Trio of Misspelled Domains Goes for Over $200,000 To Lead Another Blockbuster Sales Week

by Ron Jackson
  

For those who have been reading this column for some time, don't let the headline fool you. You haven't accidentally stumbled into our Archive, though you might have a feeling of deja vu since a trio of misspelled domains sold for big money last spring to lead one of our reports. In fact, this is the same trio of domains that sold for $80,000 in April 2004. To show you how much the market has improved in less than a year, the three domains sold this time for $204,000! That breaks down to $68,000 each for Downlaod.com, Donwload.com and Dawnload.com. This is also a prime example of the dramatically higher value being placed on traffic today. 

Paraguay's Chris Chena is the guy who bought those domains last year and was able to turn them over for such a handsome profit. Another veteran domainer, Australian Matthew Prince (known as Tigga on the various domain forums) is the new owner. He gets a heavy flow of traffic for the eye-popping price he paid. Downlaod.com scores 2,134 in Overture with the extension, Donwload.com returns 965 and Dawnload.com posts a 437. Those three domains share the top spot on the Big Board this week and there is another interesting story right behind them.

That comes from Sedo.com where Free-Games.to sold for $55,000. Though it is a nice term, a hyphenated country code domain from Tonga obviously has to have something very special going for it to sell for that kind of money. This one does. The site has been online for years and has accumulated over a quarter of a million links that produce an enormous flow of traffic. Still, the original owner made little attempt to monetize that traffic (it has only a single Google Adsense ad on an inside page). We assume the new owners will change that to recoup their investment. We debated about whether or not to include this domain on our charts because they are meant to reflect domain value and not the value of an ongoing business. In this case we decided the domain was more similar to highly valued expired domains (with traffic from prior use) than to a business selling goods and services. 

That domain was one of three Top Ten entries for Sedo. They also scored with #5 Pasion.com ("passion in Spanish) at $39,552 and #7 DataNova.com at $30,000. Afternic.com also had multiple winners this week with #8 Gloto.com at $22,000 and #9 GrandBahamas.com at $20,000. There are many more tasty treats on and under the mainstream chart, including five 4-figure sales on our New TLD chart.  Let's start with a look at the complete Top Ten for the week ending Sunday, Feb. 27:

As you can see above, GreatDomains was back again this week with #6 Gather.com at $32,500.  SnapNames.com anchored the chart with Ibex.com at $15,300. There were five more 5-figure sales that missed making the Big Board this week. Prior to the past month, that rarely happened. SnapNames had one of those, TeenProm.com at $15,100. Sedo hit the two more times with WebTip.com at �9,100 ($11,997) and YIP.com at $10,000. A .co.uk accounted for another one with Unity Bank PLC paying �5,750 ($11,045) for Unity.co.uk in a private transaction with seller Robert Taylor. Pool.com was also on the elite list with the highest uncharted sale of the week, Akia.com at $15,500. 

Pool also scored with GayPass.com at $8,000 and Ativan.com at $6,000. Others from that venue included MySecen.com (a high traffic misspelling that returns 1,292 with the extension in Overture) at $2,100, Vinicola.com at $1,651 and EarthBrands.com at $1,500.

Sedo's quintet of 5-figure sales was just the start of another big week there. They also sold MagneticBracelets.com for �6,000 ($7,909), SaveOnCrafts.com at �5,000 ($6,591) and USGovernmentJobs.com at �4,990 ($6,578). LowPriceHotels.com checked in with �4,800 ($6,327), DesignerOutlets.com drew $6,000 and Bioscientia.com added $5,000. In other extensions, DSL-Forum.de (German country code) attracted �5,000 ($6,591) and ShopOnline.net sold for �4,500 ($5,932).

Afternic had a truckload of nice sales in the same range. OnCapital.com returned $6,000 and RedHotCasino.com paid $5,500. TeraNet.com and Vistor.com went for $5,000 each while PS4.com and TWF.com sold for $4,000 each. Printwear.com added $3,500 and Modems.net dialed up another $3,000.

