Castello Brothers – Domain Names For Sale – Premium Domain Names Premium Domain Names For Sale
After taking a long hiatus that included touring internationally as a drummer in a rock band (BREE) and the birth of my daughter (Venus), I returned to the world of domain names. No matter where life took me, I always knew that the portfolio of names owned by my brother Michael and me, including such gems as Traveler.com, Nashville.com, Cost.com and Sample.com, would be waiting.
We made millions developing our names like PalmSprings.com, but I made it clear to Michael that I was open to selling. At heart, I’m a writer. My debut novel, The Diary of an Immortal (1945-1959), did well, and I’ve finished the manuscript for my next novel, The Crow and the Chrysalis. Regardless, it all comes down to price.
We enlisted the top brokers in the world like Andrew Miller and Andrew Rosener to represent our best names. We also listed some names on Afternic/GoDaddy.
We’ve sold plenty of names on Afternic/GoDaddy, but they were all small sales, mostly under $10,000. Nothing like our Whisky.com sale for $3.1 million via an independent broker. I listed some six-figure names, but never considered the reason why our previous sales were so small.
I was about to find out.
With our small sales on GoDaddy/Afternic, we’d get a few price inquiries, send our price, get a counter-offer and close the deal. Quick and easy. But with our six-figure names, I sensed something odd. We’d get a price inquiry, send the price and then the buyer would vanish. Not even a counter-offer. Gone.
I assumed it was because they were high-ticket domains, but after the 50th price request without even a counter-offer, my instincts told me something was wrong.
I’ve long been aware of the GoDaddy Estimated Value, otherwise known as GoValue, that routinely appraises six-and seven-figure domains for less than 25K. Each appraisal features five sales comps, none higher than 25K. We know these comps to be inaccurate because we know for a fact that many of these names sold for well into six-figures.
According to GoDaddy’s sales history database, no domain name has ever sold for more than 25K. Therefore, GoDaddy will appraise no name for more than 25K.
Here’s a prime example. GoDaddy appraised our Islanders.com for only $20,527. To justify it, they posted five sales comps. None higher than 25K. I couldn’t independently verify three of the comps, but I found the actual prices of the other two sales.
In this screenshot of their Islanders.com appraisal, GoDaddy claims that Rangers.com and Cowboys.com each sold for 25K.
The truth?
Rangers.com sold for 375K.
Cowboys.com sold for 370K.
To be clear, we’re not just addressing names worth more than 25K. When an appraisal system attempts to squeeze all domain sales in history into a narrow price spectrum with only a 25K ceiling, it becomes the equivalent of trying to compress the Empire State Building into a three-storey house. All names in all price ranges are squeezed down to a fraction of their actual worth. Every domain name is devalued.
The question is, “Who would believe such nonsense?”
Answer: The Public.
GoDaddy’s psychological grip on the Public’s perception of domain names is so massive that it’s monopolistic. Richard Kirkendall and Darpan Munjal are brilliant CEOs who have built cutting-edge companies with Spaceship and Atom, but the combined forces of those two can’t move the needle with the Public. When it comes to the Public, GoDaddy and domain names are synonymous. Don’t believe me? Walk into any Public setting in America and ask around. Mention Spaceship or Atom and people will shrug, but mention GoDaddy and they’ll nod approvingly.
That’s branding power and trust on an extraordinary level. GoDaddy is a $17 billion company and #1 in the world. Whatever GoDaddy tells the Public about domain names, they’ll believe.
By capping domain name appraisals at $25,000, GoDaddy has been telling them for years that no name is worth more than $25,000. Because of this, the Public believes that domain names have limited value and any name for sale for more than $25,000 must be suspect.
This is unfortunate because the Public has the buying power to dwarf the current domain name market.
The Public is unaware that domain names are one of the best investments in the world and can attain phenomenal value. Within just the last two years, Rocket.com sold for $14 million, Icon.com sold for $12 million and Gold.com sold for $8.5 million.
These were all domain name-only sales.
In November, I attended NamesCon 2025 in Miami as the guest of keynote speaker Andrew Miller. I had a wonderful time catching up with old friends, and meeting the newest generation of Domainers I’d only known on social media.
At the GoDaddy booth, I chatted with Adam Ramsdell, Mark Becker, Wade Smith, James Iles, Joe Styler, Juan Plouin and Tom McCarthy. GoDaddy is fortunate to have such impressive talent. With the launch of GoDaddy’s DomainNames.com in October 2025, where a name has to be appraised at no less than 100K to qualify, there was no disagreement from GoDaddy’s staff that GoDaddy appraising no name for more than 25K presented a huge problem.
For the record, in October we listed seven names on DomainNames.com. The idea of GoDaddy promoting a site solely reserved for Ultra-Premium domain names over 100K was too good to resist and, previously, unimaginable. Furthermore, we believed that the creation of DomainNames.com would finally persuade GoDaddy to abandon an appraisal system that discredited every one of its listings.
Three weeks after NamesCon, James Iles, Domain Investment Community Manager at GoDaddy, messaged me that they’re revamping GoDaddy’s appraisal system and would appreciate my input.
I would like to see GoDaddy’s appraisal system evolve from their current use of historic sales comps to an AI analysis similar to that of Atom or Saw. Both have a high degree of appraisal accuracy, and with GoDaddy’s vast resources, I have no doubt they will bring it to the next level.
Because of GoDaddy’s overwhelming power and influence, the Public will soon become educated and excited about the true value of domain names, thus attracting millions of new buyers, sales and investors.
GoDaddy will open the floodgates to unprecedented revenue.