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Whoever said "A picture is worth a thousand words" obviously wasn't taking inflation into account! Paraguay's Chris Chena paid �30,000 ($35,763) this week to finalize his purchase of Fotos.com. He offered 30,000 words but the seller apparently didn't consider text to be legal tender! In many languages fotos is the correct spelling of the highly valued keyword that English speakers know as "photos". |
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England's .co.uk country code accounted for this week's #2 sale. Sedo.com was happy to handle the exchange of Gloves.co.uk for $10,737. That was one of three domains Sedo placed on the big board. However, their biggest sale was one they couldn't report due to a confidentiality agreement. That was a multilingual German domain that easily topped the amount paid for Gloves.co.uk. Moniker.com/DomainSystems.com also had to bite their lip about a big deal. CEO Monte Cahn tells us they had a private domain sell at $56,500. Even when the names aren't released it is good to hear numbers like that. They are reassurance that the rebound in domain values remains in full force. Pool.com continues on a hot streak as well. The popular auction venue (that will be the subject of a Domain Name Journal Cover Story June 1) placed three domains on the new Top Ten, including #3 Nosferatu.com at $10,500. By the way, I never bought into that nonsense that Nosferatu could see into the future and now we have proof. If he could do that, don't you think he would have left a note for his descendants to register Nosferatu.com when the internet came along? I mean if I could see into the future I would definitely leave the kids a note to pay reg fee for a domain I knew was going to be worth 10 grand! (Editor's Note: After I wrote
the paragraph above a reader informed me I was thinking of Nostradamus.
Nosferatu was a vampire. Thwap! (Sound of palm slapping
forehead). Now I know why Nosferatu's predictions never came
true! OK, before I get any further off track, let's move on to the big board and see how the entire chart stacks up for our 7-day reporting period ending April 25:
In dissecting the rest of this week's chart, we see Pool taking positions 3, 4 and 10 and those were just the start of a big week for them (more on their other sales shortly). I don't know who paid $5,100 for that 3-worder, AppleCiderVinegar.com but that kind of price sure makes a sour product look a lot sweeter. Sedo also hit the big board trifecta this week, adding a nice German country code domain, MeineWerkstatt.de (#5 at $8,560) and a solid .com, MoreGames.com (#9 at $5,369) to the winner's list you'll see below. Afternic.com also appears to be entering another hot streak. They took positions 6 and 8 on the Top Ten (with PopGames.com at $6,500 and GetLinked.com at $6,000) and as you'll see in the Pipeline section later, they also have two nice five-figure deals currently in the works. Namewinner.com nailed down the final position on the chart. They attracted a $6,020 bid for lucky #7 FootballJerseys.com and were able to land the domain on the drop, using IDRegister.com to get the job done. However, when it comes to aftermarket auction sites, Pool continues to rule. They consistently land the top expiring names and that keeps customers coming back with their checkbooks in hand. Along with their trio of Top Ten Hits, Pool moved BathroomDesigns.com for $4,700 and took a $4,200 reservation for HiltonHeadHotels.com. Then there was Ballett.com at $3,700 and Beenz.com at $3,600, with Sikayet.com selling for $3,110 and Eurostore.com cashing in at $3,100. Pool had so many sales in the $2,000 range we might have to call in the Census Bureau to get an accurate count. Those included FinanceProfessional.com at $2,999 and CollageBoard.com at $2,900 (tell me the truth, is someone who spells "college" that way really going to pass the entrance exam?!). AudioKing.com sounded good at $2,600 and PlusSizeOutlet.com stuffed another $2,500 in the pantry. Then there's TruckLoan.com at $2,350 and WhitePine.com at $2,150. We don't hear much from .net these days, so we'll give the red-haired stepchild a pat on the head for Choices.net selling at $1,550. Sedo (which has a different sales model than Pool) matched the auction giant step for step with a boatload of their own big fish. While Pool catches expiring names, Sedo represents current domain owners who want to market their