Rick Schwartz the Domain King, has just sold the domain name Porno.com for $8,888,888 in an all cash transaction handled by Escrow.com.
The sale will rank as the 4th highest publicly reported, all cash, domain sale of all time, according to DNjournal.com.
Porno.com becomes the highest reported domain name sale in five year, since of Sex.com resold in 2010 for $13 million dollars.
Rick bought this domain in August of 1997 for $42,000 “from a college student that bought it the week before for $5,000”
Since owning the domain name, the Domain King told us that Porno.com “has earned well in excess of over $10 million via parking and redirects without ever providing actual adult content.”
So Rick’s $42,000 investment generated over $20 Million.
By comparison, if you bought $1,000 worth of stock of Amazon at the IPO price in 1997 according to statista.com, the $1,000 would be worth about $239,000, so a $42K investment in Amazon at its IPO price would be worth a about $10 Million today, or less than half of Rick’s return on the domain name Porno.com.
Clearly this will go down as one of the greatest investments of all time.
Of course as we have often chatted about the only way to get the kind of number Rick did on this sale is to say no to other large offers.
Rick says he turned down $5,000,000 for the domain before and never looked back.
In this round Rick turned down $7.5 million before settling on the nearly $8.9 Million dollar sales price.
The buyer is a company out of Prague which owns other great domain names including Swingers.com and PornoTv.com.
You might think Schwartz sells a lot of domains, but at the heart of his 20 year plan was holding on and not selling.
As a matter of fact, Schwartz has only sold 20 domain names in those 20 years.
Five of those domains for 7 figures including Men.com for $1.3MM in 2003, eBet.com for 1.365MM in 2013, Candy.com for $3MM in 2008 plus a 12% ownership stake, Property.com for $4M in 2009 plus a 5% stake there, as well as stock in Punchbowl.com which he sold to MyPunchbowl a few years ago.
In a press release out today, Schwartz says about domains: “Use an easy to remember and easy to spell domain name and never settle for anything without .com on the end unless you use your local country code. But even then, having the .com counterpart is very important.”
The “Domain King” has been trying to educate business about domain names since 1996. His site eRealEstate.com, circa 1996-2000 still has his original thoughts from an era where only 5% of businesses were actually online with a web presence. He ran RicksBlog.com until 2014 and his every thought about business and domains is still there and completely accessible.
In closing Mr. Schwartz teased that there are other big domain sales on the horizon saying:
“Stay tuned, as he plans to sell domains like 399.com, 750,.com, 899.com and 12 other 3 numbered .com domains (NNN.com) that are very heavily in demand in China.
345.com recently sold for $800,000 and with 15 such numerical domains, Schwartz plans to celebrate in a big way as he celebrates 20 years this coming December.
An amazing domain and an amazing sale.
Congrats to the Domain King and the buyer.
For the rest of us further proof that the number 8 is really lucky, especially when you get 7 of them
All in cash.
JeffEdelman says
February 2, 2015 at 12:53 pmCongratulations to Rick. Another great success story.
Matt W says
February 2, 2015 at 12:58 pmWhat a number Rick!
facebook_user says
February 2, 2015 at 12:59 pmWOW, just WOW …
Another BIG, BIG SALE closed by Domain King!
Congratulations Rick.
Ramahn says
February 2, 2015 at 1:03 pmGreat sale….I thought he’d never get rid of that domain name. Really excited to see what his NNN’s will bring.
jose says
February 2, 2015 at 1:22 pmweird sales number. 8888888… means jackpot. Rick rules it in every angle !
.
Joe says
February 2, 2015 at 1:23 pmCongrats, King!
PunkRock says
February 2, 2015 at 1:28 pmSomething doesn’t add up: If since 2007 porno.com has generated $10 mil in ad revenue that’s $1,250,000 per year which is unbelievable and would make this domain sale the biggest flop of the century.
