Just yesterday, we reported how .com domain registrations were starting to turn around again after a lackluster 2008. Today brings further proof as the domain candy.com has just sold for $3 million to G&J Holdings. That makes it the second largest domain purchase this year, following Toys R Us’ acquisition of toys.com.
G&J Holdings plans to use candy.com to sell — get this — candy. They would like to become the online destination for all your candy needs by offering expedited shipping and competitively price products, as well as a nice shopping experience. But really, how much does all of that matter when you have the awesome candy.com domain name? The press release claims there are over 800,000 searches for the word “candy” each month — hence, the $3 million price tag.
The deal was actually all set to be done a couple months ago, but it took all this time to finalize it (read: for the lawyers to go over it). The site was purchased from the “Domain King,” who has all the details of how it went down. His real name is Rick Schwartz and he made a name for himself last year when he sold the ireport.com domain to CNN for $750,000. He also owned property.com which was sold for some ridiculous amount to foreclosure.com as the economy collapsed.
[Thanks Mike]
[photo: flickr/terren in virginia]
This one will be interesting since there’s lots of brands appearing (supposedly thanks to Google’s Vince update) for the “candy” search query.
3M is a steal.
Should be a pron site
I want buy this domain name http://www.Pinki.com Anybody know to How to approach a domain name owner for purchase?
Just to note, Rick Schwartz never owned foreclosure.com.
He purchased property.com for $750,000 a few years back, and sold it on to the company that owns foreclosure.com.
Definitely underpaid
MG, Cool play on words with the title!! :-)
How about
Candy stolen for $3M. Low priced distribution to follow.
G&J Holdings concocts the worlds expensive Candy for $3M.
Domain exchanged for $3M. G&J caught licking a Candy.
Another good title would be: The world’s most expensive Candy costs $3M. ;-)
I brokered this deal years ago, Rick was the buyer (in the low six figures US$). He took the risk when many others who were presented the same deal showed no interest. Well deserve win.
Cheers
Sahar
Conceptualist.com – blog
Bido.com co founder
I handled the deal for Google back in the day.. Yahoo too.. 10 figures.. they gave my a lollypop for my troubles and I gave Mark Z the idea of Facebook after a nerds sugar high.
I also dated Alyssa Milano when I was going to sign with the Yankees as a pitcher but I slipped on a Jawbreaker… wrecked my shoulder.. so now I double for Mel Gibson’s butt… and am a seeing eye person for blind dogs.
Cheers
Gebadia Smith
jawbreaker.com
lookatmespamtc.com cofounder
Hey idiot, what Sahar says is well documented from Rick Schwartz himself. Now go back to your wannabe life.
Retard.
Hey genius, sometimes it’s just funny to tell jokes and make outrageous statements. No go back to your likely-attractive wife.
Thinker.
Derek.. if locator dude came on here and did the exact same thing we would rip him.. yet because Sahar did the deal it is ok for him to spam?
I don’t care if Bill Gates did that.. to me at least it is spam.. See when I make a comment I see the “Website” area as a trade of sorts… it is TC saying we give you a way to promote yourself so you don’t have to spam and you can just be interesting..
Sahar didn’t care. He wanted to show off and say look at me.
I don’t know who he is and I don’t care. Let your work and your comments speak for themselves. If you are interesting and insightful people will click the link in your name.
Really? I invented twitter back in the day by rubbing two sticks together and singing really loudly. I also sold YouTube to the Martians and flew to the Moon on the back of a magical pony named Leroy.
Cheers
Trae Dorn
trhonline.com – Blog
nobrandcon.com co founder
litlol
would you like to broker the sale of FacebookEconomy.com ?!
Liked for catchy title. Not bad for a Friday :
Only if I could turn back time…. and buy up all the basic words, damn!
I’m surprised neither Mars nor Hershey bought this.
Hershey’s is set to spend $155 and $160 in ad spending this year.
http://www.medi...p;art_aid=84876
3 mil is two pennies in comparison.
MG,
Foreclosure.com has been owned by Brad Geisen as far back as 2003. Rick never had it. He did have property.com which Brad purchased for an undisclosed amount.
Oh thanks I misread that part — he sold property.com TO foreclosure.com. I’ll fix.
overpaid.
the url alone is worth it. As creative as it is, I’d change site layout.
Clearly MG stands for Mostly Gandy.
Candy.
Gum?
Whatever.
There isn’t a good synonym for Candy that starts with a G… :P
I wish I had thought of this (again, everyone is saying that).
Wonder if Candy.com wants candygurus.com …
Although, it’s such a wonderfully inventive site I’m not sure I can part with it.
ok maybe for a mil.
This is a great deal for both sides. I just can’t imagine how a large company such as Mars would not buy this domain. They spend more than $3M per month in marketing alone – JESUS!
btw – Sahar @ Bido is also the real deal and a great guy.
Can you site a source that shows how much Mars spends per month on marketing?
sure wish it was me who had that domain name to sell
What about the HUDGE deal that happened with ICANN yesterday? Where is TC when the big news happens???
When do you think idiot “locator guy” is going to post about how his bullshit domains are worth much more?
Wait for it … it will be here soon enough. He can’t help it.
@june bug
thank you for the brainless intro.
what i do know is someone out there owns the greatest strategic natural language domain portfolio ever created. like tigerwoods and kobe some people cant help but be the best at what they specialize in. when you have a specialty besides following me and hiding in a closet share it with the community ……..its what we are here for bro.
NaturalLocator.com – evolution takes it toll.
