I’ve always been under the assumption that many prospective domain name buyers type the domain name into their browser to see what exists on the domain name. Having a “for sale” landing page or inquiry page can help facilitate a sale when a prospective buyer visits the domain name to see what exists on it. According to a Squadhelp, my assumption may not be the full picture.

Squadhelp CEO Darpan Munjal shared that a recent study from his company showed a prospective buyer is 4x as likely to search Google for a domain name than type it into their browser:

I just learned about the third largest publicly reported domain name sale of 2021. According to an email I received from BrandForce Co-Founder & Vice President Louis Pickthall, BrandForce sold the Floor.com domain name for $3,144,000. Louis and Senior Broker Stephen Byrne brokered this house-owned domain name, and the closed deal was transacted via Escrow.com. Once confirmed and charted by DNJournal, it will become the 11th seven figure (publicly reported) domain name sale of the year to date.

The buyer of Floor.com is not publicly known at this point. The domain name is registered under Whois privacy, and the buyer’s generic Shopify-powered website has been launched. This website does not give away any details about the buyer’s identity, but I will keep an eye out for any type of public launch announcement in the future.

Earlier this morning, James Booth announced that he sold BetU.com for $180,000. The domain name was sold via Squadhelp, a domain name sales platform that helps businesses select a brand name. The deal was announced on Twitter:

Just sold – https://t.co/KPTsbq48tA for $180,000 via @squadhelp

— James (@domain) September 21, 2021

I had a deal fall through on GoDaddy this week. To keep it short, a prospective buyer made an offer to buy a domain name via GoDaddy, and I accepted the offer. The domain name was listed for sale on Afternic, and the offer was above the minimum offer amount I set but below the BIN price. I told the broker I would accept the deal if the buyer paid “right away.”

Typically, I have found that buyers pay right away, particularly when they are dealing directly with a GoDaddy broker. For whatever reason, I haven’t had many defaults on GoDaddy domain name sales. I don’t have a significant enough volume of business to suggest this is the case across the board.

By the third day of seeing the domain name in an “on hold” status without the buyer paying, I reached out to GoDaddy to let them know I wanted to cancel the deal if the buyer had not yet paid. At the time I agreed to sell the domain name for the offer, I specifically told the broker that I would agree if the buyer paid “right away,” and three days later does not count as right away for me.

ExpiredDomains.net is a tool that I underutilized for a long time, but it has become a part of my daily domain name research. In particular, I use ExpiredDomains.net to monitor domain names listed for sale on Sedo and GoDaddy. I also use it to track pending delete domain names I can bid on at NameJet and DropCatch.com.

Domain name inventory listed for sale on Dan.com is now searchable on ExpiredDomains.net. The addition of Dan.com was spotted and announced by Leanne on Twitter yesterday:

https://t.co/xcsGbZzhMA is now listing Dan domains 😲 a quick look at the BIN section shows nearly 2 million domains 🤯

— Leanne (@LeanneMac) September 13, 2021

According to an article in Gizmodo and other news media outlets, Steve Wozniak is readying to launch a new space company called Privateer. He tweeted a short YouTube video about the the launch of Privateer, and the logo at the end of the video matches the one that appears on the brand match Privateer.com domain name.

In looking at the Whois record for Privateer.com in conjunction with a recent screenshot of the website prior to the launch of Privateer, it would appear to me that the domain name was acquired via Dan.com. If that is the case, it is unclear if the domain name was bought for a buy it now price or is being purchased with a payment plan option. George Kirikos shared this information on Twitter:

Steve Wozniak uses the one-word Privateer(.)com domain name to launch a private space company,https://t.co/97f6Evzy7D

It appears, via the name server history, to be a domain acquired through https://t.co/DawhhR5dxs‘s marketplace or escrow. https://t.co/iuK0Uedogz

— George Kirikos (@GeorgeKirikos) September 13, 2021