Major League Baseball has acquired the generic domain name Athletics.com according to whois records for an undisclosed sum.

The "official site" of the Oakland Athletics resides at http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=oak&sv=1 but it will be easier to visit the site directly, as MLB almost always does a redirect of the baseball teams matching name to its "official page" on the MLB.com website.

The past owner made it clear that Athletics.com was NOT the site of the baseball team by displaying the following meta description in search engines:

In the past, MLB tried to nab the domain name Angels.com in a UDRP filing but lost. At that time, the owner was willing to sell the domain name for $300,000. After MLB lost the UDRP case, they purchased the domain name for $200,000 at Sedo.com.

MLB had a chance to purchase Athletics.com in a DomainFest auction at $150,000 in 2008 and again in 2010 it was on the block with a reserve price range of $500,000-$750,000. DNN.com is reporting it "sold" (#910) for $350,000 but I don’t think that was the case as it never changed ownership until now (2012).

Since MLB paid $200K for Angels.com and with the reserve price ranges that Athletics.com had in the auctions, I would think the sale range was likely between $150K-$350K.

According to an article from 2010 on DNW.com, MLB owned all matching domain names for teams except 7 (at that time). Angels.com and Athletics.com were in the list, so it would appear that list is down to 5 now.

Giants, Rays, Rangers, Rockies and Twins are the remaining 5 teams left in the cold without a matching .com domain.

Apple Inc. has successfully obtained the iPhone5.com domain name through a WIPO claim they recently filed.

The domain name is now registered under the brand protection company Corporation Service Company, which is a domain name registrar Apple has been using lately. I would expect the whois data to update to Apple Inc. shortly.

It is too early to know if Apple will actually release an iPhone 5 or not but clearly they felt it was worth chasing the domain name and they won it.

Apple also registered the domain name iPhone4N.com on May 1, 2012 so that model of a new phone is not out of the question either.

Apple has been simply forwarding (redirecting) unique domain names they own or buy to their main website and the fitting page to the domain name. For an example, WhiteIphone.com simply redirects you to the iPhone page on Apple.com, but also attaches a tracking method in the URL that allows Apple to show how effective the domain names are for them. (http://www.apple.com/iphone/?cid=oas-us-domains-whiteiphone.com) The cid= in the URL is the tracking method Apple is using.

iCloud.com has been an exception to the redirecting as Apple built a stand alone website on the iCloud.com.

The current "domain thorn in the side" for Apple remains the iPad.com domain name, which they still do not own. This domain name they would very likely have to pay for to obtain it and it wouldn’t be cheap! The domain gets a fair amount of traffic and it’s likely that the majority of the visitors are looking for the Apple product. iPad.com would be a good thing for Apple to own.

I have been taking a break lately and I’m still not sure if I will continue writing as much as I did but I will see.

Anyway, Andrew over at DNW.com reported on May 2, 2012 that the domain name GoFurther.com had sold for $10,000 at Sedo to a Mark Monitor client…. well, that client happens to be Ford Motor Company.

Ford and its buyer agent, domain name registrar Mark Monitor didn’t have a problem dropping $10,000 on a domain name and putting it to action almost instantly when they got it. Ford rolled out a TV ad displaying the domain name days after they secured it and had control over it.

A.) This tells me they were set on the domain before hand

B.) They were ready to pay for it and did

The domain name makes perfect sense in the marketing message they are using, so to me, that $10K was well spent.

Go Further with the new line up of Ford EcoBoost’s line of vehicles! Gas is expensive and to be able to "Go Further" than the other brands of vehicles on the market catches buyers eyes.

The domain name was owned by Further Corporation and has been for a long time. IMO, Ford is luck to have got the domain for $10K as not many corporations would just sell their domain name. I’m not sure of the status of the company and that may have played a factor in the sale.

I have been seeing a lot of GREAT domain names change hands and nobody in the domain industry is reporting them, which is sad, but I’m tired of putting in tons of hours and doing it for nearly free.

Scoreboard.com has recently sold! Likely a six figure sale IMO but that is only a guess.

Foundation.com has recently been sold.

Fusion.com recently sold. (doesn’t appear to be Ford or Gillette)

Many, many more but I just haven’t had time to write about them.

Big companies, small companies and more are willing to pay good money for the domain name they want/need. Do your homework if somebody contacts you if you plan on selling! Here is some motivation from a $800 offer to a $20K sale, which Coca Cola purchased the domain name BattleForEverything.com.

Go Further!