Domain Sales Archives - Page 224 of 251

Let’s Talk About Sex (.com)

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February 19, 2010

I’m sure you’ve read the news that Sex.com is the subject of a foreclosure auction next month in New York City. Sex.com reportedly sold for $14 million back in 2006, but there was never any confirmation of the dollar amount for that sale and was only speculation. I am not privy to any information about Sex.com (or the sale other than what was posted), but I want to discuss some things about the domain name itself.

Without a doubt, Sex.com is one of the best pure domain names a company could own. Without it ever really being fully developed into a brand, Sex.com is one of those rare domain names that is already a brand known throughout the world. Based on the Compete score, it gets decent traffic, and it’s a name that has the WOW factor most others don’t have. This is the name many people would love to have the chance to own if they could choose just one domain name.

There are some downsides to the name though. How does a company monetize it enough to earn a good ROI? Parking the domain name hasn’t seemed to work. Maybe that’s because people who want sex or porn can find that in plenty of other places online. The small portal that is on the site now is presumably not earning enough of a return right now either.

It’s likely the people who are visiting Sex.com don’t really want to find sex per se, but they are looking for porn. Porn is still a taboo word for many, so Sex.com is more of a “comfortable” name to own for some than Porn.com, although Porn.com certainly gets much more traffic and would probably make much more money on PPC. It’s just like a home with a pool. Some people would love to have a pool, but there are many who wouldn’t even consider a home that has a pool. Sex.com is more of a benign name than Porn.com.

According to an anonymous investor that was quoted on TechCrunch, there may be some litigation that could hold up the auction. Additionally, the amount of the debt on the loan is also unknown, and if it’s too high, the reserve price or minimum opening bid may temper bidding or cause people to not bid at all. As the auctioneer commented to me via email, “opening bid will be determined sometime prior to the auction,” and I believe this detail is the most important.

If the auction goes forth as planned, and the reserve price/opening bid is *reasonable,* I believe we are going to see strong bidding from more than one party. If the auction has participants from some of the leading adult companies outside of the domain industry, we could see a record result. In the market today, as Mike pointed out, it might be tough for a company to justify a record setting price. A name like this doesn’t come up for sale often, and this is a great opportunity that more than one company is salivating over.

Sex.com For Sale in Foreclosure Auction

Elliot Silver

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February 18, 2010

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Sex.com

In exactly one month from today, we may see a new record set for the price of a domain sale. I just received an email from a friend with a link to a notice stating that SEX.com will be up for auction. The foreclosure auction will be held at the offices of Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP, 156 West 56th Street, New York, New York on March 18, 2010 at 11 am.

In order to bid on the auction, you must come prepared with a certified bank check in the amount of $1,000,000, made payable to “Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP, as escrow agent.” The auction may be open to the public.

The auction description is as follows:

All of Borrower’s interest in and to all right, title and interest in an undivided 100% interest in the internet domain name and related INERNIC registration of the URL www.sex.com, and 100% of all cash proceeds, accounts receivable, licensing rights and intellectual property rights directly associated with or derived from the ownership of such URL.

The tale of Sex.com is actually very interesting, and a book was written about it a few years ago. The Cliff’s Notes version is that Match.com founder Gary Kremen originally registered the domain name, but it was then stolen by Stephen Cohen, and a 10 year legal battle ensued. A company called ESCOM, LLC acquired Sex.com in January of 2006, although terms of the deal were not disclosed. There was an article that pegged the sale at $14 million, but there was no confirmation that this number is accurate.

More information about the auction can be found on the David R. Maltz & Co website, and you can also download the auction notice pdf for more information. One interesting note from the auction notice is that it comes from a Dom Partners, LLC at 2050 Center Avenue (Suite 600) in Fort Lee, NJ – the same address as Domain Capital, who reportedly provided part of the financing.

Where and How Are You Selling Your Domain Names?

Elliot Silver

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February 18, 2010

15

After posting yesterday’s article discussing what names have sold recently, which was a follow up post to the post about recent domain purchases, Steve Morsa and a couple of others suggested a follow-up post. Although it’s very interesting to see what names are selling, it might be even more important to learn about where domain sellers are having luck making their sales.

For the most part, I have been selling my domain names in private to other domain investors looking. For me, the key is knowing what type of names my buyers are looking to buy and to present them with a very reasonable price. The people I sell to are contacts I’ve made over the years through my blog, at conferences, on forums, and in private. Maybe I could make more on individual domain names by targeting and finding end users, but I am comfortable with the sales I make.