Mike Jones says
February 2, 2015 at 1:33 pmHe has owned the name for 18 years
PunkRock says
February 2, 2015 at 2:03 pmlooks like Rick hand reged it 1999-03-29 making him the first and only owner up until now. That story about the college student selling for $42K in 2007 false
Ramahn says
February 2, 2015 at 2:20 pmNo, it’s not false. You are going by Whois, but those records only go back so far. Records info changes any time the domain transfers, changes registrars, etc. there might have been a record change with the domain in ’99 but Rick didn’t reg the domain in ’99.
Mike Jones says
February 2, 2015 at 1:32 pmGreat sale for this adult keyword, if it was in 95% of anyone else’s hands, it would have been sold much earlier than 2015, and not for nearly this price.
The domain yielded a return of 1 million per year over 18 years, pretty amazing for a a piece of virtual property, really great of him to share this sale with the world, as it does help get the word out, and get people to realize the power of a good domain name.
Michael Castello says
February 2, 2015 at 1:55 pmWell done Rick. The wait paid off.
DNPric.es says
February 2, 2015 at 1:55 pmFinancially and technically, that student achieved higher IRR, while Rick hit 35% CAGR.
And yet, Rick now can buy a big yacht 😉
Mike Jones says
February 2, 2015 at 3:37 pmA big yacht, maybe back in 2009, they are still pricey for a big one.
cmac says
February 2, 2015 at 2:22 pmAll hail the king!
Jon Schultz says
February 2, 2015 at 2:22 pmAmazing sale. Congrats!
Michael Berkens says
February 2, 2015 at 2:22 pmPunkRock:
You need to get a domaintools.com account:
Record Date: 2007-08-05
Registrar: MONIKER ONLINE SERVICES, INC.
Server: whois.moniker.com
Created: 1999-03-29
Updated: 2007-04-05
Expires: 2017-03-29
Reverse Whois:
Domain Name: PORNO.COM
Registrant [2210]:
New Century Investments Ltd
co Cozier and Associates Primrose Bldg Ramsbury Rd.
2nd Floor
Charlestown
Nevis
00000
KN
Administrative Contact [2210]:
R Schwartz chatboardinvites@aol.com
New Century Investments Ltd
co Cozier and Associates Primrose Bldg Ramsbury Rd.
2nd Floor
Charlestown
Nevis
00000
KN
Phone: +1.5617531014
Billing Contact [2210]:
R Schwartz chatboardinvites@aol.com
New Century Investments Ltd
co Cozier and Associates Primrose Bldg Ramsbury Rd.
2nd Floor
Charlestown
Nevis
00000
KN
Phone: +1.5617531014
Technical Contact [2400]:
Rick Schwartz mr800king@aol.com
eRealEstate.com
Box 4357
Boynton Beach
FL
33424
US
Phone: +1.5617531014
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.BNMQ.COM
NS2.BNMQ.COM
Record created on: 1999-03-29 00:00:00.0
Database last updated on: 2007-04-05 21:11:59.077
Domain Expires on: 2017-03-29 00:00:00.0
PunkRock says
February 2, 2015 at 7:31 pmI have a DT account. It shows
Schwartz, R mr800king@AOL.COM
New Century Investments, Ltd.
as owner since first record in 2001-10-24
Ramahn says
February 2, 2015 at 2:27 pm“…..1997 for $42,000 “from a college student that bought it the week before for $5,000″
If that’s true, then that is incredible! $5k for this domain back in 1997…. would any of you have made that investment back then? Unbelievable.
robb says
February 2, 2015 at 2:36 pmWow, what a domain sale! The domain market must be alive and well.
Domain Administrator says
February 2, 2015 at 2:37 pmThe buyer has already got some good adult websites up and running with traffic over 20 million unique US visitors a month. With content readily available they are in pretty good position to monetize the domain name right away.
Congrats to Rick and Buyer. Great Sale.
