Unfortunately the company has to keep the name of that domain private as requested by the parties to the transaction. This underscores a point that we make in this column every week. That is that no one will be able to compile a chart of EVERY domain sale that takes place due to confidentiality requirements on many sales. DomainSystems.com, who placed three names on the new Top Ten, also had higher sales than those reported but had to keep them private.

Still, we can learn a lot from the sales that are reported and that 12K for recon.com is certainly nothing to sneeze at. Afternic can't really feel too bad about not getting to report the larger sale because they had still another $25,000 deal just enter the escrow process and, once it is completed, that is a name they will be able to reveal.

This was a big week for the Big Daddy - .COM. In it's best showing to date, the world's most popular extension swept 8 of the top 10 positions. A sweep was averted by a solo entry from perennial powerhouse .DE and still another appearance on the big board by new extension .INFO (which appears in the Top Ten for the third time in the last four weeks). .INFO also swept all five positions on our New TLD Chart (something it has done before), but there was a big falloff in the new extension's prices after the $3,062 collected for Reason.info.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves here. With Recon.com and Reason.info manning the flanks, it should be safe now to move forward and engage the Top Ten chart!

#3 entry Dog.de continues to prove that the German country code is the pit bull of CCTLD's. Another one, Anzuege.de (also sold at Sedo), just missed making the Top Ten by $117. The domain (which mean "suits" in German) went for �2,500 ($2,945). ProduktProben.de ("product samples" in German) was right behind at �2,150 ($2,532). Sedo attracted the same amount for Photovoltaik.com.

In addition to it's chart-topper and the #6 entry, Afternic also had several strong sales that just missed the main chart. They pulled in $2,625 for a nice three-letter .com, EFO.com, and also received $2,500 each for WithHonors.com and Buzzer.com. 

Other sales in the 2K range included $2,101 for HJF.com at Pool and $2,050 for 1-800-Foreclosure.com at DomainSystems. Sedo also sold an Austrian country code domain, Golling.at for �1,750 ($2,061). We had reports of only two .NET sales in the four-figure range: Konzert.net ("concert" in German) went for $1,413 at Sedo and SEN.net sold at Pool for $1,150.

.ORG will likely make a reappearance next week. We know both parties involved in a $6,600 sale at DNForum.com and will officially report that transaction when it completes the escrow process. The buyer in that deal also just entered escrow on a $15,000 purchase of a three-letter .com. We will also report that one once it has been successfully completed.

Now let's move along to the New TLD Chart. The #10 entry on the Big Board, Reason.info, leads the new extension list. .INFO's took all five spots on the chart, but the joy of .info boosters will be muted by the low selling prices on the last four. We would think that a term like "flowers" in almost any language would be worth more than the $236 the French version of the .info went for. Let's take a look at the full list:

One of the most interesting new extension stories concerns a name that did not make the chart. WebCasino.info sold for just $60 at Pool. The thing that is interesting about that is that the winning bidder placed a maximum proxy bid of $1,500! So if even one person had stepped forward to offer some competition that domain might have gone for a much higher price (there was at least one other person with that name on their Pool list as it did go to auction - but they never went above the venue's $60 minimum). Only time will tell if the few prospectors currently mining .info will wind up striking it rich with these early buys or will find their vault filled with fool's gold.

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].

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.