Michael Berkens purchased MotorcycleHelmets.com back in 2010, and it looks like GoDaddy/Namefind just sold the domain to a buyer using privacy protection at Name.com.
The domain was bought in January 2010 at the TRAFFIC Las Vegas Auction.
The domain was actually listed with a $50K reserve but immediately after it didn’t meet reserve Mike asked Rick Latona (the auction company) to reach out to the Seller, and he agreed to put it back up at auction with a $35K reserve and i won it on one bid.
That was all just a prelude to one Grant Aldrich questioning the size of Michael’s manhood.
This was always one of my favorite posts here and with the sale it’s fun to look back at the interaction Michael had with Mr. Aldrich.
February 2011
On December 2, 2010, I got an inquiry for the domain,and I responded “we will only consider offers into the six figures for this category killer domain”.
So now we fast forward to last week, when some 2/12 months later I get this reply from a Mr. Grant Aldrich:
“”i Michael, thanks for the reply.
I apologize for the delayed response. Your ballbark was enough to scare off my client initially. They are looking to build a cool review resource, and a price tag like that is prohibitive. I want them to use this domain because I think its intuitive, but the reality is that in this Web 2.0 age, creative domains are more in vogue. Plus, with the rise of the mobile platforms, keyword domains are becoming far less valuable. Hard to justify that kind of a large expense.
I have been given a budget for the development and I would like to come to a middle ground with you that will be fair…I can offer $11,000 for the domain. No nonsense, here is what I can do. Well above the average for most .com’s being sold, and a nice chunk of change. I know its not the high end you were expecting when you first purchased the domain, but is a nice payday though.
Let me know if you think that’s fair. Hopefully we can have this work out. Thanks.””
Typically I wouldn’t waste my time negotiating or even responding with someone who considers buying a domain at $35K and selling it at $11K a “nice payday”
However the response from Mr. Aldrich pissed me off to be honest, based on his statements which I placed in bold above.
So I wrote him back:
Grant the reason this domain is priced into the six figures is because its simply the best domain you can possibly have for the topic it covers.”
“A similar name sportinggoods.com sold for $475,000.
“Grant let me ask you when your offering $11K and playing the “Well above the average for most .com’s being sold” do you really believe it or are you just hoping that someone doesn’t know any better?
So here is the response I got last night from Mr Aldrich (word for word unedited):
“”Mike, you’re a very pompous guy…and quite frankly, I’m not exactly sure why. You’re blog material is second-rate, and bland at best. Which probably indicates your below-average intelligence. You’re business model of waiting for domains to sell lacks sophistication, and is equivalent to used car speculating.
My statement is 100% accurate. MOST domains don’t sell for that rate. I purchased Dermatologist.net for $13k. AcneScars.com for 1200. etc. Those denominations make up the bulk of the purchasing world. Just because you point out a few outliers like sportinggoods.com or Vodka.com, or Business.com, doesnt mean that your domain portfolio should command a similar price.
So, Mike…maybe you have a little dick, or maybe you have a little man complex. Either way, you should try to be more professional in your dealings with people, and not take things so personal. Just because I make an offer for a domain that you dont like, you don’t need to reply with offensive sarcasm.
I’m no longer interested in your domain…good luck.”
So if you happen to get an offer from Mr. Aldrich (he uses the email address of [email protected]) you now know what your dealing with.
and at least this post wasn’t Bland.
