The Treasury Solicitor

[JamesC]

Did anyone else have any experience of buying domains from The Treasury Solicitor (Bona Vancantia)?

They are a .gov.uk body who take over assets from bust companies, criminals and suchlike. I bought some great domains through this process at fairly good rates. Then it all stopped.

Does anyone know anything about it?

 

[tifosi]

As far as I know the arrangement with Nominet to use these as 'assets of the crown' (I think) ceased and the domains now are released in accordance with t&c for dissolved companies & the release cycle.

S

 

[bb99]

Tifosi is right - in the olden days any domain names belonging to dissolved companies were, together with all other assets, passed to the Crown. The Treasury Solicitor then sold 'em off.

Nominet later changed its T&Cs to so that domain names owned by dissolved companies were simply dropped (ie not renewed and then released for re-registration by someone else).

I think the Treasury Solicitor's system used to put people off because of the minimum bid of £500 and the fees on top. However nowadays those numbers are very much small beans!

 

[tifosi]

I'm right!! damn, wonders will never cease.

I remember one in their latter days... rock.co.uk, which everyone and ther granny was putting bids on, and then dropped...

ended up as the domain for Northern Rock. And look what happened there!!

Be warned!!

 

[bb99]

ended up as the domain for Northern Rock. And look what happened there!!

I think they bought it from whoever got it. The figure £10k is in my head but it may have been more.

 

[grantw]

I think they bought it from whoever got it. The figure £10k is in my head but it may have been more.

They bought it from me (sneakily, through a different company!), I think it was £9k. Was my first ever decent catch

Grant

 

[rob]

They bought it from me (sneakily, through a different company!), I think it was £9k. Was my first ever decent catch

Grant

Who was the other company?

 

[JamesC]

So it ended up being owned by the Government anyway!

 

[grantw]

Who was the other company?

I'm not even sure of the correct sale price Rob, nevermind the go-between who bought it on their behalf......old age mashing my brain

Grant

 

[bb99]

A cracking sale, even given the sneaky buyer. An old timer once said to me "Never underestimate the efforts to which large companies will go in order to conceal their identity when buying domain names".

That's the real world I suppose, if Tesco buys a bit of land then they know that people will try it on with the sale price so they will naturally either use an agent or a seemingly unconnected corporate entity. Hell, even gypseys are doing it now!