A hosted folder on a .gov domain just sold for $10,000 US! The auction doesn't reveal the domain name, but it's been around for 10+ years and has 80,000 incoming links from other .gov domains and 250,000 incoming links from .edu domains, with a total of 3 million incoming links.

I'd be curious to the value of having access to create content on a .gov domain. I'd think it would be valuable... but I dunno about $10,000 valuable. Unless maybe you sold links to other companies... but it's still a longshot.

eBay: SEO Parasitic Hosting - .gov domain! (item 270048740551 end time Nov-10-06 08:36:00 PST)

Wow, and to a buyer with 0 buys from a seller with 0 sales ... you don't see that often!

I agree, it's probably not entirely legitimate. But it is interesting, nonetheless, that it would be up for sale in the first place. I have "heard" that Google and other engines favor .gov domains, but I must concede that I have little insider knowledge.

I'd be curious if someone in government would view this auction as an illegal activity. After all, it is selling government resources for profit.

.gov and .edu do rank higher and are quite difficult to get. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that someone's in a lot of trouble for that little sale either. ;)