A Belgian doctor claims his collection of 100,000 domains could be worth a massive $1.5 billion - and he's ready to flog the lot.

Dr Lieven Van Neste has spent $2 million on his collection (he only started registering them in August last year) and has now enlisted the help of British-based domain auctioneer, shoutloud.com, to sell them off to the highest bidder.

Dr Van Neste won the backing of a handful of private investors to help buy the domains as well as using his own cash.

Stephen Etheridge, MD of shoutloud.com, said: "The sheer scale of the collection, not least in terms of the time spent choosing and registering each name, is absolutely mind-boggling."

According to Dr Van Neste, independent valuers have priced his collection at anywhere between $360 million and $1.5 billion.

Although some people might balk at the prospect of investing $2 million in domain names, Dr Van Neste believes his commercial ken is sound. He told the The Register he is currently negotiating with a Californian company to dispose of 12,000 domains for between $25 million and $50 million.

And he claims to have already secured $10,000 apiece for clicksoftware.com, optimumnutrition.com and getwellness.com.

According to Etheridge, even if he sells a quarter of his domains for what he describes is the "average market price of $3,000 each", Van Neste will scoop an impressive $75 million.

To see what the fuss is all about, go here. ®