Sedo’s GDPR Solution: “Owner Self-Verification”

Elliot Silver
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Sedo just sent out an email to customers in response to the upcoming GDPR changes that are going to make domain name ownership verification more difficult. Many registrars will likely eliminate public Whois records, and European registrants at other registrars will likely have their Whois information private or not shown depending on the registrar.

Obviously this change will have an impact on the aftermarket and domain name resale marketplaces.

Sedo just sent an email to customers introducing their solution to the GDPR issue. They’re calling it “Owner Self-Verification.” Here’s the email that Sedo distributed to clients this afternoon so you can read about what the company is doing to ensure its listings are accurate:

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.NYC Travel and Tourism Sale Results

Elliot Silver
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The .NYC registry (operated by Neustar) organized a sale of travel and tourism related .NYC domain names. A domain name auction concluded on Sedo yesterday. This was the culmination of a campaign to generate publicity about .NYC domain names focused on the travel sector.

I was only aware of the Sedo auction, but there was more to the campaign than the auction. Here is a bit more background about the campaign shared with me by Neustar:

“Our campaign initiatives focused on a headlining auction with several high value premium domain names in the .nyc namespace, as well as an additional set of “buy now” travel and tourism-inspired premium domain names available directly through registrars. Having both the auction and buy now premium domain names available created significant demand and interest in the .nyc namepace.”

The campaign produced a total of

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A Seller Backed Out of a Sale Because of a Pricing Error and That’s OK

Elliot Silver
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Last week, I was looking at some domain names on Sedo. I saw a one word .com domain name listed for sale for less than $500 The domain name was developed, and it was way underpriced from my perspective. I reached out to the owner to confirm the listing was legitimate and concurrently purchased the domain name on Sedo and made a payment via credit card.

During this short window of time, the owner confirmed the domain name was for sale, and then he told me the buy it now price was an error. It was their first time using Sedo and apparently they made a mistake with their listing. They relayed this information to Sedo and the deal was canceled and I was refunded.

Sedo informed me that the seller stated this was an error. The transaction was canceled, and I was told “You might want to take a legal action against the seller, therefore we have made his contact data available in your Sedo contract.”

I have no doubt that the seller is being truthful. I anticipated that it was an error, but I bought it anyway just in case they simply wanted a quick and painless sale. Mistakes happen. I don’t know how the error happened, but I am confident the owner of the domain name had no intention of selling it for less than $500, so it was no big deal to me.

Several weeks ago, I ran

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Domain Names in Auction Should be Removed from Marketplaces

Elliot Silver
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It is annoying and perhaps a bit disheartening to add a domain name I won in an auction to one of my marketplace accounts and learn that it can’t be added yet because it is listed for sale in another person’s account. This happens when the former owner let the domain name expire or put it up for auction and did not remove the domain name from the account post-auction.

The annoyance comes from having to email the marketplace and ask them to remove a domain name from someone’s account so I can add it to mine. I need to wait for the marketplace to remove the domain name and then I need to remember to go back and re-add it to my account when they get around to it. The disheartening part is seeing a name listed for sale for $2,500 when I paid $1,500 for it at auction. I understand that timing is everything with domain names, but if a name didn’t sell for $2,500 when it was publicly listed for sale, it could mean that it will be more challenging to see a worthwhile ROI on my investment.

I am not entirely sure what marketplaces like Sedo and Afternic can do to scrub their listings of domain names in auction. Once a domain name is in a private auction, the domain name is no longer visible to non-bidders (including third party marketplaces). Sometimes a

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Dax.com Sold via Sedo for $500,000

Elliot Silver
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According to a tweet from Sedo’s Frank Tillmanns, the Dax.com domain name was sold for $500,000. I believe Frank brokered the domain name with Hao Shen, the Country Manager for China at Sedo.

The Whois record for Dax.com is currently private, and the domain name is registered at Uniregistry. Using DomainTools’ Whois history tool, it does not look like the Whois information has changed yet. It is possible the buyer is keeping Dax.com at Uniregistry for the time being, although I do not see an archived record with Sedo’s escrow service listed. It is unclear who the buyer is at this point since the domain name is not yet resolving.

NameBio does

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Mike Mann Sells CryptoWorld.com via Sedo for $194,888

Elliot Silver
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55

According to a tweet from Sedo broker Dave Evanson, Mike Mann sold the CryptoWorld.com domain name for $194,888 via Sedo:

It looks like Mike Mann’s company has owned this domain name since late 2011, according to DomainTools Whois history tool. While I don’t know what Mike’s company paid to buy the domain name, NameBio recorded that this domain name sold in 2006 for just $485.

The Whois information is currently showing Sedo’s escrow account, which means the buyer has paid for the domain name but the domain name has not yet transferred. It also means that we do not yet know who acquired the domain name or how it will be used going forward.

When I was doing a Whois history search, I saw that Screenshots.com has

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