Literally two minutes ago, Rick Schwartz announced the following on twitter:
“I would like to announce the sale of http://SMARTGLASSES.COM to MICROSOFT in biggest domain sale since 2015. $2.88MM. I Paid $3280 #Domains”
The domain king does it again!
It is however April 1st guys and I haven’t received an official confirmation from Rick (also, the domain was last updated in 2016) but hey, we’ll find out regardless 🙂
Congrats Rick, I can’t think of anyone in this world better at the sales side of domaining that him to be honest. Even if the sale ends up being an April Fools prank, heh.
I think this would be the best sale (again, the best sale, not his highest $ sale) of his career. The $750,000 sale of iReport.com to CNN in 2004 was quite an achievement as well but SmartGlasses.com for $2,880,000 tops it for sure.
For those of you who are new to the industry, here are Rick’s past sales:
Porno.com $8,888,888.88
989.com $818,181.81 (registered for $100 in 1997)
899.com $801,000 (registered for $100 in 1997)
9595.com $180,000 (registered for $100 in 1998)
Men.com $1,320,000 (bought from 3rd party for $15,000 in 1997)
eBet.com $1,350,000 (registered for $100 in 1997)
Property.com/Properties.com $4MM + Equity Stake (Bought from 3rd party for $750,000 in 2005)
Candy.com $3MM + Royalties + 10% Ownership +++ (Bought via broker for about $100,000 in 2005)
iReport.com to CNN for $750K
Meet.me $450,000
TokyoHotels.com $200k++
ChinaTours.com $200,000
RockStars.com $180,000
FreeSexCams.com $150,000
GayEscorts.com $121,550
PartnerCash.com $110,000
eCruise.com $100,000 & Stock
235.com for $100,000
SydneyHotels.com $100,000
eScore.com $100,000
RoomDividers.com $75,000
273.com $50,000
PunchBowl.com Cash/Stock
236.com to IAC (Undisclosed)
OnlineCasinos.com (undisclosed)
… the SmartGlasses.com sale to Microsoft would make it clear yet again that Rick sets the gold standard in terms of domain sales and I have to say, he’s one of the most fascinating sales guys I’ve come across so far.
If you’re not following him on twitter and haven’t read his blog posts, you’re doing yourself a huge disservice in my opinion.
Rick has embraced early retirement, so he’s not blogging anymore and for a fairly long time, has refrained from being active in the domain industry. Fortunately, he started tweeting again and I for one am always interested in what he has to say.
Anyway, we’ll receive a confirmation soon enough as to whether or not the sale is an April Fools joke. I’m 50% – 50% because given Rick’s track record, him obtaining $2.88M for SmartGlasses.com wouldn’t surprise me one bit 😀
April 1st, 2017 at 5:53 am
April Fool
April 1st, 2017 at 6:10 am
Estibot value it at $8300 …woow
April 1st, 2017 at 6:40 am
For visionaries, or smart investors:
SmartHelmets.com
SmartBelts.com
SmartBots.com
…
And the better of all, SmartJokes.com are available at CAX.com
April 1st, 2017 at 7:13 am
Rick don’t joke about BUSINESS.
April 1st, 2017 at 7:48 am
If this is true, then I bet the person that sold this to rick will be kicking himself. I know I would.
April 1st, 2017 at 8:36 am
It seems to be true. Then he is really the KING.It
April 1st, 2017 at 8:38 am
The word ‘It’ should be erased in the above comment. Sorry for the inconvenience.
April 1st, 2017 at 8:42 am
Rick is not a ‘francois’,…with fake news, real news,…nonsense. if this IS an April Fools joke…..really lame for a business person. Imho.
April 1st, 2017 at 8:48 am
He’s never seemed like the type to pull an April Fool’s prank, especially about sales. So I see no reason why this isn’t true.
What’s most interesting about this is that Rick generally did not play in the future-tech / future-trends space; and I do recall when he first mentioned buying SmartGlasses.com – and thinking that this is a very valuable name.
Since that time, the AR/VR space has completely exploded, and everyone will look back and think that, although this was a great sale, it was an even greater BUY. Just because Google’s first try at this form-factor wasn’t successful, there’s no doubt that the smart glasses & contacts space will ultimately become a many-tens-of-billions ecosystem. So to own the premier, category-killing brand in that space makes this a spectacular buy for MSFT.
Congrats to Rick AND MSFT.
April 1st, 2017 at 8:51 am
Yes,….i remember when he said he bought on secondary market. Seems like yesterday. Just like his recent but of fakenews.com,…..seems that’s how Rick rolls. But names when they are trending. Smart it seems…as has worked out. 2.88 M. Wow!!!
April 1st, 2017 at 9:21 am
Didn’t he buy this name for $5k in 2012-2013 from buydomains.com at a BIN price when the term “smart” was the craze?
April 1st, 2017 at 9:22 am
Yup. And when Google launched their failed glasses.
April 1st, 2017 at 9:37 am
https://www.namepros.com/threads/rick-schwartz-sold-smartglasses-com-to-microsoft-for-2-88-million.1009986/
Consensus seems to be that Rick is just a promoter spouting lies masquerading as truth masquerading as promotion. Yaawn!
April 1st, 2017 at 9:40 am
Lame.
April 1st, 2017 at 9:44 am
I guess Rick never outgrew his Pokey Nd Rib eye shtick.
April 1st, 2017 at 10:27 am
It’s hard to know which reports are real and which are fake on April 1st.. lol
April 1st, 2017 at 11:14 am
i would say our industry has a long and storied history of april fools day stories so i dont think its out of line if this is same
now if you registered smartglasses.horse beause of this, well , thats on you.
should have less april 1 stuff this year because no one is being paid to work on saturday.
lastly, the fact that this either could or could not be true, means we still have a long way to go for full discovery on domain pricing
page
April 1st, 2017 at 3:56 pm
I’m not falling for it! lol.
April 1st, 2017 at 10:32 pm
LOL ….. that headline sucked me right in! Cheers
April 2nd, 2017 at 1:58 am
The lesson of Rick’s April fool is there is always domaining opportunities for hard working and smart people, so read the news, read blogs, read social media, …and as soon you see something that could be big tomorrow register or buy the best related domain name, and hold until the good moment arrive.
April 5th, 2017 at 7:57 pm
Congrats to Rick!
Now if he wants 20% commission, he can broker my two domains: InternetGlasses.com and NetGlasses.com. I think both for a million would be more than fair.
April 6th, 2017 at 2:37 am
My domains, big Francois, are not April Fools jokes —– Internetglasses.com and NetGlasses.com but selling them for only 1 million is! lol
Everybody party tonight, everybody wang chung tonite
April 7th, 2017 at 6:40 pm
@Stephen, I think you’ll struggle to sell those names, the whole “smart” and “glass” stuff is very 2012.
April 7th, 2017 at 6:52 pm
Hi Snoopy, I think I remember somebody made the same comments about “3D” domains back in 2009 or so, thinking that it only applied to TV. Boy, what a surprise when those printers came out! In quotes, the phrase “net glasses” appears in the lead link 160k times from google query. Remember, history doesn’t stop, and tech evolves, terms stick like “safety pins”, invented almost to the day April 10, 1849. Ya gotta think “what’s easy to remember” and when trends “stick”. Terms like “smart” and “net” and “internet” aren’t going anywhere, especially since 2012. 😉 Now get ready for Holograph and Hologram.