$155,000 Sale of Porker.com Fattens Up The Bottom Line at Sedo

by Ron Jackson
  

At the same time industry experts, investors and interested observers were willing to foot the bill for trips to Las Vegas and Seattle, buyers were busy continuing to push the market to new heights. Last week we saw Innovations.com change hands for six figures in one of the biggest sales of the year. This week, we saw one go for almost 50% more, the appropriately named Porker.com which commanded a whopping $155,000 at Sedo.com. That ranks as the 3rd biggest sale of 2005. Porker.com (317 with the extension in Overture) will get a lot of high value traffic from people misspelling Poker.com. The big question is how long it will take to get back the 155K. Sedo also kept the string of eye-popping 3-letter .com sales alive this week by moving #2 GLU.com for $75,000! Overall, Sedo had four entries on our new Top Ten chart and every domain on the Big Board cracked at least five figures.

In a nice private pickup, Chad Wright of Webquest.com acquired #3 Quilting.com for $55,000. That domain scores 653 with the extension in Overture. SnapNames.com hit the Daily Double this week with #4 Vast.com at $25,805 and #8 Etcetera.com at $18,350. A tie for fifth completed the top half of our new list with still another 3-letter .com, DSO.com, going for $20,000 at ZestyDomains.com and FishSupplies.com attracting the same price at Afternic.com. 

At �15,000 ($18,462), the lucky #7 domain, MI5.com (sold at Sedo), might surprise people who aren't from the UK. 3-character .coms (mixing letters and numbers) usually command far more modest prices than 3-letter .coms, unless they have a special meaning (like MP3.com) or some existing traffic. MI5.com scores zero in Overture with the extension so traffic may be limited but all Brits are familiar with the MI5 which is the country's Security Service. The official government website is at MI5.gov.uk.

There are many more excellent sales to tell you about, including half a dozen four-figure New TLD sales. But before we get to that, let's take a look at the complete Top Ten for the week ending May 29:

Enom's Club Drop anchored this week's chart with InkSpot.com blotting up $11,300. The last member of Sedo's quartet of Top Ten domains, Spyware.de, was a notch higher at �11,000 ($13,539). That German country code domain was also the only non-.com on this week's Big Board. Sedo also had the one five-figure domain that did not reach the Top Ten. That was Poker7.com which raked in an even $10,000. 

Those high profile sales were just the start of a long winner's list at Sedo. Their other .com leaders included X8.com at �7,753 ($9,541), RV-Lifts.com and GlobalOdds.com at $5,000 each and a name that would be the downfall of many a spelling bee champion, AnkylosingSpondylitis.com at �4,000 ($4,922). Ankylosing spondylitis is a medical condition sometimes referred to as AS. Sedo also sold PosterLounge.com for $4,000 and someone picked up one of the week's better bargains there, eTourist.com, for just $1,300.

Of course any Sedo list is going to be studded with country code stars. This time out those included Geschlossene-fonds.de ("closed investment fund" in German) at �7,000 ($8,614), 2X.cn (China's country code) at $7,500 and Langlauf.de ("cross country skiing" in German) at �4,500 ($5,538). LocalJobSearch.co.uk added another �2,500 ($4,544) while MediaShop.ch (Switzerland's country code) and CTD.de brought in �3,500 ($4,307) each. Another 3-letter domain, KIM.in (Indian country code) went for �1,600 ($1,969) while Washington.se (Swedish country code) attracted �1,200 ($1,477). Sedo also had half a dozen four-figure new extension sales as you will see in our New TLD section a little later on.

Pool.com also had a long winner's list this week including JDD.com which went for $7,600 on the Marketplace section of their site. In an anomaly, the top two from their expired domain auctions were both .nets. ePoker.net drew $7,100 while eCasino.net rolled $6,600.  CodingCourses.com cracked $5,200, FashionPages.com turned heads at $3,200 and MoviePages.com was right behind at $3,150. MyFreePornSite.com cost $3,100 as did two others; MusicSoundtracks.com and HealthPages.com. ChildrensDresses.com went for $3,000, followed by a pair at $2,600 each; MaclarenStrollers.com and LondonHeathrowAirport.com.

