Could a Confusing Credit Card Charge Lead to a $10,000 Sale?

Yesterday afternoon, someone emailed me to ask about a credit card charge that came from a merchant with the 2 keywords that make up one of my .com domain names. He thought my company, vis a vis this domain name, had charged his credit card. I told him that he had the wrong business and thought nothing more of it because this happens on occasion. People usually realize their mistake when I show them that the domain name is not being used as a commercial website and they go off to figure out who charged their credit card.

The domain name that matches the merchant name forwards to a DAN.com landing page, where it is listed with a buy it now price of $8,999. The domain name is also listed for sale on Afternic for just shy of $10,000.

Last night, I was updating a couple of prices on domain names listed for sale on Afternic, and I noticed that the matching domain name was listed as “pending sale.” This usually means someone bought the domain name and the payment is being verified or is pending for some other reason. In my experience, the majority of these deals are completed, but the percentage of deals that close gets smaller the higher the price. These deals usually go through or fall off within 24 hours, although it can take up to a week.

I am wondering if the person who emailed me eventually found the company that charged him and mentioned his confusion to them since they do not own the matching .com domain name. Perhaps the company did a bit of research to see what this customer was talking about and they saw that my domain name was listed for sale via GoDaddy or whatever registrar they use. They then opted to buy the domain name.

This sale is still “pending” and may not go through, but if it does, I would bet it was related to this customer’s inquiry. It would be pretty coincidental if it was just a random purchase since this is the first inquiry for this particular domain name. We shall see.

For what it is worth, this domain name was bought for just shy of $200 on NameJet in the first quarter of 2019, so it would be a nice ROI. I will share an update later on when I know if this sale goes through or falls out of pending sale status.

Update: Looks like the deal is going through. Per an email from Afternic: “Great news, [domain name] has sold via Fast Transfer through our DLS Network for $9,888.00”

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

8 COMMENTS

      • Odd. I get emails that say “Congratulations, pending financial verification chosenway.com has sold through the Afternic network.”

        Is this a different type of pending perhaps?

        • Possibly. It is listed under “Pending Sale” in my Afternic account, and it is listed under “On Hold” within my GoDaddy Domain Manager account.

  1. Looks like the deal is going through. Per an email from Afternic:

    “Great news, [domain name] has sold via Fast Transfer through our DLS Network for $9,888.00”

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