I recently sold one domain name at the DomainFest Live auction run by Moniker (GunCollection.com). The sale didn’t yield as much as I had hoped, but it is what it is. I opted to not set a reserve price on the domain name, and it sold for the minimum.

Although I haven’t sold many names on domain forums, I did sell one recently on Namepros (iCookbook.com). The buyer made his first post on that forum by saying he wanted the name, which leads me to believe he had wanted this name specifically, and he signed up to buy it. His company is in that industry, so that would make sense. Maybe I priced it too low, but I sold it for a profit.

Finally, I sold a couple of names recently on my blog, although I haven’t listed many for sale here in a while. I generally try to limit my sales posts on the blog, but it’s been a good vehicle to sell domain names in the past.

I (and others) are interested in learning where you have sold some of your domain names recently, and how those sales materialized.

Idearc Making Play for “Super” Domain Names?

Elliot Silver

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February 18, 2010

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It appears like the marketing and Internet Yellow Pages company formerly known as Idearc, and now known as SuperMedia, may have recently made a strong play for “Super” domain names.

In this week’s sales report on DNJournal, it was reported that SuperElectricians.com, SuperMechanics.com and SuperPainters.com each sold for $10,000 apiece. All three of these are currently registered in the name of Sedo’s Escrow account, presumably awaiting transfer.

This morning, Eric Borgos of Impulse Communications announced (in a comment on my blog) that his company recently sold several Super domain names. The names his company sold were SuperMortgages.com for $7,500, SuperFlorists.com for $3,000, SuperMoving.com for $7,500, and SuperPrinting.com for $4,000. All of these domain names are registered to Idearc Media, which is now known as SuperMedia.

The company also owns SuperExterminators.com and SuperCarRepair.com. In addition, SuperPlumbing.com looks to be at Sedo Escrow as well. There may be others, but I only checked a handful of names I thought would make sense for them to own.

Does this mean that “Super” names have more value now than before? Probably not. I wouldn’t advise going out to buy these names unless you can get great prices. It’s more than likely the company already went after the domain names they wanted, and if you buy them with the hopes of flipping them, you might be stuck.

What Domain Names Have You Sold Recently?

Domain Sales

Elliot Silver

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February 17, 2010

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I wrote a popular post a couple of days ago asking people what recent domain acquisitions they made, and that post has received 71 comments as of this afternoon. Steve Morsa followed it up with an email suggesting another post asking readers to post some of their recent sales.

At first, I was a bit hesitant to post this because I keep just about all of my sales and sales prices private. However, I don’t mind revealing some of my recent sales, albeit without sales prices.

Danvers.com
GolfBooks.com
BoroughPark.com
ParkSlope.com
GunCollection.com
RittenhouseSquare.com
UniqueInk.com
iCookbook.com
DeepWrinkleTreatments.com
ChristmasLawnOrnaments.com

If you’d like to post some of your recent sales with or without sales prices, feel free to do so. It’s an interesting look at what the aftermarket is doing.

iPad.com: New Millionaire About to be Minted Courtesy of Apple?

Elliot Silver

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January 27, 2010

45

After considerable speculation and discussion, Steve Jobs introduced the new Apple iPad today in a press conference that received much fanfare. The iPad is a device that is a new category of computing systems that bridges the gap between the iPhone smartphone and the Macbook laptop.

If history is an indication of the current situation, Apple is going to want the iPad.com domain name, just as they own iPhone.com and iPod.com. iPhone.com was also privately held before Apple paid a great sum of money for it, and iPod.com has been owned by Apple for quite some time (since at least 2001 according to a Whois history search).

iPad.com has been a privately owned domain name since 1997. The current registrant (Administrative Contact) is a person with a New Jersey address named Martine Bejasa. They don’t have much on the front side of the website, although it’s quite possible there is information for clients of the owner, as there is a client log in on the home page. The owners will probably get a ton of traffic, which will be expensive for server maintenance.

If I were to advise Martine Bejasa, I would recommend selling the domain name for the million dollar plus offer that will be sure to come from Apple. The name probably can’t be monetized by the current owner enough to justify passing on an offer in this range. In addition, there is no guarantee that the iPad is going to be a huge success, just as Apple TV has not taken off. If that’s the case, the domain name will probably be worth much less than its peak value today.

Now is the best time to sell iPad.com, and I hope the owners and Apple are able to come to terms in the best interest of both parties.

Update:

As Bill Hartzer points out in the comments below, the domain name is registered to a company called Enero 6 Corp, translated to January 6 Corp. Apple and Jobs always seem to have announcements right around that time, so it’s conceivable that the domain name was already acquired by the company.