Nadia Pessoa retweet a radio interview with Lil’ Kim that discusses how she was able to get her domain name:
Wooooow… love this https://t.co/Pdpmib0c4b
— Arlan 👊🏾 (@ArlanWasHere) May 20, 2020
How Lil’ Kim Got Her Domain Name
JC Penney Bankruptcy: What is Gift.com Worth?
Several major retail stores have filed for bankruptcy during the coronavirus. JC Penney also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week. This does not necessarily mean that the company is going to shutting down, but the company will likely close shops and will need to restructure if it wants to operate again.
I was curious to see what domain names JC Penney owns, and I found one that is not only valuable, but it also appears to be unused. In addition to the brand-associated JCP.com domain name that forwards to its website, JC Penney also owns Liz.com, Decree.com, and Gift.com. None of those domain names resolve for me right now, although it looks like Decree.com and Gift.com had been forwarding to the JC Penney website at some point.
Bacardi & Company Limited Acquires Moonshine.com
The high value Moonshine.com domain name has been acquired by Bacardi & Company Limited. The domain name transferred from GoDaddy to CSC, a corporate domain name management company. The acquisition was first reported in a tweet this morning from Jamie Zoch:
PIR Comments on Potential .Org Price Increases
One of the hottest topics in the domain industry has been the proposed sale of Public Interest Registry (PIR), operator of the .org registry. A $1.135 billion deal had been in place for Ethos Capital, a private equity company, to acquire PIR from the Internet Society. At the end of April, ICANN withheld consent on approving the change of control. As a result, PIR will not be sold to Ethos Capital. PIR has further indicated that the company is not for sale, and that PIR will continue to operate the .org extension as it has done for many years.
Your Most Ridiculous Domain Name
There’s a popular thread on Twitter started by Eve Porcello asking people to share their most ridiculous domain name. Not only are there some funny domain names that were shared, but there are also some pretty good domain names that were listed by people who responded to Eve’s tweet:
What’s the most ridiculous domain name you’ve ever bought?
— Eve Porcello (@eveporcello) May 2, 2020
Let’s kick off the week on a fun note by sharing the most ridiculous domain name in your portfolio. Mine is probably HappyEnding.com. How about yours?
My Observations This Week
I maintain a relatively small domain name portfolio with approximately 1,000 domain names. Nearly all of my company’s domain names are available for sale, and I would guesstimate that somewhere between 85-90% of the domain names are considered general, nothing special, inventory. I am also regularly buying domain names in auctions and in private, although this has slowed a bit this year.
With the coronavirus seemingly slowing the domain aftermarket, I want to share a few observations of my own from the last week. I want to emphasize that my portfolio is relatively small compared to many other full-time investors, so I don’t think my observations are necessarily reflective of the general state of the aftermarket.
In the last week, I have closed 5 sales:
