February 28, 2014
This story will have domainers salivating. It's been revealed the purchase price for the domain name Whisky.com was USD $3.1 million dollars.
Whisky.com was sold in January this year, but an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) was in place preventing the vendor from discussing details of the deal up until now.
In addition to the hefty price tag, the fact the sale was for the domain only and there's another common spelling for the word - whiskey - makes this one of the more noteworthy domain sales in recent years.
According to Grammarist, "whisky usually denotes Scotch whisky and Scotch-inspired liquors, and whiskey denotes the Irish and American liquors."
The sale will see the name enter the top 20 list of most expensive domain names (where the sale price is known), which includes:
VacationRentals.com $35 million in 2007
Insure.com $16 million in 2009
Business.com for $7.5 million in December 1999
Candy.com for $3.0 million in June 2009
Loans.com for $3.0 million in February 2000
Slots.com for $5.5 million in 2010
The full top 20 list of the world's most expensive domains can be viewed on Wikipedia.
With regard to Australian domains, the highest known price paid for a .COM.AU was AUD $153,000 for Flowers.com.au. Last year saw Cruises.com.au fetch a price of $103,400 and Hobart.com.au sold for $67,600.
The seller of Whisky.com, Michael Castello, had in the past been willing to part with far less for his name. In 1996, he would have accepted $1,000.
The amount Mr. Castello paid for the initial registration of Whisky.com back in 1995? $0, zilch, nada, nothing.
The full history of the Whisky.com rags-to-riches story can be viewed on DNJournal.
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