Pool Deposits $15,501 From Sale of MTBank.com But Rumors of A Blockbuster Deal Steal the Limelight

by Ron Jackson   Archived 12-30-03 

It is likely that most of those surfers are looking for mandtbank.com (18,757 in Overture with the extension), a major regional bank on the U.S. East Coast. If trademark problems can be avoided, mtbank.com could eventually recoup its purchase price through pay per click revenue alone.

A lot of the attention to that deal was diverted by rumors spread across all of the popular domain forums of an impending blockbuster $1.3 Million domain sale. If it happens that would cement persistent reports over the past few weeks that the domain resale market is enjoying a major resurgence. The domain in question is Men.com, currently owned by industry pioneer Rick Schwartz. Several of those who have stated on the forums that an agreement has been made to sell the domain are acquaintances of Schwartz. When there is that much smoke there is usually a fire. However, as of this writing (Tue. Dec. 23) there has been no official confirmation of the sale and the WhoIs record shows that the domain has not changed hands. 

If a sale is confirmed this week, there is little doubt about what domain will be sitting in our #1 slot next Tuesday (unless the market has gotten even healthier than we think)! Editor's Note: On Wed. Dec. 24, the sale of Men.com was officially confirmed. See our story about the sale on our front page (in right hand column below the Cover Story). 

In the meantime, other buyers and sellers haven't exactly been sitting on their hands. Afternic banked close to $25,000 with a trio of sales that hold down the second, third and fourth positions on our new chart. Graphic.com led the way for Afternic after going for an even $10,000. DomainSystems rounded out the top half of the chart with their $6,500 sale of LifesJourney.com. 

Hardly a week goes by now without a significant .info sale. This week, Parkinson.info landed in the #6 slot after attracting $6,192 at Sedo. That sale also topped our New TLD chart where the .infos swept all five positions. Sedo also accounted for the next three sales in the Top Ten, with each representing a different European country code. Germany's .de, Austria's .at and Switzerland's .ch all scored to give the chart a distinctly global glow this week.

Pool.com had bookends on the chart with the #1 and #10 domains. HomeInsurance.net nailed down the final position after going for $4,030. 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. Now on to the new Top Ten!

That $7,450 sale for a four-letter acronym, GEAM.com, is a bit out of the ordinary. Only one entry appears at AcronymFinder.com for that term - Generic Engineering Analysis Model. GEAM returns just 173 at Overture and there are only 20,000 page references at Google (however one of those is a major player indeed - General Electric Asset Management). No word on who the buyer is yet. The term is taken in all major extensions, so there is obviously value there that many might have overlooked.   

There seems to be no end to those top-selling eMule domains! Seems like we have one in one extension or another on the chart every week. It is Austria's turn this week with eMule.at fetching close to $5,000. As we have noted before, eMule is a popular downloadable software program.

With the domain market continuing to improve, it looks like we will need to expand our Top Ten chart to include 15 or 20 domains early in 2004. There are many other solid sales worth highlighting. Sedo had a large group ranging from around $2500 up (for the sake of simplicity, I will note their sales in one denomination - dollars). The combination of CDCover.de & CDCovers.de went for $4,339. Crime may not pay but StolenGoods.com walked off with $3,286. Waermeplus.de ("heat plus" or "warmth plus" in German) went for $3,224 and Waehrungsrechner.de ("monetary calculator" in German) attracted $2,852. Sedo also sold MyHandy.com and ClicBooster.com for $2,480 each.

DomainSystems reported receiving $3,900 for BroadbandVoice.com and $3,200 for Knitch.com. Pool had another pair in the 3K range - LUL.com at $3,500 and 983.com at $3,100. The holiday buyers were out at Afternic too where they added $2,500 to the ledger for NetworkMonitor.com. 

We don't see many significant domain sales at Ebay, but Professor.org is worth a mention after going for $819 there. In general, unless a seller needs to liquidate a domain quickly, we think they would be better served by using one of the professional sales venues dedicated to domains (like those that appear on our best seller charts week in and week out). 

Now let's turn our attention to the New TLD chart as there is plenty of action to report there as well. After watching .biz knock them off their customary perch atop this chart last week, the .infos roared back and swept every position this time out. In addition to the  previously mentioned leader, Parkinson.info, two other .infos went for four figures this week. 

It's either feast or famine for that #5 position! Last week we commented on how no one seemed to want to occupy it (after it was vacant three weeks in a row). Now this week, two domains had to be shoehorned into the slot! 

Look for some big .info news shortly after the holidays. NewYork.info just went into escrow at a major sales venue for approximately $27,000! If the transaction is successfully completed that name will soon be appearing at the top of a chart near you! It could even give .info its first appearance in the #1 position on the main chart. Seeing .info reign over all extensions, if only for a week, would be a real watershed moment for the new extensions.

While you see a .info sweep this week, I should note that I am personally aware of a four-figure .biz sale that would have been on the chart, but the seller requested that it not be publicized. He is working a specific area in the .biz market and does not want to attract additional competition at this stage of the game. That's understandable and it underscores what we said earlier in this column (and what we emphasize each week) - for one reason or another, there will always be key sales that will not get reported.

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 a special "Thank You" again to Richard Meyer for his 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.