registries A Change of Heart from .CLUB Domains?

[N-A]

On December 12th, Jeffrey Sass, the CMO at .CLUB Domains, announced in a tweet that the .CLUB registry would be releasing 9,000 new premium domains that were previously marked as reserved the following day.

For this release, the registry compiled three separate lists that contained 2-3-4 characters, Chinese domains, and a combination thereof for domain name speculators to comb through. The domains were conveniently marked with a suggested retail price of 100 to 10000 USD, or 680 to 68000 Yuan respectively, in order to easily sort through the pricing that one would face on registration day.

A list of domains that I found personally interesting was compiled from their 2-3-4 character selection. I handpicked names such, but not limited to, net.club, rum.club, and dad.club to add to my arsenal of new gTLD investments as they were all reasonably priced at $500 — it turns out that they ended up being much cheaper than that, though.

However, something interesting happened at the time of registration. These names were released from a reserved status, as shown on previous whois conducted on each domain, and were mystically created years earlier. The registration details on these domains now appear to be similar to the following:

Registrant ID C4080606-CLUB
Registrant Name Domain Administrator
Registrant Organization .CLUB Domains, LLC
Registrant Street 100 S.E. 3rd Ave.,
Registrant Street Suite 1310
Registrant City Fort Lauderdale
Registrant State/Province FL
Registrant Postal Code 33394
Registrant Country US United States
Registrant Phone +1.8778330000
Registrant Email [email protected]

The same applies to other domains that I selected which included pet.club. Although this domain name made the list, it turned out to be registered by Names.club, LLC in 2014.

It’s my opinion that @Sass or @Colin Campbell owe an explanation as to what happened to these more premium, but humbly priced, domains that were supposedly released for general registration.

 

[Sass]

Hi N-A,

Sorry for not responding sooner. I've been in the air the past 24 hours traveling from Miami to China where I am now. First, sorry for any confusion with regard to the release of new premium names to the registrar channel. There were obviously a few glitches, but certainly no change of heart. We've been doing this to make more quality names available directly through the registrar channel. As we stated before on our blog, this means we've taken some names that have previously been registered by us, and deleted them so they can be re-released in the registrar channel. Some of the previously registered names have not yet completed the deletion process and will be available for registration soon. Unfortunately, some of these names appeared on our list so that it looked like they would be available now. They will be available as soon as the deletion process completes.

As for the 3 character names: Due to a database error, a number of 3-character .CLUB names were placed into tiers incorrectly when our new premium names were released into the Neustar system. As a result, some 3-character names have temporarily been put on hold and will be re-released in the proper price tiers later today. Due to the error a small number of transactions that occurred during that time have been deleted. We will address the affected registrants and registrars individually. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this error may have caused. Please contact [email protected] should you have any specific issues or questions.

Hope that helps, and again sorry for any issues you experienced. You can email me personally at jeff at get.club if you want (please keep in mind the time difference.)

 

[deez007]

There should be no premium names, all domains across the board on all gTLD's should simply be reg fee. This would increase the chances of them getting used out in the wild, which would have a direct impact on the TLD's brand awareness.

Everyone wins! .... premium priced registrations imo are counter productive and more gear towards short terms gains instead of long term, sustainable business practices.

Just my opinion though...

 

[webquest]

Don't publish lists until they are ready.
I'm hoping the 3 hours I spent aren't for naught.

 

[N-A]

@Sass, now that the cat's out of the bag on these names, I highly doubt it's possible to hand register them when the time comes.

Which leads me to a question: When, specifically, will that time be? You initially stated 10 AM EST, which I had to prepare a list of names prior in order to meet this deadline.

I'm unsure now if I can even backorder these names due to the pricing discrepancies stated.

A very poor marketing job from. CLUB Domains in my opinion.

 

[garptrader]

Actually reasonable premiums and renewals tend to keep domains out of investor's hands because the carrying costs are too high. When buyers are developers or businesses they help promote awareness. Domainers with thousands of new tlds in their portfolio can rave about them on domain forums but will do little to move market acceptance.

 

[N-A]

Actually reasonable premiums and renewals tend to keep domains out of investor's hands because the carrying costs are too high. When buyers are developers or businesses they help promote awareness. Domainers with thousands of new tlds in their portfolio can rave about them on domain forums but will do little to move market acceptance.

The initial registrations for the example domains such as rum.club in the initial post were marked with a suggested retail price of $500. In actuality, they came out to be anywhere from $280-$320 depending on the registrar. Another thing that .CLUB Domains does is set premium pricing on the initial registration with regular renewal, making some of these a better investment with where .club is headed in my opinion.

I'm just frustrated over the fact that they published a list and stated that registration would open at 10 AM, but, they held these domains back, but released others. For example, in the list that they provided that is in the original post as well, there is the domain name STS.club (a reference to a popular thread on namePros). That domain remains available after the 10 AM window, even at the time of this post. However, a domain such as net.club was held back. I wonder why?

It's my opinion that they marked these "premiums" so low and decided to hold them back as opposed to releasing them, as they did the others.

A technical error? I think not as some went through, and some didn't.

 

[webquest]

They also had names like MMA, MLM, MIX, MAX, KID, BIG, HIP etc in their list.

They physically uploaded this list and said they would be available the next day.

