6-Figure .Com And Highest .US Sale Reported To Date Head New DNJournal Top Ten

by Ron Jackson
  

Our Big Board leader is a behemoth - Innovations.com - which went for a whopping $108,000 in an auction at Pool.com. That ranks as the 6th best sale reported so far this year. Fans of America's country code are also breaking out the champagne after seeing VOIP.us change hands for $25,000 - the highest price ever reported for a .US domain. Buyer John Gotts of PCSafe.com said that even though the acronym is commonly associated with "Voice Over IP" he thinks "Video Over IP" could be even more important. Gotts bought the domain from Rob Sequin's AllNetServices.com. 

Sedo.com stepped up after the top two and racked up the next four positions in a row led by #3 Hirst.org at $24,000. That is the second highest .org sale reported this year (behind only Lottery.org which sold for $66,667, also at Sedo). A 3-letter .de (German country code), MEO.de gave Sedo the 5th slot after going for �13,920 ($17,496). That domain was sandwiched in between a pair of solid .coms, #4 BioSensors.com at $17,500 and #6 BBLaw.com at �13,000 ($16,339).

Afternic.com hit the daily double with #7 SearchMe.com finding $15,000 and #8 IToldYouSo.com commanding and even 15K. Every domain on this week's chart hit five (or more) figures. Here's a look at the complete Top Ten for the week ending May 22:

A high-traffic misspelling of switchboard, Swithboard.com, was #9 after going for $12,100 at Enom's Club Drop. That domain scores 2,282 with the extension in Overture. Ken Cunliffe of TopNames.com acquired a superb 3-letter .com for just $10,200 in a bankruptcy proceeding to anchor our new chart. Domains with 3 premium letters like this one (ECS.com) have sold for as much as $145,000 in the past 12 months. Another five-figure sale fell just short of making our new list. That was WellnessWarehouse.com which went for $10,000 at DotcomDepot.com.

As always, the action was hot and heavy under the Big Board. SnapNames.com accounted for one large block of sales that included a five-letter acronym, AIPAC.com at $8,900. It was bought by the owners of AIPAC.org. Cosmopolis.com brought $6,201, GlobalGroup.com gathered $6,100 and PaperBliss.com contributed $5,100. SnapNames also scored with Personnals.com (a misspell) at $4,400, CareerResources.com at $4,248 and LooseDiamond.com at $4,100. VisitToronto.com pitched in with another $2,550 and Bazaar.org added $1,119.

Afternic had a very strong week. In addition to their pair of Top ten entries, their collection plate included $9,900 from eBible.com. HotBlondes.com spiced things up with $6,900 while MyPodcast.com drew $5,556. A four-letter acronym, AMPF.com, soared to $5,450 and HotAsses.com cracked $4,900.

Sedo also had a scintillating sales sheet. Someone coughed up $8,000 for InsaneClips.com and ChillOut.co.uk added a cool �4,000 ($7,309). Zazo.com kicked in another �5,500 ($6,913), SuchMaschine.net ("search engine" in German) pulled �4,800 ($6,034) and PS3Games.com chipped in an even $5,000. Sedo even scored with a pair of extensions that rarely show up on sales lists. Poker.md (country code for Moldova) collected a $2,000 pot and Kreuzfahrten.name ("cruises" in German) docked with $1,257 on board.

Back at Enom's Club Drop, BedavaMP3.com downloaded $6,100, AffiliateRevenue.com shared $4,000 and BloodPressureMonitor.com posted $3,400. IndianDreamGirls.com enticed $3,200, CruisesNMore.com sailed in with $2,600 and another pair sold for $2,500 each; TireRepair.com and Punkaim.com. Club Drop also picked up $1,900 for FlashZone.com. In a private transaction, Don Marks acquired MichiganHouses.com for $5,000. 

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The entry level for our Year-To-Date chart rises to $20,000 this week but we still got three new members headed by Innovations.com which lands among the top half-dozen sales of 2005. Here are the biggest winners reported so far this year:

New TLD Section

Last week we talked about how .info had been flexing its muscles in the second quarter of 2005, but this week it was .US that landed a real knockout punch. You've already read about the $25,000 sale of VOIP.us in the mainstream section of our report, but as the highest .US sale reported to date that one could stand a little repetition (in fact I'm sure sellers will be telling prospective buyers about it for months to come!) .US now has three of the top four new extension sales this year. You can review all of those on our Year to Date chart a bit further down.

.Biz and .Info tied for #2 this week after a pair of $1,500 sales. Kane.biz changed hands at Afternic and Rafting.info was sold by AdoptableDomains.com. .Biz has some room to boast this week after taking half of the 8 positions on our New TLD list. Though .info locked up #4 with Car-Insurance.info at �670 ($842), .biz finished with a bang, taking 3 of the last 4 spots, including #5 CIP.biz at �600 ($754). Sedo accounted for the latter two sales as well as two others on this week's chart.

Here's a look at the complete new extension leader board for the week ending May 22: 

I sold Athena.us for $650 to give the American country code another chart entry this week. Sedo moved a pair of .biz domains to anchor the list, including a four-letter acronym, HSFI.biz for $500. HSFI is a popular modem chipset.

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Our New TLD Year-To-Date chart gets just one new member this week, but at $25,000 this one immediately takes over as Chairman of the Board. That is VOIP.us of course - our new 2005 (and all-time) .US reported sales leader. It currently takes at least $1,600 to make this chart. Here are 2005's biggest new extension winners through May 22:

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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