Through an oversight on our part we did not address adult domains when setting up communications channels with our data reporting partners. 

As a mainstream business publication, we do not feel Domain Name Journal is the right venue for the potentially objectionable language that is inherent in many adult domain names. Just as the movie industry has separate publications for mainstream cinema and adult fare, we think this segment of the business should be addressed elsewhere.

In fact Afternic does not print the names of the adult names that have been sold on their site either (instead using the generic term "Adult Listing") which we think is a wise decision for their mainstream venue as well. They did give us the name of this domain and we will present it partially censored as F****d.com.  It is easy enough to fill in the blanks but that is a one-time solution that we do not want to make part of our permanent format, especially since both complete names and sales figures are needed to paint meaningful pictures in the sales market.

Since we did not clarify our policy before now, the domain will be included in our rankings in the form above but we will not be collecting data from that category in the future. We also have a domain in the #9 position on our Top Ten chart that was likely purchased for use in the adult segment but, in our estimation at least, the term is not as problematical as a hardcore term like the #1 domain. It's an editorial judgment, but we do not feel the #9 domain is objectionable enough to warrant exclusion from our coverage. This is a sensitive topic for many people and as always, we welcome any input you wish to send us on the subject.

Before we move on to this week's full chart, we want to make mention of an interesting auction at Pool.com which will likely produce next week's #1 domain sale - eDeals.com. The auction ended with a winning bid of $61,005 (and the buyer had placed a $75,000 proxy bid). We make every effort to report only sales that have been completed however, and transfer of this domain has not yet taken place (the policy is in place because many transaction fail to materialize due to failure of the buyer to follow through with payment). 

We think this one warrants especially close observation because the price took a massive jump in the final minutes when a bidder accidentally typed in $60,005 when he meant to bid $6,005! The bidder has stated publicly that he was horrified at his mistake, then astounded and relieved when someone else came in and topped his accidental bid! It appears from Pool's records that two people actually went above the typo bid, so we have to assume the high bidder is ready to make good on the purchase. Stay tuned for that one!

Now let's get to the business at hand! Several venues reported somewhat slower sales last week due to the long Thanksgiving holiday, but we think the Top Ten chart still shows some respectable sales and there is a great deal of variety this week with five different extensions on the chart. You'll find .com, .net, .org., .info and .co.uk! Perhaps even more notable is the one that is missing, .de, the German country code that almost always has one or more places in the Top Ten.  

A 3-number domain, 877.com,  is right behind that chart-topping adult domain with a $13,502 bid that might surprise people outside the United States. However those in the U.S. will recognize those numbers as one of America's  toll-free telephone prefixes which obviously gave the domain considerable extra value. We got our first report of a five-figure .co.uk sale this week with Keno.co.uk going for $12,450.  A .org and a .info also attracted healthy prices that cracked the $5,000 barrier.

As always, keep in mind that these are the highest value sales that have been reported in the past week. This column is meant to be an educational tool, not a complete list documenting ALL high value domain sales. Such a list is impossible to produce because many sales are kept private at the insistence of buyers, sellers or both. With that disclaimer out of the way, the envelope please! 

EMule.org was one of two solid sales transacted at DNForum.com last week. Veteran South American domainer Christian Chena paid a pretty penny to persuade the German seller (fellow forum member Markus Schnermann) to let it go. EMule is a downloadable software program that is wildly popular in some parts of the world. A Swedish teenager who is getting an early start in the domain business (don't we wish we had all done that!), Peter Stefansson made the other important sale at DNF, moving stock-broker.com for $2,500 in a deal with buyer Brett Marks. 

Sedo just missed taking a third spot on the Top Ten with SchiffsFonds.com
("Marine funds" in German) selling for $3,141 (�2,600). As always, Sedo also enjoyed several good .de sales, including Teleprofe. de ("telephone professional) for �1,650 ($1,994) and a pair that went for �1,500 each ($1,812) - Nusch.de and Bodo.de. Sedo also collected $1,850 for a 2-character .co.uk, C3.co.uk.

Sedo had a couple of other country code sales that are worth noting because we haven't seen those extensions reported here before. Musicals.jp (Japanese ccTLD) went for �1,001 ($1,210) and Creaton.ru (Russian ccTLD) went for �900 ($1,088). They also had one other .co.uk in the same price range, 4Sight.co.uk for $1,200.

And last but not least (before we move on to the new extensions), a couple of $2,000+ sales from Pool: Quality.net at $2,899 and  ShoppingCentral.com which went for $2,050. 

Our New TLD Chart (which tracks .info, .biz and .us) finds .info leading the way again, this time with a semi-adult domain. Probably not surprising that Tits.info would fetch $5,000 (after all, everyone has a pair of these, though there seems to be interest only in those sported by one gender. We'll leave it to you to guess which one!)

Germany remains the hot spot for .info domains, with Deutsche terms taking the 2nd and 3rd spots. A very good three-letter domain, ALT.info is next, then we have a vacancy in the fifth spot as only those four sales were reported to us this week.

If HiltonHeadIsland.info had cleared Escrow at Afternic is would have plugged that hole in the chart. The domain drew a $600 bid at Afternic and will likely chart officially next week when the transaction should be finalized. 

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.