Given GD’s high name recognition, your brand value point makes a lot of sense (though I prefer working w/the Fab folks myself).

And the Adam/Frank “combo” was why I said “guys.” ;-)

I think that adding a public recognized channel like GoDaddy can significantly help the domain owners by attaching a recognizable brand to premium domains.

According to some data I heard from Fabulous, this can already make a difference when a user enters a domain name directly (many users check this way to see if a name is available, even if it’s far from accurate) and sees a GoDaddy banner next to premium sales price. The brand recognition factor works much better than when a site calls “FabulousDomains” pops up in the browser where you can now purchase the domain.

Sending the buyer elsewhere probably costs Fabulous a little more than selling the domain itself, however if that’s what it takes to make the sale happen, then it’s worth while.

/FM

Fabulous wouldn’t have made a deal of this size without confidence that godaddy could deliver. They’ve been selling and testing with godaddy prior to this so I’m betting this was a well thought and sound strategy to take with mounds of “Dan Warner Data” to back it up.

For Godaddy’s size they are pretty quick to add new features and products (and thus revenue). I think other registrars need to wake up to this reality and fine tune their businesses and start selling after-market domains in the most appropriate channels. However, I would’t count on that happening anytime soon with some of them, meanwhile millions are being left on the table.