Perfect number, perfect sale: 360.org sells for five figures

When I acquired 360.org a little over a year ago, I was not intimidated by its seller’s asking price. In fact, the purchase of 360.org took very little negotiation behind the scenes; I was willing to pay the $2,500 price tag but ended up paying five hundred bucks less. To me, paying two grand for a perfect number was worth it.

Wikipedia explains why 360 is such a special number. You don’t have to be a freak of numerology to recognize it as the definition of a full circle in degrees, and the circle as a shape does seem to maintain both actual and apocryphal qualities.

When I acquired the domain name, I envisioned creating a web site about earth, communication, the environment – something global and related to nature. A lot of companies use domains that end in “360.org” and I did have several inquiries from such entities, claiming “not for profit” status and thus making rather symbolic and unsatisfactory offers, which I had to decline. I am in this business for profit and although charity has its place in my personal and professional life, I was not going to let go of this domain cheap.

A few months later, I listed 360.org at TRAFFIC / Orlando 2008, with an optimistic reserve of $6,000. At the live auction, the Moniker guys presented it by gesturing the shape of a circle to the bidding crowd. It was instant recognition of what the number signifies.

Fortunately, the domain did not sell; I realized afterwards that a room full of domainers looking for single word .com’s with traffic did not present me with the best selling options. However, it’s interesting seeing that none in this educated crowd shared my 360-degree vision!

At the end of 2008, a year after the domain’s acquisition, I received a couple of private inquiries – one of them was a rather arrogant email “demanding” a selling price instead of bearing the burden of placing an offer through Sedo. I have little tolerance for behind-the-keyboard snubs and my response was definitely a non-politically correct one.

Right before Christmas, the second inquiry started with a low offer of $2,000 via Sedo and ended at $10,000 with the bidder withdrawing their bid when I asked for more. Now, I am not one who shuns ten grand easily, as it represents a considerable amount of money; after the bidder canceled their round of offers I had that clutching feeling in my stomach thinking, “Did I just throw $10,000 in the garbage?

I contacted Sedo and attempted to learn more information about my mysterious bidder; they responded that although they were not an active member they were a company. This small bit of information gave me the chance to a) feel better about having just declined a ten thousand dollar offer and b) initiated a secondary round of contact via Sedo’s brokers. They were instructed to inform the bidder that the domain was worth much more than their final bid and that I was willing to negotiate a sale – if only we could meet in the middle.

The secret to successful domain sales seems to be simple: stick to your gut feeling guns. Evaluate a domain’s worth using your own intuition and don’t listen to the obligatory surrounding noise telling you that the economy is down, that the domain’s worth a registration fee, or that you’re simply crazy. At least, be objective with the value of your own assets and learn the methods required to evaluate them.

Right after New Year’s, the same bidder placed a direct offer at Sedo, much higher than the previous one. At that point I was confident that this transaction was almost complete; despite that, I took the chance of counter-offering a higher amount (the “stick to your guns” element) but lower than what I wanted during the first round. The bidder responded with a counter-offer a few thousand dollars lower; I played my final round of “cat and mouse” with one more offer, confident that they would accept it and close the deal.

I went to bed that night knowing that in the morning I’d have a sale.

So the agreement was made a week ago and the exchange occurred this week, making the transaction complete and official. As far as I know, it’s the largest recorded sale of a 3-number .org; perhaps of any number in .org. After all, a perfect number like 360 requires a perfect sale!

To find out the exact selling price, check out DNJournal next week. For several years now, Ron Jackson’s highly commendable efforts of recording and re-energizing the domain community through the research, publication and analysis of domain sales have been producing superb results for our industry.

Have a fabulous new year!

Comments

  1. Congratulations Acro 🙂

    Good story and Great sale indeed.

    Looking forward to know the exact selling price next week 😉

    Congrats again!

  2. Nice post, nice name, nice deal. Congrats.

  3. Congrats Acro! That was pretty gutsy to counter twice after negotiations re-opened. Can’t wait to see the final sale price, and also to see who bought it and what they will do with it. (Whois still says Sedo transfer as of this post.)

  4. It’s still a parking page. I don’t get it.

  5. Hopefully my experience will inspire others to negotiate their domains more objectively but also more aggressively to end-users 😀

    Tellus, domain is in Sedo’s control currently. They seem to have left the DNS at Parked.com

    Michael, the buyer is a Dutch company selling weather radar data.

  6. Great Story Acro! and congratulations!
    Im glad to hear there are still good deals being made.

  7. You big teaser you.
    That’s typical Acro 😉
    You must make me to wait whole week?
    Great sale, though 😀

  8. so whats 360.com worth ?

  9. Copper 😀 I promised Ron Jackson exclusivity – that’s my small contribution for his efforts all these years.

    FX, 360.com is a 7-figure domain.

  10. Cool post, congrats on trusting your guts. Can’t believe this is my first time visiting your blog!

  11. Theo, that is a sweet deal 🙂

    360.org has a nice ring to it too..

    Best,
    Mike

  12. i love stories of success like the one you wrote about. My guess is $16,995. What is your guess?

  13. You’ll have to wait until Monday for Ron Jackson’s report 🙂

  14. Nice sale Theo 🙂

  15. Thanks Kevin. I know DomainNameWire leaked the price already 🙂 They seem to have access to Sedo sales that I don’t see at Sedo.com. The official report should be at DNJournal.

  16. Now it feels better 🙂

    Great sale. invest it wisely 😉

  17. Hi Acro

    I read your article with great interest as you seem to be in the know when it comes to selling and negotiating domain sales. Is it possible to tap your knowledge? I own 22 domain names which I am interested to sell. I have listed them on Sedo as for sales and also parked them. I have owned them for about two years. Three of them I am thinking of selling as a package as they could be used together by the owner to set up a property/real estate business. They are iwanttobuyaproperty.com, iwanttosellaproperty.com and iwanttorentaproperty.com. . I was hoping to get a few ideas from you as to the correct route I should take to get the best possible prices for them. I have listed them on ebay but I don’t know if this is good or not. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Apologies to post this on the comments but I tried to use the contact icon and the top of your homepage but it did not respond. Thanks again. Johannes Aucamp

  18. Nice one! A bit of luck and patience is all a domainer needs.

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