Man trousers $15,000 domain name for $10.99 amid registry cockup

Nice little earner once he flogs it – before everyone gets real tired of gTLDs

Bruce Marler could hardly believe his luck.

"I had to double check it, triple checked it, then added it my shopping cart with a few web domains my wife had chosen as well, did not tell her, let her go order sushi and then told her what just happened," he said.

A few moments later he had registered the domain credit.club for $10.99 when its market value stands, by our reckoning, at about $15,000. Marler was looking at the pricing for "premium" dot-club domains at Name.com, particularly finance-related ones. Bank.club was $15,000; finance.club also $15,000; credit.club ... $10.99.

As it turns out there had been an error at the registry end. Following an investigation by .Club Domains – the company that, er, runs all dot-club domains – it turns out that while moving the registration of credit.club and a large number of other valuable domains for a premium name sell-off, the company left a number of them open for general registration for just over 24 hours.

As it happens, Marler was making his way through Chicago O'Hare International Airport on his way back from the NamesCon conference in Las Vegas – where one of the big news items was that wine.club was sold for $140,000 – when he hit that window of availability.

What happens after man coughs fee for coffee.club

That weekend he put his professional skills to good use. Bruce runs workshops on rapid website development using Wordpress, and so built Credit.club as a proper website and well as registering the related Twitter handle @creditdotclub to demonstrate how to create an online home from scratch.

The .Club company reckons it was well within its rights to rescind the registration and cancel Marler's lucky purchase. However, CEO Colin Campbell decided that it was on the company to eat the mistake.

"The registry does not believe it is in our best interest nor the best interest of the registrant to pull the name back given the substantial investment in time and money he has invested to launch credit.club. I informed the registrant of such matters and wish him a continued success," Campbell said in an official statement.

As for Marler's plans? He told DomainGang that at some point soon he's going to do what all good domainers do: cash in.

"My intent is to sell the domain, eventually. This domain is as good as any finance-related .club domain that exists. If the site grows in revenue the site can be considered a business venture, but at this point it’s a domain investment," he said. ®