Yahoo has proved that investing in domain names can pay off after auctioning a range that included Sandwich.com and Sold.com.au.
The Internet giant launched the week-long “Domainapalooza” sale event through Sedo after “stumbling across” a long list of domains it had owned for years.
“When you’re a company that’s been around as long as Yahoo, there are lots of fun things that you stumble across. This year, we found a huge list of domain names that the company has owned for quite some time,” Yahoo Deputy General Counsel Kevin Kramer explains on the company’s Tumblr.
“As we discussed what to do with them, it became obvious that it was time to set them free…back into the wild of the Internet.”
Kramer went on to list some of the quirky domain names sent off to auction, including notes for possible businesses or websites.
For instance, he suggests Blogsport.com “could be great if blogging ever became an Olympic sport”, while Jockeys.com might be “social network for people who ride horses”. Other domain names included in the auction are:
- AV.com
- Crackers.com
- Cursed.com
- CyberJokes.com
- Jumpcut.com
- Postajob.com
- Sled.com
- TheBroadcastNetwork.com
- WebServer.com
“Surely, creative people, businesses and entrepreneurs could come up with something great to do with them,” Kramer speculates, “They could even spark some brand new ideas or companies.
The auction ran from the 14th to the 21st November 2013, although many of the names are still available.
Of those sold during the sale period, Sandwich.com brought in the most money at US$137,500, followed by Sold.com.au for US$15,600 and Postajob.com for $13,500. The least expensive domain name Yahoo sold at auction was Tesserae.com for a mere US$707.
Industry analysts have suggested Yahoo will bring in several million dollars from the sales of these domain names, with most featuring starting prices between $10,000 and $99,000 at the start of the sale and the majority now simply by offer.
If that is the case, then Yahoo will also be an example of the lucrative side of investing in domain names and may encourage more people to buy up while they can.
But the domain name sale also suggests that some major companies may be sitting on goldmines when it comes to unused domains. Perhaps Yahoo’s peers, like Google and Facebook, also have a wide range of domains through various acquisitions?
While it is hard to be sure, it could be enough for some people to keep a more eager eye on domain name sales and wait for the ideal name to make it onto a list.