Pizza Fortune
US man gets $2.6m for domain name
A US man has sold the domain name pizza.com for $2.6m (£1.3m) - after maintaining (1) the site for just $20 a year since 1994.
Chris Clark, 43, accepted the offer from an anonymous bidder after a week-long online auction.
Chris Clark, 43, accepted the offer from an anonymous bidder after a week-long online auction.
"It's crazy, it's just crazy," Mr Clark, who lives in North Potomac, Maryland, was quoted as saying by the Baltimore Sun newspaper.
"It will make a significant difference in my life, for sure," he added.
Regret
Mr Clark registered the domain name in 1994, when the world wide web was just starting.
He had hoped that pizza.com would help to get a contract with a pizza firm for his consulting company.
He sold his business in 2000, but kept paying (2) the $20 annual fees for maintaining the domain, which he also used to sell advertisements..
In January, Mr Clark decided to sell it after hearing (1) that another domain - Vodka.com - was sold for $3m in 2006.
"I thought, 'Why don't I just try to see what the level of interest is?'" Mr Clark said.
"If someone's willing to pay that much for Vodka.com, maybe there's more interest in pizza.com."
The online auction was launched on 27 March. The first bid was $100, jumping to $2.6m a week later.
Having accepted (3) the latter offer, Mr Clark hopes to get his windfall in a few days' time when the transaction is completed.
He said he now regretted not buying (4) more domain names in the 1990s.
Grammar
(1) after + verb-ing (similarly: before + verb-ing, without + verb-ing)
(2) keep + verbing ( = continue doing something)
(3) Verbing ( if verb is subject ) e.g. Smoking is bad for you. Travelling is great fun.
(4) regret + verb-ing
Also note that if the second verb is negative we use not; this applies to all verbs.
I would prefer don't to get the early flight.😡 She's thinking about don't to go.😡
I'd prefer not to get the early flight.😍 She's thinking about not going. 😍
Have you heard of any other stories where people have made a fortune?
Comments
After it, a lot of people imitated him. Nowadays, I don´t konw if the original page exist.
I remember the story that you talk about; yet another fortune made from a simple idea! I wish I could think of one.
Some years ago, a US teen DIVIDED his Web page INTO one million pixels. He sold each pixel for one dollar and in a few days he earned a lot of money. One pixel is very small, and the companies could buy all THE pixels that it wanted. The companies used the pixels for publicity. For example, Mcdonald´s put their LOGO (M). Many BETTING and games internet pages used this page for advertising.
After THAT, a lot of people imitated him. Nowadays, I don´t know if the original page STILL EXISTS.