EOL.com Helps Sedo Sew Up Six Positions on Weekly Top Ten Sales Chart

by Ron Jackson
  

3-letter domains have always done well but in recent weeks they have really been racking up big numbers, including the $93,000 paid for OLT.com two weeks ago (that ranks as the 6th biggest sale so far in 2005). Sellers are stepping up to try to cash in on the demand. Over 600 two-letter and three-letter .coms are currently being offered for sale at Sedo. Sedo also scored this week with #2 E-Mails.de at �25,000 ($31,582) and #3 58.com at $26,000.

Pool.com continues to come back strongly after returning to the auction system that originally helped propel them to prominence. This week they landed two of the top five domains, #4 TravelPages.com at $23,000 and #5 PollyPockets.com at $18,500. Moniker.com/DomainSystems.com also returned to the Top Ten with #6 Skymine.com at $18,150. Moniker CEO Monte Cahn told us the company also sold a 2-letter .com this week for six figures but could not release the name because of a non-disclosure agreement.

There were a couple of other blockbuster sales this week that need to be noted, even though they involved ongoing businesses (this column and our charts focus on sales of domain names only). Gambling.com changed hands in a whopping $20 million deal (with over $15 million of that in cash). Even without the extra revenue streams from affiliate programs and a direct-mail database of more than 200,000 customers, it's quite likely the name alone would fetch the highest price ever paid for a domain. In another eye-popping sale (involving a publicly traded company with more traditional lines of business), Sabre Holdings acquired Britain's LastMinute.com for $1.1 billion. Sabre will combine LastMinute with its popular Travelocity web site to further strengthen their travel industry franchise.

There are many more pure domain sales to tell you about (including a $25,000 .info sale from last year that has just now come to light), but first let's take a look at the complete Top Ten reported sales for the week ending May 15:

Sedo underscored their big week by taking three of the final four spots on our new chart. Nine domains hit five figures including Sedo's #7 GovGrants.com ($15,000) and #8 Photobook.com ($14,750). SnapNames.com also bagged one in that range with #9 Bookbinding.com at $14,000. Sedo anchored the chart with Refill24.com coming in just below the 10K mark at $9,473.

Sedo has always been known for successfully selling country codes from around the world, but no one has had much luck selling .ru (the ccTLD for Russia). Looks like Sedo is ready to lead the way there as well. This week they sold Kanikuly.ru for $8,000. They added another �3,000 ($3,789) for e-Marketing.de. Sedo's .com winners included UrbanEvolution.com at $6,500, FoodVision.com at $6,300 and CollegeDorm.com at $5,500. As usual Sedo, is also all over our New TLD chart as you'll see a bit later on (we'll also have details on that previously unreported $25,000 .info sale in our new extension section).

Back at SnapNames, Eromaxx.com commanded $7,600, EasterEggHunt.com turned up $7,000 and Brown.net added $6,312 in black ink. MyCartoons.com kicked in $6,100 while JewelryOutlet.com and AmericanAudio.com went for $5,600 each. SnapNames also scored with Annulment.com at $4,944, MapBlaster.com at $4,600 and BrandyLove.com at $4,500. GoldCreditCards.com charged up $2,700, HomeBook.com closed at $1,538 and, in another illustration that long isn't always wrong, EarlyChildhoodTeacher.com went for $1,500.

Afternic.com had a pair of five-figure sales totalling $40,000 that were subject to non-disclosure agreements, but they were able to release some other solid transactions. NationalNet.com netted $5,000, Sharkbite.com chewed off $4,200 and Freedomland.com rang up $3,900. TheDaVinciCode-Movie.com booked $3,750, BondsForLess.com returned $3,000 and AmericanCarpet.com rolled up $2,888. A two-character .com, 0D.com (zero and the letter D) attacted $2,750 and AdCreative.com sparked $2,288.

Pool.com supplemented their pair of Top Ten entries with a baker's dozen of additional goodies. Though it sounds more than a little painful, PenisStretcher.com provided $5,008 in financial relief. LosAngelesTraffic.com snagged $5,000 and SeattleFlights.com landed $3,510. WebmasterBlog.com posted $3,100, MensPlace.com added $2,800 and UsedPoolTables.com pocketed $2,655. CyberLab.com concocted $2,420, and $1,950 bubbled from NatureSpa.com while Laquemanda.com and ElectricalGuide.com contributed $1,750 each. Pool also scored with LabiaSurgery.com at $1,683, RenaissanceArts.com at $1,650 and BuyMedical.com at $1,600.

