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| Just two weeks ago we had the strongest top to bottom sales chart we've seen all year. This week we had one of the softest. Still, no need to start tearing your clothes and throwing ashes on your head (never understood why they did that in ancient times - wouldn't having to buy new clothes make a bad situation even worse? And who was the Rhodes scholar who started the ashes thing?)! But I digress. This was the final week of summer vacation for many people and there was a little event called the Olympics going on in Athens that may have diverted some attention. |
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The only five-figure sale reported this week (there were 8 last week and 13 the week before that!) comes from Pool.com where Rasta.com changed hands for $10,500 to head our new Top Ten. Pool wound up with three entries on the Big Board, a number that was matched by both Afternic.com and Sedo.com. Afternic had the #2 domain, iProfi.com, at $8,800. That one had me scratching my head for awhile. The domain with the extension returns zero in Overture and even scarier it returns zero without the extension. If I had spent a little less time goofing off in my high school German class I might not have been so perplexed. It turns out that "profi" is German for "pro", so iprofi.com would be the equivalent of ipro.com in English. That doesn't change the fact that there isn't going to be much if any inherent traffic, but it is a name with some good branding possibilities for the German market. KRS.com, one of Pool's trio of big winners, finished in the #3 spot at $7,100. That domain was followed by TravelQuest.com which sold for $6,100 at SnapNames.com. SnapNames continues to ramp up after their recent change from fixed price to auction format. Their drop catching performance seems to be improving rapidly and many buyers have expressed appreciation for the transparent ID system that allows you to see who is bidding against you. Sedo.com completes the top half of the chart with the first of their three Top Ten entries, LocalConnect.com, a domain that dialed up $6,089. Sedo also placed the only non-.com name on the list, SegalCharter.de ("sail charter" in German) at $4,944. Here's a look at the complete chart for the week ending Sunday, August 29:
Afternic completed their trifecta with #6 RealEstateDeveloper.com ($6,000) and #8 BlockAdware.com ($5,000). Pool slipped in between those two with BuyAutos.com at $5,100. Sedo wrapped things up with the previously mentioned #9 domain, SegalCharter.de and #10 LocalCity.com at $4,872. As always there were a number of nice four-figure sales just off the chart, though considerably fewer than in previous weeks. Afternic (which had a solid week despite the soft market) had the best of those, NoSpyware.com at $4,700. They cemented their sales list with ConstructionCompany.com at $4,200. At Enom's Club Drop, EspressoMachine brewed up a tasty $4,300 sale. They also speared $3,000 with Warlords.com. Club Drop is also positioned for a big week next week as you'll see in the Pipeline section below. Just a few miles down the road from Enom, Snapnames was busy adding another $4,200 to their rebounding business with Rebuild.com. They also had at least one four-figure .net sale we're aware of, Transformers.net at $1,161. Sedo supplemented their Top Ten sales with Sealight.com at $3,500 and Casinos.org.uk at �1,700 ($3,063). They added another �2,600 ($3,166) for Immomax.de (in German immo is short for "immobilien" which means real estate). Sedo sold a .info and a .biz in the same price range, but we'll save those for the New TLD section below. Their list also included MyFont.com at $2,500. Pool's other sales included Anomalous.com at $2,050 and Larger.net at $1,010. UsedCarsLLC.com put $1,500 in the tank at TopNames.com. Meanwhile over at DNForum.com there was another 3-figure .ws sale (those used to be rarer than real bidders at Ebay). Page Howe sent Concerts.ws to Dan McCullough (who seems to be making a career out of developing .ws domains) for $350. In the Pipeline: Though a lot of people were apparently wrapping up summer vacation this week, it already looks like next week will be a different story. DotcomAgency.com tells us they made a deal to sell WebsiteDevelopment.com for $30,000. They just acquired the domain three weeks ago for $10,000 (you may recall seeing it on our Top Ten chart that week). At Enom's Club Drop, an auction for FreeVideo.com has ended at $21,600 and it looks like a legitimate buyer. Their $12,000 sale of LastMinuteTravelDeals.com will also be eligible for the chart. It has been in the pipeline the past couple of weeks but we understand payment was made just as we were going to press (August 31). Also at Club Drop, an auction for HomeMortage.com (mis-spell) has ended at $5,300. Afternic says they'll have a very strong 3-letter .net sale to report next week, RYL.net at $9,450. So, enjoy this brief break - it looks like it's back to work for everyone next week! ***** Our Year-To-Date chart remains unchanged this week. It currently takes $27,000 to crack this list and none of this week's reported sales came close. Here is the complete rundown of big winners so far in 2004:
The new extensions actually held up very well this week, despite an overall slowdown in reported sales. There were a quartet of four-figure sales headed by Animal.info at $3,283. England's Stuart Smith bought that domain at Sedo, a venue that racked up five of the top seven sales on our New TLD chart. .Info, largely due to continued strong interest in Germany, dominated the board taking all but one position. Drucken.info ("printing" in German) was less than $60 behind Animal.info, taking the #2 slot at $3,227. .Biz prevented a .info sweep with the solid sale of Baer.biz ("bear" in German) at $3,166. There was a big drop from that #3 position to the 4th spot, but there shouldn't have been. #4 Nashville.info went for just $1,000 at Ebay! That might have been the best bargain I've seen anyone get in new TLD space. Not only is it a major city domain (those have always been among the strongest sellers in .info), Nashville is synonymous with country music. I think the seller could have realized 5 to 10 times more for this domain with proper marketing (Tampa.info for example sold for $10,000 this year). It's a good illustration of why DNJournal.com has always advised against trying to sell good domains on Ebay. Few professional domain investors shop there and those who do know there is a good chance the seller is not legitimate (and bid low to offset that risk). The Nashville.info auction actually ended earlier this month, but the WhoIs wasn't updated until this week. There was one other four-figure sale that is not on our chart. We do not cover the adult domain market as most of the names include words that aren't acceptable in a mainstream publication. However, because it is commonly believed that adult domains aren't worth much in new extensions, we will note that Pool sold one in .info for $1,500 this week. One sale doesn't mean that things are changing in that field, but it is worth noting in case it is a sign of things to come. Here is a look at all of the leaders for the week ending August 29:
You can see two more German terms on the lower half of the chart with Gemaelde.info at $974 and Reisefuehrer.info at $487. Pool slipped in between those two with ParkinsonsDisease.info at $500. Just off the chart, Sedo had a couple of other .info sales worth noting, including the hyphenated Debt-Consolidation.info at �300 ($365). Heirat.info ("marriage" in German) went for the same price. None of this week's top sellers was high enough to crack our Year-To-Date New TLD chart. Here is the list of top new extension sales through August 29:
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 2004
Domain Name Journal
A Division of
Internet Edge, Inc.