Back on June 23rd I had wrote about the expired domain name auction for eDomains.com that was going on at Godaddy.com and now can tell that B52 Media was the buyer.
I really liked the domain name for building a brand within the domain industry, as it really is currently about the best option that was on the market at that time. Great for a registrar, domain seller, domain related product etc.
The public auction for eDomains.com ended at Godaddy.com for $16,511 USD and was a bidding war with 2 bidders after about $7,000.
The eDomains.com auction ended 6-29-2009 and with public records via Whois.sc I have noticed the new owner of the domain is B52 Media.
I tried to find out more info on B52 Media, but B52.com forwards to Bookmarks.com . Bookmarks.com said it’s NetRocket. NetRocket.com also forwards to Bookmarks.com.
According to whois, B52 Media owns a little over 2,900 domain names. Currently, eDomains.com is parked, but they also just got it yesterday according to whois history. A couple other domain names I could find that B52 Media owns are Bookmarks.com (which shows Domain Capital currently as owner), Summer.net, Galloped.com and Weekday.com (which also shows Domain Capital as the owner, which can also mean that B52 Media could be using Weekday.com and Bookmarks.com to borrow money with.)
There was also some chat at NamePros.com about the domain and what it may end for, branding, e & i domains etc. I put a $5K+ price tag on the domain but really like it for branding a domain related company.
Congrats to B52 Media, based in Baltimore, Maryland on the purchase of eDomains.com.
D0mainer
They also own DomainInvesting.com. Here’s an interview of CEO Lonnie Borck:
http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/5-with-lonnie-borck-founder-netrocket/
Kevin Jackson
Thanks for posting an update on this as I was wondering how it turned out.
I wanted to bid for this domain but somehow knew it would pass the $10,000 mark. That’s the max I would bid anyway.
Secondly, it would be hard to secure the other domains necessary to protect this domain/brand, as I have luckily manage to do with eBusinessDomains.com without breaking the bank!
Brand protection is very important these days!
Jamie Zoch
@Kevin,
Yah it would be nice if they could also own the singular version. No problem on the update
Jamie Zoch
@D0mainer,
Thank you for the link. That’s a nice read and provides more info on the buyer.
D0mainer
B52 also owns Funding.com, Passover.com, and Shock.com.
Leonard Britt
We all have different opinions of value but the price paid for this domain appears excessive. The name is fine for branding purposes but how many people type in “edomains” in Google on a monthly basis? Adwords keyword tool says 170. Using Yahoo Site Explorer I see a few backlinks to the domain but I’m not sure how much traffic this domain really gets from a few Twitter links.
However, I suppose the buyer used the same logic I did when I acquired the domain for my domain sales site. If you are going to use the domain for a business to offer a product or service, then you are more willing to open your wallet.
LS Morgan
The price paid/value of this name wasn’t contingent on prospective type-in traffic. It was based on securing a branding platform with a logical keyword.
This is where e/i prefix domains shine brightly. With them, you have a turnkey ‘brand in a box’ while still retaining near-absolute keyword purity. There’s also the added benefit of price; we all know what generic names bring and there’s an unquestionable marketing role for industry defining generic. Still, “generic” is the opposite of “brand” which is the intent of e/i prefix keywords.
I believe they’re overlooked and drastically undervalued (particularly in geo, but that’s another story
)