I reached out to Carron Brown of Aftermarket.com who is brokering the sale of the domain name WorldTradeCenter.com and asked her for some history on the domain.
Some pretty interesting facts are in here
· The site was originally registered in 1996 (5 years before the tragedy)
· The owner received hundreds of purchase offers on September 11th 2001, but denied them all
· The site was used to disseminate information and provide links to help and rescue efforts immediately following the tragedy
· Sizeable offers came in from gambling and adult sites, including one for $10 million British pounds (about $14.7 million at the time)
· The owner was heavily approached again in 2006 when the movie World Trade Center was released
· The site was set up as a memorial on the 5 year anniversary of 9/11 and was up until being directed to Aftermarket.com last week
· The current page on WorldTradeCenter.com is being updated to reflect the original memorial page, and should be live by tomorrow evening.
I’m going to open the poll to see what you think this domain will sell for
Offer 14 million for that name? What are they smoking?
Reject offer for 14 million? Probably smoking the same thing.
M
They rejected the offer because they did not like what the buyer was going to do with the domain
I struggle to believe that a £10m offer had been made on that domain…even more that it would’ve been turned down.
Is it worth 2% of that?
Although I am not privy to the facts I have to say that this sounds like total BS.
Expect to see this name sell for £40,000.
@ MHB – Are there any such moral restrictions with the domain now?
Does anyone know what the traffic to this domain was like after 9/11?
James
I’m told there are restrictions as to the buyer but don’t know if they are specified
MHB –
What was it like?
How long did it last?
How many of the people looking for this term after finding the site would see a banner ad and think, I really fancy a game of blackjack?
Share what you know! 😉
Back
I’m telling you what was represented to Aftermarket.com
I have no additional info
I may sound greedy but for $14.7 million at the time I would sell domain without thinking, even if new owner would place adult content, casino or whatever on it
But I believe that this is just a “good” PR by seller to finally get rid of this domain name
maybe you missed a point … 1.4 🙂
Wow, turn down $14m. That takes serious principles.
Michael
I made the same point to Carron when I saw the info, she went back to the owner for clarification who confirmed that he did turn down this offer and he did so based on the buyer.
I don’t know the guy, but that is what he is saying, he is sticking his story as they say.
So you can choose to believe the guy is of high moral character and turned down the money, with proof that he choose at the time not to make use of the traffic which must have huge or to monetize it.
A few things I know to be true even though I have zero evidence:
1. No one ever made a £10,000,000 offer for this domain.
2. This domain will not sell for anywhere near £10,000,000.
3. Robert Cline will turn this thread into a .Co thread at some point today.
How do you monetize it? With T-shirts and coffee mugs?
Look at PearlHabor.com and .org – the .com isn’t built and the .org is a plain minisite with adsense links.
There’s no way this domain will ever sell for $1M, let alone $14M. Gimmie a break!
I find this hard to believe, if the seller really turned down the offer on morality issues, why didn’t he just take the $14 million and donate half to victims support, $7 million would more than offset what the buyer would have done to the name?.
Mike,
If I say, I’ll give you $30 million for your portfolio, can you go around and tell people you turned down $30,000,000 for your domain names (assuming you say no)?
It’s one thing to get a random email saying someone will pay $10MM and another one to get the money
Its not $10,000,000 its £10,000,000 as if it gives the claim some credibility.
Surely if youre going to lie you wouldnt do so in pounds sterling.
The story can’t be true because nobody……….and I mean nobody……….would turn down that kind of money. Hell, sex dot com sold for 13 million which is a world record!
pure bullshit
anymore than a selling price of low xx,xxx would amaze me
pure spin and lies
Good point by Alan… sex.com sold for less, and gambling.com just sold for wayyyyyyy less… highly doubt any porn or gambling company would want this domain over those two. Makes no sense.
Turning this domain name into something like porn or gambling many people would find highly offensive and not visit based on principle… not exactly a good branding strategy.
LOL at the crackhead seller with his $14 M fantasy offer.
Not that they ever received such an offer…but let’s look at it hypothetically:
1/ Ya mean to say any buyer would actually disclose the *real purpose* of the proposed acquisition…!?
How many buyers would ever do that..?
2/ And assuming the $14M was not the buyer’s 1st offer ..it must mean seller turned down multiple offers in the millions leading up to $14M
Total BS
As for ‘honest’ & ‘domainer’. together in the same sentence..it is an oxymoron
Anyway, seller has certainly got $10M worth of publicity…
@ Back in the real world
4. Costellos reminding everyone they own geo names such as Nashville.com etc & how much they make each year
This whole story is clearly a total bs. I can not believe a “serious” domainer would publish it, it does not pass the very basic smell test.
There are plenty of brandable domains which domainers would never buy for $100K-$200K, while perfect end user could pay $10m+ for. FB.com and iCloud.com are perfect examples of it. And there are plenty more sales like FB.com and iCloud.com, with a few being in the $ tens of millions.
WorldTradeCenter.com is just not one of these names. It is a crappy brand with no brand value whatsoever. No serious business would brand itself as WorldTradeCenter.com. It just makes zero sense.
In fairness to MHB the domain being for sale is worth writting about and he has tried to validate the price claim with the person complicit in the lie – sorry broker.
