Reported Price for Sex.com Continues to Fluctuate But That Blockbuster Deal and Strong Supporting Cast Keep Market Flying High 

by Ron Jackson
  

Our charts are limited to cash sales with exact amounts paid, so the transaction can't go on our weekly Big Board. However, due to the importance of the sale, we have added a footnote about the deal to our Year To Date chart. If more details emerge in the days and weeks ahead we will update the information there. Our congratulations to everyone involved in this historic sale.

An 8-figure sale has a way of overshadowing everything in it's path, but that doesn't diminish the good health the market exhibited with a bevy of additional big ticket domain deals this week. DirtBike.com roared to the peak on our new Top 20 chart after going for $75,000 in a private transaction. The domain, sold by LANimation Consulting Corp., scores a tasty 1,640 with the extension in Overture. #2 Vegans.com was right behind after changing hands for $73,000 at Pool.com.

Sedo.com led all venues by taking 10 of 23 positions on the leader board (there are three more domains than usual because of a six-way tie for the final position). Sedo's run began with a German IDN (International Domain Name) #3 übersetzer.de ("translator" in German) at €19,500 ($23,672). That sale will surely cheer the small but growing cadre of IDN fans who believe the spread of non-English alphabets to domain names is presenting a golden opportunity for investors.

That category is expected to get a further boost this year when Microsoft introduces their IE7 browser which will be IDN compliant (a popular alternative, the Firefox browser, already handles IDN's with aplomb). For those interested in learning more about IDN's, a new forum has opened at IDNForums.com that includes a number of people who are well versed in this area. Several members have lived and worked in other countries (or currently do), giving them unique insight into how other nations view domains and the opportunity to start using them in their native languages. 

Like Sedo, SnapNames.com found their cup overflowing this week with 8 chart entries. #4 ThingsToRemember.com leads their roster at $21,750. Moniker.com/DomainSystems.com handled the escrow services for InterDotNetwork's sale of #5 PornWorld.com for $20,101. Sedo and SnapNames then alternated positions through the rest of the first ten. Sedo landed blows with #6 SoundUp.com at €15,000 ($18,209), #8 SkillGame.com at $15,000 and #10 AutoAuto.de at €11,600 ($14,082). SnapNames counter-punched with #7 MediaStorage.com at $17,750 and #9 AirExpress.com at $14,249.

Afternic.com kicked off the second half of the chart with Supplements.net at $14,000. That .net and three ccTLD's were the only non .com entries on the new list. Here's a look at how they stacked up in the week ending January 22:

As you can see, Sedo and SnapNames would have had the entire second half of the chart to themselves if Afternic hadn't muscled their way into that six-domain logjam in the final position where $10,000 was the magic number. All three of those venues turned in strong showings off the chart as well.

.Com Supporting Cast

Afternic added to their bottom line with Socius.com at $8,500, aDondeVas.com at $3,800 and Diapo.com at $3,000. BookPortugal.com banked $2,650, SinglesConnect.com and PressStart.com kicked in $2,300 each and PracticePartners.com added $2,288. JobsInNewYork.com clocked in at $2,060, Accept360.com contributed $2,050 and VentureMountain.com climbed to $2,000.

Back at Sedo, Pinger.com pounced on $8,619, OrlandoMLS.com closed at $7,600 and Wunschurlab.com ("dream vacation" in German) wound up at €6,000 ($7,284). TampaMLS.com tacked on $6,000 and RentWise.com went for €4,580 ($5,560). Critter.com cranked out $5,300 and Canoe360.com paddled in at $3,333.

SnapNames also hit one pitch after another out of the park. ChristmasGiftBasket.com kept things merry at $8,666. Vibrance.com brought $8,600, StrategyGame.com cornered $8,188 and CashFlowLoans.com floated $8,099. FlightAttendantJobs.com fetched $7,988, WaitressJobs.com juggled $7,001 and KitchenKnife.com sliced off $5,884. 

Also at SnapNames, Spite.com spit out $5,660, CellphoneCameras.com caught $5,261 and EasyGourmet.com cooked up $4,600. PatentInventions.com concocted $4,599, KJU.com collared $4,500 and ChinaEducation.com graded out at $4,388. ProjectorBulb.com brightened up the ledger with $4,111, ButterflyEffect.com fluttered to $4,078 and StunningCurves.com stood out at $4,000.

SnapNames had another four dozen .com sales ranging from $2,000 to nearly $3,800. You can check those out in the table below: 

At Enom's Club Drop, SheriffAuctions.com cuffed $6,900, Alscans.com commanded $5,100 and PaintingJobs.com paid $4,600. HairStylistJobs.com combed out another $4,000 and DivingJobs.com surfaced with $2,500.

Moniker/DomainSystems had a nice package deal in their weekly haul, picking up $12,792 for the Book-Clubs.com/Book-Clubs.net combo. CreditCardResource.com rounded up another $6,968, SportSection.com spotted $6,700 and ClassicJukebox.com played a $6,611 tune.   

