My “Wanted” Tweet Resulted in an Acquisition

I’ve posted a few domain name “wanted” articles and forum threads over the years with mixed success. I can’t recall ever buying a domain name that was submitted in response to one of these call to actions, but I may have. More often than not though, it ends up with a whole bunch of submissions that don’t come close to matching the posted requirements.

Last week on a bit of a whim, I posted a domain name wanted tweet:

Looking to buy excellent one word .com domain names at an investment price. Must be an English word, .com, with all major extensions registered, and likely registered prior to 2000. Budget $15-50k range with some flexibility.

— Elliot Silver (@DInvesting) September 2, 2018

As I have come to expect, the first few replies totally missed the mark. It seems clear to me, but I have no interest in buying new gTLD domain names, nor am I looking for two word .com domain names or anything else. I thought my post was pretty clear. One word .com domain names.

The following day, Joseph Cafolla, a Customer Development Consultant in GoDaddy’s Ireland office, sent me an email with a few one word .com domain names listed for sale via GoDaddy/Afternic. One domain name with a $50,000 price tag was intriguing, but I didn’t love it enough to make a reasonable offer. Later on that day, Joseph sent me a list with a few additional domain names, and one stood out to me.

I submitted an offer to buy that domain name, and Joseph advised me that I would need to raise my offer. After a short discussion, I almost doubled my offer and Joseph submitted it to a broker on the Afternic side. Joseph also connected with my Account Manager (Deron Ruse) at GoDaddy, who worked on the negotiation on my behalf.

After going back and forth with the domain owner for a couple of days, we were able to agree upon a price, and I bought Cappuccino.com. I know it’s a tough name to spell, but it is a drink that is enjoyed throughout the world, it is a color, and it could also be used as a brand name, perhaps having nothing to do with the drink or color.

Although I am not going to share the price I paid to buy the domain name, I will say that it was above the minimum and below the maximum in my tweet. The domain name was created in 1995 and most of the major extensions are registered. Put simply, the domain name matched my wanted tweet perfectly, and I am happy to add it to my portfolio.