1994. An obscure person, a former BBS system operator, decided the name he'd given his bulletin board systems would be a pretty cool domain name. He had no idea of the significance of his action when he submitted his application to the InterNIC; with the Nic's policies, he wasn't even sure if it would be accepted. Perhaps it had already been taken, or they didn't like his application?
He got the name. For the first several months of his life on the net, he didn't even use it.
1999. This same person received an offer of $ 10,000 for his name. And turned it down flat.
This person, of course, is me - David H Dennis, creator of this site and all that's under the amazing.com banner. Really, the site doesn't have much of a relationship with the name. Of course I like to think there's some pretty amazing stuff here - after all, I wrote it - but certainly you're not going to be asked to by Amazing Products or sold Amazing adult video tapes here.
I like to think that I've built a brand with amazing.com - that those of you who visit will find something interesting, and will come back often to see what's new. Certainly, I have a healthy amount of traffic to the site, and changing the name at this late date would make much of that traffic disappear - and, more importantly, would remove linkages that my thousands of visitors (literally!) depend on.
So when I get offers, I say "Thanks, but no thanks". Unless, of course, a truly life-changing amount of money was offered. How much? I'm not sure; it hasn't even come close to happening. But I have this feeling in the back of my head that amazing.com is the most valuable thing I own.
I'd like it to be known that I feel a special attachment to the name, a duty that, if I sell, the successor owners will have something worthwhile to offer at this site. The fellows who run amazingsex.com called me up one day, said they thought my name violated their trademark, and suggested we might come to agreement over transfer of the name. I took one look at the site, said, "Ugh!" and determined to fight them with all my power. It's not that they couldn't have made a good offer; it's that amazingsex.com was a horribly ugly and tacky porn site. (I have nothing against pornography; I hate bad pornography with a passion).
So, if you're thinking of making an offer for this name, realize that it would have to be absurdly high, and that it would have to be for a company and products that I respect. People who make offers for the name seem to think it's only about money; in reality, much of it is about my own personal integrity. Selling this name to an entity I didn't like and respect would be like selling my soul.
I'm not saying that I would never sell my soul, not for any conceivable amount of money.
But it would have to be a genuinely compelling offer that would make a real difference in my lifestyle.
PS Saying that this means that I'll never sell my name is silly; the truth is that I don't want to sell, so the burden is on any potential buyer for me to change my mind.