Based on whois information, it appears that Visa / Black Card LLC* is likely getting ready to make a play with “Gold Card”.
I did a little digging and it appears that Visa / Black Card LLC* likely purchased the domain names GoldCard.com and GoldCards.com for around $125,000. Media Options had the domains under contract and listed in a newsletter on September 10, 2013.
A whois record change on November 6, 2013 shows “Matt Serlin” of MarkMonitor in whois. A November 7, 2013 whois record shows the same for GoldCards.com . Visa uses MarkMonitor as does Black Card LLC.
The following is now displayed on GoldCard.com, which is pretty recent:
Another similar domain, MyGoldCard.com was also acquired likely on behalf of Visa / Black Card LLC* for an undisclosed amount, with that transaction likely taking place June 6, 2014 via a secret buyer. That domain has also been transferred into MarkMonitor recently.
The tag line in the image above, The World Awaits as a domain name has had similar whois updates and was likely purchased as well. TheWorldAwaits.com on 5/17/2013 went into privacy protection and was transferred to Name.com from GoDaddy. Whois currently on TheWorldAwaits.com is now public again…. showing the “past owner” prior to going into privacy protection, Jason Van Dyk. I’ll bet all the money in my wallet this domain transfers into MarkMonitor very shortly!
GoldCard.com sold on 5/22/2009 at Sedo for about $11,000 . According to whois, they may also be the sellers to Visa / Black Card LLC.
* It is not clear if Visa OR Black Card LLC specifically own the domain names (likely Black Card LLC owns the domains mentioned in this article) and if the two “own” some of each others company. TO ME, it doesn’t really matter who owns what domains, because it’s one of them and they are both making money from it.
* There is also potential that “Visa” may not be associated with the Gold Card at all, but they are connected to the Black Card.
At the bottom of the lander it says Black Card, LLC.
Black Card, LLC also owns the “The World Awaits” trademark:
http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4801:qe2r8d.2.6
As far as I can tell (see http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=114257126), Black Card, LLC is not a Visa subsidiary but rather part of Barclay’s Bank.
Frank, I dug pretty hard to see who was behind “Black Card LLC” and I did notice that article. I had found other data that Barclays and Black Card LLC is a separate entity but couldn’t find a connection. Barclays could be behind BlackCard.com and now GoldCard.com but I couldn’t find a clear… Barclays is Black Card LLC. I will keep looking and try to make a connection.
Here is my best connection to “Black Card LLC” . Scott Blum, Think Tank Holding LLC, early whois email on BlackCard.com connects Scott, ThinkTank.com etc. http://www.webboar.com/whois-name/TWV0Y2FsZmUsIEthcmVu . http://www.luxuryplastic.com/black-card-visa-press-release/ A connection between Black Card LLC and Barclays, nothing. I think Barclays simply partners with Black Card LLC to issue the cards and handle the finances end. What Visa has in all this, I’m not sure. I will update the article to Visa / Black Card LLC because it’s one of the two.