Month: March 2010

It truly is mind-boggling to see the domain names that individuals and organizations allow to expire.  Some of the most promising domains end up on the aftermarket and fetch top dollar by buyers. 

It’s not the owners who reap the rewards though.  It’s the business savvy aftermarket companies and their partnerships with the registrars who make out big.  Everyone has their reasons for letting domains expire – they forget to renew the domain, they go bankrupt, they just don’t care — the list goes on and on.  But when it’s simply a mistake or oversight, it’s one of those things that give domainers a chance to pick up a great name at a great price.

Top domainers like Frank Schilling made a killing in the early 2000s when many gave up on the power of the internet and let their domains expire.  And he’s amassed a portfolio of domains that is virtually unmatched. Yun Ye, who sold his portfolio of names he snapped up on the drop, raked in millions.

It is Mind Boggling in this day in Age
 
While the number of killer names that are dropping will never equal the flow of names in the early 2000s, great domains are still dropping all the time and that’s why it’s amazing to see some of the names that end up on the aftermarket. 

Take TennisCourts.com for example.  The domain name expired on February 26, 2010, and it’s now up for auction on NameJet.  The name is appraised at $114,000 according to Valuate.com.

CRG also known as the Customer Relations Group allowed CustomerRelations.com to expire.  It expired on February 23 and is now up for auction on NameJet, as well. Valuate.com appraises the name at $13,000.  Customcabinetry.com expired on February 11.  It’s valued at $15,000.  The list is endless.

While the volume of GREAT expiring names has certainly slowed down over the last 10 years, the volume of drops is still high, given the number of subpar domain names like 18900000000.net  (which is also on NameJet) that someone chose to register. 

But if you have the time, there is plenty of opportunity for you to turn someone else’s oversight, into something big for yourself.

With spring right around the corner, big gun National A-1 Advertising has launched their category-killer domain name Camps.com into a full fledged website. 

National A-1 has been making headlines lately in quick succession, most notably after relaunching Pizza.com, then with the sale of Poker.org for $1 million. 

While we haven’t seen any press releases on the launch of Camps.com, its one of many great names listed on National A-1’s Catnip.com landing page.  National A-1 has also launched other resource/directory sites this year including Antiques.com. 

Camps.com allows you to find camps, add your own camp for free, read camp-related articles, and even submit your own stories.  Simply parking domains isn’t cutting it for some of the largest domain companies, and National A-1 has long been increasing their web presence.

From the Camps.com About Us Section

Welcome to Camps.com – you’re one stop reference for anything and everything camp related. Searching for the best in education, arts, games, or sports camps? Camps.com has you covered! Use our search engine to find specific camps in your area or get a listing of all the camps in your neck of the woods. Why spend the summer months twiddling your thumbs when you could be honing skills for your favorite activities? Interested in trying something new and don’t know where to start? Camps.com has the answer! Whether it’s spelunking caves in the Appalachian Mountains or nature hikes in the California’s Redwood forests, you’ll find a camp for it at Camps.com.

Earlier we reported on the unrecorded sale of the popular social networking term Tweetup.com.

We got an email from the previous owner who confirmed the sale, but couldn’t provide any more details. Technology news site like TechCrunch and Mashable, who we’ve tipped off in the past, we’ll likely be covering this story soon now that Idealab already has a Coming Soon page online.

Idealab isn’t your ordinary Internet Development company

Idealab which has had their hands in launching and operating dozens of successful internet companies like eToys.com, Shopping.com, and Compete.com, is now looking to profit off the social networking craze of Twitter.

You can see a full list of their companies here.

You heard it here first: the domain name Tweetup.com has been sold to a major company.  Idealab who help create and operate technology companies including Cooking.com, Blogged.com, InternetBrands and many more legacy companies like eToys, recently acquired the domain name Tweetup.com from Jonathan Kossmann.

While many domain name sales are made public each week, for every single one, there are many many more that go unreported on sites like DNJournal and NameBio.

The sale of Tweetup.com did not go unnoticed for us.

The domain name’s registration record was last updated on March 3, 2010, and the previous owner confirmed the sale of Tweetup.com via email last night with us, but wasn’t able to disclose anything further about the transaction or the price.

Domain sales, many of which go unreported, are happening all the time.

How did we find out about the sale?

We were lucky enough to receive substantial offers suddenly on our internet property Tweetups.com which we had acquired on the aftermarket in 2009. The influx of offers made us curious to see what other Tweetup-related domain owners were up to, and when we typed in Tweetup.com, the URL redirected us to Perfect Market, a company of Idealab that helps publishers create value from their online content.