The SnapNames sales list was equally strong with Zydeco.com whistling up $5,600 and Cioccolato.com ("chocolate" in Italian) adding a sweet $5,548. PersonalPhotos.com snapped up $3,722, VideoGameForum.com contributed $3,598 and EasyFinance.com kicked in $3,020. They also sold a nice misspell - AdditcingGames.com (494 with the extension in Overture) for $4,655.

At Enom's Club Drop, MySceene.com (another high traffic misspelling scoring 1,119 with the extension in Overture) went for $3,200. RxOrderSys.com added $2,000, Ipen.com drew $1,700 and Celcius.com warmed up the bottom line with $1,500. 

Things were hopping at Ian Andrew's DotcomAgency.com as well. MediaTraffic.com went for $2,500, BuyOfficeFurniture.com sold for $2,340 and RugbyBetting.com returned $2,320. WholesaleMakeup.com and RealEstatePrice.com brought in $2,240 each and GrumpyOldFart.com passed $1,200 worth of gas.

There was plenty of action away from the major sales venues as well. Mike Ambrose of DomainHighway.com acquired PhoneServices.com for $5,000 in a private transaction. Rob Sequin continues to do well with blog domains at BlogDomainsForSale.com. GayBlog.com went for $3,100 this week and BondageBlog.com roped in another $1,300. Mike Gillman of GlobalBillboards.com sold SuburbanProperty.com to Chicago area realtor Jim Nelson for $2,000 and Trader.org changed hands for $1,500 in a private transaction.

It was such a strong week there was even action in country codes we don't usually hear much from. Domain forum regular Wot sold WhoIs.co.in for $2,500 and Hotel.io (British Indian Ocean Territory extension) went for �1,250 ($1,647). Ranking.ws attracted $1,300 (.ws is the Samoa country code that a private U.S. company markets to mean "website"). In another one, Tickets.la (Laos country code) sold for $800. The .io, .ws and .la sales were all made at Sedo. 

In the Pipeline: An Ebay auction for WhatIsMyIP.com ended at $386,100 Feb. 22. The domain has enormous traffic but with Ebay the legitimacy of sales at this level is always suspect, especially when the bidders are all private (as was the case here). The domain hasn't changed hands and we won't hold our breath on that one. One that likely will be completed is the $18,750 sale of GameStore.com at SnapNames.com. The buyer is expected to wire funds this week.

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Big ticket sales are running well ahead of last year's pace so to keep our Year-To-Date manageable we are raising the entry level from $10,000 to $12,000 this week. Even with that higher standard we get 12 new entries this time out. Here is how they stack up after two months of sales in 2005:

New TLD Section

The domain business was clicking on all cylinders this week. The new extensions shared in the bounty with five nice 4-figure sales. As usual, Sedo.com was the dominant venue, taking 5 of the 8 positions on our New TLD chart, including #1 Attest.info at �2,700 ($3,559). .Info had four chart entries with .biz and .us landing two each. At the 4-figure level the spoils were fairly evenly divided with .info and .biz getting two each and .us taking the other - #2 domain Volcano.us at $1,652. That domain was sold at Stuart Smith's new .us information and sales venue at www.Dot.us.

.Biz claimed the #3 and #4 positions with Konzerte.biz ("concerts" in German) going for �1,200 ($1,582) and Conveyancing.biz selling for �1,000 ($1,318). UKSecurityDirectory.info completed the quintet of four-figure sales going for an even $1,000 at Sedo. Here's a look at the complete New TLD leader's list for the week ending Feb. 27:

Kabarett.info ("cabaret" in German) was Sedo's 5th entry on the chart at $692.  Penny-Stocks.us and BuyHomes.info sold for $500 each to anchor the chart. BuyHomes.info sold at TheNameStore.com. That venue also sold PropertyValues.info for $400.

Our Year-To-Date New TLD best sellers list gets five new entries this week. .Info holds a 17-14 edge over .biz in the number of sales of $1,000 and up in 2005.  Here is how they stack up through Feb. 27:

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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