back to article Man trousers $15,000 domain name for $10.99 amid registry cockup

Bruce Marler could hardly believe his luck. "I had to double check it, triple checked it, then added it my shopping cart with a few web domains my wife had chosen as well, did not tell her, let her go order sushi and then told her what just happened," he said. A few moments later he had registered the domain credit.club for $ …

  1. Ole Juul

    registry trust

    The .Club company reckons it was well within its rights to rescind the registration and cancel Marler's lucky purchase.

    Good that the CEO set things straight, but that statement still makes it hard to trust them any more.

    1. P. Lee

      Re: registry trust

      Indeed, why would the company have the right to rescind?

      It isn't as though a domain registration has intrinsic value or cost where it would be obvious that a mistake had been made. He wasn't buying a car or coffee machine. I also assume that the transaction was completed.

      The CEO would have had better PR if he had said, "Our mistake, he did well." rather than "well we could stuff him up, but we choose not to... this time."

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: registry trust

        Yep... got greedy, moved too fast, lost money. Their problem, not his.

        Not that I have much sympathy for either party.

    2. mafoo

      Re: registry trust

      I'm guessing the renewal is going to be rather pricey - so they'll probably make the money back on that.

  2. Graham Marsden
    WTF?

    $15,000 domain name?

    Why?

    Why isn't the title of this piece "Company that runs all dot-club domains trousers ridiculous amounts of money for domains that cost pennies"?

  3. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Big Brother

    He is ... a SPECULATOR!

    Quick, call a politican! Something MUST BE DONE!!

  4. The Vociferous Time Waster
    Devil

    5th circle

    The fifth circle of hell is taking sunrise registrations from domain prospectors as well as SEO experts and people who write pointless clickbait articles.

    Oh wait...

  5. deshepherd

    Is ifyoulikealotofchocolateonyourbiscuitjoina.club still available?

    1. Roland6 Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: Is ifyoulikealotofchocolateonyourbiscuitjoina.club still available?

      Yes, but ifyoulikealotofchocolateonyourbiscuitjoinour.club isn't!

      1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: Is ifyoulikealotofchocolateonyourbiscuitjoina.club still available?

        what about iamdetritusanddisismy.club?

        OK, time to go, the one with Thud in the pocket please

  6. bmarler

    Something to add

    The actual price it was for sale was 200K.

    And I will say, although I do consider it a solid domain investment, I do plan on continuing to develop it and am not actively looking to sell this domain name anytime in the foreseeable future.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Something to add

      So you would have bought for the 200K? Just curious.....

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Something to add

        Obviously not, he's saying now he has it he's going to try to do something with it. Imagine finding a new white Rolls Royce mispriced at a tenner. You wouldn't pay full price for it, personally I wouldn't pay ten quid for it due to an incident at the Birmingham motor show many years ago, but I digress. If you did buy it you could either sell it on or decide to do something else such as start a wedding car hire company. If the new company succeeds good if not then you will still have an investment, maybe a car here is not a goof example of an investment but you get the idea. A suitable saying is, never look a gift horse in the mouth.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Something to add

          > an incident at the Birmingham motor show many years ago

          Pray tell. :-)

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Something to add

            > an incident at the Birmingham motor show many years ago

            Did it involve Jimmy Saville?

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Something to add

            >Pray tell. :-)

            Wasn't so much of an incident and as good looking as I was back then it didn't involve JS, so as you ask. Many, many, many moons ago at the first motor show to be held at the NEC as an impish faced cherub, the epitomy of a well mannered youth in full school uniform and all other things good Rolls Royce wouldn't let me on their stand. Aston Martin, Jaguar and all the others, no problem, I left whatever I had on my sticky mitts at the time all over them but RR no, not even anything for the goody bag. So in a fit of pique I vowed there and then never to buy one. At the time such a possibilty may have seemed unthinkable anyway but circumstances change and they've lost a sale.

            Do I bear grudges? Sometimes, yes.

  7. DougMac

    Market value for domain

    So what would the market value for a fluffed up useless new gTLD domain be?

    $10?

    One of the many 10000's of new domains people are hoping are worth more than pocket change in a year.

  8. Herby

    Good for him.

    As the old adage goes: Find a need and fill it.

    At least he is setting up the web site to be "useful". Of course, the others who buy $15k domains "on spec" are asking for trouble. What should happen is for the REAL speculators should get only pennies for their efforts.

    Then some things lead to weirdness when "accountonline" is actually a well known bank. Go figure (I can't!).

  9. thames

    So How's Pets.com Doing?

    Back when owning a generic dot com domain was supposed to be the ticket to success, there was the famous crash and burn Pets.com. I've never visited that site before, but I did just now to check on it before making this post. There's no site at pets.com, it's just a re-direct to another domain that I've never heard of that sells pet supplies. In other words, a generic (pets), short (4 letter), covering a widely used topic (pets), dot com domain, something that supposedly should have all the right angles for success, is practically worthless. So why would generic names for the obscure dot club group of domains be worth anything at all?

    This idea that a generic name is somehow valuable doesn't seem to survive contact with reality. What are the domain names that have real value? They're the ones that are connected to products and services that are known for their real world brand names. I can't think of anyone who has build a well known successful business based on having having a generic domain name.

