information Breaking: Aron Meystedt Sells XF.com and OC.com

hookbox · Aug 12, 2017

Josh R said:
Congrats Aron.

Am I correct in thinking that the events occurred as follows?

1) Attempts to broker the sale of OC.com
2) Doesn't sell it, and offers to buy it.
3) Sells it a month later as the owner.

Actually no. #1 is right. #2 is right. #3 is actually like 2 weeks.

Seems like the best way to make money is to broker names. Not to actually broker the name but act like you are, and then purchase it for cheap and flip it a couple weeks later.

It sure seems odd that you can't find a buyer when you are the broker for 3 months, but when it's yours you get a buyer in a couple weeks. Funny this industry! Funny, oh so Funny!

LarryDomain · Aug 12, 2017

In defense to some of your comments. Aron did have prices set on OC.com and XF.com. So sometimes the potential buyers comes back at a later date and decides to buy.

In my own opinion and dealings with Aron, he's pretty transparent.

Josh R · Aug 11, 2017

Congrats Aron.

Am I correct in thinking that the events occurred as follows?

1) Attempts to broker the sale of OC.com
2) Doesn't sell it, and offers to buy it.
3) Sells it a month later as the owner.

Arca · Aug 12, 2017

I'm surprised Heritage Auctions allow their brokers/employees to buy the items they are brokering. That seems to create a conflict of interest.

It's an awkward look for Heritage Auctions when the broker they have assigned to the name doesn't manage to sell it, then buys it "on the cheap" himself to help seller move the name quickly, then goes on to sell it, presumably for a lot more, just a few weeks later... I certainly would not be happy if I was the original owner of OC.com and saw this chain of events transpire, especially within such a short time frame.

Napkin.com · Aug 11, 2017

Correct. Elliot accurately covered the reasons for the purchase on his blog.

hookbox · Aug 12, 2017

LarryDomain said:
In defense to some of your comments. Aron did have prices set on OC.com and XF.com. So sometimes the potential buyers comes back at a later date and decides to buy.

In my own opinion and dealings with Aron, he's pretty transparent.

Do you have any idea how big the pool of buyers is for OC.com? Most short domains have to match up each letter to the company name. With OC you only have to match up the letter O since C could stand for Corp or Corporation. So simply put any single word company that starts with letter O is a potential buyer. That's a MASSIVE list. I like Aron and he seems like a nice straight up guy but I look at things from all angles no matter who is involved in the sale.

pchip · Aug 13, 2017

hookbox said:
It sure seems odd that you can't find a buyer when you are the broker for 3 months, but when it's yours you get a buyer in a couple weeks. Funny this industry! Funny, oh so Funny!

My thoughts exactly. This industry is something else.

Josh R · Aug 14, 2017

dordomai said:
there is a pattern that I observed in this industry in the past months. It is almost pure comedy in a certain way.

Every time someone announces a high domain sale, some accusations start to resurface on blogs comments and forums, throwing mud at the seller.

One of the most hilarious examples was the sale of x.com to Elon Musk. You would have thought that was big news and everyone would be happy. Not so. Shortly after the announcement some comment trolls would suggest that the broker (Mediaoptions/Drew) simply made it up and they never brokered the name.

Later others suggested that Drew wasn't a real broker in that deal but a strawman used to sell x.com cheap to deceive shareholders. There were of course 0 facts to support it, it was simply made up. The commenter was the same person who started spreading the conflicts of interest story of the oc.com sale on blog comment sections calling it BS. Interesting, isn't it?

I almost had to laugh when someone called Drew a "scammer" a few days later. Some others felt that Drew must have done something wrong simply because he was "hiding" in Panama.

The strawman story did get old and boring soon so just a few weeks later Drew morphed from strawman for Elon Musk to a hill bidding mastermind. The only thing that he had done was that he had commented in a thread about shill bidding. Some days later he was already featured on a website and comments were already pretending that he "had been caught".

Anyone still remember the poor guy who bought hatred.com cheap and sold high and thought he could help other domainers by announcing the sale? He was thanked by some fellow domainers by calling him unethical for buying "too low" and selling "too high" and ultimately he ended up having his name indexed in Google along with some negative headlines and name calling.

I still remember an article about xf.com rejecting a 7 figure offer - at a time when 7 figure offers on Chinese premiums were common - and some of course comments suggesting he made it up.

