Six months ago Ron Jackson of DN Journal announced the NDA sale of Chocolate.com. The domain was brokered by Buckley Media.
After there was no movement on the name for a couple weeks one Namepros member started questioning the validity of the sale. A few months later that same member posted:
So am I the only one questioning this sale? NDA, Points still a couple months later to a for sale page. Publicity stunt?
When names happen under NDA and no verified data is shown to “trusted sources” there has been an ever growing number of domain investors who start to question if the sales are legit?
It’s the complex nature of domain deals mixed with the Wild West attitude of domaining, a lot of times you cannot go and check on a domain sale the way you can go check a real property sale.
Property Search in Public Records
Every city has a place where the public can go to search for information on a property. Property records are maintained at either the county courthouse, county recorder, city hall or another city or county department. Many public offices are staffed by knowledgeable personnel ready to help you find property deeds and encumbrances.
Legal Beagle.com
Property ownership is public record. You can find out who owns a parcel of real estate if you have the address. You’ll need to search the records at the property tax assessor’s office or the county recorder of deeds; the records may or may not be available online.
Domain investors rely on the respect and integrity of “trusted sources” For many that starts with Ron Jackson at DN Journal, Ron was the man responsible for the genesis of domain sales reporting.
Namebio is another “trusted source” Michael Sumner provides a work around the clock ethic to try and bring as much data as possible.
Now of course Ron and Michael are not doing forensic audit analysis. Forensic accountants are not cheap either.
So the bottom line is you either trust the people putting out the information or you don’t. Your suspicions may just be that, a suspicion. You are probably going to need to do some deep dive research to find out some of the answers you are looking for. That does seem to be something some are willing to do or pay for. I can say this summer I have had three different proposals where people asked for research into certain people and names in the business and were willing to pay more than I expected them to offer.
As far as Chocolate.com which is under privacy, the buyer and a website has been revealed.
Wazimo out of Israel is the owner of the domain name, they describe themselves: Wazimo brings a fresh perspective to publishing. We mix cutting edge technology with a drive to challenge the status quo of user engagement.
Their brands include: Football.com – Trivia.com – Basketball.com and about a dozen more. The company says it serves 3.4 billion monthy ad impressions.
Here is a look at Chocolate.com
Some wonder if this kind of website is significant enough development on a premium domain name that cost millions of dollars? We will see.
