In December the domain name 45.com sold for $280,000
Today the NorthJerseyNews.com told the story behind the sale including how the seller of the domain name, Glen DiGirolamo got the domain as collaterial for a $15K loan.
Its an usual story of how a professional pool player got the biggest payday of his life by selling a domain name.
Here are some quotes of Mr. DiGirolamo from the story which you should read in full.
“”The story behind DiGirolamo’s recent quarter-million-dollar windfall is a window into the weird, arcane and occasionally profitable world of Internet domain names. It began with a bad loan to a billiards player.
Eight years ago, DiGirolamo handed $15,000 to a friend he met while shooting pool. DiGirolamo did not charge any interest, and the friend promised to repay the loan in 60 days.
DiGirolamo never got a penny back. But, as collateral, the friend had given him a custom-made pool cue worth $3,000 to $4,000 and the rights to several Internet domain names.
One of the names seemed at first glance to be as valuable as a piece junk mail — “45.com.”
Who knew?
“It’s crazy,” DiGirolamo said the other day. “It’s just crazy.”"”
“”wasn’t playing pool, he also started dabbling in Internet domain names.
“I used to stay in my office until 2 in the morning and just think of names,” he said.
In several cases, his domain names attracted buyers. For example, an investor in Finland paid $4,000 for DiGirolamo’s “hellpoker.com.” Another investor, in Canada, paid $2,500 for “dovecorp.com.”
It was after a billiards tournament that DiGirolamo met a fellow player who needed a $15,000 loan.
DiGirolamo chuckles now as he remembers the conversation about the loan. He never asked, for example, what the man needed the money for. In fact, what is amazing is how trusting DiGirolamo seemed to be, taking a pool cue stick and the domain name rights as collateral.
After the loan wasn’t paid, DiGirolamo established his own 45.com website for his business. That’s where he attracted attention.
Soon after he established the website, he began to receive hard-to-believe offers to buy the name.
“Someone contacted me and offered $180,000,” he said. “Then I got an offer of $210,000.”
DiGirolamo realized he must have something valuable. Two-digit Web names are a limited commodity. For those with a mystical sense, two-digit names also carry a reputation for luck.
DiGirolamo made a promise to himself — he would not sell the 45.com domain for anything less than $250,000.”"
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