Elsewhere, KuwaitNET.net collected $3,550 for OZX.com and DigitSoftware.com sold DiverLog.com ($4,800) and SponsorList.com ($2,600) in a pair of private transactions. 

Global Contenders

The Global Contenders seem to be gaining strength as the new year goes on. This was their best outing yet with #1 Supplements.net hitting a new high water mark for this group at $14,000. The .nets ruled the roost, taking 12 of 20 chart entries, including #2 AirConditioning.net at $5,306. The latter domain was one of 11 placed on the new list by SnapNames.

.Org racked up six chart trophies with a line up that featured #3 SEP.org at $5,300 and #4 CarLoans.org at $5,000 (one of Afternic's three charted domains). #8 BOC.org ($3,500) and #9 Jubilee2000UK.org ($3,300) also reached the top half of the leader board.

After spending the first two weeks of the 2006 season on the sidelines, .info finally got into the action this week, crashing the first ten with #7 Wyoming.info at $3,750. Professor Bob Connor moved that domain in a sale at the NamePros.com domain forum. Healdsburg.info also made the chart, settling at #12 after going for €2,000 ($2,450) at Sedo. While .info entered the fray, .biz went to the bench this week after scoring a pair of chart entries in each of the past two weeks.

While this section normally focuses on the four main non .com global extensions (.net, .org, .biz and .info) one of the sponsored gTLDs may turn up from time to time. Indeed this week, Sedo sold a pair of .pro domains for one price, raking in $4,000 for TexasHoldem.pro and OnlinePoker.pro.

 Here's a look at the complete Global Contenders Top 20 for the week ending Jan. 22:

17 more domains in this category hit four figures, with SnapNames accounting for 11 of those. They sold BSH.net for $1,900, InkRefills.net for $1,464 and AdultPayPerView.net for $1,261. LasikSurgery.net sewed up $1,161, UnderConstruction.net cemented $1,114 and two others; Fait.net and Cheeseheads.net, chalked up $1,100 each. TruckingJobs.net hauled in another $1,000.

On the .org side of the ledger at SnapNames, DadsCan.org drew $1,700, Layouts.org landed $1,300 and MagnesMuseum.org marked up $1,201. At Afternic, PokerDirect.org sold for $1,000. That venue also attracted $1,088 for CombatZone.net. At Sedo, MedicalConferences.net sold for €1,350 ($1,639) and SportsCards.net collected $1,500.

$1,500 was also the going rate for HRA.info at TheNameStore.com. That venue also sold LocalSports.info for $800. In a couple of other nice 3-letter .info sales, SFF.info went for $1,000 in a private transaction and AIW.info secured $800 at Sedo. On the .biz front, BestPage.biz brought €500 ($607) and Originals.biz added $600 (both sold at Sedo).

Country Codes

Germany's .de, the world's second most popular extension (behind only .com), performed like the heavyweight it is this week, taking 7 of 10 positions on our new Country Code cart. The top two domains, übersetzer.de ($23,672) and AutoAuto.de ($14,082), were so strong that they also crashed the top ten on our mainstream chart as you saw earlier. 

Almost all of the positions not claimed by .de went to German neighbors Austria and Switzerland. Swiss domain Titten.ch charged to #3 at €10,500 ($12,746) while Austria scored with Restaurant.at, tied for 4th at €7,500 ($9,104) and PrivateBanking.at, tied for 10th at €2,000 ($2,428).

Only the United Kingdom's .co.uk was able to crash the party being thrown by Germany and it's neighbors. #7 Pretty.co.uk attracted £3,500 ($6,250) at Sedo to earn a seat at the bar. Actually every domain on the list can thank Sedo for providing the venue where they found new homes. Here's a look at the complete Country Code Top 10 for the week ending Jan. 22:

In another .de sale at Sedo, Fahrzeugbeschriftung.de ("auto ad" in German) delivered €1,500 ($1,821). Three letter domains from three countries also earned notice this week. ICP.ca (Canadian ccTLD) went for 1,201 Can$ ($1,041) and RTG.us earned $795 in private sales while DNS.ms (Montserrat ccTLD) sold for $500 at Sedo. Also at Sedo, Pets.la (Laos ccTLD) lapped up €500 ($614).

Now, make a mental note that there will be no sales report next week. We almost never miss one, but I will be covering the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Silicon Valley conference in Santa Clara, California next week which will make it impossible to put the column together (most of our contributors will be  there too). Don't worry though, you won't miss a single sale. We will put together a double report for release Tuesday night, Feb. 7. 

Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our three updated Year To Date Charts to see how they stand 3 weeks into the New Year. 

*****

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 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 DotCom Group, LLC and Gordon Martin of DropWizard.com also provide invaluable help in collecting 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 night publication to give you the freshest sales report in the industry. 

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