Owner of Rugby.com Emerges from Scrum $350,000 Richer! 

by Ron Jackson  

North Carolina's Peninsula Investments bought the domain from Canada's Communicate.com according to the sale announcement released by Business Wire Nov. 5th. A few weeks ago Communicate.com announced they had sold Automobile.com, Exercise.com, Call.com and MakeUp.com for a total of $1 million dollars, however according to the public WhoIs record, none of those domains has yet been transferred to the buyer. In contrast, Rugby.com has been moved to the new owner.

Rugby.com played in its own league this week, but the supporting cast also flexed a lot of muscle. Seven 5-figure deals were announced along with the highest .biz sale reported to date. That was Gay.biz which went for $9,500 at Sedo.com to break into the mainstream Top Ten at #9. That domain also easily tops our New TLD chart (one of six 4-figure deals on that list this week). 

SnapNames.com delivered another powerhouse performance claiming 4 of the 10 slots on the Big Board. A sweet 3-letter combination, VOC.com, led the way for them, finishing second to Rugby.com after going for $20,001. The other leaders at SnapNames all hit five figures as well, including 4th-ranked Boomers.com at $19,900. That high traffic domain scores 1,300 in Overture with the extension. SnapNames also took #6 with ProMed.com at $17,100 and #8 with Salle.com at $10,299.

GreatDomains and Sedo.com took two slots each and Afternic.com accounted for the week's other big winner. GreatDomains scored an impressive daily double by landing two entries in the top 5; Hebrew.com at $20,000 and H3.com at $18,000. Sedo's top sale was VacationHomeRentals.com at $15,000. Let's take a look at the complete Top Ten then we'll continue with a long list of additional sales that made it another delightful week in Domainland:

As you can see Afternic.com anchored the chart with Fenchurch.com #10 at $8,650. That domain might puzzle a lot of Americans since it shows 0 with the extension in Overture and only 99 without. However it is a fairly common surname in the UK and is a popular street in London. Many UK businesses operate under the Fenchurch name including a major clothing company. Afternic's other sales this week included XEP.com at $4,900 and 2Linux.com at $3,500. They reported a total of 52 sales with a large block of .us domains in that group (one of which ranks 2nd on our New TLD list that we will get to a bit later).

The banner week at SnapNames included a lot of gems from the diamond mine below the Top Ten. One of those was FreeGovernmentMoney.com at $7,400. They even scored with .org, sending Toledo.org to a new home at $4,621. Other notable Snap shots included Espe.com ($3,151), Phun.com ($2,990), Paintings.net ($2,667) and FindApartment.com ($2,550). Nissan350z.com sped off with another $2,222 while FindHere.com uncovered $2,050. Also of interest were Correctional.com at $1,798 and Enchere.com (the French word for "bid") at $1,723.

Sedo's sales list was just as impressive. They continue to knock people out with a one-two punch of sales quantity and extension diversity. They reported 4-figure sales in five different country codes as well as the usual standbys, .com and .net. Their global charge was led by Algebra.ch (Swiss country code) at �6,000 ($7,740). InsideTrack.co.uk was close behind at �3,500 ($6,493). They also had Klifo.de (German country code) at �3,000 ($3,820), but the real stunner was the highest .ws sale we have ever seen, WhoIs.ws at �2,610 ($4,848)! .Ws is the Samoan country code that a private American company has been marketing for several years as meaning "web site". Domain pros have long looked down their noses at that kind of "rebranding" of country code extensions but a few more sales like this could result in an attitude adjustment. WhoIs.ws is a special case though. It scores 0 with the extension in Overture but has existing traffic from more than 700 inbound links.

Sedo managed to do it with another team from the same minor league this week, collecting �950 ($1,225) for Space.cc. That's the Cocos (Keeling) Islands country code that Verisign has been marketing as an alternative to .com (without trying to assign a different meaning to the letters). Oh yes, before we forget, Sedo does just fine with the familiar TLD's too! E-Sport.com brought them  �4,000 ($5,160) and 33.net threw another $4,000 log on the fire. They also got �2,944 ($3,798) for Sprachreisen.com ("language-learning holiday" in German) and $3,000 for NYCom.com. The latter one looks a little redundant to me but for 3K I'll start stuttering too!

GreatDomains supplemented their two Top Ten entries with 6pm.com at $7,000 and Mayan.com at $6,000. Meanwhile Pool.com made a splash with Corinthians.com tithing $5,500 and iFrends.com (a misspelling of IFriends that generates respectable traffic) contributing $3,199. They also found a $2,501 cure for HerpesOutbreak.com and plugged PowerConnection.com in for another $2,250. AtlantaBooty.com shook that thang for $2,050 while Pool's top .net was DiscountAirline.net at $1,300.

At Enom's Club Drop, BabyBlanket.com provided a cuddly $4,909. ElectronicPayment.com rang up $3,609 and MagicShows.com pulled a $2,709 rabbit out of the hat. DotcomAgency.com also delivered the goods with ChromePaint.com spiffing up the bottom line to the tune of $3,366. PokerSet.com anted up with another $2,800 and GrainDryer.com kept the heat on at $2,210.

In the Pipeline: Don't look now, but SnapNames may be headed for another dominating performance next week. As we were going to press (Tue. Nov. 9), an auction for Infection.com had just ended at $29,600 and one for Lucid.com finished at $18,201. Those will fall in next week's reporting period. SnapNames has a very good record of collecting on winning bids so we expect to see those two in the spotlight next Tuesday night.

*****

As we noted earlier, our Year to Date chart gets a new member this week. Rugby.com moved right into the front row after that big $350,000 deal, the 4th largest of 2004. Here is the complete rundown of big winners as we near the end of a truly memorable year: