Was the $25k sale of Screensaver.com a great deal or a waste of money?

Yesterday the two-word .COM ScreenSaver.com sold for $25,099 on popular domain name marketplace NameJet. I’ll be honest, when I first saw this I thought, “wow, that’s a steal of a deal for such a solid domain.” Then I took a minute to think about it. Who uses screensavers?

When I first started using computers back in the mid-90’s screensavers were a must, if you didn’t use them you’d burn some stupid image or line of text onto your screen, forever. Growing up in Berkeley, the home of Berkeley Systems I was naturally a fan of After Dark.

Okay, so this software box might not ring a bell…but I can tell you that the image below will instantly ring a bell.

Yes – the flying toasters. For some reason these flying toasters with toast to match took the screensaver world by storm. I had it on both Macs and PCs for years and you probably did too. CRT screens needed screensavers, it was a real thing, a genuine need.

Then came the LCD screen and the need for a screensaver disappeared. This is one of those cases where a domain name actually loses value over time. At the same time I’m sure some people still use screensavers, I’m not sure there’s a market for people actually paying for them but I’m sure some people want to see something besides a black screen on their monitor, right?

So my question is, did the buyer of Screensaver.com get a steal of a deal or is $25k a waste of money since there really is no money to be made with screensavers any more? What do you think? Comment and let your voice be heard!