HitPig.com: From parked domain to Hollywood animated movie

In the summer of 2007 I spent $40 to buy the domain HitPig.com on a domain forum. It had a fun alliteration quality about it and loosely reminded me of the game Whac-A-Mole.

The domain remained parked for years, barely earning its renewal fees every year but I was too fond of the name to drop it.

In August of last year I renewed HitPig.com once again and within days I received an inquiry and a $200 offer on Dan.com. I declined and countered with $2,500 but did not hear back.

By the end of the month, Dan was done, with domain investors’ portfolios moving to Afternic. In late October I received an offer for $1,500 dollars but it didn’t happen on Afternic! The Dan exchange had remained active, allowing the buyer and I to continue negotiations.

A quick search revealed that it was the title of a soon to be released animated movie, HitPig. In fact, the movie’s opening day was less than a week away.

With that in mind, I countered with $2,000 – take it or leave it. Via Dan messages, I pointed my buyer to the landing page of the domain which I had switched to the same BIN at Afternic. Within hours, the sale had gone through.

There are some important lessons from this sale, beginning with the “stick to your gut feeling” approach when renewing domain names. If you believe that a domain has potential but you can’t pinpoint it, put it on the keepers list.

Second, the fact that I used “dead” Dan to receive an offer and send a counter-offer highlights how important it is to negotiate directly with one’s buyers, even anonymously, without relying on third party brokers or exchanges that can’t convey one’s temperament and timing. There would be no way for me to relay to the buyer via a broker that “today only” means just that; the window of opportunity would roll into the next day, or beyond that.

Lastly, being content with a sale that ended up serving a good purpose. HitPig, the animated movie, is fun and entertaining. It had been in the works for a decade, though considerably less than my own holding of the domain name. In recent days, while HitPig.movie hosts the actual film’s web site, the domain HitPig.com will be providing content for the upcoming HitPig animated series.

It’s definitely exciting and satisfying to have taken that approach with regards to the domain name.