How do I go about selling my 20 year-old domain name?

[vidtek]

I purchased a domain name in Australia back in 1999/2000 when I started a company there.

It is a high-level .com domain.

I was importing trailers from the Erde company in France, they sent us a 40ft container of 12 year old tyres for our trailers and we had a falling out.

They owe me about A$80,000 I know I won't get anything like that for it.........

How do I go about selling this domain? Anyone had any experience with it on here?

There are a lot of sharks out there in this area I know.

Cheers Tony.

[QIII]

Start by asking your registrar what is required for them to transfer the domain.

Then, as with anything else one wants to sell, use your network or advertise it. Are there other dealers of that brand? Would Erde be interested in buying it for a decent price despite the fact that you had a falling out?

[vidtek]

Start by asking your registrar what is required for them to transfer the domain.

Then, as with anything else one wants to sell, use your network or advertise it. Are there other dealers of that brand? Would Erde be interested in buying it for a decent price despite the fact that you had a falling out?

QIII

Thanks for the reply. The original registrar has long since been gobbled up and re-gobbled about three times. Every time I get notified of the changes and there are a zillion A4 pages of gobbledegook to read through with all their new terms and conditions. Frankly I have no idea what registrar I'm with now anyway.

Erde have seen a few changes at the top management recently so they may possibly be more amenable to sensible discussions, I think that may be my first step.

There are many dealers and "brokers" out there who sell domains but as I said in my original post, that pond is full of piranhas.

As for my own networks, after I had a medical incident in 2012 I retired and have been out of the loop too long. Ebay and Amazon et al are not appropriate, it really needs a specialist site.

Tony.

[af-crm]

Do you aim world wide or would you limit the same to Australia? If the latter, Facebook adverts may be an option.
No-matter what you do, an agent will always either cost you money or take 50-80% of the sale value... So, you might as well do the trading advents yourself!
It's an interesting experience! :-)

Registrars usually don't charge for changing the owner, but also, maybe yours do so ... make sure to know the case in your situation!

[vidtek]

@af-crm
Thanks for your response. No I won't limit it to Australia. I have heard many horror stories about agent rip-offs so I will try myself, but I have no idea how to go about it.

I will check with the registrar to see what their policy is.

Cheers Tony.

[Skaperen]

is this a .au domain or one of .com or .net or .org? how many letters up to the dot?

[vidtek]

is this a .au domain or one of .com or .net or .org? how many letters up to the dot?

@Skaperen - Thanks for response. It s a .com the domain is erdetrailers.com I first registered it in about 1999 when I set up my trailer factory in Perth.

We imported trailers from the erde company in France, and at one time had a joint venture with them in Paramatta Sydney. We noe deal with Trigano/Trelgo.

Tony.

[scorp123]

Frankly I have no idea what registrar I'm with now anyway.

The whois tool might tell you. It might not be installed by default (... so you need to install it first ...) or you could use one of the browser-based online versions.

Let's say I wanted to find out who the registrar of "oracle.com" is:


~ > whois oracle.com

Domain Name: ORACLE.COM
Registry Domain ID: 607513_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.markmonitor.com
Registrar URL: http://www.markmonitor.com
Updated Date: 2020-10-30T09:28:03Z
Creation Date: 1988-12-02T05:00:00Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2021-12-01T05:00:00Z
Registrar: MarkMonitor Inc.
Registrar IANA ID: 292
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abusecomplaints@markmonitor.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.2083895740

(... tons of more output cut off ...)


I am pretty sure it should work with your domain too. So even if your original registrar was sold a million times you should still be able to find out who the current registrar is.

[vidtek]

The whois tool might tell you. It might not be installed by default (... so you need to install it first ...) or you could use one of the browser-based online versions.

Let's say I wanted to find out who the registrar of "oracle.com" is:


~ > whois oracle.com

Domain Name: ORACLE.COM
Registry Domain ID: 607513_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.markmonitor.com
Registrar URL: http://www.markmonitor.com
Updated Date: 2020-10-30T09:28:03Z
Creation Date: 1988-12-02T05:00:00Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2021-12-01T05:00:00Z
Registrar: MarkMonitor Inc.
Registrar IANA ID: 292
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abusecomplaints@markmonitor.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.2083895740

(... tons of more output cut off ...)


I am pretty sure it should work with your domain too. So even if your original registrar was sold a million times you should still be able to find out who the current registrar is.

Scorp- Hey I knew all this stuff once upon a time....don't get old - I did my classroom stuff when I was 50 yrs old for 3 years full-time back in 1999, I don't remember a hundredth of it now.
Thank you for reminding me, Tony

[Skaperen]

maybe Erde would buy it. or maybe they would invoke legal terms to just take it from you. the place to ask about that would be the circleid.com forum.

[SeijiSensei]

erde.com points to a blank page offering to sell that domain. If you follow the link to the seller's page, you get this page (https://sedo.com/search/details/?partnerid=14460&language=us&domain=erde.com&origin=parking&utm_medium=Parking&utm_campaign=template&utm_source=3032) with a minimum bid of US$2,500.

So it appears Erde does not even own the domain that matches its name. Don't know how interested they'd be in purchasing erdetrailers. com.

[TheFu]

I suspect the OP doesn't actually own the domain anymore either. Looks to be owned by a different cyber squatter these days.
The IP isn't returning any web traffic and the IP isn't responding to pings.

To me, appears this issue has been solved by lack of attention. If bills for these things don't get paid, they don't keep working.

[vidtek]

I still own it and have tried to contact Erde but it would seem they are not interested.
I religiously pay the registration fees every time they come up for renewal.
It is no use to me now, but it would be great to get at least some of the money I'm owed back.....

If not I may just use it for my Men's Shed that I support in my hometown, use it for the social calendar upcoming events etc.

Tony.

[DuckHook]

Unique domain names aren't really worth much on the open market unless they are high visibility. Then they are worth whatever the trademark owner is willing to pay for them. Domain squatters know this and don't bother with obscure ones. Yours is rather obscure, and if the trademark owner isn't interested in even their own specifically unique domain, then they will be very unlikely to care what you do with yours.

I've registered my own domain for about US$12 per year and that's all it's really worth. If you run your own website, cloud server of blog server, it may prove useful, but do consider if you still want to be associated with that name after your bad experience when a fresh start costs no more than a fast food meal each year.

The following isn't technical advice, so take it with a large helping of salt, but from one old codger to another: as we age, we succumb to the dangerous tendency to get stuck in old but inappropriate ways. It's often better (and emotionally healthier) to cut the cords tying us down to the past and boldly embrace the future. In your case, consider leaving the old baggage behind. You may find that it lightens your load.

[vidtek]

Unique domain names aren't really worth much on the open market unless they are high visibility. Then they are worth whatever the trademark owner is willing to pay for them. Domain squatters know this and don't bother with obscure ones. Yours is rather obscure, and if the trademark owner isn't interested in even their own specifically unique domain, then they will be very unlikely to care what you do with yours.

I've registered my own domain for about US$12 per year and that's all it's really worth. If you run your own website, cloud server of blog server, it may prove useful, but do consider if you still want to be associated with that name after your bad experience when a fresh start costs no more than a fast food meal each year.

The following isn't technical advice, so take it with a large helping of salt, but from one old codger to another: as we age, we succumb to the dangerous tendency to get stuck in old but inappropriate ways. It's often better (and emotionally healthier) to cut the cords tying us down to the past and boldly embrace the future. In your case, consider leaving the old baggage behind. You may find that it lightens your load.

Sage advice, as you say old baggage can weigh you down....