Dan.com's interesting domain history: How Dan.com bought its own domain

[yb1313]

On Webarchive, I randomly decided to type in dan.com and discovered the domain had a funny past and a crazy plot end
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.dan.com/

The domain seems to have been owned since its inception by some man from California named Dan (big surprise) who used it as a blog throughout the early 2000’s but it was never really a functioning website http://web.archive.org/web/20120421154501/http://dan.com/

Then some time after 2010 he posted totally random stuff there:
"Unicorns are way cooler than spaghetti. … hi from dan … yes, its still me … no, you cant buy this domain. … that will be all … now really though, go read about the unicorns." [screenshot below]

Fast forward to early 2019, he listed the domain for sale... Where? You guessed it, on Undeveloped.com itself as evident by the site links in footer etc. (Undeveloped was Dan's old domain for those who don't know)
http://web.archive.org/web/20190427184000/https://dan.com/

And a company representative apparently made an offer and bought it from this anonymous man, and moved their new popular platform to it.

Some questions remain of course, like how much they paid for it, etc.
Cool story, right? Well @DAN.COM

 

[Mister Funsky]

like how much they paid for it,

I imagine they got it really cheap for a 3L that is also a persons name...

 

[mr-x]

I imagine they got it really cheap for a 3L that is also a persons name...

Well, It only cost Dan $10.

 

[yb1313]

I imagine they got it really cheap for a 3L that is also a persons name...

Sure, haha, well with all seriousness I'd assume they paid high six figures in cash for it, it would be nice if they revealed the secret!

Well, It only cost Dan $10.

Well he paid a little more than that, considering he held the domain for about two decades, but since he probably also hand-registered it he clearly made an incredible profit

 

[Mister Funsky]

it would be nice if they revealed the secret!

I've thought about this before...not matter what they paid it would be interesting and possibly beneficial for them to reveal the price paid.

If they got it relatively cheap, it would show their savvy at picking a good name at a good price...it would generate respect from others in the industry.

If they paid a high price, it would show their dedication to the branding and be a beacon for others to hold out for higher prices on their names for sale.

The latter would be of a benefit to their platform as it would increase the ultimate prices of domains sold and in turn it would increase their profit based on their percentage of the transaction.