Optimal Names says
February 2, 2015 at 2:40 pmCongratulations Rick! Well worth the wait!
Jason Laird says
February 2, 2015 at 2:50 pmA huge congratulations to Rick the Godfather of domains…
Andrea Paladini says
February 2, 2015 at 3:11 pmWell rounded price with all those “8” and great return!, congrats Rick! 🙂
Joseph Peterson says
February 2, 2015 at 3:13 pmNot half bad.
With so many large sales unreported, we should be very glad Rick made his public. That, in itself, is a gift to the industry.
Mike Jones says
February 2, 2015 at 3:23 pmAs you announce the sale of porno.com for $8.9M, I get an email that .ninja, .social, .revies, and a whole bunch of .whatever’s are only $1 now, ironic.
qwerty says
February 3, 2015 at 12:11 amHallelujah, brother! How true it is!
Acro says
February 2, 2015 at 4:08 pmCongratulations to Rick, it’s a huge sale and a lesson in sticking to your guns with regards to value and pricing. Now you know why Rick owns ihatetaxes .com 😀
jose says
February 2, 2015 at 6:37 pm@MHB, that was rude, to say the least.
you trimmed my comment referring the 2007 buy, correct your post placing 1997 instead of 2007 and did not even mention that.
more readers notice that and you didn’t even addressed it.
Donny says
February 2, 2015 at 7:05 pmAwesome Sale Rick! Congratulations!
Domo Sapiens says
February 2, 2015 at 11:23 pmwow, what do you know?
a future “AM RAdio” a “Dying extension” selling for nearly 8 figures…
The “DOT COM 7 figure” domain sale list for 2014 equally baffling.
where are the “diarrheic mouths” (in the name of a dollar) now…seriously?
qwerty says
February 3, 2015 at 12:10 amWhile the .coms continue to sell like hotcakes, the, gtlds are all on .Lifesupport and are being given away to anyone .Naive enough to accept responsibility for the annual registration. The doctor’s prognosis for the gtld is .Verybleak and the families have all been called to make their .FinalArrangements.
It is now obvious that we have a winner: Team Schwartz!
frank.schilling says
February 3, 2015 at 12:37 pmWelp, .XXX was a new GTLD a few years back and today I feel pretty good that I was .naive enough to continue paying the renewal on PORNO.XXX
Nothing begets nothing and you’ve got to take a risk to get a reward. Buying a registration price NewGTLD domain today could bring you a pretty good reward tomorrow.
Remember that folks like ‘qwerty’ used to laugh at Rick Schwartz for buying Porno.com for 30k in the first place, back in the 1990’s when the genius of doing so was less obvious.
Nice sale Webfather.
frank.schilling says
February 3, 2015 at 12:43 pmfrancesco guerrini from Siena Italy got porno.click 2 months ago for $5.88 .. i betcha he’s going to be naive’ enough to pay his renewals too.
Dr. Altaf Hossain says
February 3, 2015 at 10:34 pmCongratulations ! Rick on your sale of Porno.com at the 4th highest price of $8,888,888. It made me think how brave you are to invest 42k in 1997 & wait so long. How brave are you to turn down $5,000,000 offer or more?
So I call you the father of domain Mr. Domain King. You will remain in history for ever as a think tank. I am proud of being known to you.
Have a good day!
Altaf
Domainer Extraordinaire says
February 4, 2015 at 10:56 pmDoes anyone pay for Internet porn?
Raymond Hackney says
February 5, 2015 at 12:58 amThat’s a very good point, there is so much free stuff that it is almost infinite. I would say people will pay for niche fetish stuff, stuff you can’t see everywhere. People will also pay to see a pornstar they are infatuated with, those girls should be smart enough to have their own domain and control their brand on their site.
Porno.com is just one of those names, porno in a new gtld doesn’t make much sense unless you get lucky, there can always be an outlier sale, steady, successful business is not built on an outlier.