If your the guy who sold the domain name FundAnything.com on Afternic.com for $2,500 year ago in October 2012, you might not to read any further.
The domain name FundAnything.com, is now the centerpiece of Co-owners Donald Trumps new “kicker starter like” funding project.
According to a press release out today, “In less than three months, the billionaire’s FundAnything.com has become the fastest crowdfunding website to raise over $1 million for a single project. ”
“Now Trump is upping the ante by offering a $1 million reward to the first person who uses FundAnything.com to break the all-time crowdfunding record.”
“If you have a great idea, FundAnything is one of the best ways to raise money that I’ve ever seen,” explained Trump. “So I’m giving away $1 million to the first person who raises more than the $10,181,000 that Pebble Watch raised on Kickstarter. I want the whole world to know how fast and easy it is to raise money this way.”
“Last year, sites like FundAnything and Kickstarter raised more than $3 billion for business and creative ideas, charitable causes, community projects and personal needs.
“Over $5 billion is expected to be crowdfunded in 2013.”
“Right now there’s someone out there with a great idea and a burning desire to be the next Steve Jobs,” added Trump. “I want that person to know I’ve got one million reasons why FundAnything is the best place to turn that dream into a reality.”
“Bill Zanker, who co-founded FundAnything with Donald Trump concurred, “I’m issuing a call to action for entrepreneurs everywhere. We are looking for the next BIG idea. Whether that’s a tech project, a smart gadget, an app, game, or a startup. Donald and I want to give you a million dollars. We are blowing crowdfunding wide open for everyday people. The reign of Kickstarter’s Brooklyn hipsters is over.”
As a domain investor, this is certainly a worst case nightmare scenario.
Selling a highly brandable domain for $2,500 only to find the buyer is one of the richest guys in the world and going to be used for his latest big project.
Wow.
This is certainly the poster child case of selling a brandable for way to little and leaving an mega yacht sized amount of money on the table.
That’s the bane of “buy it now pricing” relying on Estibot as the bible.
My philosophy. Never have “seller’s remorse” (BTW – that was not my domain/URL). It’s in the Past. Focus on the Now. I’ve given URLs away “gratis” that became vibrant companies. Gave a URL to someone from Bloomberg News(which wanted to purchase it) gratis this past week (well, in return for making a donation to 2 well-known charitable orgs in the healthcare/cancer arenas). It all comes back. But I can be a fierce negotiator as well.
Ouch! This could happen to anyone when they sell blindly through Sedo, Afternic etc…..The guy who sold it should phone the guy who sold Facebook.com or maybe the guy who sold Twitter.com for advice and how to deal with depression, but don’t phone Rick because he gets $1m + for his names and he is HAPPY!
Ouch! This could happen to anyone when they sell blindly through Sedo, Afternic etc…..The guy who sold it should phone the guy who sold Facebook (com) or maybe the guy who sold Twitter (com) for advice and how to deal with depression, but don’t phone Rick because he gets $1m + for his names and he is HAPPY!
Ouch!
Ok, this is the whole reason companies buy domains, is to build businesses on them, and sometimes they do hit. If the guy had asked $10K for it, most likely these lowballers would have purchased FundIdeas.com from BuyDomains for $2488, among other options, they built the business, into the brand. They could have branded it anything similar, and it would still have the same success with the name, and money behind it.
So to the seller, no you did not sell the farm, or the yacht, as it never was there to begin with. I wonder this with DomainNameSales new broker platform as well, the brokers know who the companies are behind the offers, should they be sharing that when asking the sellers for a quote?
If it was done via afternic, they usually like to make $2,500 deals so it all makes sense. The seller had a two keyword .com doing nothing, and got $2,500 for it, we all face the same dilemma via afternic, sedo, and broker deals in most cases.
I agree that to many domainers give their assets away, but this is not a horrible deal, they might have gotten $5K, maybe $10K, but not much more….
