[bretthellman]

Before we even had the idea for "HALL" we tried medium.com, foundation.com etc... to explore the possibility. We were never really excited about these names. We started the conversation off by offering $5k. That didn't work out well. The owner essentially blocked us after emailing back w no thanks.

We even considered the idea of leasing a domain which is doable.

[ohashi]

Clearly you didn't research the owners well. They are owned by some of the savviest guys in the domain business. They are also sitting on some of the best portfolios of names and have very little incentive to sell for anything but a really high price.