Why not poke at ourselves? (who does that?)
Back in December 2014 while going through state bankruptcy listings looking for potential #PremiumDomains that may be available for the cheap - we came across a company that owned a couple #PremiumDomainNames. One was CBA.com.
But there was a problem, the domain was registered to an individual and not the company. So I contacted the Investment Banker guy that it was registered to and he immediately hung up on me. So I called back and called back again several times over the next few days.
I never did get him back on the phone, but I did speak with his wife and oldest son. To put it mildly - They did not want to sell the #PremiumDomainName and they claimed CBA.com was not and should not be part of the bankruptcy.
I disagreed - so I contacted the Trustee along with some creditors (that was fun!) and pushed for this asset to be included. I then helped the Trustee secure the #PremiumDomainName from the Registrar and get it transferred to the Trustee. (whew that was a lot of work!)
Time to wrap this up! I negotiated with the Trustee a price of $5K and we were getting the paper work in place when he called me to say - He needed two bids in order to do his job properly. No problem! So another one of my companies sent in an offer of $2,500.
Then came the bad news. I received an email stating that he was conducting a telephone auction and that he hoped I would attend and bid to my 5K. I was pissed! but understood that the trustee was only following the Bankruptcy Act and doing what was right - so to the telephone auction we went.
On the phone I think was 5 others and my goal was to bid fast and go to 40K very quickly and hope all was over in less than 5 minutes with me still getting a deal on CBA.com. I went to $45K and lost out to the final bid of $46K.
The end user came a few years later and I was not surprised it was the big Australian Bank Commonwealth Bank who paid a hefty price. This one got away from me and I'm still not happy with myself. I did a lot of leg work and felt my $45K final offer was good enough and fair for that time. I was wrong - and I'm sure it won't be the last time that I will be wrong - but I have learned from this experience and I am still here to tell the tale. (Is it hard to find a Domain Broker with thick skin?)
Stay tuned as BCE.com is another one I'd like to share with you!
