South American Developer Goes on Half-Million Dollar Buying Spree To Trigger a Record Domain Sales Week

by Ron Jackson
  

That's what happened this week when well-known South American domain investor/developer Chris Chena broke open the piggy bank and spent $550,000 on 8 domains including a pair of 6-figure blockbusters that tie for #1 on our new chart at $150,000 each. One of those, Paraguay.com, represents a new prize possession for Chena who spent two years negotiating with the previous owner before finally landing the domain that represents Chena's home country. Chena told us "we will develop a portal targeted to people who want to know more about my country, oriented to tourism and investments (we have beautiful falls, great resorts and the country has a lot of resources to invest in). It is ideal for all kind of business -  remember the strategic location of Paraguay, right in the heart of South America."

Chena said his company will also develop the other 150K domain he purchased this week - CheapGas.com. With oil prices careening out of control worldwide, it's a commodity a lot of people will be searching for. Chena (who will be the subject of DNJournal's July Cover Story) is already known for holding one of the world's greatest portfolios of Spanish keyword .coms and he added to his remarkable collection by acquiring 6 new ones from a single seller this week. All of those landed in our Top Ten including #3 Empleo.com ("job" in Spanish) at $70,000 and #5 Universidad.com ("university" in Spanish) at $45,000.

Chena's haul also included Ventas.com ("sales" in Spanish) and Telefonos.com
("phones" in Spanish) at $40,000 each, Mensajes.com ("messages" in Spanish) at $30,000 and Cartas.com ("cards" in Spanish") at $25,000. Chena told us "as usual, every name is for development purposes. This is doing way better than just parking (especially for Spanish names) as it increases the traffic, and of course, the revenue," he said. 

If Chena had not dominated the chart this week, Sedo.com would have. The popular aftermarket sales venue racked up nine 5-figure sales including #4 DrumSets.com at $50,000 (making seller John DeMayo a very happy Sedo customer). All together there were an unprecedented 23 five-figure sales this week which prompted us to do something we've never done before - expand our Top Ten list to a Top 20! 

Coming at a time when the Internet is supposed to be going through the summer doldrums, the week presented such an impressive display of domain power we wanted to make sure no one overlooked the wide range of names that commanded premium prices. In addition to the usual .coms, you will see high dollar country code sales from Germany, Austria, Italy and Sweden. A bit later on, in our New TLD section, you will also see that new extensions .biz and .info also shared in the bounty. 

When I entered this business (in early 2002) the industry was essentially in a depression. With little clue about what was going on, I kept throwing things at the wall to see if something would stick (not much did). Having seen how far the industry has come in the past three years, I can really appreciate how great it is to be a domainer in the summer of 2005. These days it seems like everything sticks...and honestly, I believe the best is yet to come. Let's take a look at the complete leader board for the week ending June 19, then we'll dig into the greatest sales buffet we've seen since opening the doors here at DNJournal:

With Chena booking nearly all of the rooms in our Top Ten Hotel, Sedo and GreatDomains were the only venues able to find a bunk on our traditional Big Board. GreatDomains did it with PetWorld.com tying for #8 at $30,000. As I noted earlier we doubled the length of this week's list due to all of the domain stars lining up in such a phenomenal manner. The amazing thing is that if you lopped off the first 10 domains, those remaining would still make a great Top Ten list any other week!

Just as Chena dominated the Top Ten, Sedo ruled the Second Ten, taking 7 of 10 positions to shut out everyone except Enom's Club Drop (with two entries) and SnapNames.com (with #14 AnimeMovies.com at $19,138). Sedo's super seven was studded with impressive country code domains, including #11 Bingo.it (Italian ccTLD) at �19,000 ($23,133),  a pair of German ccTLD's; #13 EIS.de at �15,990 ($19,467) and #17 Wellness24.de at �9,500 ($11,566), a Swedish country code domain, #16 Toys.se at �11,000 ($13,392) and an Austrian ccTLD, #18 Fotos.at at �9,000 ($10,957).

Despite running a twin Top Ten this time out, there were still three more 5-figure domains that did not make the chart! At $10,000 each, Afternic.com had DesignerShirts.com while Sedo weighed in with Intos.com and PreschoolGames.com. Sedo's star continued to shine with other extensions, including SkinCare.net at $9,983, Wallpaper.org at �7,000 ($8,522) and 2X.cn (China's country code) at $7,500. They also scored with a pair of .co.uk's; HenParty.co.uk at �4,000 ($7,316) and ArchitectureJobs.co.uk at �5,000 ($6,087). Another German domain, Komdirekt.de also went for �5,000 ($6,087). Back on the .com front at Sedo, Logratis.com brought �5,900 ($7,183), TQM.com commanded $6,500 and GoToPortugal.com went home with �5,000 ($6,087). IVU.com added another $4,900 and Arietta.com (sold by Theo Develegas) fetched �2,000 ($2,435). 