@Ryan
” the brokers know who the companies are behind the offers, should they be sharing that when asking the sellers for a quote?”
Totally agree!
Ryan
You could be right, and maybe the buyer of the domain had 10 other options and if this domain was priced higher the buyer would have moved on to another domain
But maybe not
For every buyer that is fine with 10 choices, there are other buyers that want A Particular DOMAIN
Maybe this is the one they wanted.
It does happen
Ask Rick about punchbowl.com
Ask me about 100’s of domains just like this that I have sold for $25K or more that had 10 other cheaper options.
brokers sometimes represent the buyers
@MB
You are 100% correct, but to some people $2500 is a small lottery ticket, there are a featured few who can wait out the big offers. I think you have mentioned this many times with the onslaught of new gtlds you are double thinking buy scenarios in regards to what future considerations may bring, especially in the legal space…
I am in the same boat, I would rather sell one domain for $25K, rather than 10 for $2,500… that is where knowing the buyer comes into play, sometimes a small clue can trace back to the purchaser, other times you see dollar signs, and a blind offer, and take it, after years of seeing no offers…
That is why I am curious about the new DNS platform many domainers have switched to, and the broker assisted deals, once again the buyer information is being withheld, the seller was a deer caught in the headlights, he never saw it coming. I can’t see him getting more than $10K before Afternic, would have given them a slew of other options, who knows what their opening offer was…
I think for MegaYacht money the Donald would have just bought Fund.com, or Anything.com.
this is why i never list on sedo, afternic, godaddy, etc…they can always use anon emails but its a lot easier to do research when you have something rather than nothing.
It’s Wednesday, so Monday morning quarterbacks seem out of place. 😀
That is unethical on any level. A billionaire who could have claimed the asset purchase back as a taxable expense regardless of price and they let them simply snatch the domain & lifelong brand for just $2500!
It’s time people woke up on this sort of rip off online, these stories are everywhere.
Only register and build brands that you are extremely passionate about and don’t sell your assets for pennies – THEY BELONG TO YOU!
Get what you want to change your life or whoever they are will have to do WITHOUT & if they ARE A BILLIONAIRE walking away then that would be of their own STUPIDITY with having an “id rather do without, than reward you for coming up with the brand that i was too slow & ‘un-creative’ to ever dream of before you”..
Where is the pat on the back here for being the brand spotter & creator/founder which made you want to register the domain in the first place? They where basically minding the asset for them & their lawyers get more than this per day too!!!!!!!!!!!
Money talks, if you would have said £10m they would just pay it if they are ‘besotted’ enough with your brand. Especially you should always calculate and keep in mind the niche that your assets reside in.. why list it as $2500 for a domain that is a possible ‘future player’ (now a real billionaire backed player) in a $3bn per year raised funds industry with an expected $5bn fund raising this year! It was a bad mistake.
Get what you want or tell them to move on.. After all it’s not your loss, you didn’t lose anything but they lost their desired brand. Google rick schwartz’s ‘ebet .com’ sale on his blog & learn from it.
Everyone – Review your asset prices & remove BUY IT NOWs – Its time to learn & adapt to a fast moving industry! Too many people slap on a BUT IT NOW Price and don’t even update the listing for years! Prices move all the time.
Sigh!!!
Acro
Its not Monday morning QB
Been saying this for well over a year since our Domaining 6.0 post
DO NOT SELL YOUR BRANDABLE DOMAINS FOR CHEAP
$25K minimum
You can sell you longtail, keyword rich domains, domains that don’t mean anything, domains that have a lot of new gTLD exposure if you need to raise cash.
Brandables like this domain should NEVER be sold for 4 figures and they can fetch six figures
I have several brandable domain names I would consider selling that I have had for years. Some 10+ years old.
Looking for input on true valuations or finding a good broker to help sell them.
Anyone interested please leave me a post and I would like to chat on phone or in person if your in the Los Angeles area.
Peter