.CLUB Domains registry, that manages new domain zone .CLUB, expressed an admirable nobility, but has deprived itself of $200 thousand. It happened under rather comical circumstances. On 14th of January an American citizen Bruce Marler through a registrar Name.com registered domain CREDIT.CLUB for $10.99. The deal was legal, but became possible only because of the registry .CLUB Domains oversight. Domain CREDIT.CLUB initially was one of the 130 premium domains reserved by the registry for its own use. And the process of changing their status occurred exactly on January 14th. However, due to the technical failure a part of premium domains was opened for registration without any restrictions for 26 hours. Bruce Marler took advantage of that.
Interestingly enough, that very day, 14th of January, premium domain WINE.CLUB was sold for quite an impressive $140 thousand. Registry made even bigger plans for CREDIT.CLUB: it was planned to sell it for $200.000. But the real revenue as a result was less than $11. The head of .CLUB Domains Colin Campbell said that the circumstances of the incident in principle allow the registry to challenge a deal. However, the company decided not to do so. Campbell has already notified Bruce Marler and wished him luck.
Marler’s response is also quite fun. After registering REDIT.CLUB, he rapidly created a rather simple webpage of the corresponding topic. However, he didn’t hide his intention to profitably sell the domain. But after a sweeping gesture of .CLUB Domains he announced that he didn’t feel like abusing registry’s generosity. Marler no longer plans to sell the domain in the recent future and wants to develop the CLEDIT.CLUB resource. In short, both sides seemed to be competing in nobility, ignoring their financial interests.
