I got the idea on a Friday afternoon while I was at the LA office of PBJ. It popped into my head the same way so many good ideas do: on the toilet . "NowNowNow.com," the voices in my head were telling me. So I got on netsol, reserved the domain, and left it at that for as long as I could remember. For a few months I sat on the domain not really intending to do anything with it. But then I decided I would put a website up and offer up the domain for sale.
Having done that, I couldn't get the site's name off my mind. NowNowNow.com. The very concept was haunting me. What could I do with a domain like that? I got a few bites on purchasing the domain. People would email and I'd email back with a nice one-word reply: "$5,000." No response. Nibbles, maybe, but no hard bite.
After a while I got it in my mind to actually do more with the domain. I rationalized the thought with a little truism from retail. I figured that since the three most important words in retail were "location, location and location," that the three most important words in E-Commerce would certainly be "now, now, now." Slap a "dot-com" on the end of it and you've got a gold mine.
So I began to entertain the occasional offer to buy the domain more seriously. It was early in the spring and I got an email from England asking me if I would sell the domain for $500. I told the sender what I told everyone before, 5000 - take it or leave it. England wrote back within a day and agreed to take it.
At that point I crapped my pants and called the one person I know who knew how to broker such a transaction, Reid Carr. Reid told me not to take the offer and that he would drive the price up for me. "Did I say $5,000? I meant $50,000." I let Reid take it from there.
A month of negotiations goes by and Reid tells me that they agreed to $25,000 and to take the deal. I called Cristina, a friend of mine who was a lawyer in Eugene who would help me and essentially work for beer and experience in this kind of thing. She drew up the terms. We sent it to them. They sent back revisions. We all agreed in principle it was a done deal. I get the moolah, they get NowNowNow.com. Easy.
What next but a trip to Paris? It was already on the books, so I left the deal in limbo while I went on vacation for a week. Had a blast. Spent more than I should have because I was young, dumb, it was 1999 and I was about to be a twenty-five-thousand-aire.
What could go wrong?
I got back on a Sunday night late from the airport. Started checking email and then I thought I'd just pull up my soon to be sold site and look at it and smile. Typed in nownownow.com, hit enter and whose site comes up but the fuckers that are negotiating with me. Hang on a sec. That's still my site, right? I didn't sell it to them yet, did I? How the fuck did that happen? 1AM and I'm calling Cristina yelling, "What the fuck happened? How did they steal my domain? I'm going to sue the shit out of those fuckers."
Cristina was very gentle and assured me that we'd get it resolved, but that there wasn't any use in my yelling at her at 1AM on a Sunday night. True. Not Cristina's fault. So who's fault was it? Did they steal my domain? Did they buy it and I just hadn't seen the money yet? Could I get it back? What happened? Mine. Sorta. Definitely not. Cost-prohibitively, maybe. . . .
It turns out that I "bought" the domain back when you could reserve a domain without actually buying it. I have the memory of a gnat. So what I remember is actually paying for the domain name. Or did I? I registered it, yes. But no actual money exchanged hands. Nevertheless, when you looked up the domain, who "owned" it, who you'd need to negotiate with the get it for yourself, all roads pointed to me. Kelly Abbott. Eugene, Oregon. $25,000 big ones.
So here's the funny part. Just before I left for Paris, I got an email directly from the guys who were buying the domain. This was strange because we'd stopped communicating directly with each other since Reid took over the negotiations and Cristina took over the legal work. I wasn't expecting an email directly from them and what's more is it seemed a little improper of them to be emailing me directly. What they wrote was strange. They asked me if I owned the domain NowNowNow.com. "Do you, Kelly Abbott . . ." Yadda yadda yadda. Of course I owned it. What the fuck were they smoking over there?
I wrote them back a sarcastic email, cc-ing Cristina, "Yes. I Kelly Abbott, of Eugene Oregon, own NowNowNow.com." Fuck you very much. No response. I fly to Paris. Fly back. Et viola. You've been screwed.
OK, so maybe that's not the funny part. Turns out I never actually DID own NowNowNow.com. While I was away, they - the faceless brits with cash and moxy - called Netsol, asked them the same questions they asked me. Netsol clarified the matter and they got the domain for the rock bottom price of $35 directly.
It still kills me to tell that story.
Having done that, I couldn't get the site's name off my mind. NowNowNow.com. The very concept was haunting me. What could I do with a domain like that? I got a few bites on purchasing the domain. People would email and I'd email back with a nice one-word reply: "$5,000." No response. Nibbles, maybe, but no hard bite.