Ironically now that the name was sold, predictably some are trying to invalidate the sale and a lot of negativity and hate coming out.

You see it does not matter what he does. If he does not sell the hate and accusations are coming out if he does sell the hate and the accusations are coming out.

All this happening under the pretense of caring about "ethics". I have seen ethically questionable stuff on this forum, for example TM registrations but the truth is that no one really cares about that if you are not successful and a well-known persona in the industry.

If you are successful in domaining beware! Soon someone will find a way to invalidate your successes and harm your reputation and business. Don't announce your sales. You will become a target and people will hate you for it. Hide your sales and pretend you are losing money and people will love you for that.

Fair points. I will say there was a lot more to the "hate" on hatred.com..Nobody was upset at him buying low and selling high to my knowledge.

James Iles · Aug 11, 2017

XF.com said:
Correct. Elliot accurately covered the reasons for the purchase on his blog.

A link is in the article above but for those interested, here is a quick link to Elliot's piece on OC.com.

By the way, I think a change of username is needed @XF.com @Eric Lyon

jstenn13 · Aug 11, 2017

Timing is everything!

tksfrm · Aug 12, 2017

Arca said:
I'm surprised Heritage Auctions allow their brokers/employees to buy the items they are brokering. That seems to create a conflict of interest.

It's an awkward look for Heritage Auctions when the broker they have assigned to the name doesn't manage to sell it, then buys it "on the cheap" himself to help seller move the name quickly, then goes on to sell it, presumably for a lot more, just a few weeks later... I certainly would not be happy if I was the original owner of OC.com and saw this chain of events transpire, especially within such a short time frame.

Sometime things happen behind scenes! Perhaps seller needed money very urgently. You do not sell domains, when you are in real hurry, because you need to be patient.

I have feeling, that HA done a favour to seller of domain - knowing that it is a good investment and will sell good - just not in timeline of domain seller. So they helped seller (perhaps in financial trouble) - and when buyer saw there will be no "quick deal" - they agreed to "fair price".

Can be many other scenarios as well - but I doubt, that Aaron and HA would risk their reputation.
My two cents

Arca · Aug 13, 2017

LarryDomain said:
This situation will probably happen all the time.

1. Seller goes to broker and say help me sell this name x.com.
2. Broker says, okay I will announce to all my contacts to sell at this price xx,xxx,xxx.
3. No one accepts the offer.
4. Broker says if you want I can purchase it from you right now at x,xx,xxx.
5. Seller says, okie dokie. I need money bad to pay the IRS.
6. One of the buyers who saw the offer decides to buy it later at xx,xxx,xxx.
7. Sold!

It's not very uncommon. No one says you can't buy from your client. If they agree, they agree! I see ZERO conflict of interest here.

Heritage Auctions and Aaron couldn't find a buyer when he was brokering the name, which enabled him to buy the name himself. But when he became the new owner, a buyer was found immediately (the sale has just been announced, but negotiations for the name, sales agreement, and fund transfer probably started some time ago, in other words almost right after Heritage Auctions/Aaron took control of the domain). So did he go the extra mile or utilize another set of contacts when he sold the name on his on behalf rather than for the Heritage Auctions client?

I don't know if Aaron was the owner as an individual, because the initial statement about the purchase said that they decided that "Heritage [auctions] and I would give the seller liquidity and purchase the name ourselves." Not selling the domain on behalf of the client, and buying it himself and then selling it on his own behalf instead, allowed him/Heritage Auctions to pocket a significant amount of money, more than if they had merely sold the name on behalf of the client.

Do you not think there is a possibility that the chance to take ownership of the domain at a reasonable price and flipping it may have unduly influenced the brokering of the name towards the end of the brokering timeline? They stood to gain a lot more financially by buying the name and flipping it on their own behalf. Not a good look when the auction house buys the name from you, and then flips it for a higher amount almost directly afterwards. The name seemingly went from being unsellable to sellable in weeks, with the only significant difference being who owned the name.

The broker/brokerage gained financially from doing this, and this situation creates a set of circumstances where their actions as the brokerage/auction house might be unduly influenced by the financial gain that can be achieved by buying the name for a cheap price themselves, and then flipping it for a higher price.

