Hopefully Enom or someone else can step up but the domains of a domain investor who passed away are expiring and it needs to stop.
Ron Jackson wrote about Roy Flanders back in December of 2016. sadly Roy passed away. I did not know the man personally but for those that did he seemed to be really a great guy. In 2012 he donated $250,000 to the Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s Annual Fund. It was a sign of his appreciation for the care he was receiving there and the critical role the hospital played in his tight knit community.
Yesterday GreatNames.com closed at $25,000 on GoDaddy. it expired at ENOM so I don’t know if someone in Roy’s family could still renew. If not GoDaddy should donate the $25,000 to Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s Annual Fund.
It looks like Roy had over 3,400 domains according to DomainIQ.
Good looking out Raymond, and that $25,000 donation sounds brilliant! GoDaddy should not keep that money.
That’s funny. Goddady should not keep the money? Why?? Someone dies, and did not think of how to secure the domains to someone else. Happens every day, no one cares. Registrars are allowed to get their hands on domains because of a loophole in the ICANN rules that even permits them to take the domains to themselves if they wish. It is happening for years, no one cares.
Has no one contacted his family?
I contacted Ron Jackson this morning Josh because he knew him.
That was good of you Raymond, I can tell you I did call the number in the most recent whois and spoke to a man who claims he didn’t know Alton and I had the wrong number. Even after mentioning his domain investments etc.
I then looked for another number and when that was phoned is disconnected.
Those numbers were 5XX-XXX-1920 (most recent whois) and 5XX-XXX-8507 according to address/name search.
I would dig deeper but do not want to bother anyone if Ron is already on it and perhaps has the best contact.
Thanks for the heads up Ray! I have contacted some of Roy’s closest friends and reached out to some other contacts with the hope that we can get this information to a member of Roy’s immediate family that I am aware of but do not have current contact info for.
Keep us posted Ron, I do have a ladies name associated to him and showing the same address but do not want to bother her if it was not needed.
Domains expire every day from people sick, dying or careless. Just because you know of the domainer who owned this one doesn’t mean Godaddy should do anything different with the proceeds.
Bannana man is smart, he makes it like he is trying to help get the domain back, then buys it on the cheap, and x10 the price.
No. But I assume you are joking.
You have done it for years with 3L’s Mr.Banana, I forget your name, Josh, from Adam Dickers neck of the woods locale.
I’m saving your domain, oh btw you don’t need it let me buy it from you now, turn around and x10 lol great business, my hats off to you, but don’t think people are entirely stupid.
As stated above everyday top domains get sold for the same reason, many here have profited from them, is everyone willing to pay everything back? Get real where do you think most of the best names really come from the domain fairy?
Every top domain that gets sold, gets sold for the same reason? You sure about that genius? That’s a complete lie, top domains are sold for a lot of reasons, including drops, companies drop names all the time, some people have a project for two years and then drop it and then it gets sold.
Pretty sure Josh has helped people with stolen domains for a long time, what have you done for anyone in this business?
Firstly thank you @VR (comment below).
@Mike, I cannot even justify a response but I will because you are so far off base it isn’t funny. I have literally helped in the return of XXX’s maybe more stolen and lost to time domains to the rightful owners over the last 1X years. And do you know how many names I have bought from the people I helped recover their name, maybe, maybe 2. In fact as I sit here I can only recall 1 for sure and the other asked me if I wanted to buy it and both of those names I can share I paid $20k each for years ago so no one got a steal.
I am actually some what flattered that I have apparently reached a level of success that conspiracy theories and stories are now a go to for my successes lol I work hard Mike, very hard, there is no short cut, put your head down and work.
I have dedicated myself to helping people in the industry and outside of it who run into these situations, most cases the public will never know about.
