I was browsing Twitter this morning when I noticed the tweet embedded below from Mike Mann, announcing the sale of Hueston.com for $25,000. This is a solid sale price, but even more impressive is the ROI achieved from the sale. Mann reportedly acquired the Hueston.com domain name in March of 2011 for $69.
http://t.co/HOxJJmRNBz, we dont have a problem, sold $25,000, purchased 2011-03-19 $69.
— Mike Mann (@mikemanndotcom) December 16, 2014
Judging by the $69 price point and the fact that the Whois shows the domain name had been registered at Network Solutions prior to Mann’s acquisition in 2011, it would seem that this was a purchase via the NameJet platform. The $69 price is the minimum bid, but I am not sure if there were other bidders or if Mann placed the only backorder and won the domain name for the minimum price.
The Whois record has already changed after the reported sale, and it appears the domain name was purchased by someone whose last name is Hueston. It appears that the registrant prior to Mann had the same last name, although I have no idea if they are related. The domain name still resolves to the DomainMarket.com landing page, so I am unsure how Hueston.com will be used going forward.
I reached out to Mann, and he confirmed the sale but declined to comment further.
Good catch – would like to see how the site is monetized. I cannot imagine why someone would pay that much money just for their last name.
Funny thing is, he usually has these $25,000 $40,000 $50,000 set prices… so it looked like the person had the means, and want, and just decided to checkout, as a negotiation by most would have yielded a lower offer.
Usually in the $25K range you can get a good ecommerce type name, congrats, with a portfolio that size you are going to get those kind of outliers, but that is a wacky one for sure.
Some people could be concerned that a domain owner could increase the price if they thought the buyer had the means. I’ve always felt that if a seller has a fair price, it’s better to lock down the name than risk a price increase or a sale to someone else. There have been a couple times I tried to knock some money of the price via broker or marketplace, and the domain name was sold in the meantime.
I guess this is the buyer: http://www.irell.com/professionals-214.html
John C. Hueston is a famed lawyer and a former lead Enron prosecutor.
Maybe he want to start his own law firm, that’s why he grabbed his last name domain … 😉
“wants”, not “want”, typo, sorry 🙂
“if a seller has a fair price, it’s better to lock down the name than risk… a sale to someone else.”
True but don’t see the relevance to this sale. Struggling here to see odds higher than one in a thousand of anyone else beating that offer
In this particular case, I am sure that would not have been a concern because of Mike’s integrity. However, another seller could have scoped out a buyer (who makes an offer instead of using the BIN option) and jacked up the price if he thought the buyer could afford to spend more than the asking price.
I think this scenario is unlikely, but if I were a buyer and really wanted a domain name, why take any risk if I was willing to pay the asking price?
I guess it’s about considering the value to him, and the risk of someone else buying it, which in turn affects whether seller is likely to play nasty. Seller would have to be pretty confident too to play that trick, because the risk goes up that buyer then refuses out of principle to buy at the price he might originally have been willing to pay.
If $25k would have been his top bid then he doesn’t mind whether he gets it or not at that price, so might as well negotiate. He didn’t negotiate so it must have been worth rather more to him then than the $25k. Not that this affects the fair price, which is arguably determined by what others in the market are willing to pay.
I think this could be a concern on a keyword descriptive name rather than something so specific.
Really depends on the seller and domain name more than anything though.
As a buyer, if I think something is well priced, I would rather pay a bit more and secure it than risk the seller deciding to take down the BIN and opting to seek out other buyers or change the price.
The only people who know the details of this sale are the buyer and seller. For all we know the buyer may have tried negotiating and got no where so he pulled the trigger on the Buy Now price.
Yes, that is a good point.
I was speaking in general terms when given the option to buy now vs. negotiate.
Incredible price for a name most wouldn’t look twice at. How does he do it? You just never know who is on the other end of that offer, well done! 25k might be a good deal for this specific buyer for the prestige of having their last name .com
Another reminder that, like many other unique assets (ie real estate often) a domain’s “value” is what a willing buyer and willing seller agree on when neither is under duress. Appraisal 101 definition.
It is the value that buyer puts on it ( and his/her banker is willing to finance; again real estate model: Loan/Value ratio)
If this domain provides $ 25K worth of single word ‘name recognition’ – as many law firms are going to in light of need to shorten typing on small mobile keyboards (as 50% ov web site visitors come from mobile devices ) – and as ‘name lawyers’ like David Boies (currently issuing CD letters by the bucket on behalf of Sony 😉 such price maybe more than justifiable as a prudent marketing cost.
If the buyer is as prominent as noted in previous comments, its judt a ‘cost of doing bizness’
Another lucky sale. He scooped up a one-word name that sounds like Houston, the city. Kept this domain until a buyer with the same last name and practices law would come around and pay $25K.
In this law space, this domain makes sense. I’m not opposed to this sale. $25K is small compared to what this attorney will make in Southern California. It is like spending a nickel to operate a business. Last name matters; it is the reputation of this firm and lawyer.
I believe these types of domain sales are uncommon unless you put buy-it-now and hope for the best. Imagine asking an unknown buyer to pay a bundle for domains like this. It may not happen that often.
Getting any inquiries may open the door to make a big sale. It is all about showing confidence in the value of your domains and not rushing to make a low-priced sale. Instincts matter.
It takes some extra money to acquire many domains. The cost to operate may outweigh profit. Who knows what Mike spends on his overhead annually.