GoDaddy joins SedoMLS network

Sedo gets a big win with GoDaddy partnership.

The world’s largest domain name registrar has joined the SedoMLS network, giving more exposure to domain owners selling their domains through Sedo.

Domains that are listed on Sedo with a fixed price will automatically show up when a GoDaddy customer searches for the exact domain name. This will be possible because the domains are listed on GoDaddy auctions, and GoDaddy now shows auction listings when someone searches on its main web site.

Much like the similar deal GoDaddy has with AfternicDLS, customers will have to go through the GoDaddy Auctions shopping cart rather than the main GoDaddy checkout process in order to buy a domain name.

Also, the process does not allow for instant transfer, so domains will have to go through the standard escrow process. However, this means that you don’t have to have your domains at a SedoMLS participating registrar in order to list your domains.

Sedo will charge a 20% commission on any sale through the GoDaddy partnership.



BowlingBalls.com domain name sells for $225,000

Chernoff hits a strike with latest domain sale.

Garry Chernoff has completed another big domain name sale, this time selling BowlingBalls.com for $225,000.

The buyer knows a thing or two about bowling balls. Nick Melnikoff has bowled in PBA tours and owns Bowlers Paradise, a web site that sells bowling balls and accessories.

Chernoff told me the deal was brokered by Andrew Hunovice.

I can’t find any notable price comps for domain names about bowling, but this is definitely a premium domain name worthy of a six figure price.

There aren’t many premium bowling domains that aren’t in use, either. Bowling.com and BowlingBall.com already exist as e-commerce stores. Bowler.com is owned by Scott Day’s Digimedia and Bowlers.com is a parked page.



Moniker publishes final DOMAINfest auction list

Two more valuable domain names added to auction.

Moniker has published the final list of domains for next week’s live domain auction during DOMAINfest, as well as the online auction to follow.

Bargain.com and Democracy.com have been added to the auction. Bargain.com’s reserve is north of $750,000 while Democracy.com is available for somewhere between $100,000 and $250,000.

Bargain.com is owned by FYI Direct, the company behind credit score monitoring site FreeScore.com.

Democracy.com should be interesting given the elections this year. It’s probably best for a think tank.

A number of the other high dollar domains are owned by CA.

Moniker’s last big auction resulted in the multi-million dollar sales of Social.com and Data.com, although neither were sold during the main auction. Salesforce.com paid $4.5 million for Data.com, which it uses for its Jigsaw.com product.

The live auction takes place Thursday, February 2 from 4:30 to 6:00 pm PST. The follow on internet auction at SnapNames will go through February 16. The extended online auction includes 250 domain names in addition to any names that don’t sell in the live auction.



Amazon.com’s Quidsi about to launch home decor shop Casa.com

Casa.com is next online store from Amazon.com’s Quidsi unit.

Mi casa su casa…

Casa.comEarlier this month I scooped that Quidsi, the company behind Diapers.com, Soap.com, Wag.com, and YoYo.com, was working on a new store called Casa.com.

Quidsi has now published a “coming soon” page to Casa.com and launched a Facebook page.

The site will offer “everything for your home”, including kitchenware, bedding, home decor, bathroom accessories, etc. Keeping with Quidsi’s tradition, it will offer 1-2 day free delivery. It will also have a 365 day return policy including free return shipping.

Quidsi quickly grew its Diapers.com business into an ecommerce giant, scaring Amazon.com into buying it for $545 million in 2010.



USPTO to Karsten: not so fast with .PING

Trademark office sends office action to PING Golf brand owner.

On Wednesday I posted a list of 115 trademark applications that could be related to new top level domains, along with their current status.

The USPTO has a policy of not granting trademarks on top level domains, and the number of “speculative” trademark applications has ballooned as ICANN gets ready to expand the TLD universe. I discovered that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office was doing a good job catching these applications.

One application that the USPTO may have missed was Karsten Manufacturing’s application for .PING. Karsten manufacturers the PING Golf brand of merchandise.

The USPTO approved the mark for publication on January 17. But today it sent an office action to Karsten because of the top level domain issue.

Karsten can certainly apply for a .ping top level domain — but it can’t try to trademark it under current rules. I can also think of other uses for a .ping TLD, so don’t be shocked if you see more than one application for this domain.



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