The potentially most expensive domain name in the history of the industry, fashion.com, has been put up for auction, the Domain Name Wire outlet reported. The current owners (who are not disclosed, except that there are three partners) were lucky enough to register the domain in 1994 as they worked on a project related to the fashion industry. The project was never implemented, and the domain has remained unused for a long time. Now the partners intend to sell it and can definitely expect a very high profit. Suffice it to say that annual turnover in the global fashion industry is estimated at $2 trillion, and online sales of clothes, according to analysts, will reach $700 billion by 2022.
The auction will follow an unusual format. It begins with a sealed bid auction process in which bidders need to submit a deposit of $25,000. This amount, however, will be returned to everyone except the winner. The auction will be held from October 24 to November 7, and it will be held almost “blindly.” Each of the registered participants will submit only one bid online without knowing the progress of the auction or the amounts of other bids. According to the organizers, Escrow.com and Auction-Experts, this should guarantee the anonymity of the bidders and protect information on the funds they operate. The bidder who offers the secret reserve price (pre-set in writing) wins the auction as long as no other company submitted a higher bid on the same day.
If none of the sealed bids meet the reserve price, a public auction will be held on November 21. Participants registered in the first stage have a chance to bet on the second. Registration is already open on fashion.com.