DoucheLocator.com
This article is great.
I own gotporn.com turned down the best one at 600K so far, maybe oneday it will be worth more
LOL it’s not worth $600 never mind 600K wot planet you on………Cuckoo.,
As for $3m for candy Rich schawtz is tight as arseholes he knows what he’s doing and he knows he has tucked them up at $3m,if you offered this to him to buy or use is domain pawn broking service you would be lucky to get anything above $100K..
The right name makes a huge difference. Keep it short, simple and give it relevance.
There’s a lot of material out there about what makes a domain a great domain. If you are not in the industry, here are few things to investigate before investing in domain names:
1. The extension. First and foremost, if you buy for trading (flipping) purposes, investing in an extension which does not trade between buyers/sellers will hurt your chances
2. Length. In general, shorter is better however, there are exceptions to the rule.
4. Direct navigation traffic: Extremely important, does the domain gets direct navigation traffic, that is, typed in the browser bar without any sort of advertising? Candy.com I remember clearly was a heavy traffic domain, well over 1,000 unique visits per day if my memory serves me right.
4. Context/traffic: Is the domain and its traffic (if it has nay) traffic commercial oriented, is it social oriented? Not all traffic created equal
5. Radio test: Will it sound good on the radio, look good in print?
6. Typo proof/brand protection: When Microsoft decided to go with Bing for its search engine they went on a shopping spree to buy typos as well as related domain in ccTLD’s.
These are few tips of top of my head. To learn more visit NameBee.com, Domaining.com, follow the industry. There’s much money to be made in it, even today.
Cheers, and good luck !
Sahar
Conceptualist.com – Blog
Bido.com co founder
Can anyone tell me why this pisses me off? Why a guy putting is URL at the end of his little speach?
Bido.com is a URL action site.. his comments are self serving promotional crap directing traffic to his site. If he wanted to be just helpful, his comments would be enough.
He is marketing. You pretend to be helpful and then you slip in your website. Not very effective because a smart person would of mixed his URL within other URLs.. To learn more visit namebee.com, godaddy.com, bido.com, etc..You camouflage your URL among well known names.
He doesn’t care about you.. just like I don’t give a dam about people here.. none of us do.. we want TC to feature us or some VC to give us money.. Sahar wants you to sell and buy URL’s on Bido which is fine.. just leave your URL in the place TC provides..
What is killing twitter? Self serving spam..
What is killing facebook groups? Self serving spam…
What is killing email? Self serving spam…
This shouldn’t be a gray area.. because when you say this is ok.. then it means that it is ok for every facebook app developer to post their URL after a comment when the story is about Facebook.. it is saying every time there is a twitter article which is 10 times a day every twitter app developer should be able to say something smart and then post their URL…
It is called spamming and it kills the internet… it is self serving bullshit..
Bido sucks
Those who complain about getting back in time to make domain profits do not realize something called as ‘Vision’.
You may NOT have a single word name to sell for a million. But, you can still acquire and sell 500 names for 3 Million.
Just do it.
I think such a domain is worth the $3m easily.
Candy.com doesn’t bring in anywhere near what has been claimed by Rick Schwartz. Traffic or daily revenue. He’s the biggest jerk in the business. His domain conference TRAFFIC is now being attended less and less. It really has very little to do with the state of the economy. This guy got in early and has been screaming for years that he’s the domain king.
He’s the bull in the china shop type of guy. He’s great at making waves and getting peoples attention but he still makes everyone just think he’s an @sshole.
He is a dishonest, scammer who just damages the industry with every breath. Hopefully this will be one of the last times we have to hear anything about him.
Agreed Rick Schwartz is a jackass who is forever ramping his bullshit domains up,but when the shoe is on the other foot the jackass lowballs pathetically,he is true conman as domainer says above…….stay away from Rick Schwartz and his shady practices.
Bido=Shit
Wealth.com up for auction, reported opening bid $2.9 million
ETFs.com up for sale, reported opening bid $350k
How much is http://www.RealTimeAlerts.net domain is worth?
Another great domain sale!
Rick Schwartz is a Scammer..
They Steal to Profit
Domainers Are Scammers,
So in other words, this guy sold the domain to his buddy on paper for $3 million, they will try and get media attention for the sale, launch a shitty looking candy store with it, then MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, down the road Hershey’s will actually come along and buy it for $3.5 million…
I smell bullshit.
Some (many) of you are idiots, period. Jealousy is a weak emotion. Facts (as presented) are solid and reality.
It is sad that in this day and age “feeling sorry for yourself” and disrespecting someone else is common-ground mutually.
I do not know RS personally, but I will admit he is one of the great visionaries of the Internet and made millions of dollars in connection-this is well documented, and is FACT. Therefore, in my opinion, anyone who (without evidence of wrong doing) slanders his name/business is not only unprofessional, but ignorant as well.
EDUCATE yourself.
It is hard to put a dollar value on having the best domain in an industry. For several years I ran an online candy store at OrderCandy.com and got 5-10 orders per day, but it was not worth the fulfillment and customer service hassles (shipping meltable chocolate in the summer is tricky) so I eventually shut it down.
But, to a big candy company that is already selling candy, having a killer domain could add huge value to their company. And, not just in getting them more orders from the website, but also from everybody perceiving they are a leader in their industry. Also, by putting a short and easy to remember domain on their offline ads and catalogs, it would lead to additional orders.
So, as an entrepreneur, I would not spend $3 million to buy Candy.com, but if I were a big candy company with cash to spend, I would buy it in a heartbeat.