After 7 Hours of Bidding, GovermentGrants.com Sells For $53K On NameJet (Yes It’s a Typo)

2010 May 25
by Michael H. Berkens

After 7 hours of extended bidding on NameJet.com,  the auction for the domain name GovermentGrants.com finally ended with a sales price of $53,022.

Yes its a typo.

The correctly spelled domain, governmentgrants.com has some nice traffic, with compete.com showing over 30K monthly visitors and  Alexa gives it a rank of 555K.

The ownership of GovernmentGrants.com is under Moniker privacy.

The typo that sold today has an Alexa rank of 5.5M.

According to WordTracker.com there is about 10% of the search volume for the typo as for the correct term.

So if GovermentGrants.com sold for $53K is GovernmentGrants.com worth in excess of $500K?

Yes its kind of unfortunate to see the highest selling domain on my NameJet.com board for 2010 to be a typo.

Its also the highest domain sale on my NameJet.com board since the mid-February auction of Historia.com (sold for $40K).

A few other “Government” typo domains sold today:

USGoverment.com $4,950

GovermentGrant.com $3,950

GovermentAuction.com $2,750

GovermentAuctions.com $2,500

The correctly spelled domains of FloridaGovernment.com and CaliforniaGovernment.com also sold today for only around $2K each.

Since all of these domains appeared to drop on the same day, it looks like one domain holder just let $65K in domains just drop.

Ouch.

In a non-government domain sale today, ComputerUpgrade.com went for just $3,773 on NameJet

36 Responses leave one →
  1. 2010 May 25

    I guess alot of people would be happy to get this amount for their correctly spelled generics.

  2. 2010 May 25
    MHB permalink

    Me too

  3. 2010 May 25
    sin permalink

    Hi this domain gets even 100 visitors per day, then this is a win win deal, and guy most likely will recover his money. Why because I said so. (only if he gets 100 us visitors per day)

    Congrats

  4. 2010 May 25

    Is it true if yes then a lot of people would be happy to get this amount for their correctly spelled generics.

  5. 2010 May 25

    The Gov will be cutting all their grant programs soon. Hope the buyer heard that news.

  6. 2010 May 25
    Seb permalink

    Looking at the Whois record, it seems the sale of historia.com didn’t go through.

  7. 2010 May 25
    rayan permalink

    i smell another “nelson brandy” lurking around

  8. 2010 May 25

    Here’s more on the former owner.

    http://www.keytlaw.com/urls/zuccarini.htm

  9. 2010 May 25
    Ms Domainer permalink

    *

    That’s why learning how to spell is so important, or, at the very least, checking one’s spelling before plunking down that kind of money. It takes 30 seconds to highlight a domain name and paste into Google for a spell check.

    As an English teacher (in my other life), I will use this as an example of how ignorance and impulsiveness can result in bad business decisions and major money losses.

    I would not be at all surprised if this sale fell apart.

    *

  10. 2010 May 25

    I doubt they will close

  11. 2010 May 25
    Jim permalink

    I find it very difficult to believe this what purposely bought as a typo and would be amazed if this transaction goes through. While I am used to seeing typos the missing “n” eluded me when looking at the domain headlines for this domain sale.

  12. 2010 May 25

    Not saying that IDNs are bad but us English speaking people are probably buying IDNs every day that are spelled wrong or not quite what we think it means. I’m guessing the same thing happened here

  13. 2010 May 25
    MHB permalink

    I know the bidder Id on NameJet that won the auction.

    The domain will close.

  14. 2010 May 25
    Steven permalink

    Looks like JB is right (as usual) http://www.calejl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=525
    “The Court also finds that it is appropriate to appoint a receiver, to which the domain names can be transferred. See Kronenberger Decl. ¶ 29. DS Holdings has shown that, “considering the interests of both the judgment creditor and the judgment debtor, the appointment of a receiver appointment of a receiver is a reasonable method to obtain the fair and orderly satisfaction of the judgment.” California Code of Civil Procedure § 708.620. Accordingly, the Court GRANTS DS Holdings’ request to appoint Michael W. Blacksburg as receiver.”

  15. 2010 May 25
    Louise permalink

    Which blog am I reading? Am I on DomainGang? Are you joking?

  16. 2010 May 25
    Louise permalink

    Did you notice on Big Ticket Domains,
    Heroine.com – $100k
    but they’re promoting it as, “Developed Drug Rehab Site!”

    That made me chuckle. It isn’t like “heroine” – the female hero of a novel or play – wouldn’t make for a great site. Did they have to make it about heroin?

  17. 2010 May 25
    namejet bargain permalink

    Quote – “I doubt they will close”

    You are mistaken. I’m sure they have enough equity to pay for the domain.

    If a major domainer owned this domain, he would want
    $ 50K – $ 100K for it.
    If I offered it to one of the major domainers, they would offer me $ 500. :)

    Once again, Namejet and Netsol are smiling all of the way to the bank.
    Where can a firm sell something that cost $ 7. * the month before
    for $ 53K?
    (* renewal fee which would be refunded if dropped)

    The new owner generally parks his domains. But, this domain would pay
    for itself within a short period of time but not thru parked.com .
    Google will ignore that it is a typo if the domain was developed.

    If you like the basic domain, GovermentGrants.biz is available.

  18. 2010 May 25
    Grant Domains Are Good permalink

    This was a great deal for the potential traffic and earnings, it probably gets 10% + of the type-ins the other one with the “n” does. If the regular one gets 750 type-ins a day then this would get 75 or so, if the other gets 1200 a day this would get 120 visitors, etc. It could be even more as the non “n” version is a very common spelling.

    If the click through rate is close to 100% and the clicks are just .50 each it would earn mid $xx per day which would just be a few years revenue paid for it when all is said and done. With an affiliate grant program even more money could be made. I think this was a smart purchase on a traffic type-in for a quite valuable niche. Congrats to the buyer!

  19. 2010 May 25

    And if he tried to sell them privatley he would have got a fraction of that price. Everyone is a sucker for a drop auction. It’s like a last chance sale

  20. 2010 May 25
    MHB permalink

    JP

    of course to make an auction you need at least two “suckers”.

  21. 2010 May 25
    Love Domains permalink

    Always fun to hear the comments from the peanut gallery and small time domainers who can’t afford the big traffic names that are actually worth alot of money.

  22. 2010 May 25
    Aussie permalink

    I would have paid twice that for the name if it gets good traffic

  23. 2010 May 26

    “Not saying that IDNs are bad but us English speaking people are probably buying IDNs every day…”

    Being a speaker of English, surely you mean “we” are probably buying IDNs every day (i.e., not “us”).

  24. 2010 May 26

    These “Gems” are all available to register. HURRY!!!!

    EffectiveGoverment.com
    IntelligentGoverment.com
    GovermentTypo.com
    GovermentWorks.com

  25. 2010 May 26
    MHB permalink

    Chip

    Intelligent Government talk about an oxymoron

  26. 2010 May 26

    Sorry, I was trying to be ironic as “Government” was mispelled in the domains I provided.

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