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information The Story of an Accidental Domainer That Started With a $23,000 Sale

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Back in 1997, David Kammerer registered the domain name 4001.com as a joke after saying the phrase “I have 4000 and one things to do today”. The name became a hobby site for David who used his domain as a base for guitar tabs for Irish guitarist and songwriter Rory Gallagher. This resulted in thousands of visits to his website and related videos, years before YouTube had been created.

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Domain investors will know that the domain 4001.com holds value as a four-number .COM domain name, but David was unaware of this until June 2016. David told me: “I discovered the value of 4001.com all by accident last June 2016 as I never checked the whois only email address.”

In the email address listed on the domain’s WHOIS details were over three hundred unsolicited offers and inquiries. David chose not to sell the domain at the time but looked into why a domain name may have received such interest.

After searching through Google, David found Andrew Alleman’s (@DomainNameWire) podcast and the NamePros forum, where he found out more about domain name investing and China’s interest in numeric domains.

Still owning the domain, David pondered its future whilst travelling between August and December 2016. On his return, he decided to sell the name that he registered way back in 1997.

For the first time, we can reveal that 4001.com sold in April 2017 for $23,000 to a Chinese domain name investor. Since then, David has started to learn more about domain name investing and has reinvested some of his earnings back into three-character, four-character and brandable domain names.

We hope that after David's first ever domain sale, his subsequent investments will prove to be as successful.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
My whois email is always opened every day.
Great story James, thanks for share with us.
 
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I sent him $50,000 offer...I guess he never bothered to open my mail. Ah, well...
 
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Cool story, James. Congrats David.
 
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Hel could have reg some gems back in 1997.
 
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should have had a 3 number or 2 number .com....
 
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Back in 1997, David Kammerer registered the domain name 4001.com as a joke after saying the phrase “I have 4000 and one things to do today”. The name became a hobby site for David who used his domain as a base for guitar tabs for Irish guitarist and songwriter Rory Gallagher. This resulted in thousands of visits to his website and related videos, years before YouTube had been created.
But haven't you heard ...... the Chinese don't like 4 + 0 .......LOL
 
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Seriously James, nice little abstract pull right there. Keep these coming my man.
 
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23k for his first sale!

AWESOME!
 
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The guy is a domainer by birth!!!
 
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Yeah, it's a great story, he registered a domain 20 years ago as a joke and sold for a lot of money today. But, people, let's not idolize such persons. He did nothing special, for him it was just a joke, not a business plan, not a long term investment, nothing that he thought could bring money in the future.

There are already too many "stars" in the domaining business who had some luck at one point and after that think that they are the best of the best.

Many early investors/ domainers who specially bought great domains in the past can ask now thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions for their domains. And we need to be honest, especially with ourselves, they got in the game early and picked the gems because they decided to take the risk, but that's another story...
 
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We hope that after David's first ever domain sale, his subsequent investments will prove to be as successful.

Of course all investment will be successful if he can wait another 20 years :)
 
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Isn't $23K cheap?

The price was ok, imo:

4181.com auction
$29,999 3/13/2017 Godaddy

4018.com private
$18,000 2/19/2017 Sharjil Saleem

4314.comauction
$14,531 12/8/2016 Ename

4127.comauction
$14,386 12/8/2016 Ename

4590.comauction
$14,753 10/31/2016 Ename
 
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James, great and motivating story. David congratulations on your joke.
 
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Great way to start domaining
 
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Thanks for sharing. I wonder why China has a specific interest in numeric domains.
 
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Thanks for sharing, hopefully David continues to have success with domains!
 
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