Fabulous.com is For Domainers
We are big fans of Fabulous.com for their pricing, parking, support, sales and reporting tools for domainers. There are a few bugs we run into from time to time when looking for available domains, they primarily center around random domain available results missing when doing a bulk search. After discussing this with support, it seems they are aware of this issue and if checked individually the results are served properly.
Available Domains for $888?
While doing some available domain checking at Fabulous.com today, we ran across a domain, ChartSelect.com, that was tagged as premium and for sale for $888. This is not unusual because Fabulous has integrated their aftermarket sales platform into their checkout process and if a search is conducted that includes one of the names in the sales database, it offers it for sale. Trouble is, the domain was available to register. Not only that, but our WhoIs search done on Fabulous’ own servers are the ones who let us know that.
Not Just Limited to Fabulous
Fabulous.com has partnered with other Registrars for the aftermarket sales platform and one of those is GoDaddy. When checking the name for availability via them, it show similar results to Fabulous. Not Available-Premium Name for Sale-$888.
$8 At Name.com
Just to confirm that the name was available to register, we checked it with a registrar who was not a partner and it show it as available, Name.com.
Broader Questions than a Database Glitch
It is understandable (but not professional) that you might have some database caching and sync issues when integrating a sales process/platform into the registration process. What raises a question for us though is, “Why isn’t the whois the definitive “available” database and then if not available, a check then run on the sales database. This happened for two of the largest registrars on the planet. One of the reasons for using Fabulous and GoDaddy’s availability check system is that it was supposed to give real time results direct from the Verisign database rather than via a cached one. Does this now mean that we have to check the availability of all the “premium results” via a different tool before we can be satisfied that it is taken? Also, does this open up GoDaddy and Fabulous to potential lawsuits from a buyer who happens to buy that name, not knowing it was really available and only $8?
Feeling lucky? ChartSelect.com is still available to register–who knows, you might make a 100 fold return!
April 30th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We recently (in the last 48 hours) bought on a major portfolio partner to list their inventory through the Domain Distribution Network (DDN). It seems they have this name listed in their feed.
I’ll talk to the Tech guys and ensure that this is corrected ASAP.
Cheers,
Mike
Fabulous.com
April 30th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Thanks for looking into this Mike. An email was also sent to the support folks regarding this as well.
May 1st, 2010 at 4:28 pm
Mike, it’s a problem on your partner’s end.
Most likely this is a domain that was once listed in one of the domains sales networks and apparently still is, but yet the domain has expired and been deleted in the mean time. It is still listed on Afternic and Buydomains as well. Looking at the whois history it was owned by Buydomains most recently, but expired last year.
Of course the domain has now been registered again in the mean time.
May 5th, 2010 at 3:57 am
I have 100 domains on Godaddy and i can say that this company is very reputable.-,”
May 5th, 2010 at 8:33 am
We have 100+ at both registrars and do not plan on moving as a result of this. Both are reputable but they have a glitch in the system they need to fix. We recommend that when you see a “Premium” tag on a name, you check with a different registrar to see if it is avaialbe before dismissing your purchase or taking the “Premium” cost route. Thanks for you comment.
November 8th, 2010 at 5:05 am
godaddy is not always the best registrar, the private registration of godaddy is too expensive “
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