As some of you know, I was the creator of Palavista.com (v1, v6 thank you Archive.org) the very first digital music meta crawler on the internet. Yes, before napster. Well after I sold it to change music, they did nothing with it. And I do mean absolutely nothing. Depressing really.

Eventually the domain fell into ruin and actually became a porn site for a while.. heh After which it was picked up by BuyDomains.com a domain squatter - the bane of the internet (Sorry guys, I think very little of your business model). They were offering to sell the domain at a “reasonable rate”. So seven years later, on a whim and completely for nostalgic reasons since the market is dead, I sent off an email asking how much they wanted for the domain.

I got nothing in response, except to find myself suddenly on their spam list. (Thankfully I used a disposable email address because I’m sure they sell that crap.) Eventually I get a message which is from Peter Lamson, their “Senior Vice President and General Manager” .. the head squatter! I sent him an email saying that I hadn’t actually got a quote yet.. just spam.

He seemed nice enough and forwarded me to the right people..

At this point I’d like to take a time out and say, what the hell?! Their market is selling domains (at ludicrous prices) and in order to buy a domain you must send them an email… to which they don’t respond?

I mean if that was your primary contact method shouldn’t you .. oh I dunno.. respond?! You know if your sales are low maybe you should look into that a tad, don’t ya think?

Anyway, so after Peter, I got an email from David Helgeson which said the following;

Thank you for touching base with us.

This domain is currently priced at $64,000.00.

Let me know that this quote made it out to you and how that price works for you.

Thanks

David Helgeson
Sales Executive, BuyDomains.com

Well there David.. I got the email.. uh.. is that price in pesos? I mean really.. Are you serious?

If I were asking to buy the domain “Google.com” shortly after Google went belly up (riiight), then maybe.. after all that’s an extremely valuable company. But Palavista.com?! I know EXACTLY what that domain is worth.. I created it. I am the one that made a small business out of it, and ultimately sold it.

The price you’re asking is just retarded.. It’s completely unrealistic, and a foolish business choice on your part. You’ve just priced that domain out of reach. And I mean out of everyones reach. No one will buy that domain, Ever.. Why would they? You can pick another one, that you haven’t squatted and for the low low price of $70 a year ( or whatever the current going rate is.. )

I hate the whole domain squatter thing.. I think it’s retarded.. especially since there is case law that says it can be taken away from you. Changemusic / Raremediagroup owns the IP for palavista. They could very likely sue you and get the domain for free. It’s been done - heh probably to you guys..

I guess your business model is based on hope and stupidity.. You offer a price that is half my annual income and just hope that I’m stupid enough to go for it.. Or you praying that some company will come along and buy it - again why would they.. see the above.

Retarded. If you guys just offer a more reasonable price you might actually sell some of these things. Here was my response;

David,

As the former owner of that domain, and the creator of palavista.com in the first place. I can tell you without any doubt what so ever, you will never get that price for that domain. You could drop several of the zero’s off the end and still not get that price - It’s simply not that useful of a domain.

At most I would purchase it for nostalgia purposes.. I’ll leave you with my initial response upon seeing the price;

Bhahahhahaha .. Good luck with that..=)

-Jason

I seriously hope that if they ever do sell it, they send me a big fat F*ck you email saying how much they got for it. That would amuse me if I was completely wrong and someone bought it for $64 grand. It wont happen. But I’d love to be wrong.

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