    Let's do a test. Let's suppose I'm hungry and would like to order some poutine (otherwise known as "heart attack on a plate"). Would I think "I'll just type poutine.com into my web browser address bar and take whatever comes up". No, I would think "what restaurant near me sells poutine?" If I can't think of any, I would try typing "poutine" into Google and seeing if it suggests any restaurants nearby. I just tried that, and yes it showed an ad for a Poutinerie located near what Google thought was my location.

    For that matter, how many people type a URL into the address bar of their web browser these days? How many average people know you even can type a URL directly into the address bar? I can think of a few that I know personally that I'm pretty sure I would have difficulty even explaining the concept to. So far as they are concerned, if it isn't in Google, it doesn't exist.

    By the way, to test my theory about "poutine.com", I tried typing "poutine.com" into the address bar of my web browser. There's no site, and the address is for sale. So here it is, a common, generic, word for a consumer item, and the dot com domain isn't considered valuable enough for anyone to be bothered to buy it.

    So tell me again, why would I want to pay a pointless amount of money for "credit.club" or anything dot club?

    1. verloc

      Re: So How's Pets.com Doing?

      That's exactly it. I mean when was the last time anyone typed or used a full tld? It's either a couple of letters for Google instant or for your search history over the last few years to pop up with the needed site.

      1. Oz

        Re: So How's Pets.com Doing?

        But sex.com is worth a bloody fortune, so it can work both ways. I agree with you in the majority though - with Google being so well-known, typing a full URL to find something is a rarity

        1. Bert 1
          Facepalm

          Re: So How's Pets.com Doing?

          If you are searching for a specific company, to be honest it adds an extra barrier rather than making it easier.

          I was searching for some home improvement supplies earlier this week, and wanted to look at their price and availability at our local B&Q. I searched for B&Q, and the URL which came up was diy.com.

          My first thought at this point is "phishing scam", and alarm bells ring, causing me to do some further checking.

          1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

            Re: So How's Pets.com Doing?

            I can't think of anyone who has build a well known successful business based on having having a generic domain name.

            B&Q do nicely out of diy.com, but that perhaps works because it's a fairly UK-centric term, the Americans don't use it. Interestingly, the French registrar refused to allow Castorama (a French DIY chain owned by Kingfisher, who also own B&Q) to register bricolage.fr, which would be the direct French equivalent, on the grounds that it would be unfair competition for one business to own a generic name. A very different attitude to business.

            By the way, to test my theory about "poutine.com", I tried typing "poutine.com" into the address bar of my web browser. There's no site, and the address is for sale.

            Also possible Freench complications there. Poutine is how the French spell Comrade Vladimir's name, since the pronunciation of "Putin" in French would make him Vladimir Whore. I'd guess that more people would expect poutine.com to be a politics site than one to find pub nosh.

          2. David Nash Silver badge

            Re: So How's Pets.com Doing?

            When I wanted B&Q I typed "bandq.com" into the address bar, and guess what? It works. Unsurprisingly.

            It redirects to diy.com which I think is a bit odd actually, I would expect it to be the other way round.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: So How's Pets.com Doing?

        > when was the last time anyone typed or used a full tld?

        When I logged into The Register about five minutes ago. :-)

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: So How's Pets.com Doing?

      "Back when owning a generic dot com domain was supposed to be the ticket to success, there was the famous crash and burn Pets.com. I've never visited that site before, but I did just now to check on it before making this post. There's no site at pets.com, it's just a re-direct to another domain that I've never heard of that sells pet supplies."

      A few minutes with whois shows that pets.com was last modified late last year. The other domain was registered a few years ago. So it's possible that the pets.com domain was acquired fairly recently by the owners of other site who elected to keep their existing site - and existing customer recognition - and do the redirect as a quick fix. Not saying that that's what happened but you can't draw too many conclusions from a redirected name.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So How's Pets.com Doing?

      To counter your argument try putting DIY.com into your address bar. (If you're not UK based as I suspect, B&Q are one of, if not the largest DIY goods retailer in the UK)

      Something like credit.club has value because the businesses who might be interested in it are generally ones that have large turnover, good profits etc. and spend good money on marketing so a 'generic' name has potential value to them and their competitors.

      Your local poutine and infarction restaurant is more likely to be a family owned concern with a handful of branches at most so the name poutine.com is unlikely to have value and they're unlikely to only serve poutine.

      Don't forget also that a domain may be registered by a holding company for a large concern just to keep it off the market even if they don't associate it with their current business model.

    4. Tom 13

      Re: So How's Pets.com Doing?

      Being British I'd doubt you would have heard of PetSmart, but they're a big chain on this side of the pond. I think Pets.Com at one point was a pet supply reseller. I don't recall if they actually went bankrupt or if they were acquired by PetSmart.

  10. mourner
    Pint

    So to summate.

    Man (who specialises in "rapid website development") on the return trip from a domain name convention (not out of the airport even) manages to snag a bargain domain and turn $11 into $15K (speculative).

    While the open for all contact CEO of the company selling said domain generously decides to eat the cost of the mistake of mis-pricing said domain.

    Nothing like the smell of fish, loss leaders and PR in the morning eh!

    Doubles all round what!

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    email

    The short, easy-to-remember and type domains are convenient for email addresses.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How convenient. Great PR for the registry. Oh, wait...

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