Grab your popcorn folks
On 9/21/2006 I was contacted by dnforum user shad0w35 AKA Greg Lasrado regarding a few gambling domain names I had posted for sale. In this post he asked if the names had traffic and if I had any others. I responded back with a batch of around 90 names that I had with traffic and we reached an agreement on those names. Within this agreement Greg informed me he was new to the domain business and noticed I had a list service and he would throw in a few hundred extra if I sent him my lists for a few months and here is the summary of my reply,
"I don't mind giving you tips from time to time and even access to my site but to be honest I'm planning on shutting it down to the public. The objective was to compensate the revenues I would be loosing in giving up all of my secrets but as of yet I haven't even covered the cost of the billing script itself..lol I'll likely keep organizing and storing all of my files there so you can have access but don't get upset if I forget what I'm doing there."
He agreed to the price and the offering of my "tips from time to time " and we finalized the deal. In between time he asked for some sort of instant messenger so he could ask questions from time to time so I gave him my ICQ. We began chatting about the business the very next day on the 09/23 and he had alot of interest aswell as questions. It didn't take long before I could see that this was going to take alot of my time answering questions etc. I could also see that he was going to make alot of "newbie" mistakes due to the names he was sending to me to have a look at and give him my opinion. As I said I would, I began sending him lists. Also during our conversations I told him while I did make a decent living I didn't have the funding to really do alot of the things I wanted to do. He mention that if I continued to help him he would back me in some things and we would split the profits 50/50. We began discussing various idea I had aswell as some that he had. More or less some of the things he wanted to do I had already done in the past or had considerd doing so I already knew the cheapest route to do them.
On the very day we had this discussion I spoke with a friend/business associate who lived in Australia regarding Greg. To put it plain and simple David advised me to "watch my back." I also did some digging of my own and read some of his history. I mentioned to Greg that I have read up on his past and he stated "don't believe everything you read." I have to admit at this time I was considering not even doing the deal and/or getting caught up in the middle of anything that could turn out like his past business dealings.
This was also during the time of the .mobi landrush. He told me he was ordering them through pool.com which was $79 a year and I informed him of Godaddy offering them at $59. So right there I began to save him money. But there is also alot of great suggestions I made such as ADAPTOR.MOBI, ADAPTORS.MOBI, ARCADEGAME.MOBI, FREEPIC.MOBI, CROSSWORDPUZZLE.MOBI, FREEPIC.MOBI, FREESCREENSAVER.MOBI, PERSONALAD.MOBI, USAMAPS.MOBI, WORLDATLAS.MOBI just to name a few. I spent the better part of that entire night datamining names on this day the 09/27. On the next day I decided to make the first attempt at testing the waters on his offer. I sent over about 15 names I felt would be good sellers down the road. Greg didn't really understand my reasoning behind them all apparently and questioned my reasoning then so I just sent him these 7 and said I would definately get these HANDHELDPC.MOBI, HAWHAW.MOBI, MACADDRESS.MOBI, OPERATINGSYSTEMS.MOBI, TEXTTOSPEECH.MOBI, VOICEBROWSER.MOBI, VOICEXML.MOBI and he agreed he would get them. I then went a registered a few of the others on my own. So at this point we're only 7 names into our still "iffy" agreement.
A few weeks before all of this I had noticed several times in a users signature a name which I wanted more than any name and it was Tennesee.info. When I first saw it in his sig he had it priced at $12,000 and even then I was thinking of how I could come up with or wishing I had $12,000 to get it. On 09/30/2006 Mike was looking to raise some quick cash for a deal he was working on and posted this name along with some other names and stated he was looking for quick sale offers. I PM'ed him and asked him what the minimum was he would take on it and he stated "I wont sell it for less than 5k." I PM'ed him back and asked him if I could get him the funds within the next few days would he sell it for the $5,000 and he informed me he would but he had to have the deal funded by the following Friday. This was on Saturday night.
Which leads us to what I think we would both agree as the deciding factor on us going forward with our partnership agreement. I thought about it and I figured I would put Greg to the test on everything he said he would do. More or less if he agreed to getting this name I would go forward with working with him and devoting my time and experience in his new business venture. I sent over a IM to Greg and told him about the name and if he would purchase it I would take care of all of his ideas and make sure he didn't buy into any bad deals etc. More or less a complete partnership. He brought the money to the table and I brought the experience.
At first he was leary of doing it not knowing even what "Tennessee" was and even pointed to several off the wall extensions that were available. I sent him an email over stating this was a very good deal and those available extensions in no way even came close to comparing to this one especially with me being a big .info buyer/seller. In this email I told Greg if he bought the name I would turn over all of my non local related names to the business aslong as it was agreed that I got the name. Greg eventually emailed me back and said if I really wanted the names he would do the deal. I posted sold on the name that night and told Mike I would get with him the next day regarding payment.