properties. Judging from their sales week in and week out, they are doing a darn good job for their clients and they are doing it with a remarkably wide variety of extensions. In addition to their three on the Top Ten, Sedo sold GolfHotels.de for �4,200 ($5,011), Condos.co.uk for �2,750 ($3,281) and Buttle.com for �2,550 ($3,042). They also had the #1 new extension sale of the week (and one of the year's Top 12), moving Meningite.biz for $4,250. We'll tell you more about that in our New TLD section. Sedo's other winners included AutoUrlaub.de ("Car vacation" in German) at �3,900 ($4,652) and JeMeSoigne.com ("I take care of myself" would be a rough translation from the French) for �3,000 ($3,579), very nice for a three-word French term. Then there was WinMail.de, also at �3,000 ($3,579) and Intetech.com at $3,200. Want more? We've got 'em. At Afternic ITCI.com sold for $5,000 (a very strong price for a four-letter acronym with no apparent traffic). They also sold YTunnel.com for $2,750 and DreamMeanings.com for $2,100. Enom's Club Drop got into the action too, flooring MikeTyson.com with a $4,600 punch (for that kind of money I hope they got a bite out of his ear too)! Also, Moniker.com/DomainSystems.com sold Match3.com at $2,750 and KingsWharf.com at $1,975. Smaller companies are sharing in the largesse as well. Up in New England, MainelyDomains.com moved the pair of MaineDialup.com and MaineDialup.net for $5,000. Don't bother checking, MaineBroadband.com is already registered! Rewind: Moniker/DomainSystems mentioned one to us that they sold several months ago but couldn't report until now - that was ClubWealth.com at $8,900. In The Pipeline: Looks like more nice sales will be flowing in in the weeks ahead. Pool just had an auction for Dater.com end at $36,008. Over at Afternic, KidsChat.com just went into escrow at $21,000 and Curious.com is awaiting completion after going for $11,000. Pool also has a nice .net waiting for payment, TVS.net at $5,200. We add one position to our Year-To-Date chart this week, expanding to 31 slots to accommodate our new #19 domain, Fotos.com. The entry point for the chart remains $25,000. Below you can feast on all of the biggest reported sales so far in 2004:
So many meningitis related domains have been sold in the New TLD's in recent months that it has become something of a running joke here at DNJ. But there is nothing funny about the prices being paid...and the nice thing is those prices keep rising! You might recall our report that Meningitis.biz sold a few weeks ago for �1,500 ($1,789 at current exchange rates). Now we hear from Sedo that the French and Italian spelling of the word has sold in that same .biz extension for more than twice as much as the English spelling, which is a rarity indeed! The domain in question is Meningite.biz, this week's New TLD chart leader at $4,250! The sale is good news for .biz fans who have been waiting for their favored extension to start going toe to toe with the .infos that have been dominating our sales charts. .Info did take all of the other slots this week however, led by #2 Kyiv.info at $895. That is the capital of the Ukraine, a beautiful city that is better known in the English language as Kiev. Sedo also handled that sale. There's a tie for the third position at $600. That is the amount Jarred Cohen laid out in a deal at DNForum.com to acquire Leads.info. SupportDesk.info went for the same price, after selling at AdoptableDomains.com. Here is the full chart of reported New TLD sales for the week ending April 25:
In addition to #5 Sowa.info (a surname), Sedo sold Joburg.info for $200. That is an abbreviated version of Johannesburg (South Africa). In fact, the city's official website is on Joburg.org.za. The Meningite.biz sale was strong enough to break into our Year-To-Date New TLD chart which expands a notch this week to make room. Here is a look at 2004's Dazzling Dozen:
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]. We truly appreciate the industry leading companies represented on our charts who share their sales information with us to help everyone in the business get a handle on current domain values. Individuals like Richard Meyer of the American Marketing Corporation also provide invaluable help by sending us data for these sales reports each week. 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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Copyright 2003
Domain Name Journal
A Division of
Internet Edge, Inc.