Afternic Reels in Year's First Million Dollar Domain Sale With Fish.com  

by Ron Jackson
  

In news involving the same buyers, Afternic told DNJournal.com that Dog.com used their services to buy Bird.com for $200,000, HorseSupplies.com for $52,500 and FishSupplies.com for $20,000 in transactions completed between June and October. The Fish.com purchase was actually completed in July, but the buyers did not want news of their buying binge to get out until after they gained control of the last domain they were targeting which happened in October when they closed on HorseSupplies.com.

Dog.com CEO Dr. Alex Tabibi noted that since the demise of Pets.com the pet supply space has been largely abandoned by Internet retailers. However in a perfect illustration of the importance of timing, Tabibi is moving to dominate the space and he has ample evidence that the time is now right. Sales at Dog.com, a discount dog supplies company, have soared by 80% in 2005 and they expect similar growth in 2006. Tabibi's domain advisors at Afternic have also also seen a spectacular expansion of their business with triple digit annual growth since they purchased the Afternic.com name in 2002 from Register.com.

With Fish.com, Tabibi plans to create a new super site catering to fish fanciers� every need. The site, which is scheduled to go live in the second quarter of 2006, will be a source for supplies, information, forums and news.  Fish.com plans to offer customer discounts of up to 70 percent on items such as aquariums, food and fish tank accessories by eliminating retail middlemen. 

While Fish.com was a whale of a sale, it wasn't the only incredible catch this week. In fact there were so many big ones we have taken the rare step of doubling the size of our usual Top Ten to make room in the boat for everyone. A total of 22 five, six or seven figure sales were reported this week! 19 of those are eligible for the Big Board. Fish.com, Bird.com and FishSupplies.com are not because even though the sales were released for the first time this week, the actual transactions took place over between two and five months ago. 

They will of course take up their rightful positions on our Year To Date chart, but for inclusion on the weekly chart we require transactions to have been completed within the past 30 days. Otherwise companies could release a flurry of older sales at once to dominate the weekly chart any time they wanted to make a publicity splash to suit their own purposes. Going directly to the YTD chart takes nothing away from the importance of their sales and it keeps the weekly chart fresh and focused on the recent sales activity it is meant to reflect. 

.Com flexed its muscles this week, sweeping the Top Ten spots on our new list with a pair of six-figure giants leading the way. #1 Mathematics.com changed hands for $150,000 at Sedo, a venue that racked up 5 entries on this week's expanded Big Board.  Mathematics.com was sold by Engineering.com to Australia's Jasper Development. The press release notes that Enginereering.com received $135,000 which is correct, however the buyer paid 150K to acquire the domain with Sedo collecting the standard 10% of the sales price for brokering the transaction.

#2 MyPremierCard.com went for $135,250 at SnapNames.com to lead a quartet of charted domains from that venue. Sedo.com then nailed down the #3 slot with JMM.com at $55,000. The seller of that domain earned a tidy profit after acquiring the 3-letter .com at Sedo in May of 2004 for �9,000. 

Though their blockbuster sales of Fish.com and Bird.com go straight to our YTD Chart, Afternic still managed to claim four spots on our leader board, led by #4 HorseSupplies.com at $52,500 and #7 Ethos.com at $27,778. AOS.com staked out the #5 slot after being sold for $50,000 by ImpressiveDomains.com. Company President Ashley Saddul said the company had one larger sale at the beginning of the year when Wallpapers.com went for a six-figure price they couldn't release due to a non-disclosure agreement.

Moniker.com/DomainSystems.com was also in the thick of things again this week with three Top Ten entries. #6 Webs.com set the pace for CEO Monte Cahn's company at $45,750 while #8 ReadySetRead.com returned $25,250 and #10 iTrain.com whistled through town with $20,300 on board.

The new extensions also shared in this week's sales explosion. .Info did the heavy lifting for the New TLD's taking 7 of 8 entries on that chart and also landing one on the mainstream list, #17 SantaClaus.info which sold for �10,500 ($12,307) at Sedo. As you'll see a bit later, every domain on the new extension chart hit at least four figures...but before we get there, we still have a lot of other ground to cover, starting with this look at the complete leader board for the week ending November 13:

As we noted earlier, SnapNames placed four domains in the Top 20, including #9 FuneralService.com at $23,652. Sedo  had the only ccTLD on this week's list, #13 Comtec.co.uk at �11,000 ($19,085). In private sales, Eric Coletti corralled #11 Moose.com for $19,500 and Operate.com picked up #19 Encontros.com ("personals" in Portuguese) for $10,000 with an eye on the Brazilian market.

