There are too many tossers associated with our exclusive little industry, especially in the UK, so I sincerely hope BG is the real deal. That's what I'm thinking Jerry.
Hey Barry, appreciate the reminder about the state of play back then.. yes - all familiar names, I think I am now starting to re-collect seeing DomainParking.co.uk too (and certainly we all know 123-parking.co.uk, once it became prolific on every unused or past renewal domain with 123-Reg..). But for some reason I had little idea it was your brain child. Were you not hosting pub beer parties for domainers, as Namedrive did? Maybe that's the reasonThe parking platform was Domainparking.co.uk (Domain Parking International) LLP, which 123-REG / Webfusion later acquired and rebranded as 123-parking.co.uk. In addition to the parking companies mentioned above (e.g., NameDrive; Ed was a good friend too), there was also Streamic (James Dale and Paul Harwood), who remain close friends to this day. Not forgetting my other friends in the States, Ammar Kubba (TrafficZ), DomainSponsor (Lawrence Ng & Fred), and the legend Igal Lichtman (DomainSpa), also known as Mrs Jello, who sadly passed away in 2013. There was also Bodis (Matt Wegryzn), which a person we all know and love, James Tublin, later joined.
It became a pretty busy space, and although 123 ultimately bought the company, prior to the acquisition, NameDrive had expressed interest, and DomainSponsor flew my wife and me out to LA to see if they could better 123’s offer. (Both Andrew Bennett and Jim Davis can confirm this, as they were involved in the acquisition process with Thomas Vollrath at the time.) You can still see loads of old posts and mentions of the platform across the forums (Acorn and NP), along with all the old faces, for example: https://www.acorndomains.co.uk/threads/domainparking-co-uk.28418/
You’ll also find old sites and timestamps in the Archive if that helps clarify things too. There’s also a mention back in 2009 on HostSearch: https://www.hostsearch.com/news/123-reg-drives-revenue-to-dormant-domains.asp Plus to further back up it was all real, you can see the change of hands and name changes of the company here: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/search?q=domain+parking+international+llp
I hope this helps clarify, guys.
so the company was started on 17 Jul 2007 now XDPI LLP and then sold for millions less that 2 years later, well done barry. have you managed to repeat the success again
Hey Barry, appreciate the reminder about the state of play back then.. yes - all familiar names, I think I am now starting to re-collect seeing DomainParking.co.uk too (and certainly we all know 123-parking.co.uk, once it became prolific on every unused or past renewal domain with 123-Reg..). But for some reason I had little idea it was your brain child. Were you not hosting pub beer parties for domainers, as Namedrive did? Maybe that's the reason![]()
Was this launched on AD?
https://app.domainpark.com/sign-in and https://precisiontime.co.uk as an example.
Fair play to whoever did your breast augmentation Baz! That son is a nice pair of norks you've got there![]()
Adapt or dieI'm in touch with my feminine side, don't hate..![]()
I am a little skeptical about how BG is depicted by this program. A guy that 'Made his millions' buying dot com domains in the mid 90's and selling them, making millions, I was around back in the day and I am confident I would have had an inkling if it was factual, however, BG has clarified his route to mega wealth which was via a sale of a company that I can find no trace of. Again, I was familiar with most of the parking platforms 20 years ago, such as GoldKey, Name Drive, Park, Parking Panel, etc. Maybe BG owned one that I missed. I know TV shows want to glamorise and spice things up for better viewing, but the show made little sense in what it was trying to get the audience to swallow. I believe the Porsche 911 Turbo belongs to BG, as the number plate indicates this to be the case. Too many gaps for me to swallow the narrative hook, line, and sinker. There are too many tossers associated with our exclusive little industry, especially in the UK, so I sincerely hope BG is the real deal. That's what I'm thinking Jerry.
Legend has it that Barry Garner prowled the glowing veins of the early Internet—his lantern a battered laptop adorned with dragon-scale stickers. He planted names and pathways like seeds of magic, each one a hidden realm waiting to awaken. By day he toiled in silicon bazaars, weaving charmed pages for noble merchants; by night he slipped into shadowed data-alleys, scripting secret forums and crystalline galleries unseen by ordinary eyes.
When the Dot-Com Collapse thundered across the land, toppling fortunes like fragile towers, Barry’s creations stood unwavering—each URL humming with enduring enchantment. Some whisper he ascended into the Cloud itself, a spectral guardian still perfecting the next digital kingdom. And on moonlit nights, webmasters swear they hear a lone ping in their server logs—a soft reminder that Barry Garner lives on in every whispered corner of the web he once called home.
Loving this tread Barry! A trip down memory lane.