This is quite sad. There are also several one-word .us domains expiring …… wonder if the owner also passed on.
sadly i have called roy’s mobile, office and home numbers and all are disconnected.
the last communication i had with his daughter was maybe six months after he moved on – and that was thru his mobile number.
roy always said he had some kind of perpetual thing set up – and the guy (Mike ???) used to work with andrew ??? at fabulous (deep blue sea).
Mike Robertson
Is a guy I knew years back who had some kind of Domain Protection Service that Roy Flanders told me he was using. I am not aware of the details of the contract or how those details needed to be fulfilled. He may be the guy that has some kind of control of those domains provided the obligations of whatever arrangement was made are cured. And if Roys daughter got involved – WHO KNOWS ……..
I have emailed Mike Robertson at this email address
Bri
Very sad to hear this news.
Met Roy well over a decade ago.
He was a regular at TRAFFIC
Just a NICE guy!!
The domain Graveyard is growing and it gives me no pleasure to say that.
Time passes fast folks, don’t waste your good energy on nonsense and bullshit!!
RIP Roy!
Mike Robertson
Mike email address did not come thru last post
Mike Robertson
Mike AT DomainGuardians DOT com
is the email address I have – if the thread takes it
I don’t think Mike is at domain guardians anymore. I will email him and tell him of situation.
Hi Raymond,
I have been in contact with someone who knows his daughter – would you mind giving some advice on where she should start securing/renewing the domain names?
Thanks in advance,
kerry
The names are at ENOM, and someone did say he was dealing with DomainGuardians.com.
Its going to become more common as domainers age. Most have nothing in place, myself included.
After Ray contacted me I got a hold of three of Roy’s close industry friends and all immediately jumped in to help including Ari Goldberger (one of the world’s best domain attorneys). I expect one or more of them to be able to contact the relative I mentioned (who I believe has access to the domains) so that person can get the help they need and hopefully stop further losses. Kudos to Ray for ringing the alarm bell on this.
Well I called a spoke to the Foundation and she said something about an email on same subject to I guess she has the information. She didn’t seem that interested though but maybe she will pursue.
yes raymond-
Mike AT DomainGuardians DOT com
But it looks like that domain forwards to somewhere else now – not a good sign.
Bri
I have sent Mike the URL to this thread and he will no doubt reply to that. I didn’t think I should simply post his email address.
Roy and I had many regular conversations – about everything – and that is a lot 🙂 – this is a very good Karma Thread Raymond.
And considering many many years back I did a significant cash deal with Roy before we even knew each other – all based on my gut trust instinct – we were friends since that point – Karma baby.
Bri
We often hear people describe domainers as “cut-throats”, “vultures, “predators”, “squatters”. But this proves the majority of domainers will do the right thing, or at least attempt to do so. Let’s hope his family or friends can save Roy’s domains from expiring.
“Crypto exchange customers can’t access $190 million after CEO dies with sole password”
what happens if no one can get access to his account to renew?
I will reach out to Roy’s daughter now. The last I spoke with her was over a year ago.
Thank you John for alerting me to this post (I’m currently out of the office) and thanks Ray for alerting everyone to these domains dropping.
Domain Guardians seems like a waste of money
Roy keeps his domains at eNom …and as of his moving on it looks like they are likely still there after I checked a few.
Because eNom Redacts everything in WHOIS – even if you are in the USA – I made a decision months ago to move everything to another USA based registrar so at least the WHOIS is relevant. Registrars are only required to redacts WHOIS for European registrants – and candidly that is complete laziness on the part of eNom other unmentioned others.
Point is Mike R. if you are able to contact Roy’s daughter(which is an awsume effort on your part) – it might be in her best interest to put those domains with a registrar (like NAME.com that I use) that does not redacts WHOIS for USA Based Registrants – in order to avoid lots of confusion – especially in her circumstance.
Bri
Exactly Brian they are all there, echecking.com also closed yesterday at $1,325 a skilled domainer could have gotten Roy’s daughter more for that name imo.