A conflict of interest does NOT mean that something improper has taken place, but describes a situation where there is a chance/risk that decisions/actions may be inappropriately influenced by secondary interests such as financial gain. Aaron/Heritage Auctions achieved a significant financial gain by buying the name from their client and flipping it for a higher price themselves right afterwards. They may not have been influenced by this secondary interest at all while initial brokering the name, but that does not mean that there is "ZERO" conflict of interest in this situation (which, again, is not the same as the occurrence of impropriety).

hookbox · Aug 13, 2017

dordomai said:
No not correct.

Heritage lists domains and it also may or may not market them to potential buyers but they are not brokers in the sense that they sell by going around contacting buyers.

Heritage tends to sell to their clientele which may be different than domain brokers attempt to sell to. They run open auctions. A broker sells privately.

Aron was not a broker for oc.com.

That is hilarious. We call ourselves brokers but we only contact our own clients that buy baseball cards. Seriously? That has got to be the worst excuse I have ever read.

Internet.Domains · Aug 13, 2017

dordomai said:
What are you talking about?! Is Sedo a broker or a marketplace?

1. HA is primary an auction house not a broker. It is even seen in their name. Heritage Auctions is the name not Heritage Brokers. No need to discuss this.

2. That is not even the main flaw in that issue. If you read the first posts you will see that Aron did not sell the name himself. He had to use a broker to do it for him, presumably he does not talk Chinese and is not experienced in the Chinese market. So obviously they weren't in the best position to get top dollar for a 2L with their audience. They marketed to the audience they could. The English speaking market is not doing too well these days.

The other 2L they attempted to sell didn't do any better as far as i remember. This is what you would expect.

As for a potential conflict of interest. Everything that was done was public knowledge and nothing unusual happened here. If it is their policy to allow buying of domains from their people, that is their decision as long as they disclose it which was done. If you don't like the rules then don't sell with them.

Basically it is simply conjecture to assume that a theoretical conflict of interest changed the outcome of the sale in some way. You don't even know any details about the sale. For example, the final sale price.

You have convinced yourself that something must have been done wrong simply because of a theoretical scenario you made up in your mind.

No problem, we see it differently.....best to you.

Napkin.com · Aug 13, 2017

Arca said:
I'm surprised Heritage Auctions allow their brokers/employees to buy the items they are brokering. That seems to create a conflict of interest.

It's an awkward look for Heritage Auctions when the broker they have assigned to the name doesn't manage to sell it, then buys it "on the cheap" himself to help seller move the name quickly, then goes on to sell it, presumably for a lot more, just a few weeks later... I certainly would not be happy if I was the original owner of OC.com and saw this chain of events transpire, especially within such a short time frame.

As stated, Elliot covered the timetable accurately. And, for full disclosure, this was the first name we've brokered in which Heritage bought the name at the end of the brokerage term. We don't and haven't cherry picked names we want to buy. I've told my buyers on my mailing list that they'll never see names from me that "I passed on"... any names that come through Heritage for brokerage or auction are promoted. None are bought ahead of time.

OC.com was promoted to Chinese buyers, brokers, auction houses - and to major end user firms, to companies in Orange County, CA etc. In fact, one "last call for serious offers" was announced with no one making a significant offer - surprisingly.

Thanks. Last comment I'll make on the topic. I feel that everything has been addressed.

Aron
Contact me with questions: HA.com/IP

Arca · Aug 13, 2017

XF.com said:
As stated, Elliot covered the timetable accurately. And, for full disclosure, this was the first name we've brokered in which Heritage bought the name at the end of the brokerage term. We don't and haven't cherry picked names we want to buy. I've told my buyers on my mailing list that they'll never see names from me that "I passed on"... any names that come through Heritage for brokerage or auction are promoted. None are bought ahead of time.

OC.com was promoted to Chinese buyers, brokers, auction houses - and to major end user firms, to companies in Orange County, CA etc. In fact, one "last call for serious offers" was announced with no one making a significant offer - surprisingly.

Thanks. Last comment I'll make on the topic. I feel that everything has been addressed.

Aron
Contact me with questions: HA.com/IP

You or Jim Halperin might want to address these questions raised by someone at domainnamewire.com too.

Keith · Aug 14, 2017

People are missing the big picture here. This isn't about ethics or the effort put forth to broker the domain. The seller is the ultimate authority and can choose to sell to whoever they choose and at whatever price they feel is fair. In this case Aron struck a deal to buy and that's that. The seller and buyer agreed to terms and that's that.