Robert, dont let me down mate, I know youre gagging to tell me you turned down a £11,000,000 offer for WorldTradeCenter.co
you need to insert into the title of the article, ‘claim they’ before ‘turned down’
it is perhaps the biggest bs article i have EVER read on any domain blog
quite amazed you printed it tbh
as normally this is one of the few worthwhile domain blogs around
i checked this site out several yrs a go and its was a tribute site with boats with light candels floating aroung on the water representing new york,the seller of isreal had restrictions..nothing negative about isreal,groupon turned down 6 billion and went on to raise 1 billion.there is an emotional attachment to this domain…kinda like a woman to a new born child.apparently money is not the issue here.as the seller has remained consistant in not selling the domain.eventually the domain will sell with restrictions attached to the domain.
Mike has a very valid point here
“So you can choose to believe the guy is of high moral character and turned down the money, with proof that he choose at the time not to make use of the traffic which must have huge or to monetize it”
Most domainers would have parked the page and capitilized on the PPC ads.
However, I don’t think it matters whether or not the guy turned down $1m, $10m or $20 trillion for the name. It’s a moot point and once which is either (a) true or (b) a little exaggeration of the truth to get attention to the name.
Whoever that other Alan guy is (man, please use your full name) its important to note you cant compare apples to apples for most domain name sales. We all preach each one is unique so a $13m sale for sex.com doesnt translate over to this. There are many emotional attachments to this domain of historical significance and whatever price it sells for will become priceless down the road, if the domain is developed correctly.
Again, a domain is only worth as much as a buyer is willing to pay and how much a buyer percieves the value of a domain to be. The industry does not have to agree or disagree .. just the buyer.
Isn’t this the same case as whitehouse- was a porn site?
The buyer might be a “jihad” and wants to make a case agst USA.
Great domain but with a limited use (US spelling) – A Memorial or to sell WTC commercial property some time in the future.
Add to that TheWorldTradeCenter.com might be available for ALOT less. (currently parked) what else is it any good for ?
Now Silverstein Properties has been given (for free) wtc.com which gets a load more traffic who else would be the PERFECT end-user that would/could pay that kind of money for it?
JMO but best of luck
Wow. Definitely have some strong ethics if you turn down a 14mill offer because you don’t like what the new owner will do with the name.
Has anyone checked to see if its listed on Ebay for £21,000,000?
It’s possible that the domain name got an offer for $14M but the question is – was that a genuine offer?
It’s all very depressing, isn’t it?
We all know this domain is not worth $14 million.
If it wasn’t for 9/11 the domain would be a slam-dunk UDRP case for whoever owned the New York WTC at the time.
The people who are trying to drum up the price now should be ashamed of themselves. They’re trying to capitalize on 9/11.
The owner should donate the domain name to American people who are suffering in WTC tragedies…
It’s all greedy…
Looks like they also have: worldtradecenter.net world-trade-center.com world-trade-center.us, maybe others. I think 14 million would be harder to get now.
S/he would be thankful that the “incident” happened if not, the domain is just another BS website.
joker
.
on the Afternic:
worldtradecenterS.com $7,000
worldtradecenterS.org $2,000
@Kevin Murphy : Do you think before you write? The owner had the domain name for five years before 9/11. And apparently in those five years there was no challenge to the ownership.
And why should anyone be ashamed? They’re not cashing in on a tragedy, just looking to find a new owner. Ground Zero and the World Trade Center complex are now being rebuilt. Are they looking to cash in on the tragedy as well?
Not everyone in the world is unscrupulous, you know. Jeez!
I don’t think today is 1st of April or maybe i am toooooo drunk
🙂
Unfortunately it is inevitable that ‘world trade center’ will forever mean something very different to what it actually is. Especially for Americans, and probably most western nationalities. If I personally owned this name I would take the 14m, keep enough to be happy for the forseeable future and give the rest to survivor’s charities and the NY fire dept. 🙁 This surely is a better practical benefit imo.
I dont find it that hard to believe that an individual or consortium of owners of one or more of the dozens of other ‘world trade centers’ in the world wouldnt offer this money.
At a guess, 14m probably would rent the top floor of the Tokyo address of the same name for while, and heaven knows the price tag of the Bahraini properties.
The owner has good ethical standards. It will enjoy good traffic this upcoming Sept. 11, the 10 year anniversary of the tragedy.
While domain names are overrated and manage to help people who normally would have no clue what to do beyond the domain social space, I’ll admit that the Internet is still growing.
FranklyMyDearIDontGiveADamn.com is used unethically to bank on Hollywood movie lines.
We know how many bad domains are sold are in result of our friendly foes on the Eastern hemisphere. Check whois on previous domain sales. There’s a lot of money available to be invested. i.e. dot info sites.
I agree with Jason 100%. Chalk one up for the good guys.
It’s easy to jump to conclusions and say that the owner is a scumbag looking for a quick buck but just take a look at the current website. It’s really nice and there are no ads, and no doubt took a tremendous amount of time to setup and maintain.
The guy who owns it is probably just trying to find a responsible new owner and move on. And IMO everyone who posted negative crap got it wrong.
Just wondering, does anyone know what the actual asking price is?