Auction.com sells for $1.7m

Property auction organisation REDC has bought the Auction.com domain name for a total consideration of $1.7 million (£1.2 million).

The sale makes the transaction one of the biggest domain name purchases of 2009 so far.

Toys R Us bought Toys.com for $5.1 million earlier this year, while Travelzoo purchased the Fly.com domain name for almost $1.8 million.

REDC will transfer content previously located at its USHomeAuction.com address - which specialises in lender foreclosed home auctions - to Auction.com in the near future.

Robert Friedman, chairman of REDC, said that the company had been looking to buy the domain name for a number of years.

"This is a domain we should have had from the beginning and I'm thrilled we are finally Auction.com," he went on to remark.

Some of the biggest domain name sales made prior to 2009 have included Sex.com ($14 million), Business.com ($7.5 million) and Beer.com ($7 million), among others.

Written by Debra Hastings-Henry