Hilco Streambank was marketing Vanity.com and Vanity.net after the company that owned these domain names filed for bankruptcy. Two weeks ago, Hilco Streambank announced it had a stalking horse bid of $100,000 for these two domain name assets, and the company was seeking other bidders to participate in an auction, which occurred this past week.
According to a court order shared with me by Hilco’s EVP David Peress (and found online in .pdf format), Vanity.com, Vanity.net, and associated trademarks will be sold for $340,000. According to the court filing, the buyer is listed as Westerdal Corp., Inc., a company associated with domain industry veteran Jay Westerdal.
I reached out to Jay to see if he had any comment about the purchase, and he shared some of his plans for the domain name:
“In 2018 the FCC plans to end the prohibition on the purchase and sale of toll free phone numbers. The domain vanity.com will host an aftermarket to facilitate an exchange of awesome vanity phone numbers! We have plans to implement next level search tools just like the ones that transformed the domain community when I founded DomainsTools. This is just a first step in a multi-part strategy to modernize the marketplace for 800 numbers.”
When thinking about how Vanity.com could be used, I had beauty-related ideas in mind. I hadn’t even thought about the idea of selling vanity phone numbers, but it sounds like a great opportunity is about to present itself.
Because the sale included more than one domain name as well as intellectual property, it is not going to be recorded in DNJournal’s year to date sales chart or on NameBio.
Vanity.com is an exceptional domain name, and I look forward to seeing it launched.
