Elevate.com Sell for $230,000?

Elliot Silver
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4

Elevate.com LogoElevate Credit, Inc. went public last month, and it now trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ELVT ticker symbol. The company operates on the exceptional Elevate.com domain name.

I came across the company’s Form S-1 filing, which was made in advance of its initial public offering. One line item caught my attention. On page F-7, the company reported a “Domain name acquisition” in the amount of $230,000 in 2014. Could this be the acquisition of Elevate.com? I do not know for certain because the specific domain name is not mentioned in the line item, but it seems like this is  plausible.

In looking through the registrant history of the domain name using the DomainTools Whois History tool, it looks like the Elevate.com domain name was registered to  a company in Tempe, Arizona in February of 2014. A month later, in March of 2014, the domain name was registered to Elevate Credit Service, LLC. The domain name then went under Whois privacy protection.

I looked through my email history, and I see that a domain broker mentioned  it in a newsletter in 2013 without an asking price. Interestingly (perhaps), I see that I referenced the domain name in a 2015 email to a different  broker at the same domain  brokerage, and he mentioned that it had been sold the prior year. I am unsure if that brokerage was involved with the sale, but I would assume a NDA was  in place because there is no public record of a sale of Elevate.com in NameBio.

If Elevate.com was the

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Squeeze Upgrades to Squeeze.com

Elliot Silver
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5

SqueezeYesterday morning, I noticed a Whois registrant change for the valuable Squeeze.com domain name. Because the domain name had been owned by Future Media Architects, I reached out to Uniregistry’s Vice President of Sales Jeff Gabriel, as Uniregistry typically acts as the domain broker on behalf of FMA. Unfortunately, Jeff could not provide details about the sale, but I believe Uniregistry was the broker.

When I visited Squeeze.com yesterday and clicked on the “Learn more” link, I was taken to a page within the SqueezeApp.com website. The company refers to itself simply as Squeeze throughout its website, so the acquisition of Squeeze.com represents a huge domain name upgrade. According to its Twitter profile, Squeeze is a FinTech app, and the website says it will be launching this Summer.

I reached out to Elias Janetis, CEO of Squeeze, to ask him about the acquisition. Although he couldn’t tell me the exact purchase price of the domain name, he did tell me that he

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