- Impact
- 1,877
When I started off domaining, I once came 3rd in a private auction and the first 2 bidders had bailed out.
Since I was the next highest bidder in the auction, I was given the domain name to purchase for the price I had bid.
In the meantime, knowing that others had bid more on the domain name and it was well beyond my budget now, I decided to purchase another name for a similar amount from some other place.
Given the option to own the domain name, it was very enticing but I had already spent the money that I had kept aside for this auction. So the fourth-highest bidder who wanted to own the domain name but also wanted to minimize his risk, asked me if we could own the domain together.
Although I passed on the opportunity and he purchased it himself (it was a 4 letter domain during the Chinese boom, so I am pretty sure he must have made a stellar return out of the name), this incident reminded me of an idea whether it was possible to officially own a portion of a domain name.
Is there any facility or service that makes it legal that you own a say, 40% of the domain name? If not, and if the domain is not extremely valuable (say a portfolio or a domain name of a possible appraised value of $50,000 (self-appraised that is), how do we ensure part ownership, while keeping it official so that if there is a difference between the partners, the legality is there to ensure that the partner having access to the names doesn't end up owning it completely?
How do you do it?
Since I was the next highest bidder in the auction, I was given the domain name to purchase for the price I had bid.
In the meantime, knowing that others had bid more on the domain name and it was well beyond my budget now, I decided to purchase another name for a similar amount from some other place.
Given the option to own the domain name, it was very enticing but I had already spent the money that I had kept aside for this auction. So the fourth-highest bidder who wanted to own the domain name but also wanted to minimize his risk, asked me if we could own the domain together.
Although I passed on the opportunity and he purchased it himself (it was a 4 letter domain during the Chinese boom, so I am pretty sure he must have made a stellar return out of the name), this incident reminded me of an idea whether it was possible to officially own a portion of a domain name.
Is there any facility or service that makes it legal that you own a say, 40% of the domain name? If not, and if the domain is not extremely valuable (say a portfolio or a domain name of a possible appraised value of $50,000 (self-appraised that is), how do we ensure part ownership, while keeping it official so that if there is a difference between the partners, the legality is there to ensure that the partner having access to the names doesn't end up owning it completely?
How do you do it?