Six-Figure Sales Parade Continues with News.net Changing Hands for $150,000 at Sedo

by Ron Jackson
  

The runner-up domain was nothing to sneeze at either. SnapNames.com handled the $61,361 sale of #2 PhoneFree.com. SnapNames had an exceptionally hot week, accounting for six of the Top Ten domains. Afternic.com claimed the #3 spot with TipsAndTricks.com at $18,750, then SnapNames banged out five winners in a row, including #4 Financiacion.com ("financing" in Spanish) at $10,750 and #5 BirthdayBalloons.com at $10,350. 

SnapNames recently added another major weapon to their arsenal when they signed an exclusive partnership agreement with Register.com that gave them exclusive auction rights to expiring domains at that registrar. SnapNames already had a similar agreement in place with Network Solutions. With those two giants in tow, SnapNames receives a steady flow of prime domains that were registered in the "old" days when NetSol and Register.com were just about the only game in town.

Another one of the headliners at SnapNames was Prescription.net which went for $9,988 to provide further momentum for the resurgence .net seems to be enjoying this year. We also saw a first on our Top Ten chart this week as a .pl domain (Poland's country code) landed on the Big Board for the first time. Live.pl anchored the chart after going for an even $8,000 at Sedo. 

We have many more sales to tell you about, including a half-dozen four-figure new extension deals, but first let's take a look at the leader board for the week ending Sunday, Sept. 11:

SnapNames concluded their five-position run with DiningTables.com ($9,988) and BoxScore.com ($8,800) before yielding to Pool.com where #9 FashionNews.com went for $8,011. SnapNames was also a force in the hot action off the chart. They pulled up a $6,926 seat with ChairPads.com, then added $6,854 for GreenOaks.com and $6,806 for AnimationStudio.com. Spock.com trekked in with $5,558, Sexoyjovencitas.com (Spanish adult term) posted $5,200 and GolfDirectory.com tapped in $5,002. 

SnapNames also scored with a nice geographic .org, Cyprus.org at $4,430. FunJokes.com contributed another $4,288 and Rizk.com (Rizk is a fairly common surname in the Middle East) commanded $3,888. Foolproof.com fetched $3,789 while PPCSource.com and PersonalChoice.com went for $3,600 each. HeartCare.com ($3,500), Bizness.com ($3,405) and LegalMeds.com ($3,400) also flew off the shelf. TravelersGuide.com lifted off with $3,333, ICTS.com landed at $3,007 and DomainNameRegistering.com racked up $2,999. SnapNames had many others in the 2-3K range. Here is how they stacked up:  

At Pool.com, a pair of computer security domains, CyberShield.com ($6,775) and SpywareReview.com ($6,100) headed a strong supporting cast that included PorcelainDoll.com at $5,288 and FreeAcade.com (typo that scores 517 with the extension in Overture) at $4,150. WritingPen.com wrote a $3,711 check, AmazingFact.com found $3,111 and SweetestThing.com attracted $2,655. ThrowingDarts.com hit a $2,549 bulls eye, ArtisticChildren.com drew $2,525 and CarSoft.com sold for $2,450. EquitableLife.com accounted for $2,350, AutomobileTrailers.com hauled off $2,238 and BadBoss.com got a severance check for $2,100. IndiaWeddings.com ($1,699), CaliforniaInfo.com ($1,601) and AirlineCarriers.com ($1,600) rounded out the Pool roster. 

Sedo again showed that a rolling stone gathers no Mosso.com (however the domain did roll up $6,600). DialogMarketing.com struck up a �5,000 ($6,132) conversation while Miestrella.com ("my star" in Spanish) took a shine to $5,000. Ibop.com also went for an even 5K. Teleskope.com (German spelling of telescope) spotted �4,000 ($4,906) and BracesOnline.de put the bite on �3,500 ($4,294). You'll hear more from Sedo in our New TLD section where they swept the top four positions on our new extension chart.

Back at Afternic, someone paid $4,450 for HQP.org (an unusually high price for a 3-letter .org with a Q in the mix). Zedia.com zipped up $4,333 and TheHemingway.com bell tolled $4,100. Rob Sequin of SearchDomainsForSale.com was the seller of the latter domain. OneMove.com and ReallyNuts.com cracked $3,000 each. Speaking of cracks, TheAssBook.com brought $2,999. MoveOnUp.com moved on out with $2,200 and Afternic collected $2,000 each for TheApartmentSpecialist.com, NamingNames.com and AlexisStewart.com.

Ken Cunliffe of TopNames.com bought himself a new business name by acquiring CyberSites.com for $3,488 in a private transaction. While TopNames will remain his home for sales, Cunliffe has set up CyberSites.com as the development wing of his company. He landed RealEstateWorld.com for $2,500 in another nice private deal. Cunliffe was in buying mode on the public markets as well, picking up GorgeousGirls.com for $4,300 at Enom's Club Drop and Computel.com for $1,998 at Pool. 

Dan McCullough, who has repeatedly proven that good search engine optimization can overcome an unpopular extension, sold a paid of his Samoan domains this week; Lawsuits.ws at $600 and Documents.ws at $450. He also has his highly developed Airlines.ws site currently on the market. That one earns a steady (and healthy) income so the price tag is considerably higher than that of the two he just sold.

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Our Year To Date Top 60 chart gets two new members this week. News.net settles into suite #9 (a space shared with five roommates). while PhoneFree.com perches at #38. It currently takes over $45,000 to make this list so you won't find any laggards in this elite enclave. Here is a look at the complete 2005 leader board: 

New TLD Section

This was an unusual week for the new extensions in that only six sales were reported to us, but all six were in four figures. .Info claimed the top spot with Golfreisen.info ("golf travel" in German) which went for a healthy �4,000 ($4,906) at Sedo. Sedo swept the top four spots and .info wound up taking four of the six positions. The other two went to .US while .biz spent this week on the sidelines. 

.US took the runner-up slot with Piercing.us at a sharp �3,000 ($3,680). A German company bought the domain to target the American market. We are seeing more and more of this. Companies outside the U.S. are very comfortable with country code domains as they are often the first choice in their territories. So, when they decide to expand to the U.S. they gravitate to the American country code. Hitachi and Volvo are among the multinational conglomerates who have followed that path. It's ironic that foreign companies may play the lead role in familiarizing Americans with their own country code!

The next two spots on the chart went to a pair of nice geographical .infos; Lima.info (the capital city of Peru) at $2,500 and MachuPicchu.info at $2,450. Machu Picchu is the famous and frequently visited "Lost City" in Peru's Andes Mountains. Here is a look at the complete new extension leader board for the week ending Sept. 11:

Funken Lin of Buy.name picked up #5 Blogger.info for $2,000 at DNForum.com. I sold #6 Zero.us for $1,200 in a private transaction and two other .US domains in the mid three-figure range. The buyers of the latter two requested that the names and prices not be released. 

Our New TLD Year-To-Date Top 50 chart gets three new members this week. With the entry fee currently at $2,500, Golfreisen.info and Piercing.us easily qualified while Lima.info just slipped in, creating a four-way tie for the final slot. Here are 2005's highest reported new extension sales through Sept. 11:

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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