The opportunity though is not when the domain gets to bankruptcy auction as many monitor those, but right before that. Have you considered to approach businesses who own a domain name and buy their whole business just for the domain name? In many instances these businesses will not know the value of their domain and be focused on their business that they will throw the domain in as a gift, or for relatively a very low number.
For us, as we’re more focused on development these days we have not yet tried it, but if you have, I’d love to hear more about your experiences and lessons along the way.
commerce.com sold for $80K 6 months after its owner went down. I offered the bankrupcy court $40K the day of the announcement (early 2004). Almost got it, but then somebody realized something, and they postponed the sale. Even at $80K, the buyer got a terrific deal, no.
—-ANSWER—-
80k in 04.. steal.
Clearly, many of the great keyword domains are worth far more than the companies that have or had them. pets.com comes to mind. In today’s market, where the name is worth $n million, it is difficult to justify keeping it for name’s sake, if the owner’s business is generating less than $X million post tax. That’s the time-to-cash perspective.
OTOH, one could counter that the business operation is designed to support the continued registration, with a fifty year outlook on the eventual value. Even, if the biz runs at breakeven, this scenario creates a self-sustaining vault for a precious asset, no?
Which of course describes the monetizing of worthy domains.