NameJet

If you aren’t a fan of the English Premier League, you may not know that Hotspur is the nickname of the EPL football (soccer) team from Tottenham. The team website can be found on TottenhamHotspur.com, possibly because they didn’t have the foresight to register Hotspur.com (or perhaps they didn’t want it – who knows).

I was a bit surprised to see Hotspur.com up for auction on NameJet this week. The auction currently sits at $460 with 68 bidders, and it ends on Monday. Based on a Whois search I did, it appears that Hotspur.com is a true drop rather than a private auction. Hotspur.com has a creation date of March 1998.

Although Hotspur is the nickname of the EPL football club, there are several other clubs and companies using the Hotspur name (see the Wikipedia page for a few). The term is defined as “an impetuous or reckless person; a hothead,” and its origin is the nickname of Sir Henry Percy in the 1400s. I would imagine there are plenty of ways to use the name without running afoul of trademark laws.

All that said, I am wondering what you think the closing price will be. The person who is closest to the final price will get $100 from me via Paypal (doesn’t matter whether they are above or below the final amount). Contest closes on Sunday at 11pm eastern time. One guess per person or you’re disqualified. If there’s a tie, the prize will be split amongst the winners.

The auction for Social.org closed at a price of $228,600 on NameJet this afternoon. Bidding during the final minutes of the auction extended it more than three hours past its scheduled ending time. The winning bidder was “qgpfexzorg,” and there were five active bidders above the $50,000 mark (three above $200,000).

Late last year, Social.com  was sold  for $2,600,000 in a deal co-brokered by Moniker and Marksmen.  Fusible reported  that SalesForce.com acquired Social.com, although I don’t believe the company has publicly confirmed the acquisition.

Last week, I ran a contest on my blog to see who could guess the sale price of the domain name, and the person who guessed the closest would receive a $200 NameJet bidding credit from me. There were guesses that ranged from a low of $8,500 to a high of $1.2 million.

The person who guessed the closest number to the actual sale was Bruce Tedeschi, who guessed a sale price of $230,000, off by $1,400. Congratulations on making the best guess. I will be in touch with you soon to ensure that the bidding credit is delivered to the proper account.

Congratulations to the seller and to NameJet on this successful domain sale. It will be interesting to see who bought the domain name. I am a frequent NameJet bidder, and I did not recognize the winning bidder’s user name, so perhaps it was created specifically for this auction.

I told you about the upcoming auction of Social.org on NameJet. Backorders for the auction need to be placed by March 19th, and the no reserve auction will run from March 20-23. There are already over 300 bidders and the current bid is close to $4,000.

I am running another contest on my blog, and the winner will receive a $200 bidding credit on NameJet, courtesy of me. The person who guesses closest to the final closing price of the Social.org no reserve auction will be the winner. If there’s a tie, the $200 bid credit will be divided amongst the winners.

Entries must be submitted via comment in this post by March 20th at 10 AM eastern time. Post your best guess before the entry close date. One guess per person, and if you guess more than once, you are disqualified. Also, the winner does not need to tell me his or her NameJet bidding handle. I will email Matt Overman your email address and you can connect with him to have the bidding credit added to your account.

*I wasn’t asked or compensated in to post this contest, and I am personally paying for the NJ credit.