I guess no one there bothered to look at the list otherwise they could have removed these.

Just a waste of time.

 

[N-A]

They also had names like MMA, MLM, MIX, MAX, KID, BIG, HIP etc in their list.

They physically uploaded this list and said they would be available the next day.

I guess no one there bothered to look at the list otherwise they could have removed these.

Just a waste of time.

That's why I've included the original list in the main post. You can clearly see the suggested price of $500 for some gems (which turned out to be ~$220) in it.

They pulled most, if not all, of these names back. I shortlisted some of the names that you mentioned, too. However, they are still owned by the registry, even though they were supposedly going to be released later that day. I highly doubt they're going to let them go for $500.

@Sass still failed to respond to my email in regards to the matter from December 14th but is still actively promoting .CLUB on Twitter.

I guess they figure it'll blow over. In all, it was a big failure by .CLUB Domains and reflects poorly on the management of @Colin Campbell for letting this happen; a lot of time was wasted on my part.

 

[Sass]

@N-A, I have been in Chenzhou China the past few days with no access to email. I've just checked all my email and do not have one from you. Please re-send, and/or confirm with me the address you sent it to.

As already noted, we made an error with the lists and releases of certain names. We are sorry for that, and for any confusion and inconvenience it may have caused. Over, 9000 new premium names were released, and most were not affected by the error. As you pointed out yourself, some names were priced correctly and released on time. The lists at Landrush.club should be now corrected and will be updated regularly as names are registered. I can appreciate your frustration and respect your opinion, but I can assure you that this is all tied to a database mistake and nothing more.

We try to be sensitive to the needs of domain investors. Unlike many registries we do not have premium renewal fees no matter what the initial fee is. We have also made thousands of excellent names available at good prices throught the registrar channel. As you pointed out, our lists have the suggested retail price, but many registrars offer names below that price, as ultimately it is their decision.

Sorry you're not happy, and we acknowledge that this launch did not go as smoothly as it should have. Not sure what else you would like me to say.

Hope you have a happy and healthy Holiday Season. We will do our best to do better next time.

 

[N-A]

@Sass, do you plan on releasing names such as paw.club for $500 as initially planned (apart of the original 9000) or are you going to continue to hold these back and chop it up to being a database error?

 

[N-A]

@N-A, I have been in Chenzhou China the past few days with no access to email. I've just checked all my email and do not have one from you. Please re-send, and/or confirm with me the address you sent it to.

It was sent from dwalker djw net to jeff get club.

You may need to check your spam folder. I sent myself an email to test and they are landing there for me in GMail. Thanks for pointing this out to me; this is something that I'll be working on fixing.

 

[alcy]

@N-A, I have been in Chenzhou China the past few days with no access to email. I've just checked all my email and do not have one from you. Please re-send, and/or confirm with me the address you sent it to.

As already noted, we made an error with the lists and releases of certain names. We are sorry for that, and for any confusion and inconvenience it may have caused. Over, 9000 new premium names were released, and most were not affected by the error. As you pointed out yourself, some names were priced correctly and released on time. The lists at Landrush.club should be now corrected and will be updated regularly as names are registered. I can appreciate your frustration and respect your opinion, but I can assure you that this is all tied to a database mistake and nothing more.

We try to be sensitive to the needs of domain investors. Unlike many registries we do not have premium renewal fees no matter what the initial fee is. We have also made thousands of excellent names available at good prices throught the registrar channel. As you pointed out, our lists have the suggested retail price, but many registrars offer names below that price, as ultimately it is their decision.

Sorry you're not happy, and we acknowledge that this launch did not go as smoothly as it should have. Not sure what else you would like me to say.

Hope you have a happy and healthy Holiday Season. We will do our best to do better next time.

just curious abotu something.. I read on another thread here last nite someone having fun saying their name is premium in some extensions.. xyz... and few more.. and .club was one of them.. is this at all possible or the person was wrong? ty.

 

[London555]

@N-A, I have been in Chenzhou China the past few days with no access to email. I've just checked all my email and do not have one from you. Please re-send, and/or confirm with me the address you sent it to.

As already noted, we made an error with the lists and releases of certain names. We are sorry for that, and for any confusion and inconvenience it may have caused. Over, 9000 new premium names were released, and most were not affected by the error. As you pointed out yourself, some names were priced correctly and released on time. The lists at Landrush.club should be now corrected and will be updated regularly as names are registered. I can appreciate your frustration and respect your opinion, but I can assure you that this is all tied to a database mistake and nothing more.

We try to be sensitive to the needs of domain investors. Unlike many registries we do not have premium renewal fees no matter what the initial fee is. We have also made thousands of excellent names available at good prices throught the registrar channel. As you pointed out, our lists have the suggested retail price, but many registrars offer names below that price, as ultimately it is their decision.

Sorry you're not happy, and we acknowledge that this launch did not go as smoothly as it should have. Not sure what else you would like me to say.

Hope you have a happy and healthy Holiday Season. We will do our best to do better next time.

Sass here's a question we'll all want to know for the future and as you're in China now its a good time to ask. When the time comes to sell a .club name in China - we own names like 88a.club etc-will .club provide an outlet or brokers for us westerners that dont speak Chinese? Thank you and Happy Holidays.