While .com dominated the Big Board, Sedo piled up a lot of nice country code sales just off the chart. Earth.co.uk landed �4,500 ($7,807), Mobiliam.ma (Morocco's ccTLD) maxed out at $7,000 and Sponsoring.de delivered �3,815 ($4,472). Singles.jp (Japan's country code) hooked up with �3,100 ($3,634) and Holidaysrus.co.uk banked �2,000 ($3,470). 

Sedo's performance with .coms was just as impressive. P8.com and AirIndiaExpress.com commanded $7,000 each. Website-Design.com went for $6,000, Affaire.com ("business" in French) attracted �5,000 ($5,861) and GoHotels.com booked $5,500. vPets.com chewed up $5,000, RedChair.com rocked $4,885 and Afrosoft.com sold for $4,100.

SnapNames also had a bountiful week with MyCardOnline.com contributing $8,100, Strobes.com lighting up $7,602 and MovieVideos.com doing $6,989 at the box office. BaglessVacuum.com sucked up $6,100, HolyChild.com received a $6,088 blessing and Thassos.com called in $5,500. ResidentAgent.com added $5,025, ShippingRates.com cost $4,211 and NumberPuzzle.com provided a $3,903 solution. Here are 20 more winners from SnapNames ranging from $2,000-$3,800. 

At the Global Domain Name Exchange (GDNX),  AffiliateDirectory.com located $5,600, OfficeDepo.com deposited $4,101 and BuyCD.com brought $3,600. SDX.com fetched $2,900 while Wall-Mart.com and PPZ.com found $2,600 each and Feeds.net notched $2,000. 

At Pool.com, FairCreditReportingAct.com drew $5,050, WeldingMachines.com torched $4,900 and Ebaumsworl.com (typo) tacked on $3,433. Ruescape.com scraped up $3,110 and MyPremierBank.com managed $2,550.

Elsewhere, NMS.net sold for $5,300 at The Domain Name Aftermarket (TDNAM), 696.com rang up $5,000 at KuwaitNET.net  and BillingService.com collected $2,300 at Enom's Club Drop. Ira Zoot added a pair of nice ticket domains to his collection getting TheaterTicket.net and TheaterTickets.net for a total of $3,000 at BuyDomains.com. Last month Zoot zipped up TheaterTickets.com and GoodSeats.com in a pair of deals governed by NDAs.

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Fish.com swims to the top of our Year To Date Top 60 chart after that blockbuster million dollar plus sale at Afternic. Bird.com also flies into the first ten after feathering the Afternic nest with $200,000. Our elite list gets four new members this week and the entry fee rises to $58,000. Here is a look at the complete 2005 YTD leader board through Nov. 13: 

New TLD Section

This week's sales explosion touched all corners of the domain market including the new extensions. Every name on our new list hit at least four figures and the chart topper, SantaClaus.info, came to town with �10,500 ($12,307) in his sleigh. Sedo accounted for that sale along with five others on this week's New TLD leader board. 

.Info was the dominant extension racking up 7 of the 8 chart entries, including #2 Leather.info at �5,000 ($5,861) and #3 Footwear.info at $3,000. The seller of the latter domain, Tariq Ghafoor, told us he sold another .info for even more money at the DomainState.com forum but the buyer asked to keep that one confidential.

NutritionalSupplements.us prevented .info from making it a clean sweep by tying for the #4 slot with Blogging.info. Those domains went for $2,000 each at Sedo. There was no room for .biz on this week's chart but a domain is currently in escrow at Sedo that will be the biggest publicly reported .biz sale ever if it goes through. 

Here is a look at the complete New TLD leader board for the week ending Nov. 13:

As you can see Rich.info and Bed.info tied for the 6th slot at $1,200 each and VisaCard.info anchored our new list after going for $1,000 at Sedo. Sedo also sold Eu-Neuwagen.info ("new car" in German) and Agua.us ("water" in Spanish) for �500 ($586) each. COD.info also changed hands in a private sale for $525.

Our New TLD Year-To-Date Top 50 chart gets three new members this week and the entry fee rises to $3,000. SantaClaus.info crashed the top ten, settling in at #6 while Leather.info landed at #17. Footwear.info also joined the club, tying Lyrics.info for the final position on the list. Here are 2005's highest reported new extension sales through Nov. 13:

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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