Band loses domain, gets $300k anyway

A British pub band forgot to renew its domain name, but wound up £200,000 richer anyway, courtesy of an original work from the popular graffiti artist Banksy.

According to the Bristol Evening Post, Exit Through The Gift Shop was gifted a painting valued by Sotheby’s at £200,000 ($307,000) after it agreed to change its name to avoid a clash with the title of Banksy’s new film.

But was there also another benefactor, the person who caught exitthroughthegiftshop.com when it dropped and sold it to Banksy?

The band’s drummer said:

“We had lost the domain name as we had forgotten to renew it, and when we phoned up to ask to buy it back, the man said no, that we wouldn’t be able to afford it, and that he was the agent for the person who had the domain name.”

Whois records show that exitthroughthegiftshop.com dropped in March 2008, when it was promptly re-registered by somebody who hid behind an eNom privacy service.

The domain was transferred to its present owner (no, it’s not Banksy, I checked) two days before it was due to expire in March last year. Presumably, it was sold.

Did a domainer make a killing in artwork?

A timely domain drop – iquitfacebook.com

The domain name iquitfacebook.com is dropping this weekend, and it couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time.

Facebook has walked into a bit of a privacy nightmare by announcing it will start to give third-party sites access to user data, leading some people to quit the service.

The site has already been called “Privacy Enemy Number One”, and there are dozens of other pieces of commentary and news picking holes in the new Facebook features.

Widely followed Googler Matt Cutts also raised eyebrows when he said he had deactivated his Facebook account today, and others are following suit.

“I just deactivated my Facebook account using the guide at http://goo.gl/rhpE Not hard to do & you can still revive it later,” Cutts tweeted earlier today.

Is there an opportunity for an enterprising domainer to capitalize on a trend here?

The name iquitfacebook.com is pending delete this weekend. It’s listed on SnapNames with an April 24 deadline, and has already attracted six bidders on Namejet, with a high bid of $79.

Flying.com sells for $1.1 million

Flying.com has been sold to UsedAirplanes.com for $1.1 million.

UsedAirplanes said in a press release that it will spend the rest of the year turning the domain into a social media site for flying enthusiasts, through which it can market its used plane listings.

According to the press release, the domain last changed hands in September last year, for $845,000, which gives the seller a very nice return on a quick flip.

“The amount of traffic Flying.com will generate will obviously enhance the amount of leads our brokers will receive for their used airplanes and aircraft,” said CEO Mark Horne.

While it’s undoubtedly a category killer for aviators, the domain doesn’t currently seem to rank highly in search engines for the term “flying”.

The related domain Fly.com sold for $1.8 million in January 2009. Last week, Pilot.com was sold through Sedo for $300,000.

Three reasons why iPadDownloads.com is not worth $1 million

The mainstream media has been carrying a few stories today about the guy who is trying to eBay iPadDownloads.com, iPadDownload.com and iPadDownloads.net for $1 million apiece.

“This is probably the first very smart thing I have ever done in my life,” the registrant, record producer Nik Tyler, told Fortune magazine.

I don’t know the guy. It’s quite possible that his entire life to date has been a constant stream of dumb moves. Here are three reasons why iPadDownloads.com is another: (continue reading)

Sex.com auction postponed for online bidders

The auction of Sex.com, which was due to happen in New York on Thursday, has been postponed and the auctioneer is now accepting online bidders.

Maltz Auctions, which is handling the sale, posted a link to a ProxiBid.com page and the slogan “Online Bidding Available – Call for Details!”, neither of which were there last time I looked.

ProxiBid describes itself as “the World’s #1 provider of live webcast auctions”. The service webcasts and allows remote users to bid on live, in-person auctions.

The company press released its Sex.com coup on Friday.

You’ll still need to put $1m into escrow in order to bid.

It appears that legal action may be the reason for the postponement.

The ProxiBid page still reflects the March 18 date.