Startups and big names bought domain names on the aftermarket.
GoDaddy released its latest top aftermarket domain sales list. Keep in mind that GoDaddy doesn’t publicly disclose all of its top sales. The sales are from November so a good number of them have already been developed. Here are the domains and who bought them.
exclusive.com $350,000 – Exclusive.com will be a new platform for creators to sell content. A coming soon page states, “Your own Exclusive.com payment page. Sell, deliver and track your exclusive content and receive payments within a minute. Payments to the creator!”
bodo.com $200,000 – Bodo lets you buy and gift experiences like sky diving, horseback riding, and flying. It’s based in Istanbul.
https[.]com $197,000 – I wonder if this domain gets a lot of type-in traffic. Right now, it has a zero click lander that’s sending some visitors to a page that misleads them to download a browser plugin.
linktree.com $138,000 – LinkTree is a service people use to provide one link on bios that links to all of their other social accounts, sites, etc. Think of it like .Tel was meant to be, except using an easy-to-use hosted solution. The company uses LinkTr.ee for its site. It just raised $45 million.
clearstreet.com $125,000 – Clear Street is a prime brokerage service provider for trading equities and options.
hairplus.com $110,000 – The domain doesn’t resolve. The Whois record shows a buyer in California.
along.org $107,217 – Yes, that’s a .org for six figures! Gradient Learning, a non-profit, is launching Along to help teachers check in with students, whether they are learning remotely or in the classroom.
wingman.com $100,000 – Wingman claims it’s a security-minded messaging app. Ironically, it doesn’t have an SSL certificate on its site yet. (To be fair, it hasn’t launched yet.)
oder.com $100,000 – Note the spelling. It’s not odor. Maybe it’s a company named after the Oder river in Europe? The domain has Whois privacy.
security365.com $80,000 – Softcamp, a Korean technology company, offers cloud security solutions under the name Security 365.
aleader.com $68,500 – Whois shows someone in China.
bestmade.com $60,000 – Duluth Trading acquired this domain for its Best Made brand.
bright.org $60,000 – Data collection infrastructure company Luminati Networks Ltd changed its name to Bright Data and uses the domain BrightData.com. It does not own Bright.com.
handicraft.com $60,000 – Prym Consumer USA Inc is a manufacturer and distributor of sewing, quilting, and craft-related notions. Handicraft is a dictionary term for making decorative objects by hand.
wowlondon.com $57,500 – Wow Cosmetic Ltd, a cosmetics company in Israel, bought this domain for its website.
aqueous.com $57,500 – A company in California bought this domain. It’s a dictionary word for things made of water. Seems like it would be difficult to spell.
tallgrass.com $57,000 – Tallgrass Energy is an energy and infrastructure company.
goboo.com $55,000 – Goboo is a Chinese electronics company.
al-islam.com $45,211 – The domain forward to a Google form that references Mocco Company, a company still in development.
growth.ai $45,000 – This domain leads to a coming soon page. It has a private Whois record.
Nice to see this kind of action, on a side note, one of those names mentioned was as I discovered many many years ago, stolen from a small business owner.
I did my best to help recover it and I know they eventually sought legal help as well but at the time the cost to recover vs value wasn’t quite yet there.
It changed hands in the industry since and just funny to see it mentioned.
Some of the biggest players in this business continue to profit off of stolen names for many years ago. I wonder if there is an award for that? I’m sure they are smug enough they’d consider it an honor.
Quite a story. Care to elaborate with tangible info (names, etc) for those of us not “in the know”?
I would have gladly but since I knew the former owner was no longer pursuing the issue (they let it go) and the known domainer would simply claim ignorance, it was one I let go.
But make no mistake, due diligence is something that must have been done and besides when you pay a random person for a domain owned by a company, you know damn well what you are doing.
To add to it I weighed the risks of outing the individual and since they are not shy when it comes to lawsuits I had to swallow hard about how they may retaliate. It isn’t a matter of being right its a matter of money sometimes.
In nearly 16-17 years now I have caught many domain thieves and had dozens and dozens of names returned and always outed the sources but this is the only case I did not, it hurts but I didn’t see a threat to the domain community or future owners.
Human nature dictates enough I put nothing past nearly anyone.
I could easily tell the story Scott but honestly I could write a book.
Sometimes I see a name like today and it brings it back.
Why spin the long story without one specific allegation, or at the very least which domain it is? Seems to me like you’re just looking for attention. I don’t believe you.
I don’t believe you don’t believe me Jake. Nice try though but I am awful hard to trick.
Yawn.