Sedo shocked some people last week with high dollar sales of extensions that have traded for pocket change in the past - .cc and .ws. Prepare to be shocked again. This week Sedo sold Austria.cc for �5,000 ($6,087) and Webcam.ws for $1,300 (last week they sold the plural - Webcams.ws for �2,300) . Austria.cc is the highest .cc sale ever reported to us. The extension is the country code for the Cocos (Keeling) Islands but it is available for worldwide registration. .Ws is the country code for Western Samoa but is also available for worldwide registration and an American company has been marketing it as meaning "website" for several years. 

At SnapNames, .coms continued to rule the roost. Netfinder.com went for $6,989, Hairpins.com secured $5,613 and ParkSmart.com put $5,111 in the meter. SportScores.com tallied $4,988, Ad1.com kicked in $4,550 and AreaJobs.com paid $4,196. LegalShop.com billed $3,600 while WellConnected.com and SouthernCaliforniaCondominiums.com attracted $3,500 each. Other notables included Clubbed.com ($3,411), InflatablePool.com ($2,961) and Reporte.com ($2,080). 

.Com also held sway at Pool.com where WholesalePurses.com bagged $6,266, AlternativeHousing.com added $4,000 and SanFranciscoSpas.com administered a $3,988 massage. ManagementStrategy.com struck $3,350, HollywoodCondominiums.com provided a home for $3,100 and BegleitAgentur.com contributed $2,451. GlobalTerror.com scared up $2,450, ExtremeSnowboard.com put $2,045 on ice and BeyBlades.com skated off with $2,000. In the Marketplace at Pool, TYD.com found at buyer at $2,400.

At Afternic $4,488 flowed from TheStream.com, OrganicOils.com rubbed $4,200 on the sales sheet and KrisKristofferson.com took a $4,000 bow. TheNaturalDrugStore.com prescribed $3,000 and Surplus.org salvaged $2,100. Another trio of domains; Robot-Automation.com, Froogy.com and 2BeSure.com went for $2,000 each.

Back at Enom, Club Drop got $4,200 for catching Dreamcast.com. InsuranceAutoAuctions.com got bid up to $2,300, Cassava.com called in $1,600 and Professors.net graded out at $1,400. Elsewhere, in a private transaction, Greg White of HealthStatus.com let us know that his company bought HRA.net for $5,750. Their primary business involves Health Risk Assessments so the acronym was a perfect fit, giving them an easy redirect to their B2B site at HealthStatus.net.

****

The New TLD report is coming right up, but first lets check out all of the changes on our Year-To-Date chart. Nine new members come on board this week led by that pair or $150,000 domains acquired by Chris Chena. Those rank among the five biggest reported sales of 2005. Our entry level jumps to $30,000 this week to make way for all of the newcomers. Here are the biggest winners reported so far this year:

New TLD Section

For the third week in a row, .biz heads our new extension sales chart. This week's leader is a real beauty, Marketing.biz, which went for �3,900 ($4,748) at Sedo. .Biz is enjoying a breakout year and it doesn't look like it is going to end any time soon. I had dinner with Afternic's Michael Collins Friday night and he told me they currently have a $5,000 .biz in escrow. I also have a report that a $15,000 private sale of a one-word .biz has been completed. However, I am waiting for the seller to provide documentation of the price paid before putting that one in the ledger. 

.Info still has more charted sales than .biz this year and that extension racked up three more in four figures this week, including #2 Tunis.info at $3,250 and third ranked 123.info at �1,800 ($2,192). #4 Vers.info added another �1,250 ($1,522). All four of the top sales were made at Sedo and they had 6 of the 8 chart entries. Pool took the other two with a pair of .biz domains that were auctioned after the drop.

Here's a look at the complete new extension leader board for the week ending June 19: 

Jixy.info opened the second half of the chart after going for $609 at Sedo where V4U.info also went for $426. The two Pool entries, Corporations.biz ($553) and Calendar.biz ($450) were sandwiched in between those two .infos. Pool also sold Beyonce.us for $365 and Merchants.biz for $300. Sedo sold DomainHosting.info for �325 ($396) and Esteban.info went for $350 in a private sale.

Our New TLD Year-To-Date chart gets three new members this week, led by Marketing.biz whch settles in at #12 after going for $4,748. We bumped our entry level up to $1,950 this week which gives us a Top 50 chart at this point in 2005. Here are your New TLD leaders through June 19:

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.

Copyright 2005 � DNJournal.com 
A Division of Internet Edge, Inc.
(copying of any material from this site without written consent is strictly prohibited)