Hardware.com.au achieves record price

In an auction conducted by Drop.com.au yesterday, domain name hardware.com.au sold for a record $33,333.

Hardware.com.au was an expired domain name which Bunnings forgot to renew. It is believed that the purchaser is Woolworths (through their advertising agency) who plan to start a competing hardware business in Australia.

No doubt heads will roll at Bunnings when they learn that a potential competitor has acquired the domain.

Values of .au names have increased dramatically over the past 12 months, however, many investors are still reluctant to invest money in .au due to heavy regulation, some of which amounts to censorship of content.