The domain name Auction.com was purchased by REDC in early 2009 for $1.7 Million as reported by DNN.com . REDC is a real estate auction service.

Chairman of REDC was quoted on DNN.com as well and I really like the quote because he was really excited to own the Auction.com domain. Mr Friedman stated:

“I’ve wanted this domain for years and I’m thrilled that we were able to acquire this coveted top level domain,”  “REDC is without question the number one real estate auctioneer in America and quite likely the world. This is a domain we should have had from the beginning and I’m thrilled we are finally Auction.com.”

So what domain name did REDC use before buying the premium generic Auction.com ? USHomeAuction.com . USHomeAuction.com is a type of domain that the "average" company would own and it’s hard to do a lot of things with a domain name like that…. it’s just average!

Owning Auction.com may have cost $1.7 Million, but the branding power alone behind Auction.com is priceless if you ask me!

Do you think owning Auction.com might help them rank a little better in the search engines? How about # 1 on Google for the powerful search term Auction! Out of over 198,000,000 results for the term auction, Auction.com ranks # 1, even beating out eBay.com!

Auction.com Google Rank # 1

Now they do not rank # 1 ONLY because of the domain name, but it does help them a lot! So how do you think they rank for another popular search term and matching the industry they focus on: real estate auction

Auction.com Real Estate Auction Ranking

Number 1 as well out of over 60,000,000 results! Talk about owning the auction and real estate auction marketplace! These two number 1 rankings on Google are Priceless and something they highly likely could not of done behind the USHomeAuction.com domain name and branding!

The highly targeted traffic these 2 search terms alone bring in huge traffic for REDC and I know they couldn’t of done it without the $1.7 Million dollar chance they took and buying Auction.com! Auction.com likely ranks # 1 for a lot more popular search terms and will continue to profit because of the domain name!

This is Great use of a generic domain name which allowed REDC huge branding power, keyword power and instant trust from owning Auction.com!