Is a .com domain worth $400k USD for your .com.au business?

Recently at the Moniker’s Domain name auction (which I mentioned here), the domain carsales.com was purchased for a tidy sum of $400,000 USD. Not a bad price I thought.

Recently I performed a ‘whois’ on the domain and found out who the lucky owners are. They are none other than carsales.com.au.

Of note, carsales.com.au did try to acquire the domain name carsales.com some years ago, albeit unsuccessfully. Skip to the end to read the conclusion. In the end then, they did get it. It just cost them a lot more.

I presume carsales.com.au have some plans in store for the .com domain name as $400K US is a pretty hefty amount to pay for a domain that Australians probably aren’t going to associate with an Aussie business.

So, I guess they do have something planned for the US, in whatever form that is. Or else, it is a very expensive purchase for a domain name!

I will watch carsales.com with interest.