Man who bought pizza.com domain for $20 sold it for a fortune after putting it up for auction
He made so much, we're sure he'd be able to enjoy an early retirement
If you search pizza.com, you'd be shocked to see that it's not really been updated for more than a decade.
Which, if you didn't know just how much was splashed on it, you'd understand these things happen... but maybe they shouldn't, especially if it cost the owner more than a million dollars.
The website is pretty basic and certainly dated; when I Googled it, I was expecting one of the big pizza giants to own it, like Domino's or Papa John's, but no fast food chain does.
Advert
Instead, it is filled with adverts linking to companies like Deliveroo, but the most interesting thing I discovered was that there's a phone number and an email at the bottom of the web page with the words: "Inquire about this domain."
Now you know its dire state - please don't take offense if you own pizza.com, I'm sure you understand - I'll fill you in with the context and how an American man, Chris Clark, became a millionaire.
Back in 1994, he registered the domain name as the internet was starting to take form - hoping that it'd help land a contract with a pizza company for his consulting firm.
His consultancy business was later sold in 2000, but he opted to continue paying the annual fee of $20 for maintaining it.
All he really used it for at the time was pedal advertisements.
Fast-forward to January 2008, a 43-year-old Clark - who lived in North Potomac, Maryland, before relocating to Washington DC in recent years - decided to see how much he could sell pizza.com for after hearing vodka.com went for $3 million in 2006.
Speaking per the BBC, he said: "I thought, 'Why don't I just try to see what the level of interest is?'
"If someone's willing to pay that much for Vodka.com, maybe there's more interest in pizza.com."
He listed it in an online auction two months later, and the offers soon rolled in.
The first bid was $100, which was a sign of things to come, as it soon leapt to a staggering $2.6 million just a week later.
Now, you've got to remember that the sale went through during the financial crash of '08, so for someone to bid so much for the website just emphasized how incredible the transaction was.
Clark told the Baltimore Sun newspaper that he regretted not registering more domain names when the world wide web was just starting out - I mean, I get him, but that's just being greedy!
I'm sure Clark, who I'd assume is 70 this year, doesn't have any regrets anymore - go enjoy retirement!
Topics: Business, Money, Technology, Viral, Weird
Joe Yates