A 1954 Fender Stratocaster guitar recently sold by Guitars.com
When Gruhn Guitars rebranded online from Gruhn.com to Guitars.com, the move was expected by many to be due to a domain acquisition in the millions of dollars.
The shocking truth is, that Gruhn Guitars hand registered this amazing generic dot com domain in 1995, paying the $35 fee to Network Solutions.
This was the dawn of the commercial Internet, and for a company established in 1970, their 25th anniversary in the business was clearly marked by a great, visionary decision, registering the category defining dot .com domain pertaining to their business.
Guitars.com was only the second domain registered by Gruhn Guitars, just five days after securing Gruhn.com with Network Solutions; the $35 dollar annual fee was a pittance for the company that managed millions of dollars of vintage guitar inventory.
While that domain registration fee was remarkably low, numerous other companies failed to foresee that the Internet would expand to today’s dimensions and importance, and that domain names would be tightly integrated with corporate names and brands.
In 1999, Gruhn Guitars was popular enough online, to become the victim of cybersquatting; their obvious brand domain, GruhnGuitars.com, was acquired in the domain aftermarket.
Many thanks to Sarah Jones, operations manager of Gruhn Guitars for sharing this information with us; they also provided a photo of a first production 1954 Fender Stratocaster (serial number 0100) that was sold at the shop recently, making the importance of their domain name, Guitars.com, even more paramount.
Onto the big question:
How much is Guitars.com worth?
- Up to $1,000,000 dollars (22%, 12 Votes)
- Between $1 million to $5 million dollars (31%, 17 Votes)
- Between $5 million and $10 million dollars (11%, 6 Votes)
- Priceless! (35%, 19 Votes)
Total Voters: 54
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great domain name a huge market nice move from that company the domain name business is in full expansion
Great story! Thanks.
Ummmm ………..Think i’ll let my guitars.guru drop