After a while I got it in my mind to actually do more with the domain. I rationalized the thought with a little truism from retail. I figured that since the three most important words in retail were "location, location and location," that the three most important words in E-Commerce would certainly be "now, now, now." Slap a "dot-com" on the end of it and you've got a gold mine.
So I began to entertain the occasional offer to buy the domain more seriously. It was early in the spring and I got an email from England asking me if I would sell the domain for $500. I told the sender what I told everyone before, 5000 - take it or leave it. England wrote back within a day and agreed to take it.
At that point I crapped my pants and called the one person I know who knew how to broker such a transaction, Reid Carr. Reid told me not to take the offer and that he would drive the price up for me. "Did I say $5,000? I meant $50,000." I let Reid take it from there.
A month of negotiations goes by and Reid tells me that they agreed to $25,000 and to take the deal. I called Cristina, a friend of mine who was a lawyer in Eugene who would help me and essentially work for beer and experience in this kind of thing. She drew up the terms. We sent it to them. They sent back revisions. We all agreed in principle it was a done deal. I get the moolah, they get NowNowNow.com. Easy.
What next but a trip to Paris? It was already on the books, so I left the deal in limbo while I went on vacation for a week. Had a blast. Spent more than I should have because I was young, dumb, it was 1999 and I was about to be a twenty-five-thousand-aire.
What could go wrong?
I got back on a Sunday night late from the airport. Started checking email and then I thought I'd just pull up my soon to be sold site and look at it and smile. Typed in nownownow.com, hit enter and whose site comes up but the fuckers that are negotiating with me. Hang on a sec. That's still my site, right? I didn't sell it to them yet, did I? How the fuck did that happen? 1AM and I'm calling Cristina yelling, "What the fuck happened? How did they steal my domain? I'm going to sue the shit out of those fuckers."
Cristina was very gentle and assured me that we'd get it resolved, but that there wasn't any use in my yelling at her at 1AM on a Sunday night. True. Not Cristina's fault. So who's fault was it? Did they steal my domain? Did they buy it and I just hadn't seen the money yet? Could I get it back? What happened? Mine. Sorta. Definitely not. Cost-prohibitively, maybe. . . .
It turns out that I "bought" the domain back when you could reserve a domain without actually buying it. I have the memory of a gnat. So what I remember is actually paying for the domain name. Or did I? I registered it, yes. But no actual money exchanged hands. Nevertheless, when you looked up the domain, who "owned" it, who you'd need to negotiate with the get it for yourself, all roads pointed to me. Kelly Abbott. Eugene, Oregon. $25,000 big ones.
So here's the funny part. Just before I left for Paris, I got an email directly from the guys who were buying the domain. This was strange because we'd stopped communicating directly with each other since Reid took over the negotiations and Cristina took over the legal work. I wasn't expecting an email directly from them and what's more is it seemed a little improper of them to be emailing me directly. What they wrote was strange. They asked me if I owned the domain NowNowNow.com. "Do you, Kelly Abbott . . ." Yadda yadda yadda. Of course I owned it. What the fuck were they smoking over there?
I wrote them back a sarcastic email, cc-ing Cristina, "Yes. I Kelly Abbott, of Eugene Oregon, own NowNowNow.com." Fuck you very much. No response. I fly to Paris. Fly back. Et viola. You've been screwed.
OK, so maybe that's not the funny part. Turns out I never actually DID own NowNowNow.com. While I was away, they - the faceless brits with cash and moxy - called Netsol, asked them the same questions they asked me. Netsol clarified the matter and they got the domain for the rock bottom price of $35 directly.
It still kills me to tell that story.
Comments:
seanf (July 14, 2006. 11:34pm)
Nice!
(in a evil, that-sucks sort of way)
wade1j (July 18, 2006. 06:06pm)
I had an idea once....
BrianZimm (August 27, 2006. 02:12pm)
Man that does suck. Interestingly, the domain is again for sale, for $2,550.
icowboy (September 5, 2006. 05:10pm)
Man... drive the price up? I was just negotiating a win/win. Clearly, without all the facts.
From this experience, I too learned a lesson: ask the dumb questions and even double-confirm them.
Honestly, it was a pretty inexpensive lesson for me to learn. I've been paid back many times over by how many times this story has been told and how many times we've all laughed about it.
kga245 (September 5, 2006. 11:58pm)
So true. The dumb questions almost never turn out the be the dumbest.
akoni (October 25, 2006. 06:37am)
damn....domains are so important too, and I know of a few of the top of my head that are being misused by the wrong people and have so much better potential
shashwat (April 26, 2007. 04:03am)
I have similar story about a domain, some Chinese guys hijacked my future... then again lost it again coz of snapnames 30 sec delay in acquiring the domain laganmandap.com...