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Deja Vu!  VCD.com Leads the Top Ten After Selling for the Second Time in Two Weeks! 

by Ron Jackson    
Archived 12-23-03


We have been doing these domain sales reports long enough that you would think we would have seen it all by now, but every week seems to bring a new wrinkle (in more ways than I really want to think about - fellow baby boomers know what I mean)! You probably recall seeing VCD.com in the number 3 position on last week's Top Ten after it sold for $15,000 at DNForum.com. This week it becomes the first domain to make back to back appearances on the Big Chart! 

 


This oddity occurred when last week's buyer, veteran South American domain investor Christian Chena turned seller this week and moved VCD.com for $30,000 in a private transaction. As we previously noted, VCD's (Video CD's) are a wildly popular entertainment format in China, giving this 3-letter combo more punch than the usual acronym.

A couple of other domains also have a familiar look this week. #2 eMule.net went for $15,407 at Sedo. Two weeks ago, eMule.org was #4 on the chart after selling for $6,600 (to a familiar buyer - Mr. Chena). eMule is a downloadable software program that is popular in many parts of the world. The #5 domain, TiUSA.com, which went for $7,450 at Afternic, brings back memories of HiUSA.com which topped our chart a month ago when it went for $17,450, also at Afternic. Despite the similarities in the names, the two sales were not related.

On the new chart, seven domains are .com, two are .de and one is .net. As you know, .de is the German country code. In an interesting anomaly, one .de is an English term (#8 Translator.de) and one .com is a German term (#7 AutoReifen.com - which means "car tires" in English). The buyer of AutoReifen.com (which went for $6,163 at Sedo) is the same speculator who recently sold Reifen.de and a related package of domains for a price reported to be close to $250,000.

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, here's the complete Top Ten list: 

Domain Name Journal's Top Ten 
Reported Domain Sales - Mon. Dec. 8 through Sun. Dec. 14, 2003
Euro to Dollar Conversion (� to $) is Based on Rates in Effect Tue. Dec. 16

  Domain

Sold For

Where Sold
1.  VCD.com  $30,000 Pvt Transaction
2.  eMule.net  �12,500 = $15,407 Sedo
3.  Vitrum.com  $9,600 Sedo
4.  Satanismus.de �7,700 = $9,491 Sedo
5.  TiUSA.com $7,450 Afternic
6. BusinessMethod.com  $6,900 DomainSystems
7. AutoReifen.com
("car tires" in German)
�5,000 = $6,163 Sedo
8. Translator.de �4,500 = $5,547 Sedo
9. UWeb.com $5,300 Sedo
10. RockingChair.com $5,223 Pool

In addition to the #10 domain, RockingChair.com, we got reports of several other healthy sales at Pool.com last week. FUU.com went for $5,000, eMailFilter.com netted $4,600, Requirements.com was worth $2,600, Banque.net was good for a $2,290 deposit and PlayNow.com pulled $2,050

In addition to their six entries on the main chart, Sedo reported three more that came close. Austin.biz and OneStock.com each attracted $4,500. That landed Austin.biz on top of our New TLD Chart which you will see below. Sedo also received �3,000 ($3,698) for ScheringPlough.com

Afternic also scored some additional four figure sales, topped by MeetYourMatch.com at $3,300 and ServerPatrol.com at $2,250DomainSystems, the seller of 6th-ranked BusinessMethod.com, also collected $4,888 for this domain duo: FoodFacts.com & FoodFacts.net.

There is a very interesting development this week on the New TLD Chart (which tracks .info, .biz and .us). Just when it looked like .info had taken up permanent residence at the top of our chart, .biz had a breakout week. Lead by the sale of #1 Austin.biz at Sedo, .biz claimed the top 3 slots with all of those sales hitting four figures.

Domain Name Journal's New TLD Top Five 
 Reported .info, .biz & .us Domain Sales  Dec. 8 - Dec. 14, 2003
Euro to Dollar Conversion (� to $) is Based on Rates in Effect Tue. Dec. 16

  Domain

Sold For

Where Sold
1.  Austin.biz   $4,500 Sedo
2.  Vaccines.biz �2,500 = $3,082 Sedo
3.  Marine.biz    $1,800 Sedo
3.  Olymp.info   �900 = $1,109  Sedo
5.  Vacant  

Those numbers have to be encouraging to .biz fans who haven't had a lot to cheer about in recent weeks. Of course, these are new extensions so it's too early to draw conclusions on any of them based on performance over a short period of time. If the new extensions follow the historical pattern of new channels in other forms of media when they were introduced (FM Radio, UHF TV, Cable TV, etc.), widespread acceptance could still be years rather than months away. 

However, that doesn't mean there isn't already enough activity to make a little money at it (I have been fortunate enough to do so myself). In addition, the chances for a significant payoff down the line will likely keep investors with a long term view interested in how this corner of the market continues to develop. Especially since history shows that ALL of those aforementioned media channels did eventually make it in a big way.

One other note on this week's New TLD chart: you might have heard about the Sports Illustrated jinx.  Supposedly any athlete or team that appears on the magazine's cover winds up suffering misfortune soon after. We are starting to feel like the #5 slot on our New TLD chart is the victim of some sort of hex that is keeping domains away! 

For the third straight week that position is vacant. We do know of a .info in Escrow at Afternic that has been paid for and would have filled that slot, but the owner has not yet delivered it to the buyer, so it is not a completed transaction in our book. Banks.info also entered escrow at Afternic Mon. Dec. 15 (a day after our reporting period ended) after receiving a bid of $1,800. If that transaction is completed the name will likely appear on the chart within a week or two. 

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]. I would like to extend special "Thank Yous" this week to Richard Meyer and Page Howe for their help in gathering data for our lists. 

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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