I contacted ENOM 7 am my time, the rep on the phone after I explained the situation just said do you have any other questions? Ignoring my question and I was like I know better, why even bother with this company?
Rob Grant, Ammar Kubba and Ari Goldberger are on this according to Ron so hopefully she understands she needs to get going on getting these renewed, now Roy had over 3,400 names maybe she can’t afford to renew them all. So get some renewed and start liquidating so she benefits or Roy’s chosen charity benefits and not GoDaddy.
I’ve sent Roy’s daughter an email and tried to contact her on the cell number I have for her. It’s been over a year since we last spoke, so I’m hoping she still uses that number. Fingers crossed she gets in contact with me, or someone else in the industry.
If anyone needs to contact me, I’m back to Fabulous.com, my email is mike@fabulous.com and my personal email is mikerobertson@gmail.com.
Thanks Mike and we go back a long ways, you have always been one of the good people in the business. What happened to DomainGuardians? Was Roy aware that the service was no longer protecting him or was it still back in December of 2016?
Thanks for the kind words Ray.
I haven’t been involved with Domain Guardians since February, 2016. Any questions relating to that should be directed to Adam Strong or Jen Sale.
Absolutely. Mike is definitely an outstanding person – responsive, polite, and diligent.
Per Guardians, I thought the concept and value prop were brilliant, but I read an interview with Jen wherein she said the company began to pivot after heirs had received super premium domains in their estates and engaged the company to broker these domains, as the heirs, for the most part, had no idea of the value of premium domains. Someone should do a story on heirs who sold premium names like yachts.com, green.com, cloud.com, etc for small amounts on forums, etc after googling “sell domains”.
Thanks again, Mike — are you back in Australia? Don’t think you’re in Tampa any more.
Roy was never a client of Domain Guardians. Mike and Jen launched DG in 2011, with me as their first “test client” and an investor. It was never fully adopted by many domainers, as such the business model shifted to what most domainers wanted . . . sales.
Roy had a very good relationship with Mike Robertson before Mike’s departure from Domain Guardians. To my knowledge though, the company was never engaged with Roy.
Domain Guardians as a concept was designed to help “domain heirs” manage, sell, or monetize their domain names upon incapacitation, retirement, death, etc. . . It’s a great concept and obviously most people would agree is clearly necessary (case in point Roy) but the adoption of this concept requires people to be proactive in protecting themselves and pay for a service that most do not value in the present. . . . only now do we all see the value. There’s a reason people don’t like life insurance salesman as well. . . . It’s just not something anyone wants to deal with or think about but it’s obviously necessary
Thanks for clearing that up.
Well, you’re right on target.
I did estate planning when I was 37, after one of my companies got acquired. But you’re right — the whole manage a domain portfolio, get up to speed on the industry, etc is not easy. And a lot of people just don”t like to do estate planning and even wills. Aretha Franklin died without a will, as did several high profile entertainers who died in the past few years — Prince?
great job Raymond, and to everyone else here who is helping. You read some comments about this on namepros and you wonder are those people mentally ill or just plain stupid?
There is some waste of sperm on Namepros saying maybe he didn’t want his names saved and just wanted them to drop. #epicstupidity
Is it just me or is the general consensus that the majority of members on NP are predators or bottom-feeders. I see requests from persons seeking 5 key word premium .com domains to buy up to 5 K. Someone requested a domain and gave examples of the domain he was seeking to buy for 20 K. I owned the exact domain in ,.com. I submitted it and never received a response. Received an offer of 500 USD for a domain I paid 15 K for in 2008, and submitted a recent 20 K offer viia Sedo which I had declined. Hiis response: 500 USD – my final offer. Sure, when I declined an offer of 20 K two weeks earlier. I ended up selling the domain for 30 K in November last year,
yes namepos wanted thread is filth, people looking for 3l.com for $500
@Steve – thank you for the kind words. I’m still based in Tampa, Florida.