The next day rolls around and Greg wanted to know which names I thought were also good deals that mike had. I pointed out about 4-5 but I really liked the price on las-vegas.info. Greg asked me to see how much we could get it for included on the deal so it would soften the blow on tennessee.info deal. I thought it to be a good idea so I made an offer to MIke of $7,000 for Tennessee.info and las-vegas.info and Mike agreed. Greg wanted to make payment via epassporte because he had the funds there readily available. Mike was worried that if he went that route he wouldn't get the money in time enough to close the deal he wanted to do so he wanted to do it via some other form. I decided to go the escrow route because the payment could be made via multiple forms so it would give Greg several ways to pay. I initiated the escrow agreement via Moniker.com that day. Greg said he would get it taken care of it and this was on Sunday 10/01.
Monday I traveled back home and got back to work on some of the things Greg and I had discussed. On Tuesday 10/03 I PM'ed Mike and asked if everything was ok on his end. He stated he received an email from moniker that the escrow was in the works so he thought all was well and it also settled my mind. I continued on with doing things for Greg. Most of which was moving thousands of names from one parking program to another and adding them to the various brokerage sites such as sedo and afternic. Doing my lists, merging our portfolios and answering Gregs questions. Basicly spending every waken hour on doing this that or the other for all of this but I felt I was working for something that I really wanted which was tennessee.info. All the while thinking Greg was taking care of funding it. On that day 10/03 I began to register names I had in my "to be registered lists." This is a list of names I continually update of good avilable names and when I have extra money I pick out the best that are still available to register and resell. I had actually been holding out on these names until I felt more comfortable with our arrangement and his commitment on tennessee.info gave me the reassurance I needed to give them up. At first I registered these names at fabulous
buynotes.net
atvreviews.net
grantcash.net
discount-vitamins.net
dnaprint.net
indyevents.net
iowahome.net
kidskarate.net
lasvegastimeshare.net
laundrylist.net
legal411.net
multimediaphones.net
patentbroker.net
personalizedmugs.net
polytronics.net
poolfurniture.net
portablevideo.net
roller-skates.net
seo-links.net
speedstick.net
vamerica.net
windowsolutions.net
yourmortgagecompany.net 03 Oct 2007
On the 4th I registered these at Godaddy
.US
24-HOUR-FITNESS
ADULTHALLOWEENCOSTUMES
ADVENTURE-TOUR
AFRICANARTS
AIR-COMPRESSOR
AMERICANPIES
AMORTIZATIONS
AMORTIZATIONSCHEDULES
ANIMAL-SHELTER
ANIMEPICTURE
ART-HISTORY
BACHELORETTE-PARTY
BACTERIUM
BAR-STOOL
BASEBALL-BAT
BASEBALL-CARD
BATH-TUB
BATHING-SUIT
BEAUTYANDTHEBEAST
