news Was DomainNames.com just sold?

[Josh R]

Looks like DomainNames.com may have been sold.

Today It moved from New Ventures Services, Corp to a Chinese Registrant named Yinan Wang.

If indeed sold, it is no doubt a large sale.

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Related:

• I bought DomainNames.com from NetworkSolutions, but they took it back.

 

[Hypersot]

This industry never ceases to amaze me.

It's like buying a car, driving home only for a store's employee come by 3 days later and casually drive *your* car back to the store.. no problem.. happens all the time

 

[Arca]

@owntype - I am fairly certain that New Venture Services Corp listed this domain for sale themselves, and that this was a legitimate listing. The pricing system for their inventory seems to be automatic (i.e. there is not a human listing the names for sale, but their system just seems to do it automatically), so sometimes they list names for too low prices. A while back they sold inabox.com for just $2077.

One of the biggest giveaways that DomainNames.com was a legit listing is the price $2577. This is one of New Venture Services Corp standard pricing tiers, meaning it is a legitimate listing by them.

For example:
WRTS.com for $2577 at network solutions:

Owned by new ventures:

Dating4u.com $2577 at Network Solutions:

Also owned by them:

A name listed for $2577 at Network Solutions with new venture services corp in WHOIS means its a legitimate listing by them.

So I don't think DomainNames.com was a stolen name/listing or anything. Seems pretty obvious that they owned it and listed it for $2577 as per their standard procedure. So the domain was legitimately listed and sold, the transferred to buyer, and then when they discovered what happened they stole it back.

 

[bmugford]

In DomainIQ.com I can see the OP's WHOIS info on 2/15, so there is no doubt he controlled the domain after a legitimate transaction was made.

I think he has a valid claim to this domain.

- They owned it and put a price on it.
- He purchased it via a legitimate transaction and ownership was transferred to him.

I am not sure why they think they have the right to reclaim it.

If a pricing mistake was made on their end then tough luck. I can almost guarantee they would not reverse a transaction from a 3rd party using their system, just because the seller was not satisfied with a price they set.

Brad

 

[owntype]

I'm the buyer of DomainNames.com, I did the search via NetworkSolutions.com and found it's in their premium domain name lists with a very bargin price. Then I bought it and paid immediately via credit card. Networksolutions pushed the domain name to my Netsol account after 3 days, and I have the full control on the domain names. But NetSol has removed it from my account today without any notifications.

I will update further later. Thanks for the comments.

 

[Arca]

Buyer is a member here at NP.

 

[Recons.Com]

I was surprised that DomainNames.com does not rank with Alexa, meaning very low type-in traffic.

I guess domain investors are a very small subgroup of population and the rest of it could not care less.

 

[Name Trader]

I think this is definitely the #1 domain for domains. We all know how domainers are stingy with their own domain names. Which might lower the price. New Ventures know about domains. I think they would not sell this domain for less than $250K. I came up with that figure out of my head. FWIW, I then looked up Estibot who values it at $330k. And they may be right. Remember $250K was my starting point. The buyer is a known domainer for selling high price domains. Has he bought it for himself to use, or for resale. If for resale. I'd expect he'd want to, at least, double his money and sell it on for $500K+. In any case, for self or resale, I congratulate Yinan Wang for his purchase of the truly top notch domain name, in the domain business.

 

[creataweb]

@owntype - sue their asses. Good luck to you sir, I hope you win.

 

[wwwweb]

Back in the day Domaining.com was very active, lots of one off blogs, with unique content compiling at one location, the owner put it up for sale, I think the whisper number was $1.2M that was on the table, but a deal was never done. I think they were pushing for $2M. Turncommerce was one of the front runners, not sure what happend, but I would say today they probably wish they could go back, and make sure that deal stuck.

 

[wwwweb]

How could this be stolen if it was purchased via net sol, and new ventures is in the Whois going way back? Makes no sense, finders keepers, this is not a gtld retraction, invoiced sale. Go figure domain business unlimited mulligans.

You should have auth coded it out. 3 day wait, for auth code, until it got exposed today I guess.

 

[Crysis]

Slightly offtopic but the singular version - DomainName.com was sold for $1M in 2011

 

[hookbox]

In 2011 Yinan Wang sold creditcard.net for $138,000 and moremoney.com for $67,000 in 2017.

 

[Josh R]

I think this is definitely the #1 domain for domains. We all know how domainers are stingy with their own domain names. Which might lower the price. New Ventures know about domains. I think they would not sell this domain for less than $250K. I came up with that figure out of my head. FWIW, Estibot values it at $330k. And they may be right. Remember $250K was my starting point. The buyer is a known domainer for selling high price domains. Has he bought it for himself to use, or for resale. If for resale. I'd expect he'd want to, at least, double his money and sell it on for $500K+. In any case, for self or resale, I congratulate Yinan Wang for his purchase of the truly top notch domain name, in the domain business.

Agreed.

Hopefully he intends to develop! I'd love to see something that promotes the domain industry.

 

[wwwweb]

Ahhh this explains it. Probably stolen.

You bought for $2,577 which New Ventures would never sell for.

Guess they just stole it back

 

[owntype]

@bmugford

Thank you for the comments! Appreciated!
This domain name has been under my full control for around 48 hours.

 

[rentmynames]

“Domainnames.com” is a bit too long, and $250k is high. But “domains.com” can be $250k+

 

[Name Trader]

“Domainnames.com” is a bit too long, and $250k is high. But “domains.com” can be $250k+

Domains.com is an excellent domain as well, and is definitely shorter. I wouldn't mind owning either of them

 

[DomainGist]

StockPhoto.com went for $250k and became a Stock Photo website (profitable with little marketing).

DomainNames.com is a similar quality domain, and also for a digital assets.

So $250k should be the floor price you would think?

 

[wwwweb]

It is a name, someone like Godaddy should have bought, owning the world's most expensive portfolio. I think it is a strategic purchase, developing something like this is a nightmare.

 

[hookbox]

The only put who think domainnames.com is worth anything is other domainers. I bet barely worth $100,000 and probably not even that high.

 

[Andrew Knox]

Name.com trumps it

 

[Josh R]

Doesn't New Ventures just cherry pick expired domains from certain registrars like NetSol, Register.com etc.... That's a shady practice in itself... Chances they honor a sale like this is slim. However, you should take it to court if you have to.

 

[owntype]

I assume that New Ventures didn't list it though. Some kind of mistake from NetSol...

Hi, Josh, thanks for bringing this thread.

This is the email I got from NetworkSolutions after making my order.
Although we all know NewVCorp is NetSol/Web.com's warehousing company, but from this email I can see NewVCorp listed it and approved this sale and tansferred it to me.

Too good to believe? This is a .com domain name, no restrictions nor limitations. I do have purchased many quality domain names in $xxx - $x,xxx range and sold for 6 figure and a few acquired for 5 figure and sold for high 6 figures - low 7 fugures in the past. I also signed a contract using this domain name, which will cost me a good sum to cover the loss. I did nothing wrong, and I will certainly take this case to the court.

 

[dmyre]

Estibot values the domain at $330,000. You should sue them for treble damages (3x) which comes out to $990,000. Best of luck...