Michael Krell is a fan of domains that end in ly, he has made several sales on BrandBucket that end in the popular suffix.
In March of 2015 Michael purchased Fondly.com for $2,500 according to Namebio. Looking at Domain Tools this syncs up as the domain went from whois privacy at Enom to Michael’s account. He moved the domain to Go Daddy shortly after.
DNBolt.com has posted that Michael sold Fondly.com for $23,995. The domain is now under whois privacy at Go Daddy. The new buyer has not changed the nameservers yet.
Congrats to Michael, and now I think of it I just sold Michael a name ending in ly at wholesale on Namepros. I think I regret that decision. Nah, I hope he sells that one too, I just didn’t love it.
Damn this guy is good.
You mean: Damn, this guy gets a salary, disproportionate listing privileges, and a big marketing budget supplied by other domainers!
Prove your accusations. I think you are full of it. Did Margot pay for Fondly.com ? or get the buyer ?
@Joseph Peterson
Hear hear!
@Frank,
What accusations? This is self-evident, as far as I can see. I think even Michael Krell would concede that
(1) He’s paid by BrandBucket, since he’s the Managing Director;
(2) He gets his own inventory listed on BrandBucket without the same hurdles faced by customers (i.e. submission, rejection, and listing fees);
(3) He owns a very large share of domains listed at BrandBucket;
(4) He contributes commissions and listing fees that are (in percentage terms) lower than the percentage of BrandBucket domains he owns. That means his inventory benefits from BrandBucket marketing to a disproportionate extent;
(5) He’s ultimately in charge of BrandBucket marketing campaigns, which spend money provided by other domainers;
(6) He is more likely to interact with BrandBucket buyer customers personally than BrandBucket sellers (who don’t get emails and phone calls);
(7) He will naturally think of his own names first because he remembers them, which naturally causes him to recommend his own names to buyers who approach him via BrandBucket.
Is any of this disputed? If I’m wrong on any of these points, I’ll cheerfully admit it.
How BrandBucket prioritizes the inventory showcased on its website isn’t something I can talk about with any certainty. Maybe it’s entirely owner-agnostic and doesn’t favor Krell’s domains at all. In that case, he’s a saint. Most people would prefer a system that features their own names. And Michael Krell would be able to influence BrandBucket’s algorithm in subtle ways to bias it toward his own domains if he chose to do so. Does he? I have no idea. Quite possibly not.
But the other points seem non-controversial. And they do give Michael Krell an advantage. Does that mean he’s “evil”? No. Of course not! But I don’t think domainers ought to be quite so easily impressed by people in an advantaged position that other domainers cannot replicate.
Fondly.com is a good name. Many of Krell’s names are good. But they wouldn’t sell with the same velocity if he weren’t BrandBucket’s managing director. That seems quite obvious.
What a brilliant answer! Totally agree. Especially with the last paragraph.