“WW.com sold to the same buyer yesterday – June 25. It may be another 7 figure sale, which will be unreported.”

Earlier this week, I reported on the $1.2 million sale of MM.com, which was brokered by Sedo domain broker Dave Evanson. Based on the current Whois record, it appears that the same buyer may have acquired WW.com in private this week (the buyer is unconfirmed). Although the registrant company name is not the same for MM.com and WW.com, there are some similarities, including the registrant name, Xu Caijun.

I reached out to the former owner of WW.com, Jacques Mattheij, and he confirmed that a deal was struck, but he prefers to keep the price private. Prior to selling, Mattheij owned the domain name for about ten years. According to Mattheij, “the broker was Thomas Adams who worked tirelessly to get it sold.”  Prior to this, I had not heard of Adams, but I saw that he was listed as the domain broker of record on the Pizza.net deal, which was sold for $150,000 (via  DNJournal).

Although Mattheij

Most domain brokers and brokerages are happy to report a successfully closed sale, and some report acquisitions as well. Each week, we see dozens of sales reported from some of the well known domain name brokerages. A solid public sale reinforces the aftermarket value of domain names, and it can also augment a domain broker’s reputation as someone who is able to get deals done at a high level.

Despite the fact that domain brokers can benefit from publicly announcing sales, there are important reasons for them to not disclose sales.

Hey @LiveNinjaDotCom, we saw you mentioned in the @Techcocktail article about .CO, Live․Ninja is at auction now and ends in two days.

— GoDaddy Auctions (@godaddyauctions) June 16, 2014

I saw this GoDaddy tweet, which I embedded above and was curious if you’ve ever tried to sell a domain name via Twitter. If so, were your efforts successful? I have never used Twitter as a medium to sell domain names, and there are several reasons for this:

Most domain name brokers require an exclusivity agreement before they begin to sell a domain name. The agreement protects them from getting screwed if a domain owner sells a domain name that they have agreed to broker. It also requires that the owner agree to a commission during a period of time, whether or not the broker closed the deal.

In the past, I found myself torn when deciding on giving a domain broker an exclusive listing for one of my domain names. Having to pay a commission regardless of if it was earned is less appealing to me, but there are plenty of benefits to an exclusivity agreement.

I’ve had a number of discussions with domain brokers and investors regarding exclusivity, and I can respect a broker’s need for exclusivity. Here are some pros and cons to signing an exclusivity agreement with a domain broker:

PROS: