In 1977 Fantasy Island premiered on ABC and ran for 7 seasons. There were 152 episodes and 2 TV movies, it started as a movie first before becoming a show on Saturday nights. The series ended in 1984.
FantasyIsland.com was registered in June of 1997. The domain was purchased in 2011 by what looks to be INternational Pictures for $22,005, they then lost the domain in a UDRP (thanks Matt) to Columbia Pictures who is owned by Sony Pictures who was a distributor of the original series. In 1998 the tv show was revived and according to WikiPedia:
In 2005, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released Season 1 of the original series on DVD in regions 1, 2 & 4. The release included the 1977 pilot Fantasy Island and 1978’s Return to Fantasy Island. However, due to poor sales, no further seasons were released.
In February 2012, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired the rights to the series in Region 1; they subsequently released the second season on DVD on May 8, 2012. Season 3 was released on October 23, 2012.
Well Sony Pictures let the domain drop and the Reberry brothers and DropCatch caught the name, it sold on Saturday for only $3,251 or 15% of the previous sale. Mr. Roarke would not be happy to see such a paltry price.
In other haircut news, XR.net sold for $19,532 on NameJet, it sold for $42,000 in December of 2015.
good thing .com is the gold standard and will always go up in value. Whoopsie.
I see there was a UDRP in 2012
http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/case.jsp?case_id=22687
Thanks Matt I updated, it looks like Guessner and INternational Pictures paid the $22,005 and then lost it in a UDRP.
Lots of these end user then later dropped sales. Usually 80-90% drop in price.
I would also imagine the UDRP risk is still there, Fantasy Island could be a cool brand for certain categories but the risk might be too high.
Whoopsie. Seems like .com is not always going up?:) Hm….