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I thought the same after stumbling onto it in 2007. Now it seems surprising that that there is surprise, especially after the mainstream coverage of ireport.com, toys.com and property.com sales.

So if you're interested, check out http://www.dnjournal.com/ and look at the "Domain Sales" and "YTD Sales Charts".

http://www.dnforum.com/ is the largest forum for domaining.

http://www.domainnamewire.com/ is an insightful news source.

http://www.namebio.com/ is fun to peruse for past sales.

Auctions for drops and end-user sales are at http://www.snapnames.com/ http://www.namejet.com/ and Godaddy's TDNAM service. http://www.sedo.com/ and http://afternic.com/ are mostly end user sales/auctions.

Then continue onto http://www.ricksblog.com/ and finally http://www.domaining.com./

There's plenty of other sites to surf and and never ceases to be interesting. There's even a book ("The Domain Game") that's a good read from a historical perspective.

It's a tough, relatively unknown and tight-knit business. But a burgeoning business nonetheless.

http://www.afternic.com/

As a buyer I've had good experience with buying "resold" domains both from Afternic.com and Network Solution's Certified Offer Service.

Each service has it's own features- Network Solutions, erm, solution is really just a way to make a safe transaction on a domain sale to an independent buyer, it offers an escrow service and other protections. Afternic has a similar service but they also have a nice domain name listing service where you can auction your domain like eBay. There may be others, but these are the only 2 I've had experience with, albeit from the buying side.

For your situation with this buyer I recommend to at least use Network Solutions' service to manage the transaction-- it offers protection to both you and the buyer, though there is a fee of course.

By the way, Network Solutions service also offers free domain name appraisals (Afternic has one too but charges). I don't know how much to trust it because for your domain I received values ranging over $10,000 when I first queried it on down to the $500 range later on. It seems to take into account the number of queries for a domain name? I'm not sure, but try it and see what it says now. Also, if RadicalTrust is also the name of a product or service then that price could be higher (or possible lower) then the estimated value according to Network Solutions.

If I were you I'd post it on Afternic.com for auction and tell your buyer about it. Your sure to incur some new offers from this /. article and an auction might be just the thing for your situation- if you're willing to pay the transaction fees of course :)

Good luck!

And the big boss there would be rush@limbaugh.com whose in-progress auction
nearly doubled (a whopping $1500) since kicking Michael J. Fox earlier this week.

Ends in 3 days, for those who haven't decided on the scariest person they can be for Halloween.

I guess the all forgot to use the Evan's system when they registered there domains :)

jimcarlson@ilovejesus.net -- real domain name of real, free, web-based email (address unverified)

amiller@minister.com -- site not up, whois shows owned by afternic, a domain reseller

timtax777@msn.com -- address unverified, could be fake

tfranklin@antioccult.org -- site doesn't show, whois shows no owner, Register domain here

diamondjack@nacgt.org -- register nagct.org here

cobm16273@aol.com -- see MSN address above

holby4life@christianemail.net -- site not up, whois says registered to Strang Communications; this "member's" homepage is hosted for free

drdinosaur@covenant.org -- Richard Paley does not appear on the covenant.org site staff-contact page

zounds@groovy.nu -- domain forwards to a Danish site

I could go on, but I think you see the point. A hoax, but an elaborate one.

ironic that nsi has recently tried to force domains to be a service rather than property (thereby reducing liability and retaining control of .com namespace) - and then this week - they announced that they are going to offer aftermarket services to compete directly with afternic.com!

(see http://www.afternic .com/index.cfm?a=th&fId=21&tid=1497&rc=11008)

if nsi is claiming that as a registrant i don't own my name, pretty odd that they would offer a service for me to sell it! they are so greedy they need to have their cake and eat it too - a domain is like property when nsi needs a sexy new revenue stream to announce for its shareholders, but it is a service when nsi might be legally liable. they will probably get their way, they exert so much influence and $ over icann and the industry (not to mention political clout). no big deal, just the future of internet identity and branding at stake.:-O

use melbourne it; they have the most registrant friendly license agreement (only ones to receive 4 stars by www.domainbuyersguide.com)

Outside the narrow confines of extortion, there is domain name speculation, which is no different than speculation in other markets (real estate, commodities, stocks, beanie babies, etc). It is also interesting to note that it is legal to buy and sell trademarks, patents and copyrights - which branding and advertising companies do all the time. Philosophically and ethically, what is the difference between trademarking a name and licensing or selling the trademark, or registering a domain and doing the same?

So why do some people still have a problem with the domain name aftermarket? Is it because ordinary people can play in a game that has until now been reserved for large companies? Is it because some people are still clinging to a precommercial Internet and ignoring inevitable market realities? Regardless, the domain aftermarket is here, its getting bigger every day, and it's becoming more accepted as just another market in which speculators win and lose.

Afternic.com is the leader of the secondary market for domain names. With 60,000 names on auction we have more domains then all other major auction sites (yahoo, ebay, etc.) combined. If you are looking to buy or sell a domain name I hope that you will seriously consider our site.

Afternic.com is the domain name exchange.

This is one of the questions our site, Afternic.com is trying to answer, How much is a domain worth? While we can't give you an answer - we do offer an appraisal board, where you can post your domain (anonymously even), and give the community an opportunity to rate it. Various members have different appraisal methodologies, taking into account length, is it a common word or phrase, how fit it is for a business, etc. It's been very educational to see some of the responses. For example, people have placed domains up for appraisal in every price range - I've seen users strike down absurdly high prices, and encourage others to raise a domain that may on auction and undervalued. Hope this helps.

This is one of the questions our site, Afternic.com is trying to answer, How much is a domain worth? While we can't give you an answer - we do offer an appraisal board, where you can post your domain (anonymously even), and give the community an opportunity to rate it. Various members have different appraisal methodologies, taking into account length, is it a common word or phrase, how fit it is for a business, etc. It's been very educational to see some of the responses. For example, people have placed domains up for appraisal in every price range - I've seen users strike down absurdly high prices, and encourage others to raise a domain that may on auction and undervalued. Hope this helps.