How Did Pool Score Shoppers.com? A Glitch.

Pool sold Shoppers.com for over $166,000 this week, but the name should have been exclusive to NameJet.

[Updated 10:24 CST] Pool.com landed a whale this week, catching Shoppers.com and selling it for $166,000 through its auction. Although the value of the domain is debatable, the bigger question is how Pool landed the domain since it was registered at Network Solutions, which has an exclusive relationship with NameJet for expired domains.

One rumor was that the domain was deleted due to invalid whois information. That isn’t true. The domain had a private registration at Network Solutions until late last year, when its email changed to novaildemail@verisign.com [sic, notice the wrong spelling of valid.] This suggests that the domain had incorrect whois information. However, the domain had an expiration date of October 28, 2007, so the domain did expire.

I checked in with Susan Wade of Network Solutions to check on the company’s policy for invalid whois information. She confirmed that Network Solutions doesn’t delete a domain for invalid whois. Instead, the company suspends it pending correction, much like other registrars do.

But that didn’t solve the mystery as to why the domain didn’t go to NameJet. I talked to Pool and it didn’t know (but is delighted). I talked to NameJet and it didn’t know, either.

But we now have an answer: NetSol’s Wade told me it was a glitch. For some reason, Network Solutions didn’t recognize the domain being in the RGP, which is when it pushes the domain to NameJet. Network Solutions is obviously dissapointed, and whatever caused the problem has been fixed.

It was a costly mistake. But no one at Pool is complaining.