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ICANN Discusses What Could Happen to .IO

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Last month, there were numerous articles that discussed the potential demise of the .IO domain name extension following news that the “UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius.” I suspect this was surprising news to many of the companies that operate on .IO domain names without any connection to the region where this ccTLD domain extension is assigned.

The Price Will Increase or the Domain Name Will be Sold

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At our town’s annual meeting, there was a discussion about paving a secondary road. The non-critical infrastructure project was needed to be done at some point, but it had been put off for a few years. The town seemed pretty split on whether or not to spend the low millions on completing the project.

Towards the end of the public discussion, a gentleman stood up to comment and noted how the cost of the project more than doubled since it was first discussed. He also predicted the cost would continue to increase, and because it was a project that was going to need to be done at some point, the town might as well get it done at today’s cost.

The town voted in favor of completing the project, and the road was paved shortly thereafter.

Diamond.com Sold via Saw.com for 7 Figures

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A little over a week ago, I came across Diamond.com, and I noticed its coming soon page. When I scrolled down, I saw a message indicating that it was owned by a company that has been in the diamond industry for many years. The last time I heard about Diamond.com back in 2018, it had plans to become a cryptocurrency exchange.

A Whois search at DomainTools led me to a screenshot showing a Saw.com “for sale” landing page. I reached out to Saw.com CEO Jeff Gabriel to ask if the domain name was recently sold, and he confirmed the sale of Diamond.com was brokered by his company. He let me know the company planned to announce the sale publicly after the Dubai Domain Days conference.

That announcement came this morning on X:

I Would Love to Go Back in Time

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NameBio does a very good job of tracking down and reporting domain name auction results. Domain investors aren’t the only people who use NameBio to find domain sales data. Domain brokers and domain name buyers use NameBio to get intelligence on domain names they want to buy.

Once a year in a domain name sale negotiation, a counterparty mentions the purchase price I paid to buy a domain name. I guess the prospect may think it’s a way to get a lower price and/or justify their low offer. This tactic works as well as someone mentioning that they’re a student looking to buy a domain name for a school project.

Dynadot Now Allowing Imported Leads

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Domain investors have another option to transact domain name sales. Dynadot Founder and CEO Todd Han announced that Dynadot customers can now import their own leads onto its marketplace sales platform:

Challenge of Buying a Domain Name from a Big Company

There are many large companies that own domain names that aren’t being used. This can be due to corporate acquisitions and mergers, killed products and services, or a variety of other reasons. As a domain investor, I love buying domain names from large companies, but it can be incredibly challenging to complete a deal.

The first issue is getting in touch with the right decision maker at the company. Oftentimes, the Whois contact works in the IT department – or is a catch-all email address – and the recipient has no say over whether or not to sell a domain name. These people tend to receive a ton of email and I have found they ignore most inquiry emails. On occasion, these people will forward the email to a decision-maker or person who can send it to the right employee.