Washington (CNN) When Paul Joffe saw that BernieSanders.com was available for purchase in early 2014, he just about lost it.

"I figured that if I could buy it, anyone could buy it and that is bad," said the diehard Sanders supporter. "I was worried that somebody would buy it and redirect it to BernieSucks.com or something like that."

So Joffe -- a 53-year-old property redeveloper who now lives in New Marlborough, Massachusetts but spent part of his childhood in Vermont -- asked his wife for permission and spent $2,500 to buy the domain name himself.

"She said, 'Absolutely get it,'" Joffe recalled. "Yeah, she is really cool."

For the first few weeks the domain just directed visitors to Sanders' Senate page. But in April 2014, shortly after he purchased it, representatives from Sanders' political action committee reached out and asked Joffe if he would be willing to sell the domain name.