Domain Industry's Sizzling Summer Continues As Another Six-Figure Sale is Finalized

by Ron Jackson
  

It's possible we could see still another big six-figure sale completed next week (one that would rank among the four biggest sales reported this year). An auction for Invention.com ended at Ebay today (August 23) at $650,300. The price is certainly reasonable in today's market as the seller was earning over $60,000 a year in PPC revenue from the domain. However, the high bidder has a zero feedback rating and legitimate transactions of this size on Ebay are a rarity, to say the least. The seller is legitimate and the price met his reserve, but whether or not there is a real buyer there remains to be seen. 

A lot of very nice sales were completed this week as the market continues to steam through the summer months without skipping a beat. Sedo.com certainly has no complaints. They racked up five entries on the Big Board, including #2 Latest.com at �30,000 ($36,704) and #3 PokerHouse.com at $31,500. Sedo CEO Matthew Bentley told us poker and 3-letter domains were the hot commodities at his venue this week. #6 GPR.com led the latter category there after going for $15,010.

SnapNames.com also did some impressive muscle flexing. They were the only other venue with multiple entries on the chart, scoring with #5 KenoGames.com at $15,263 and #9 VacationAlaska.com at $12,750. 

StatePolice.com locked up the last spot in the first five. Seller David Myre sent the #4 domain to Florida's Reflex Publishing for $25,000 in a private transaction. It was a banner week for .com as the Godfather of Global TLD's took all but one spot on our new leader board. Only Sedo's $14,681 sale of a Swedish country code domain, #8 TexasHoldem.se, prevented a .com sweep. Let's take a look at the complete Top Ten for the week ending August 21, then we'll tell you about dozens of other sales that are sure to make your mouth water.

Afternic.com and GreatDomains both took home Top Ten trophies this week. Afternic did it with #7 Proteins.com at an even $15,000 while GreatDomains scored with Caught.com at $12,500. That domain tied for 10th with Sedo's PokerLoco.com. GreatDomains also had a nice .tv sale, tuning in $5,000 for Beaches.tv.

SnapNames supplemented their pair of Big Board entries with a long list of winners headed by NetCommerce.com at $9,900. A couple of one-word .nets also did well, Vacancy.net at $9,500 and Scriptures.net at $3,138. Aside from those, .com did the heavy lifting with domains like EstateProbate.com ($8,097), Phonographs.com ($7,877) and Fotball.com ($7,200). Just a step back were PureInvestor.com at $6,900, Mayville.com at $6,100 and Lebensversicherungen.com ("life assurance" in German) at $6,000.  

The hits just kept on coming at SnapNames with NewJerseyLaw.com confiscating $5,544 while BillyTheKid.com rode off with $5,099 and LeaseProperty.com collected $4,898. MrRealEstate.com landed $4,850, Mouthfull.com spit out $4,700 and PromoVacance.com ("package vacations" in French) relaxed with $4,444. StaffingCompany.com paid $4,256, GoldCrest.com earned $3,888 and InsuranceAttorney.com billed $3,855. Etiketten.com ("etiquette" in German) politely posted $3,550, BCSI.com went for $3,501 and OldWorldMaps.com located $3,499. 

SnapNames also soaked up $3,488 in CosmicRays.com, booked $3,476 for HotelPhoenix.com and unpacked $3,000 from Karton.com. KidPhotography.com snapped $2,950, while ColoradoBedAndBreakfasts.com ($2,888) and LasVegasBettingLines.com ($2,877) beat the odds against 4-word domains. AnimeKai.com was next at $2,650, followed by two pairs; HotelReno.com and CourtyardHotel.com at $2,600 each, then NMHA.com and FreeIndia.com at $2,276 apiece. AmericanBilliards.com pocketed $2,274 while Torisukoshiro.com (Japanese animator) drew $2,150. CreditChargeCard.com and Actually.com attacted $2,050 each and Waffen.com went for $2,000. .Org even got into the act with Moses.org commanding $2,000.

Sedo seasoned their greenback salad with some nice country code sales including Flirt.se at �5,000 ($6,177), Havaianas.co.uk (a popular brand of sandals) at �2,500 ($4,504), BracesOnline.de at �3,500 ($4,282) and VTC.de at �3,400 ($4,160). 3-letter .coms were also popular as always with BNU.com going for �4,500 ($5,506), IBZ.com for $3,000 and MZH.com for $2,850. PuzzleWorld.com put together another $5,000.

Back at Afternic, SexyCams.com caught $5,500, DowntownTV.com showed $3,900 and SalesTaxes.com levied $3,388. EstimatedTaxes.com tacked on $3,200, Overcoats.com buttoned up $3,000 and EyeFidelity.com spotted $2,700. Refinish.net polished off another $2,288.

In private sales, Operating.com sewed up $5,000 and Joe Farber banked $2,500 for StateGov.com. John Demayo paid $2,100 each for EasyCarLoan.com and EasyCarLoans.com and RADiSTAR received $2,000 for JMM.net.

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Photographer.com was the only domain to top the current $40,000 entry level required for a spot on our Year To Date Best Sellers list. That domain settles in at #14. Here is a look at the complete 2005 leader board: 

New TLD Section

For the second week in a row, .Info ruled the roost in the new extension hen house, easily taking four of the top five spots on our New TLD chart including #1 Prospectus.info at �1,500 ($1,835). That was one of five sales Sedo placed on the new list. #2 Beagle.info was another at $1,550. 

.US kept .info from sweeping the first five positions, with my $1,500 sale of #3 MCC.us doing the honors. FunKen Lin of Buy.name accounted for another four-figure sale with his $1,000 purchase of Mercury.info from Hennie Groot Lipman. .Info's hot streak continued with #5 Italienreisen.info ("Italian travel" in German) going for �650 ($795) at Sedo.

.Biz turned up in the next two spots, with Solo.biz landing at $500 and Matisse.biz drawing �400 ($489). Here is a look at the complete new extension list for the week ending August 21:

Another 3-letter domain, MRX.us, anchored this week's list after going for $450 in a private sale. None of this week's sales were high enough to earn a place on our New TLD Year-To-Date Top 50. It currently takes over $2,400 to make the list. Here are 2005's highest reported new extension sales through August 21:

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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