3-Letter .Com Sells For Over $150,000 at Moniker as Domain Business Explodes Following Brief Lull

by Ron Jackson
  

Last time out the top sale was under $24,000 and only 9 domains on our Top 20 chart hit five figures. This week, the top sale was over $150,000 and every name on the Big Board broke the five-figure barrier, as did five more that didn't make the chart!

Things could get even hotter next week. An auction for Jasmin.com closed at $310,250 Monday (Feb. 20) at SnapNames.com. When that deal is finalized it will be the highest price ever paid for a domain at SnapNames and will likely be the top dog on our leader board next week. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. There is a truck load of big deals to tell you about that were completed over the past seven days. 

The big winner among those was NHS.com, a premium three-letter combination that went for $151,300 at Moniker.com/DomainSystems.com. The seller told us he received also ABC.us as part of this deal. Moniker enjoyed a huge week, claiming four of the first seven positions on our new Top 20 and five spots overall. They also rocked the house with #3 Airways.com at $80,815, #6 MagazineRacks.com at $30,000 and #7 KinkyGirl.com at $25,000. You might recall that two weeks ago, Moniker sold the plural version of the latter domain (KinkyGirls.com) for $65,000. The same buyer took both names.

SnapNames.com also had a superb week, ringing up seven five-figure sales, with six of those landing on the leader board including #2 Looks.com at $86,650. That domain was purchased by Anything.com, a company that has built one of the best portfolios in the business. SnapNames put two other domains on the top half of the chart, #8 VirginMobilUSA.com at $21,251 and #10 VirginMobil.com at $19,000.

With SnapNames leading the way, expired name auction prices just keep hitting new highs. The activity has caught the attention of the Wall Street Journal where reporter David Kesmodel is currently working on an article about the drop catching business. Kesmodel asked us to pull some information from our sales database to illustrate how fast the expired domain auction market is growing. 

We found that the total dollar value of reported sales from drop catching venues only (this doesn't include aftermarket sales sites like Sedo and Afternic) soared from $4,225,775 in 2004 to $11,474,497 in 2005 (an increase of 266% in one year). The number of auction transactions that topped $10,000 jumped from 83 in 2004 to 179 last year (a 216% jump in reported high dollar sales). 

Last week, there were more non .coms on our Top 20 than .coms, but the king of extensions was back in top form this week, claiming 18 of the 20 chart entries. A pair of .co.uk's prevented .com from sweeping the chart and one of those was a doozy. Andrew Shorten and Jarrod Gall sent #4 Lyrics.co.uk to Shaun Pilford of Brain Wave Holdings, Inc. and his partner Ron Sures for $80,000. The new owners from Canada now hold the #1 country code sale of the year, easily outdistancing the previous leader, Ich.de (sold for $48,451 in the first week of January).

Two of the week's biggest sales were made on Ebay. Xedoc Holding SA of Luxembourg acquired #5 ProSports.com for $75,000 and Sean O'Brien of Ohio's Columbus Web Solutions Ltd. sold #9 Whistles.com to Hong Kong's Modern Empire Internet Ltd. for $21,087.

  Here's a look at the complete leader board for the week ending Sunday, Feb 19:

Sedo.com made their presence known on the second half of the chart, reeling in three winners with #11 Godfather.com at €15,000 ($17,922), #13 HappyBet.com at £9,500 ($16,565) and #15 HomeSell.co.uk at €13,500 ($16,130). Enom's Club Drop was the only other venue to take home multiple chart trophies, doing it with #14 TrundleBeds.com ($16,400) and #16 ChildrensBeds.com ($15,300). Away from the usual venues, Bilal Kapadia picked up #19 Blacklist.com for $13,000 at DNForum.com.

There were five more five-figure sales that finished just off the chart this week. Sedo had two of those; Puzzler.com at £6,000 ($10,462) and BTIG.com at $10,000. SnapNames sold ChicagoLimo.com for $10,450, G33K.com (a popular urban spelling of "geek") went for $10,302 on Ebay and Afternic.com sold a very nice two-letter .net,  LV.net for $10,000. 

.Com Supporting Cast

In addition to the seven five-figure sales they had this week, SnapNames piled up dozens of solid four-figure sales including PrinterReviews.com at $8,988, EuroGuide.com at $8,544 and NWM.com at $8,300. Century21Realty.com contributed another $8,200 while Anteojos.com ("eyeglasses" in Spanish) added $8,100 and NewYorkCars.com kicked in $7,100.

InflatablePools.com pumped in $6,950, ChildrensBed.com brought $6,300 and BabyMattress.com provided a $6,100 cushion. InternetStocks.com paid a $5,388 dividend, StereoStore.com hit a $4,700 high note and Smokeout.com extinguished $4,422. QMove.com commanded $4,360, Broadwave.com went for $4,200, NewHealth.com hit $4,188 and ChocolateCookie.com crumbled at $4,122.

