Below you will find a funny account of a domain name broker trying to rip imputor? off. See, they bought imputer.com and attempted to sell it to us for an outrageous price. So we decided to play along with them. Below is the email correspondance that followed. imputor?'s retorts are in
. after the first message, headers and signatures have been edited out for brevity:
From: jkawasaki@djsonstrike-nospam.com
Sent: Friday, March 15, 2002 6:25 PM
To: REGISTER@DOMAINSYSTEMS.COM
Subject: imputer.com
is this domain for sale?
if so for how much?
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 10:21:32 -0500
From: Monte Cahn <monte@domainsystems.com>
To: jkawasaki@djsonstrike-nospam.com
Subject: FW: imputer.com
Hello,
The last and current bid for this name is now at $970. Please reply to
this email with an offer/bid in excess of the current bid price if you are
interested in this name.
If you are interested in $13 domain registrations and/or $9.95 per month
hosting, please visit us at www.domainsystems.com!
Regards,
Monte Cahn
Founder & CEO
DomainSystems, Inc.
AreYou The Master Of Your Domain?
Office: 954-984-8445
Fax: 954-969-9155
mailto:Monte@DomainSystems.com
93.70$ is my bid - if you can hawk it at 970 go for it.
Your bid does not meet the minimum bidding requirements.
why, would i spend 970?
i bet know one else would - how on earth do you think you can make money on
that domain?
Sir - the last and current bid price was and is the current bid price. You
would submit an offer in excess of this bid price if you were interested in
purchasing the name. If you are not interested, we wish you good luck.
i would like to see a proof of bid history for this domain. how do i know
you didn't just arbitrarily make up that number?
We have qualified the current bid price. We do not share other bidder
information other than if the bid has been qualified. Again, if you are
interested in the name, you are aware of the current bid price.
imputer is the name of my dog, and i want to host pictures of him on this
domain, and i think 97$ is a little too much - do you want some money or
no money?
You must follow the bidding instructions if you want the name.
Good luck.
what if my dog's name is trademarked?
say i bid $971 dollars on my trademarked dog's domain,
i have a few questions to ask:
1. Since I would be the high bidder, would i get the domain right away?
2. Would i own the Domain, or would i have to pay you 971$ a year?
3. Is your name really Monte?
love,
jk
If you bid $971 you may win the domain if the previous bidder does not
increase her bid.
The purchase price is a one time fee then you have an annual renewal of the
name through us for $15/per year. You can pay for 10 years up front if you
would like.
Yes - this is my real name. Is jk yours?
how long has the bid been at 970$?
how long does SHE have to up the bid again?
is there a money back guarantee in case i find the the domain cheaper
somewhere else?
yeah i am JK.
johnny kawasaki.
I just spoke to our client who actually owns the name. $980 wins you the
name.
Let me know what you would like to do.
so the other bidder would not have a chance to outbid me?
how come i can outbid her but she cannot outbid me?
does this original bidder really exist?
are you a domain bidding site or a domain cybersquatter site?
how much commission do you make off the sale of this domain?
how about i pay you $9.70 + your commission + 5% and you just give me
the domain right now?
what about a 1 for 1 trade?
i'll trade you domain-systems-inc.com for imputer.com.
there were no more responses after that. :) THEN, one month later, the saga continues with a random email from monte:
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 18:13:52 -0400
From: Monte <monte@domainsystems.com>
To: jkawasaki@djsonstrike-nospam.com
Subject: RE: imputer.com
Our client has decided to set a buy now price on this name of $350.00
Please reply with your interest in purchasing this name and we will forward
the contract and invoice necessary to complete this sale and transfer.
Regards,
Monte Cahn
Hi Monte,
It is so nice to hear from you on this wonderful day. I am worried that
the value of imputer.com has substantually dropped since we last chatted.
If it is less valuable to you, it is certainly of less value to me.
My research analyists have warned me that when a domain suffers from a
substantial drop in assessed value at any percentage greater than 60%
(this one dropping 64.32%), that the domain has been rendered useless by
the seller. I hope you are doing well, and for $350, I would like you to
convince me why this domain should be worth anything more that 10 bucks?
if that?
Again it was great hearing from you,
and please don't take so long to write me back this time.
I was worried about you.
-jk
like 3 months later, out of the middle of nowhere... THE SAGA CONTINUES!!!
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 19:01:58 -0400
From: Monte <monte@domainsystems.com>
To: "Jkawasaki@Djsonstrike-nospam. Com" <jkawasaki@djsonstrike-nospam.com>
Cc: "Legal@Domainsystems. Com" <legal@domainsystems.com>
Subject: domain systems, inc. sucks!::..:.
Hello Jack Ass,
Oh your last name doesn't start with an "A" but it could still be your
"real" name.
Lets keep posting the history on this. I think it will get even more
interesting and I will be able to send it to all of our 46,000 customers as
well. I will have our Attorneys pass it on to all of their friends and we
will have a big party in honor of your dog and how he cost you thousands in
legal fees.
By the way, your dogs name was just sold for $530 so you may want to kick
him for not buying the name at $350 when he had the chance.
imputer
\Im*put"er\, n. One who imputes.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, ? 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
You take care now.
hey buddy!
good to hear from you!
i thought i would never hear from you again; i was over it, but here
you go again. seems you have the brains of a super genius, so
i am fearing your attorneys like middle school cafeteria food.
please cc me on your customer wide email, and don't forget to mention my
name.
love,
johnny kawasaki & the DJs on Strike!
