Kevin Ham - Vancouver.com

[Provider]

If you guys remember geo domain name: Vancouver.com was one of the highest sales few yerars ago, it was sold for $550k or something like that.

Kevin Ham just complete a purchase of this domain name few weeks ago. I don't know for how much it was sold, but this sale was around 5-10 mln at least. The company that had this name -Intrawest, had many people employed, they had also a call center
to sell travel packages in Vancouver.

[Rockefeller]

Great news! Thanks.

[Acro]

The price of Canadian Ham (or bacon) jumps!

But seriously, that's great news.

[Bill Roy]

This goes to reinforce the idea that a massive re-appraisal of domains is presently underway by some of the biggest in the industry.

Fantastic news, thanks for bringing it to our attention Provider.

[Provider]

Domain: vancouver.com
Cache Date: 2007-06-15
Registrar: DOTSTER, INC.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Registrant:
Intrawest ULC
#710 - 375 Water Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 5C6
CA

Registrar: DOTSTER
Domain Name: VANCOUVER.COM
Created on: 14-FEB-95
Expires on: 15-FEB-11
Last Updated on: 06-MAR-07

Administrative, Technical Contact:
Admin, DNS dnsadmin@intrawest.com
Intrawest ULC
#710 - 375 Water Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 5C6
CA
604-639-4300

Domain servers in listed order:
DNS1.INTRAWEST.COM
DNS2.INTRAWEST.COM

========================================

Domain: vancouver.com
Cache Date: 2007-06-16
Registrar: DOTSTER, INC.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Registrant:
Vertical Axis Inc
142-757 W. Hastings St., Suite #777
Vancouver, BC V6C 1A1
CA

Registrar: DOTSTER
Domain Name: VANCOUVER.COM
Created on: 14-FEB-95
Expires on: 15-FEB-11
Last Updated on: 15-JUN-07

Administrative, Technical Contact:
Administrator, Domain mail1@verticalaxis.com
Vertical Axis Inc
142-757 W. Hastings St., Suite #777
Vancouver, BC V6C 1A1
CA
(309) 424-5497

Domain servers in listed order:
DNS1.INTRAWEST.COM
DNS2.INTRAWEST.COM

=========================================

Vertical Axis Inc - is Kevin Ham


===========================================

About Intravest that SOLD the name:


Intrawest Corporation
What they do: A world leader in resort and adventure travel, known most for owning Whistler Blackcomb (and Vancouver.com)

Why they're on the list: Vancouver-based staff are rewarded with free season's passes to Whistler (good for spouses, too!) Other perks include discount travel to many of its resorts and a better-than-average flex benefit program that gives each employee a say in what kind of coverage he or she gets.


CEO: Joe Houssian
Established: 1975
Number of Employees: 380 (Vancouver)
2005 Revenue $1.7 billion
% Growth 7%

[hugegrowth]

Wow, a domainer buying a city domain from a big company. Intrawest must have gotten way more than they thought the domain was worth. I wonder if the final price will be reported, or if this will be a non-disclosure sale.

[Bill Roy]

With Kevin involved it most definately will be left to speculation as to what the final price was. But a suggestion would be to look out for yet more moves in this direction.

[petrosc]

i think I'm among the few who feel sad with these sales going on. The prices are rising so fast that in a few years we will not be able to buy anything decent. Sales like this really help the people who have strong generics in their possession, no doubt about it, but for the ones who are still building their portfolios (who represent the vast majority in this industry) this is not good. JMO - I know most will disagree

[DomainMagnate]

nice good news.

I can see what you mean Petros

[Provider]

These sales bad for everyone, not just for people that build a portfolio of names. We are all in this business buy and sell names all the time, so portfolio is not something that stays the same for a long time for most of us. Nowadays you can post on the forum that you have 50k to spend and nobody will offer you a generic .com for sale for that money

[petrosc]

exactly, because these people are inflating the prices too much. I believe Schilling was accused many times as well in the past for inflating the prices by overpaying for names

[Acro]

Hey, he can overpay as much as he wants for mine

[hugegrowth]

who's to say what is overpaying? one person can make $10 per month with a domain, another could make $1000 per month with the same name. there must be a reason some people will pay high prices for some names, what do they know? people like ham and schilling must have a good feel for the domain business by having stats on so many names. there is only one Vancouver.com, and anyone in the world with an internet connection is a potential buyer for a domain. each domain is unique and your competition is the world. in what other market can you deal with people around the world so easily as with domains? not real estate, cars, antiques, etc.

[Bill Roy]

For those who want the domain market to remain unchanging then this will be bad news. For those who simply wish to be part of a pyramid style domain market then this is bad news. For those that ridicule anything that is not .com this is bad news. But for those that see that domaining by its very nature is in a constant revolutionary flux and analyse the market as such this is brilliant news.

If I cannot buy a generic .com for $50,000 then tough on me, what right have I to say that I have a 'right' to buy a domain at a certain price? But if my budget is set at $50,000 then I look for another way to invest in the domain market probably by going after another suffix. That is the way it should be, and because of this the owners of such domains will make a profit, just like over the past decade .com'ers have made a profit.

Sorry if this upsets anyone but the news is that domaining is a free market economy!

[Provider]

I think there is no such thing as overpaying. If you overpaid for something more than once than you are a not very successful businessman. We can't say something like this
about the people mentioned though. They know what they are doing, and any price they pay is a smart move, even if it is a risky one.

You think people overpaid paying for business.com 350 mln? The truth is that this name
will be sold back and forth many times in the future, and guess what, the price will be always higher.

[petrosc]

what right have I to say that I have a 'right' to buy a domain at a certain price?

Bill I believe that I did not argue about anyone's rights for buying any name at any price. I was expressing my opinion: "I feel that this is generally not in the best interest of the small domainer".

I think there is no such thing as overpaying. If you overpaid for something more than once than you are a not very successful businessman. We can't say something like this
about the people mentioned though. They know what they are doing, and any price they pay is a smart move, even if it is a risky one.

You think people overpaid paying for business.com 350 mln? The truth is that this name
will be sold back and forth many times in the future, and guess what, the price will be always higher.

I agree with what you said, let's replace the "overpayment" term with "Paying much more than current market average". And doing that does not mean that they are not doing well as business men, it's just that they may not care about a 100k+ or 100k- if they are making $100M per year as Ham does

[Poker]

Agree with BillBo, this is a free market economy, and that's the way it should stay. Your job is to adapt.

[hugegrowth]

it's good and bad news then, any domains you have would generally be worth more in a rising market, but if you are trying to buy quality names in the aftermarket, a rising market hurts you. buy/reg whatever quality you can now and let time take care of the rest.

[Bill Roy]

Petros, the statement about right to buy was in reference to Providors statement that a good generic .com could not be purchased for $50k.

However, your comment about paying 'over the current market average' just illustrates how out of touch that 'current market average' is with values of domains as they are now being assessed. It would be wrong of me to say more at this stage but you have read and commented on my other posts to know that I am of the opinion that the market valuations is in for a BIG upswing!

[petrosc]

yeah I know that