The domain name OnlineFinancing.com was purchased during the Feb 20th 2008 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference in Vegas by a company called Vendare Media / Netblue. (Vendare and Netblue merged and now are called Connexus).
In fact, OnlineFinaancing.com was the 82nd domain in the live domain auction and was sold to bidder paddle #462. The domain sold for a price tag of $17,500 USD. The sale was confirmed and reported on DnJournal.com on 5/6/08.
Hit the Fast Forward button to June 17, 2009…
OnlineFinancing.com sells on SnapNames.com for $4,805. What?
This is getting interesting…. I know….
People lose money on investments all the time but getting nearly $5K and losing about $12K is better then nothing right? I would say so, but this is not the case for Vendare Media / Netblue who is now ConnexusCorp and the OnlineFinancing.com domain.
When ownership changed to Vendare Media / Netblue after payment from winning the domain at auction for $17.5K, the domains expire date was 5-10-2009. This date also stayed that way until the domain name expired on 5-10-2009.
After following Moniker.com’s "expired domain" process, which basically allows a domain owner about 30 days past the expired date to renew it. This process includes listing the domain name with it’s sister company SnapNames.com during these 30 days for a public auction if the domain is not renewed in the stated time.
Trust me, a great deal of emails come from Moniker when a domain is even near the expired date. If Auto-Renew is set, it will auto-renew for at least a year.. If your credit card on file is expired, you will get a FAILED notice for the auto renew etc.. Well…
OnlineFinancing.com was not renewed in the time frame given by Moniker by the owner. The 3 day auction began on June 14th 2009 with the pre-orders it had and ended for the $4,805 as stated above.
This is a pretty crazy story! It get’s a little better yet.
FirstLook.com, a Connexus company, is an industry pioneer in domain traffic optimization and monetization. This means to me, they Know domain names… and this little $17.5K mix up should not of happened, but it did.
I understand the financial market is bad right now, but you also do not spend $17,500 on a domain name and leave it expire not even a year later. It’s like going and buying a new Honda Civic, driving it for a year and one day just leave the keys in it with the door open and never looking back.
OnlineFinancing.com is a GREAT domain and was well worth the $4,805 paid for it this past week and even the $17.5K was not "over priced" IMO.
ConnexusCorp dropped the ball Big Time in letting it expire. I see NO reason why they would "just let it expire". I have sent in a request for comment on the situation to ConnexusCorp (aka Vendare Media / Netblue) but have not heard back at time of posting.
I also contacted SnapNames.com, which they confirmed it was a Moniker.com Partner auction. A Partner auction means the domain name was registered with Moniker.com and expired, which the domain name then get’s listed as an exclusive auction on it’s partner site, SnapNames.com .
Moniker.com (2nd time) and SnapNames.com profitted from the sale of OnlineFinancing.com domain sale, with ConnexusCorp seeing $0 from the sale due to the domain being expired.
It was important for DotWeekly.com to confirm this was a Partner auction, as Moniker allows customers with a domain registered with Moniker.com to use SnapNames.com to sell a domain. Whois history also backed this up with the expire date of 5-10-2009 never changing until the new owner showed on the whois database.
Keep an eye on your domain names expire dates and do not always put full trust in Auto Renew. Verify your credit card(s) on file are up to date, email address is valid to help prevent what I assume was the case here, an expected domain expire.
Wow – what a painful story! I would’ve paid more than $4,800 for that one. Slipped under my radar! I was at that TRAFFIC auction, and I remember bidding on that name. We all forget a name here and there, but they’re usually the unloved orphans! This should serve as a lesson to all of us.
Try using the great tool at DomainTools.com called Domain Monitor. Works great for those forgotten registrations that are left in small accounts. Has save me a few times this year!
June 24th, 2009