BELLYBUTTONRING
BIKE-RACK
BIKINI-MODEL
BIRTHDAYGREETING
BODY-SHOP
BOOK-REVIEW
BOSTON-TERRIER
BRIDAL-WEAR
BRIDESMAID-DRESS
BROADWAY-SHOW
BROWNRECLUSE
BULL-DOG
BUSINESS-AND-ECONOMY
BUSINESS-FOR-SALE
BUTTERFLYTATTOOS
CALIFORNIA-MAP
CAMEL-TOE
CANCUN-HOTEL
CANCUNHOTEL
CAR-ACCESSORY
CAR-QUOTE
CAR-SEAT
CATANDDOG
CEILING-FAN
CELEBRITY-PICTURE
CHEAT-CODE
CHICKEN-POX
CHILD-ABUSE
CHILDCARES
CLINIQUES
CLIPDIRECTORY
COAT-OF-ARMS
COCKER-SPANIEL
COLLEGE-BOARD
COMPUTER-DESK
COMPUTER-MONITOR
COMPUTER-VIRUS
COMPUTERARTS
CONTEMPORARY-FURNITURE
COOK-BOOK
CROSS-STITCH
CURRENCYCONVERTERS
CURRENCYEXCHANGES
CUSTOM-WHEELS
DEPARTMENT-STORE
DESKTOPMANAGEMENT
DEVICEDRIVER
DIVX-PLAYER
DIVXPLAYERS
DOG-CARE
DOG-HOUSE
DOLL-HOUSE
DOLLZ
DREAMINTERPRETATIONS
DRIVERLICENSES
DVD-BURNER
DVD-DECODER
ELECTRONICCOMPONENT
EMAIL-SEARCH
EMAIL-SERVICE
EMERIL
EMPLOYMENT-OPPORTUNITY
ENDANGERED-SPECIES
EVERWOOD
EXCHANGE-RATE
F1S
FACE-SITTING
FAIRY-TALE
FAMILY-SEARCH
FAMOUS-QUOTE
FANTASYFEST
FASHION-DESIGNER
FILE-MANAGEMENT
FINANCIAL-NEWS
FINANCIALAIDS
FIREPLACEINSERT
FISH-TANK
FLASH-GAME
FLCL
FOSI
FREE-GALLERY
FREE-HENTAI
FREE-HOROSCOPE
FREE-PICTURE
FREE-WEB-CAM
FREEBACKGROUND
FUN-GAME
G-UNIT
GAG-GIFT
GAS-SCOOTER
GAYCHATS
GO-KART
GOTHICCLOTHING
GREATWHITESHARKS
GROCERY-STORE
GUITARCHORD
HAIRPRODUCT
HALLOWEENRECIPE
HALLOWEENRECIPES
HAND-GUN
HARD-DISK
HOME-INTERIOR
HOME-PLAN
HOMEDECORS
HOT-OR-NOT
HOTBARS
HUMAN-BODY
HUMAN-RESOURCE
JAVA-SCRIPT 10/04/07
JIGSAW-PUZZLE
JOB-DESCRIPTION
KITCHEN-APPLIANCE
LANDSCAPE-DESIGN
LANDSCAPEDESIGNS
LAS-VEGAS-SHOW
LASTSUPPER
LEATHERCOAT
LESBIANPICTURE
LIVE-CAM
LOCALHOSTS
LOSTINTRANSLATION
LOVE-HOROSCOPE
LOVE-LETTER
LOVE-SONG
LOW-RIDER
LUXURY-CAR
MEDICAL-SUPPLY
MINI-BIKE
MINI-SKIRT
MISSION-STATEMENT
MODELPLANE
MOTORCYCLE-ACCESSORY
MOTORCYCLE-TRAILER
MOUNTAINLIONS
MOVIE-TRAILER
MUSCLE-CAR
MUSICAL-INSTRUMENT
NATURE-PHOTOGRAPHY
NEW-MOVIE
NIGHTSURF
NUDE-CELEBRITY
NUDE-PHOTOGRAPHY
ONLINETHESAURUS
OPERATING-SYSTEM
OVULATION-CALENDAR
PARADISEISLANDS
PARTY-GAME
PARTY-SUPPLY
PERSONALITYQUIZ
PHOTOEDITORS
PIC-POST
PICNIC-BASKET
POCKETPCSOFTWARE
POPUPCAMPER
PORTABLE-DVD-PLAYER
POSTAL-CODE
PREGNANCYCALENDARS
PUMPKIN-PIE
RC-CAR
RECORDING-STUDIO
RED-SOX
RIVERCRUISE
ROCKY-MOUNTAIN
SEARCHENGINELISTING
SEVENTHHEAVEN
SEXUAL-INTERCOURSE
SHIH-TZU
SHIHTZUS
SHORT-SKIRT
SHORT-STORY
SHOWER-CURTAIN
SKINCARES
SLEAZYDREAMS
SNOW-BLOWER
SOUND-CARD
SPIDER-SOLITAIRE
ST-LUCIA
STORAGE-SHED
STREET-FIGHTER
SUN-TAN
SWATS
SWIMWEARS
TATTOO-PICTURE
TEACHER-RESOURCE
TEEN-CHAT
TEEN-PREGNANCY
TEENCHATS
TEMPORARY-TATTOO
TEXAS-MAP
THONGGALLERY
TIME-ZONE
TRAVEL-TRAILER
TRIGLYCERIDE
TROPICAL-ISLAND
TV-LISTING
UNDERWORLDS
USBS
USED-BOAT
USED-TRUCK
UTILITY-TRAILER
VEGAS-TRAVEL
VICE-CITY
VIRUS-PROTECTION
VIRUS-SCAN
VIRUS-SCANNER
WATER-GARDEN
WATERFORD-CRYSTAL
WEDDING-SONG
WEST-NILE-VIRUS
WHITE-TIGER
WHITEWATER-RAFTING
WIFEY
WILD-FLOWER
WILDANIMAL
WILDLIFE-PHOTOGRAPHY
WINDOW-BLIND
WINDOWBLIND
WITCH-CRAFT
WOOD-WORKING
WORD-SEARCH
WORLDTRAVELS
ZOIDS