Congrats on the acquisition and quick sale!

dordomai · Aug 14, 2017

there is a pattern that I observed in this industry in the past months. It is almost pure comedy in a certain way.

Every time someone announces a high domain sale, some accusations start to resurface on blogs comments and forums, throwing mud at the seller.

One of the most hilarious examples was the sale of x.com to Elon Musk. You would have thought that was big news and everyone would be happy. Not so. Shortly after the announcement some comment trolls would suggest that the broker (Mediaoptions/Drew) simply made it up and they never brokered the name.

Later others suggested that Drew wasn't a real broker in that deal but a strawman used to sell x.com cheap to deceive shareholders. There were of course 0 facts to support it, it was simply made up. The commenter was the same person who started spreading the conflicts of interest story of the oc.com sale on blog comment sections calling it BS. Interesting, isn't it?

I almost had to laugh when someone called Drew a "scammer" a few days later. Some others felt that Drew must have done something wrong simply because he was "hiding" in Panama.

The strawman story did get old and boring soon so just a few weeks later Drew morphed from strawman for Elon Musk to a hill bidding mastermind. The only thing that he had done was that he had commented in a thread about shill bidding. Some days later he was already featured on a website and comments were already pretending that he "had been caught".

Anyone still remember the poor guy who bought hatred.com cheap and sold high and thought he could help other domainers by announcing the sale? He was thanked by some fellow domainers by calling him unethical for buying "too low" and selling "too high" and ultimately he ended up having his name indexed in Google along with some negative headlines and name calling.

I still remember an article about xf.com rejecting a 7 figure offer - at a time when 7 figure offers on Chinese premiums were common - and some of course comments suggesting he made it up.

Ironically now that the name was sold, predictably some are trying to invalidate the sale and a lot of negativity and hate coming out.

You see it does not matter what he does. If he does not sell the hate and accusations are coming out if he does sell the hate and the accusations are coming out.

All this happening under the pretense of caring about "ethics". I have seen ethically questionable stuff on this forum, for example TM registrations but the truth is that no one really cares about that if you are not successful and a well-known persona in the industry.

If you are successful in domaining beware! Soon someone will find a way to invalidate your successes and harm your reputation and business. Don't announce your sales. You will become a target and people will hate you for it. Hide your sales and pretend you are losing money and people will love you for that.

cooljub · Aug 15, 2017

I always thought Jaguar might buy xf.com

Troels · Aug 18, 2017

I can't believe an auction house or broker would risk such a hit to their reputation.

It's very poor judgement in my book. Even if everything was done in good faith.

Perception is reality. And with a timeline like that eyebrowes are being raised = damage done.

jstenn13 · Aug 11, 2017

Josh R said:
Congrats Aron.

Am I correct in thinking that the events occurred as follows?

1) Attempts to broker the sale of OC.com
2) Doesn't sell it, and offers to buy it.
3) Sells it a month later as the owner.

Sure seems that way

Domainscoop.com · Aug 12, 2017

Josh R said:
Congrats Aron.

Am I correct in thinking that the events occurred as follows?

1) Attempts to broker the sale of OC.com
2) Doesn't sell it, and offers to buy it.
3) Sells it a month later as the owner.

Aka domaining similar to all those domain auction conferences,

JB Lions · Aug 12, 2017

Article says both domains were sold via "China-based domain broker."

So have to find out who that broker is or just use China based ones to sell those 2 letter domains.

Mister Funsky · Aug 12, 2017

hookbox said:
Do you have any idea how big the pool of buyers is for OC.com

Huge...Gigantic...Enormous...So Big,...I wish i had a chance to broker a two letter domain name like this!!!!

information Breaking: Aron Meystedt Sells XF.com and OC.com

Top Member

Top Member

Josh.coTop Member

Top Member

VIP Member

Top Member

Established Member

Josh.coTop Member

Top Member

UltraDomains.comEstablished Member

Established Member

Top Member

Top Member

Account Closed (Requested)

VIP Member

Top Member

Top Member

Top Member

Top Member

New Member

UltraDomains.comEstablished Member

Established Member

Top Member

Top Member

Similar threads

We're social

Pinned

Appreciation

Agreement