Others found floating in the Pool included RealEstateUnlimited.com at $2,500 and  VegasAttractions.com at $2,407. CalgaryRestaurants.com served up $2,355, Aphid.com added $2,273 and coming in at $2,050 each were  iWagers.com and CarBank.com. CursosDeIngles.com ("English courses" in Spanish) translated into $2,005 and the high traffic misspell Mysspace.com (1550 with the extension in Overture) commanded $2,001. CigaretteCases.com added $2,000 while Hemeroteca.com and CelebrityPages.com  brought $1,850 each. MediaOutlets.com plugged in $1,800, ElectricCycles.com and AutoAccesories.com (misspell) attracted $1,728 each and LabiaSurgery.com sewed up $1,683.

In addition to their pair of Top Ten domains, SnapNames got $6,248 for Escapades.com and $5,100 each for Ohno.com, HWO.com and BrownRound.com. CollegeOfNursing.com provided a $4,600 cure while PhysicianDirectory.com and ForeclosureData.com each added $4,500. JobOffer.com paid a $4,305 bonus followed by CheapBedding.com at $4,140 and DirectSelling.com at $2,845. Other notables included KBMT.com ($2,350), DentalTools.com ($2,180), MarketingHelp.com ($1,850) and Rifleman.com ($1,770). A 3-letter .com from the discount rack, RZH.com, went for $1,750 and TravelData.com fetched $1,650. 

Back at Afternic, the Collins brothers put in some overtime on the adding machine to tote up all of their closed auctions. X360.com snared $5,000, MagicKey.com turned $4,888 and QCU.org called in $4,450. Ilmulino.com netted $4,000, Elimadebt.com erased $3,500 and two others brought $3,000 each; FXAlerts.com and CasinoChina.com. Other goodies in the Afternic basket included ITVGuide.com ($2,788), MovieMusics.com ($2,500), FindWealth.com ($2,300), InternetShield.com ($2,288) and In-Stream.com ($2,000). 

At Enom's Club Drop, WhileYouWereOut.com returned with $4,400, VarietySearch.com found $2,000 and MedsByPhone.com dialed up $1,700. In a private transaction, Ira Zoot of DigitalEstates.com picked up $2,000 for CollegiateOutfitters.com.

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Our Year-To-Date chart gets four new members this week including Porker.com, a domain that charges into the top 3 after going for over $150,000. We bumped our entry level up to $21,000 this week to make way for the richer newcomers. Here are the biggest winners reported so far this year:

New TLD Section

It was hot time in New TLD town this week with half a dozen domains hitting four figures. All of those sold at Sedo who practically has a monopoly on the new extension market (just as they do with country code domains). .Info rolled up 4 of those 6 high ticket sales with .biz and .us getting one each. The leader, Broker.info, sold for a sweet $5,000, landing it among the year's Top Ten New TLD sales. 

.Biz nailed down the #2 slot with Antispam.biz putting �2,000 ($2,461) in quarantine. A pair of nice 3-letter .infos followed; BRE.info at �1,500 ($1,846) and ERE.info at �1,400 ($1,723). #5 Digitalis.info followed at �1,111 ($1,367) with Webcams.us claiming the final four figure sale at an even $1,000. Here's a look at the complete new extension leader board for the week ending May 29: 

The final sale reported to us this week was Robert Schultz's $500 sale of ModChip.biz. The #8 position was left vacant. Incidentally with .info and .biz approaching their 4th birthdays this fall and .us now toddling steadily along at age 3, we are considering retiring the "new" extension label and letting these youngsters leave the nest. 

The rising importance of country code domains has us thinking about adding a new ccTLD Chart which would be the new home for .us.  .Info and .biz might go to a new Global TLD "Contenders" Chart to fight .net and .org head to head. .Com already has the lion's share of the mainstream Top Ten but we might also consider a separate .com chart (though our concern is that it might be be too repetitive of the mainstream chart where .com already rules). We're are going to kick some ideas around for a few weeks before making a final decision. If you would like to add your input feel free to drop me a note at [email protected]. 

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Our New TLD Year-To-Date chart gets three new members this week, led by Broker.info. We have also bumped the entry level up to $1,800 to make way for the newcomers. Here are 2005's new TLD leaders through May 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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