SnapNames had another 34 .com sales ranging from $2,000 to just under $3,900. You can check those out in the table below: 

Sedo's roster included more gems too. ISBO.com brought $7,500, TeenCash.com peeled off 60 C notes ($6,000) and Gaming-Info.com gathered $5,200. Rendezvoo.com rounded up $4,500, Tierheim.com tallied €2,550 ($3,047) and BooYaa.com booked $3,000. Sedo had three more at $2,500 each; WeMail.com, OurJewishCommunity.com and AffiliateBlog.com (the latter sold by ReadyDomains.com).

Back at Enom's Club Drop, BedComforter.com uncovered $5,100, PrivatePractice.com provided $4,300 and two others; SmoothSailing.com and 4TV.com took in $3,200 each. Another pair, Pivots.com and MichianaJobs.com paid $2,600 apiece. 

At Afternic, E-Jobs.com earned $4,000, KidsLab.com cooked up $3,750 and HomeVids.com caught $3,688. MEFC.com and Colorants.com cornered $3,500 each while SearchHealth.com found $3,388. NauticaFragrances.com and HomeSpice.com went for $3,000 each and EbayTax.com levied $2,889. Afternic also deposited $2,888 for DiscountHealth.com and $2,300 for Passionworks.com.

In a couple of other notable sales, Moniker.com/DomainSystems.com sold Tammany.com for $7,600 and NameFinder.com drew a winning bid of $5,000 for StateAuction.com.

Global Contenders (.biz, .info, .net & .org)

The .orgs dominated last week's Global Contenders list, but this week .net was back in a big way, sweeping the first six positions and eight of the first ten. #1 LV.net led the way after going for $10,000 at Afternic. Looks like an excellent value to us especially considering what a great name it would be for a Las Vegas portal.  

SnapNames accounted for four of the next five sales, scoring with #2 Hardwood.net ($4,700), #3 Hoahong.net ($3,800), #4 TDN.net ($3,350) and #6 NMA.net ($2,511). Sedo slipped #5 MedievalCastles.net into the group at €2,500 ($2,987). SnapNames practically owned the chart this week, taking 13 of the 20 positions overall.

.Info prevented a .net sweep of the top half of the chart by claiming #7 with Uhren.info at €1,800 ($2,151) and #10 Anastasia.info at €1,500 ($1,792). Here's a look at the complete Global Contenders Top 20 for the week ending Feb. 19:

After a very strong week last week, .org had to settle for just three entries on the second half of the chart this week. #13 Bob.org was the best of those, going for $1,500 at Sedo. Another 3-letter .org, FOO.org, was right behind at $1,351. The always popular three-letter acronyms took seven positions on the chart this week and one of those, IVA.biz ($1,175), gave that extension its only charted domain this week. 

There were six more four-figure sales just off the chart. That group was led by Chiemsee.biz, sold for at €925 ($1,105) at Sedo. Sedo also sold RConnection.net for $1,000. SnapNames moved TLI.org ($1,103), Deleted.info ($1,075) and Closed.net ($1,024). Afternic accounted for the other four-figure sale, attracting $1,090 for SanClemente.net. 

In other sales, Afternic sold Barstow.net ($750), DJG.org ($575) and Eleven.info ($525). Sedo moved two more .infos, Extern.info at €590 ($705) and Indexers.info at $700. A very nice 3-letter combination, MRS.info, sold for a bargain price, $625, at DNForum.com.

Country Codes

Lyrics.co.uk certainly stole the country code show this week, setting a new standard for 2006 after changing hands for $80,000 in the private transaction we detailed earlier. That sale scored another big blow for the rapidly growing extension which also took #2 this week with HomeSell.co.uk at €13,500 ($16,130) and #4 with Bid4It.co.uk at £3,000 ($5,231).

Perennial favorite .de (German ccTLD) was held to two entries this week but both of those landed on the top half of the chart; #3 PostPoint.de at €4,800 ($5,735) and #6 H5N1.de at €2,900 ($3,465). America's country code, .us, claimed three positions led by #7 Images.us at $3,250.

Sedo continued their domination of this chart by taking 9 of the 12 spots available. Here's a look at the complete Country Code chart for the week ending Feb. 19:

In addition to the UK, Germany and the US, this week's chart featured entries from Spain (Matrimonio.es at $4,181), Austria (Geizhalz.at at $2,390) and Sweden (Artiklar.se at $2,000). In other sales, Sedo sold Shangahi.ch (Swiss ccTLD) for €500 ($597) and Afternic sold Drops.co.uk for $500.  

There were a lot of changes on our Year to Date charts after this week's action. To see where they all stand now, check out our Year To Date Charts page.

*****

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.