At Moniker.com/DomainSystems.com Shadestore.com sold for $7,700 and DataGPS.com located $6,150. Incidently, I know a lot of domainers struggle with how to treat their properties for tax purposes. Moniker's Monte Cahn told us he will have a top accountant on his Wednesday night Domain Masters radio show at WebmasterRadio.fm (May 18 at 7pm U.S. Eastern time). They will cover the tax implications of domain sales, purchasing and donations, among other things. Cahn will also have a representative from the new .jobs registry on hand in another segment.

At Enom's Club Drop, CutlerySets.com sliced and diced $4,200, BabyFaces.com drew a $3,900 smile and RevolvingDoors.com spun out $3,400. KuwaitAirport.com took off with $2,300, MetalWood.com went for $1,900 and PetHouse.com added $1,700. 

Also at Club Drop, Ken Cunliffe of TopNames.com bought OnionButt.com for $5,407 (I am told "onion butt" refers to a butt that it so perfect it makes you want to cry. Somehow I don't think I ever would have made that connection)! TopNames was busy both buying and selling this week. In private transactions they bought LoveBoat.com for $9,000 while selling VirtualLab.com for $3,500 and DVDGiant.com for $2,000. 

In other sales, Samuel Sadek sold Tips.net for $6,650 in a private transaction and Ben Kirshner of CoffeeForLess.com added to his growing collection of beverage domain by purchasing BottledWaterDelivery.com for $1,700 at BuyDomains.

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Our Year-To-Date chart gets four new members this week and our entry level moves up to $19,000 to keep the list at a manageable length. Here are the biggest winners reported so far in 2005:

New TLD Section

.Info is really starting to flex its muscles again. It was the dominant new extension throughout 2004 but in the first quarter of 2005, .biz and .us started giving it a run for the money. In recent weeks, .info has started asserting itself again. For the second week in a row it took 6 of 8 places on our New TLD chart and this week .info sweeps the top four positions and ties for 5th. 

As they are week in an week out, Sedo was the dominant new extension sales venue, racking up 7 of 8 places including all of the leaders on the top half of the board. A very popular German term, Oktoberfest.info staked out the #1 position after changing hands for �1,500 ($1,895). Elbe.info was next at �1,225 ($1,547). The Elbe is a very well-known river that flows through Germany and central Europe. Also cracking the 4-figure mark was MiniStorage.info at $1,111.

The fun continued with #4 Jolly.info at $900. .Biz finally got untracked when LSE.biz tied SpecialOffers.info for the #5 spot at $650 each. Here's a look at the complete new extension leaderboard for the week ending May 15: 

The final two chart entries went to Gesetz.biz ("law" in German) at $631 and Luciano.info at $568 with both sales made at Sedo. Sedo also sold TopBanks.info for $500, PHP-Programming.info for $475 and Confess.us for $400.

New TLD Rewind: This week I received a call from Dr. Kim Vanderlinden who is the guy who bought Law.info at Sedo last year for $8,495. While we were discussing his top-flight portfolio of medical domains (listed at www.medicaldomains.info) he mentioned to me that he was surprised I didn't report his purchase of Medicine.info last July. Not as surprised as I was because it was the first I had heard about it! 

Kim said he had emailed the information to me, but for whatever reason I never received it. So now, almost a year after the transaction, we are revealing one of the largest .info sales ever reported for the first time. Dr. Vanderlinden paid $25,000 for the domain, making it the 2nd largest new extension sale in 2004 (behind only NewYork.info at $28,086)! 

We have added the sale to the our complete list of 2004 new extension sales above $1,000 as well as to our complete list of all 2004 domain sales above $10,000. The doctor is building a major medical portal on Medicine.info which should give the extension a nice boost in recognition.

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Our New TLD Year-To-Date chart gets just one new member this week - Oktoberfest.info. It currently takes at least $1,600 to make this chart. Here are 2005's new extension leaders through May 15:

As always, we welcome all verifiable sales reports from companies, private sellers or individuals with knowledge of an important sale made through any channel. To contribute information and help make this column better,  just drop a note to [email protected].

We truly appreciate the industry leading companies represented on our charts who share their sales information with us to help everyone in the business get a handle on current domain values. Individuals like Richard Meyer of the American Marketing Corporation also provide invaluable help by sending us data for these sales reports each week.

Every Tuesday we publish the highest reported domain name sales for the previous week. On Monday our contributors send us their sales data for the previous 7 days. We then compile that information and write this report for Tuesday publication to give you the freshest sales report in the industry. 

We will close with this standard caution. These are not average selling prices - these are top selling domains. One of the biggest impediments to making sales is pricing domains at unrealistic levels. For most of us, pricing domains at the levels achieved on the Top Ten chart will leave us waiting a long time to make a sale! We hope you will use the information presented here as a measuring stick that will help you price your domains at levels that will put more money in your pocket more often!

Editor's Note: If you wish to review previous Domain Sales columns, they are available in our Archive.

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