Private Jet Company Buys Jets.com
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
Concord Private Jets buys Jets.com for $375,000.
When I asked Damian Klinger for the name of his company, he promptly answered “Jets.com”.
“OK, I mean what’s your old company name,” I asked.
Klinger is co-founder and president of Concord Private Jets, which just forked over $375,000 to buy Jets.com. And he’s excited about it. So don’t expect him to refer to his company as Concord Private Jets anymore.
When the domain name became available, Concord — er, Jets.com — saw a huge opportunity. (The deal was brokered by Sedo Senior Broker Jeff Gabriel.)
“We felt as a company that jets.com was tremendously powerful for our industry and the product that we’re selling,” said Klinger. “We figured that anyone who’s going to search for private jets is likely to go to jets.com.”
Justifying the $375,000 price tag for the domain wasn’t too difficult. The previous owners were getting 48,000 unique visitors a month, Klinger explained. “If we took 1% of that, that’s 480 people that would possibly fly private,” he said. That may be an unrealistic conversion rate, so he keeps dividing it in half. “If we can get 30 clients a month by having jets.com as a domain name, the ROI would pay us back in a month or two.”
But beyond the web leads, Klinger and his team see other benefits.
“Now when we tell people in general on the phone or in a meeting that we’re Jets.com, the credibility alone by saying Jets.com is worth it,” said Klinger.
That credibility is important in an industry with a lot of fly-by-night operators.
“If we said we’re Concord Private Jets, they start asking how long we’ve been in business and for our financials,” said Klinger. “Jets.com — hey, how can you question it?” he asked, only half-jokingly. “We sell a high end product, and people are sending us a lot of money. They need to trust the people they’re dealing with.”
With a name like Jets.com, the company thinks sales are ready for take-off.
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The question he must consider is what makes his company different from the private jet company that owned it before him. I think it’s a great buy, although I am sure a lot of those 48k visitors were looking for the NY Jets website and they won’t be easy to convert.
Great name with the PERFECT buyer!
I love hearing end user sales like this.
Love this guys thinking. Jets.com is a fantastic domain. Instant cachet and name recognition. Hello! Someone who “gets it”.
I agree with Elliot, 48,000 fans of the NY Jets….Prob wont fly Private much less commercial. Maybe the owner of the NYJets will fly with you though *Thumbs Up*
Its a nice sale but the guy could have put 5,000 into a Jets.com fan site and made allot of LONG term money rather then enough to buy a house on.
There’s no freakin website active on the domain name. freakin losers
henzel – these things take time
@ Randall – sure, a lot of them are looking for the football team. But they had a site for private jets up there previously, so a good number of them are really looking for private jets. If you look at the numbers, they could get one or two leads from this a month and payback in a year. Not to mention the credibility.
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> an industry with a lot of fly-by-night
> operators
LOL! Very true of the Jets industry.
I think Frank Schilling’s friend, Gary Chernoff, owns Jet.com. I wonder what that is worth now? If this company promotes Jets.com, I bet Jet.com will get some side traffic from that.
[...] [...]
Somebody in the NYJ front office needs to be fired.They are building a new yard.
“Not to mention the credibility.”
You nailed it Andrew.
Jets.com = Instant Credibility
And at their price points for renting a jet,
the purchase was a no-brainer.
Way to go Mr.Klinger!
“There’s no freakin website active on the domain name. freakin losers”
Have to agree, releasing a press release mentioning a non-functioning domains name is a marketing fail.
@ anonymous – they didn’t release a press release
I completely agree, it makes sense. I wish I could buy Domains.com (if only I had the budget and if it was for sale
). I would love to say I am from Domains.com or Web.com for that matter 
[...] Flying.com through its BuyDomains platform. The sale price of Flying.com was not disclosed, but Jets.com sold for $375,000 a couple weeks ago at [...]
[...] Flying.com through its BuyDomains platform. The sale price of Flying.com was not disclosed, but Jets.com sold for $375,000 a couple weeks ago at [...]