Domain Name Sells For $2.6m

Brian Maher via BBC News on 04 April 2008 - 23:33 · 22 comments & 12036 views

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A US man has sold the domain name pizza.com for $2.6m (£1.3m) - after maintaining the site for just $20 a year since 1994.

Chris Clark, 43, accepted the offer from an anonymous bidder after a week-long online auction. Mr Clark registered the domain name in 1994, when the world wide web was just starting. He had hoped that pizza.com would help to get a contract with a pizza firm for his consulting company.

He sold his business in 2000, but kept paying the $20 annual fees for maintaining the domain, which he also used to sell advertisements.

Mr Clark has admitted regretting that he did not purchase more domain names in the 1990s, when many (now) popular domain names were still available.

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#1 jonnytabpni on 05 Apr 2008 - 00:11

You know, a single day doesn't go past without me thinking about what if I had done this...

I always wish I had done that years ago.

If only I had....If only I had.....

(4 replies) #2 Dazer on 05 Apr 2008 - 00:28

I had the same feeling about google shares.. It's just a pity I was 14 or something when they went public and had no money to buy them.. But I would have made a nice little profit there.

And on topic- Who the hell buys pizza.com for $2.6 million!?

#2.1 michael.dobrofsky on 05 Apr 2008 - 00:35

(Dazer said @ #1)

And on topic- Who the hell buys pizza.com for $2.6 million!?

An absolute sucker

#2.2 Munkyman on 05 Apr 2008 - 01:12

A pizza firm?

#2.3 kimatg on 05 Apr 2008 - 02:23

Go check by yourselves.

http://pizza.com/

lol

#2.4 +Zhivago on 05 Apr 2008 - 03:08

(Dazer said @ #2)

And on topic- Who the hell buys pizza.com for $2.6 million!?

Puzza Hut wouldn't mind to have it - that, I'm 100% sure about.

(3 replies) #3 rseiler on 05 Apr 2008 - 03:20

I thought measures were put in place to eliminate cyber squatting, or whatever it's called. That is, if you don't have a legitimate use for the domain, you can be forced to give it up (and not for millions of dollars, either).

#3.1 +SOOPRcow on 05 Apr 2008 - 04:35

I don't think he was really cyber squatting as there is actually a site.

#3.2 travelcard on 05 Apr 2008 - 08:51

You can't be a cyber squatter on a generic term like pizza.com - only on something using a company name, like pizzahut.com for example.

#3.3 nunjabusiness on 05 Apr 2008 - 18:28

(travelcard said @ #3.2)

You can't be a cyber squatter on a generic term like pizza.com - only on something using a company name, like pizzahut.com for example.

Correct - I would call the guy a very clever mofo. I bought and sold a number of domain names over the years but only dreamed about this kind of thing. Remember the guy who had sex.com got $14 mil.
Sigh!

(1 reply) #4 atari800 on 05 Apr 2008 - 20:14

I wonder if porn dot com is paying $20 a month

#4.1 nunjabusiness on 06 Apr 2008 - 15:02

(atari800 said @ #4)

I wonder if porn dot com is paying $20 a month

porn.com was sold last May for $9 million

(2 replies) #5 WICKO on 05 Apr 2008 - 21:26

Mr Clark has admitted regretting that he did not purchase more domain names in the 1990s, when many (now) popular domain names were still available.

2.6 million dollars wasn't enough for you, eh?

#5.1 chris4 on 06 Apr 2008 - 02:51

Well if you had just sold a domain for $2.6mil .. wouldn't you want to sell 10 more for the same price?

#5.2 WICKO on 06 Apr 2008 - 16:03

(chris4 said @ #5.1)

Well if you had just sold a domain for $2.6mil .. wouldn't you want to sell 10 more for the same price?

I guess I'm just not that greedy.

(1 reply) #6 time2flex on 05 Apr 2008 - 22:43

pepperoni.com anyone?. I have it on sale, today only for $1.6 mil.!!

#6.1 nunjabusiness on 06 Apr 2008 - 15:08

No, you don't.

I imagine Hormel has already made a pretty good offer for it before.

at the bottom of the main page:

"A WebMagic Production © 2008 We are not looking to sell this domain. "

(2 replies) #7 evo_spook on 06 Apr 2008 - 23:44

I think people should have to use a domain name or lose it.
I've lost count of the amount of times I've wanted to register a name and its being taken, but go to the site and nothings there, that should be illegal

#7.1 macrosslover on 07 Apr 2008 - 00:56

but kept paying the $20 annual fees for maintaining the domain, which he also used to sell advertisements.

he used the site so it wasn't just a bare site.

#7.2 C_Guy on 07 Apr 2008 - 15:13

That's like saying if someone buys a lot you think they HAVE to put a house on it. That's not the way the law works. You pay for something, you are entitled to let it just sit there if you want. Unless you're a cyber squatter, if you own a domain name, do anything you want with it, even nothing.

If the domain you want is gone think up a new one.

#8 bbfc_uk on 07 Apr 2008 - 13:35

Good for him, certainly a good investment for the future!

#9 andybush on 11 Feb 2009 - 01:25

For me it is really a surprise that somebody paid so much for just a common name. I checked the reach in alexa and it is just nothing. So I don't really understand how this can be a good investment. You still need to work to drive traffci to this domain and it is the same job for any domain even for pizzza.com (available by the way so hurry up =)

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http://yohost.org - Find anonymous domain name purchase.

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