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Check Your Landers: “This domain is registered, but may still be available.”

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The image above is a GoDaddy landing page that is shown when the domain name has Afternic nameservers but is not listed for sale via Afternic. The visitor is encouraged to “Get this domain,” and clicking the link opens a new browser window with a GoDaddy search page searching for that domain name. If a person wants to buy that domain name, the prompt is to pay for GoDaddy’s Domain Broker Service (DBS).

For some reason, it would appear that this isn’t limited to the situation I described above. In fact, I mentioned it on X when I noticed a domain name of mine with this landing page even though it was actively listed for sale in my Afternic account:

ASAP.com Sold in Bankruptcy Auction

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The ASAP.com domain name was sold in a bankruptcy auction managed by Heritage Global Partners (HGP). The sale price was $340,000, plus an additional 19% buyer’s premium. The total paid for the domain name was $404,600.

David Barkoff, Senior Vice President at Heritage Global Partners, confirmed the sale has fully transacted. David also let me know that final sale price was solely for ASAP.com, and he shared the following comment about the recently concluded auction:

GoDaddy Auctions: “Improve chances of winning this domain!”

I was attempting to place bid on an auction at GoDaddy Auctions this morning when I was shown this message on the bid confirmation page.

My proxy bid amount was just above $100, and the GoDaddy Estimated Value was just shy of $2,000.

Dan.com Being Retired by GoDaddy

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GoDaddy acquired Dan.com in 2022. The company reportedly spent north of $71 million USD to acquire the domain name sales platform. This morning, GoDaddy announced it is “merging” the Dan.com platform with Afternic. The announcement was made in a blog post, and the company provided answers to numerous questions domain investors and Dan customers will likely have in the wake of this news.

This news isn’t surprising as the company has hinted at this outcome for a while. It comes after GoDaddy acquired Uniregistry, another competitor it shut down following an acquisition of its assets. Two well-liked platforms have now been acquired and retired.

My Largest Offer

I spend quite a bit of time trying to buy domain names. Some of the best deals I’ve made have come on domain names I privately acquired that had not been on the market. Sometimes you have to overpay to buy a domain name that will end up looking like a steal.

Yesterday on X, I asked people about their largest offer to buy a domain name. I thought it would be interesting to see what other investors are willing to offer for an investment-quality domain name acquisition.

QW.com UDRP Denied Due to “Fraudster”

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A UDRP was filed at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) against the valuable 2 letter QW.com domain name. The complaint was a bit confusing, pitting the Complainant, Quickware, Inc. / Williams Fred, against Quickware, represented by Fred Williams, as the Respondent.

The sole panelist, Scott Blackmer, ruled in favor of the domain registrant in this UDRP. The decision was published on the WIPO website this morning. Based on my reading of the decision, it appears that someone impersonated the domain registrant in an attempt to wrest control over this high value domain name using the fairly inexpensive UDRP: