The time a $50 domain paid off our car
Back in the mid-1990s I had a proper and respectful civil service job in Sonoma County, California, and a Mac Performa with a whopping 4 megs of RAM. My co-worker Sue moonlighted as a realtor, and we agreed this new internet thing could be a great way to sell houses. Put the listing online, add some pictures. That was some cutting-edge thinking at the time!
So I paid $50 to an early version of Network Solutions, filled out a registration form that was very unforgiving about formatting, and got my first domain. It was “real estate flavored,” and that’s as specific as I can be. The sale came with terms I’ve always taken to mean the name stays private, and the buyer is a major media company that I suspect keeps plenty of attorneys around. If nothing else, I’m a man of my word.
I never did build that real estate site. Instead, I used the domain as my brand while building websites for a handful of Santa Rosa, CA small businesses and nonprofits.
Two offers in one week
In 1999, a friend asked me to leave my county job and move to Michigan to join his internet startup. Right around then, an email showed up from a guy in Minnesota named Nick. He offered $15,000 for my domain.
I told him I’d think about it. Within about a week, a home furniture company emailed with its own offer: $17,500. They had no idea Nick existed.
I told Nick about the second offer, including the number. He came back with $25,000. The catch was that his side needed time to approve the deal, so he offered $5,000 up front for the first right of refusal. If they walked away, I kept the $5,000. If they went ahead, another $20,000 was coming.
I was already quitting a perfectly good job and moving to Michigan, so of course I took the bigger gamble. The waiting period could have run 90 days, but I heard back in less than 30. I’d already moved ahead of my family when Melanie sent me a photocopy of the second check, for $20,000. That’s $24,950 in profit on a $50 domain.
Where did the money go? We paid off our Volkswagen Passat, Roxie, and bought snow parkas for a family that had just moved from California to Michigan. Not glamorous. And yes, it made a mess of our taxes that year.
What I got right, mostly by luck
- I didn’t jump at the first offer. Saying “let me think about it” cost nothing, and the second offer showed up within days.
- Competing offers set the price. I had no idea what the domain was worth. The buyers told me.
- I got paid before anything changed hands. The money came first. Back then that meant checks. Today there are much safer ways to do it.
What I’d do differently: I shared one buyer’s exact offer with the other. It worked out, but it was a risky move. And I’d use escrow instead of trusting checks.
A 2026 reality check: most domains aren’t lottery tickets anymore
My story happened during the dot-com gold rush, when a descriptive .com could start a bidding war. That’s a lot rarer now.
Part of the reason is that a keyword in your domain doesn’t do much for search. Google’s own SEO Starter Guide says keywords in a domain name have hardly any effect on rankings beyond showing up in breadcrumbs. A name like “denverplumbing.com” might feel like a shortcut to page one. It isn’t.
AI answers are shifting things too. Spaceship, a domain registrar, wrote in its 2026 domain trends piece that generic, keyword-heavy domains are losing ground as AI tools answer more questions right on the results page, while short, brand-like names are holding their value. The big sales that still make headlines tend to be short, premium names, not the everyday two- and three-word domains most of us own.
Take it from the owner of sourdoughbread.com. It’s a clean, two-word .com that would have had 1999 me shopping for a new car. Today it’s home to a sourdough site I’m building, which is a much better use for it than waiting by the mailbox for a check.
So if an offer shows up, treat it as a pleasant surprise, not a retirement plan. And if you’re holding a stack of domains “just in case,” it’s worth asking whether the yearly renewals still make sense.
Step 1: Make sure the offer is real
A big, unexpected offer is exactly what scammers use as bait. The best-known version is the domain appraisal scam. Someone offers to buy your domain for a generous sum, then says their client needs a professional appraisal first, from a specific company they recommend. You pay for the appraisal, and the “buyer” disappears. Namecheap has a good breakdown of how the appraisal scam works.
Red flags to watch for:
- They ask you to pay for anything (an appraisal, a “certificate,” a verification) before the sale
- They push you to transfer the domain before payment is secured
- They won’t use a recognized escrow service
- They pile on urgency or flattery
A real buyer doesn’t need your money to buy your domain.
Step 2: Decide what selling would cost you
If the domain is just sitting in your account, selling is simple. If it’s your business website or your email address, selling means changing both. That’s real work: redirects, a new email setup, updating your Google Business Profile, and reprinting anything with the old address on it. Here’s what that involves in how to change your domain name without losing customers.
Make sure the offer covers that cost and still leaves you ahead.
Step 3: Let real offers set the price
There’s no formula for what a domain is worth. Automated appraisal tools can give you a rough idea, but a domain is worth what a real buyer will actually pay for it. You don’t have to name a number first. And if one offer showed up out of the blue, it’s fair to wonder whether others might follow.
Step 4: Get paid safely
For a private sale, use a licensed escrow service. The usual process looks like this:
- You and the buyer agree on the price and terms, and both sign up with the escrow service.
- The buyer pays the escrow company, which confirms and holds the money.
- Only then do you transfer the domain to the buyer.
- Once the buyer confirms they’ve received it, the escrow company releases the money to you, minus its fees.
Escrow.com is one of the best-known services for this, and it explains the steps on its page about buying and selling domains. Before you start, make sure you can actually log in to your registrar account. If you’re not sure where your domain is registered, here’s how to find your domain registrar.
Step 5: Talk to your tax pro
The money from a domain sale usually has tax consequences, and how it’s treated depends on your situation. I’m not a tax advisor, and I learned this one the hard way. Talk to your accountant before you sign, not after.
Got an offer on your domain?
If someone wants to buy a domain that’s tied to your business website, I’m happy to talk through what selling would mean for your site and email. Call me at (720) 780-9998.
