No Longer an Off-Broadway Act:  .INFO is # 1 
at the Domain Box Office After Landmark Sale at Sedo!

by Ron Jackson    Archived 1-20-04

Almost as shocking as the .info sale is the fact a .co.uk would have led the chart if NewYork.info hadn't! Coming in at #2  is Eden.co.uk at �8,900 ($16,292), also at Sedo! Perennial leader .com doesn't show up until the third position but the old warhorse retains a lot of luster with a pair of $11,000 sales! Sedo had one of those to cap a blockbuster week. The other was a private transaction involving Christian Chena (a chart regular both as a buyer and seller). This time Chena was on the purchasing end of DatingServices.com. 

It certainly looks like variety was the spice of life this week as still another extension, .net, occupies the 5th position. Draw.net sketched a $10,099 payday for Pool.com and proved the buyers were back in full force after the holidays. It's the first time that every sale on the top half of our chart was a five-figure transaction. All of those predictions of a rebounding domain market in 2004 are looking good here in the early going. 

It's quite possible that we haven't seen anything yet. As we were going to press we heard an unconfirmed rumor that QQ.com was being purchased by a Korean company for $1 Million. There may be nothing to it and we don't like to deal in rumors, but after the recent $1.32 Million Men.com sale, it is intriguing to think what another seven-figure deal this soon would mean to the overall market. 

Before we move on to the big chart we also want to clean up some unfinished business. Last month we told you about eDeals.com going for $61,005 in a Pool auction but the domain did not change hands for some time, so there was some doubt as to whether or not it would be paid for. That transfer has in fact taken place and the new owners have their own page up now so it was a legitimate sale. The big one we told you about last week at Pool, Che.net ($38,000) still has not changed hands however.

Now on to the big chart with some additional notes following your tour through the Top Ten. 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. 

Though .com had a rare week out of the top spot, the world's most popular extension did sweep the second half of the chart. Thunayan K. AL-Ghanim (Elequa) was the buyer of 6th-ranked NNR.com at Pool with a winning bid of $5,555. Afternic rang up 5,000 points...er...we mean...dollars with MegaGame.com. Afternic also just had a domain go into escrow at more than $20,000 so they may have another chart topper soon. Pool and DomainSystems round out the chart with three solid sales all topping $4,000.

DomainSystems had four other sales in the same ballpark. BestRatesDirect.com fetched $4,186, 1800Jewerly.com (spelling is correct - which is to say, yes, it is a misspelling) sold for a sparkling $3,858, NextX.com went for $3,150 and DigitalWord.com whispered $3,078 in CEO Monte Cahn's ear.

Pool had their usual boatload of notable buys as well. They included GroupSex.net at $4,000, WineAndRoses.com at $3,100 and BestBook.com at $1,500. In other extensions, Sailboarding.net went for $1,450 and Blogs.org sold for $1,209.

Germany's .de was a little quieter this week but Sedo reported Mini-Service.de going for �2,000 ($2,554) and Praliene.de selling for �1,500 ($1,915). Praliene is a typo of Praline which gets a steady flow of traffic according to Overture. Sedo also had a four-figure .co.uk sale to go along with their #2 British domain from our Top Ten. SecuredLoans.co.uk sold for �1,000 ($1,847).

Now it's time to introduce a new feature to our column. We had several requests to produce a Year-To-Date sales chart so you could see all of the year's best sales in one place without having to traipse through the many columns in our Archive. Your wish is our command (as long as it does not involve lending you money)! So below you will find a new chart that will be updated each week with the YTD leaders. We will expand the number of positions on the chart as the year progresses so you can keep track of all of the annual leaders at a glance. We are doing the same thing for the New TLD chart later in this report. Here is how they stand two weeks into the New Year.

The YTD Top Ten chart gives us a nice lead-in to the next section of our report on new extensions. As you can see above, .infos have two of the top ten slots in the early going. .Info also would have had the top two slots on our latest New TLD chart if it weren't for the rapidly sinking value of the dollar against European currencies. 

The runner-up to NewYork.info, Clay.biz, went for �1,000 in a private transaction. At today's exchange rate that is a little over $1,800, just nudging Banks.info out of the number two spot. However, on the day the Clay.biz sale actually took place, the seller told us it converted to under $1,800. For uniformity we base all currency exchange rates on where they stand the day this column is published (on Tuesdays). So, I propose a steel cage tag team match between the Collins brothers at Afternic (Roger & Michael),  and the buyer & seller of Clay.biz with bragging rights to the runner-up slot at stake. The latter duo will wear masks as they prefer to remain anonymous.

Here is the full new extension list which again shows .info muscling out the competition by taking 4 of the 5 spots on our chart.

From my point of view, the buyer got a terrific deal on Austin.info. That booming city is the capital of Texas and one of the most entertaining towns in America (the music scene is amazing). Just based on the size and stature of the city alone it is a great deal, then factor in all of the businesses and people that have Austin as both a first name and a surname and you have a pretty healthy potential resale market there. I made a note to myself to take a much closer look at Afternic's voluminous listings after seeing that one cross the tape!

Now let's take a look at where new extension sales stand Year-To-Date:

As with the main chart, we will expand the number of positions on this New TLD year-to-date chart as the year progresses. We are obviously off to a rousing start in 2004 and our prediction is that it will only get better!

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"  to Richard Meyer who contributed greatly to this week's column. Page Howe is also always there to lend a hand!

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.