Lofty Domain Sale Extends Six-Figure Streak to Five Straight Weeks

by Ron Jackson
  

Sedo.com accounted for a half-dozen of those marquee sales, including three that ranked among the top five on our leader board. Their flagbearer was a superb British country code domain, WebDesign.co.uk, that went for �37,756  ($45,767) to claim the #2 position. They also scored with an unusually high .org sale, #4 GraceWorks.org, at $25,000. The common wisdom has always been that religious domains have limited resale value as most potential buyers are non-profit organizations with tight budgets. Lutheran Social Services of Mid-America, based in Centerville, Ohio, may change a few of those assumptions after stepping up to buy this domain as the new home for their GraceWorks Ministries web site. Sedo's dominance of the first five continued with #5 LegacyAuto.com at $20,000 and they notched a fourth entry on the Big Board with another .co.uk heavyweight, #10 Subscriptions.co.uk at �7,000 ($12,592).

Moniker.com/DomainSystems.com and SnapNames.com each posted a pair of Top Ten winners. Moniker muscled in with #3 Versatile.com at $30,715 and backed it up with #7 ViewpointBank.com at $18,015. SnapNames snared back to back trophies with #8 Flowchart.com at $15,250 and #9 GourmetBasket.com at $15,000. SnapNames also had two of the four 5-figure sales that fell just short of the chart, with Sedo accounting for the other two. We'll run down those and a truck load of other transactions, including a half-dozen four-figure new extension sales, but first let's take a look at the complete leader board for the week ending Sunday, Sept. 18:

Pool.com accounted for the lone chart entry we didn't note earlier, soaring into the stratosphere with #6 ScienceMuseum.com at $18,277. SnapNames and Sedo shared a quartet of five-figure sales just off the Big Board. SnapNames bagged ShoppingDeals.com at $12,549 and Memoria.com at $10,001 while Sedo marched off with Mick.com at $12,500 and MaxPrice.com at $10,000.

Sedo had a cartful of country code winners as well. DirectEnergy.co.uk plugged in �6,750 ($8,181), iMesh.de deposited �5,700 ($6,910) and UHZ.de delivered �5,500 ($6,668). The latter two are German ccTLD's. PoolCover.co.uk rolled up �4,850 ($5,880), FinancialJobs.co.uk paid $4,500 and Evita.it (Italian country code) went for �3,000 ($3,637). Sedo sewed up sales in lesser known ccTLD's as well, including two from Hungary; Hajout.hu and Tengerihajout.hu (both related to cruises) at �2,500 ($3,031) each. Colima.com.mx (Mexican country code) added �550 ($667). Back on the .com front, Hypnose.com ("hypnosis" in German) commanded �5,800 ($7,030), wDating.com wound up at $6,500 and three others; Nanotox.com, HouseShare.com and DigitalImaging.com went for $5,000 each. 672.com at $3,800 and Chainz.com at $3,500 rounded out the Sedo roster, though you'll be hearing more from them in our New TLD section.

The SnapNames sales list seems to grow longer every week as they add exclusive new registrar partners to their team. The fruits of their labor was evident again this time out. SimplyGorgeous.com posted a pretty $6,100, WeddingRoses.com went for $5,999 and ZoomTelevision.com tuned in $5,600. Summer.net also sold for $5,600 while Access.org accounted for $5,000 and Manuals.org added $4,100.  Xolox.com and EquityMortgageLoans.com brought in $5,300 each, ComparingColleges.com cost $4,888, Inmueble.com ("property" or "building" in Spanish) banked $4,750 and LeatherCleaner.com brushed up $4,644. FunJokes.com cracked $4,288, WebCard.com greeted $4,160 and DebtReliefProgram.com dug up $4,088.

Also at SnapNames, $3,700 bounced off BigBootys.com, SexyMama.com made $3,559 and ElectricAutomobiles conserved $3,533. AllCrafts.com and LegalMeds.com sold for $3,400 each while BibleFAQs.com found $3,388 and TravelersGuide.com located $3,333. TVGuideLive.com landed $3,095 and MensMagazines.com maxed at $3,049. SnapNames had another 20 domains in the 2-3K range. Here are the names that had a seat at that table:

Meanwhile back at Pool.com, typo Googlel.com gargled $9,200, CanadaMedicine.com dispensed $7,400 and PhotoExperts.com focused on $4,100. Another typo, Cruies.com sailed with $3,988, ToyFireTrucks.com doused $2,451 and PicturePublisher.com posted $2,400. AutomobileTrailers.com towed $2,238, InsuranceContract.com specified $2,053 and Nokia6600.com dialed up $2,049.

Afternic.com weighed in with a pair of nice 4-letter acronyms, RACA.com at $6,000 and MJCO.com at $5,450. People-Search.com found $5,600, SuperMister.com sold for $5,000 and the 2-character 0v.com brought $3,450. Other notables included Fukui.com ($3,000), CompleteAuto.com ($2,288) and SafeBond.com ($2,000). Afternic also handled a rare four-figure .cc (Cocos Keeling Islands country code) with Adult.cc going for $1,000.

At Enom's Club Drop, XtraCash.com yielded $3,300, WebGeek.com garnered $2,900 and iRegistry.com added $2,800. SportDrinks.com guzzled $2,400, TeenNews.com attracted $2,100 and CellPhoneDiscount.com called in $1,800. Club Drop also had some nice .net sales. Woodstock.net went for $2,500, PMM.net fetched $1,300 and Diner.net served up $1,200.

Moniker/DomainSystems supplemented their two Top Ten entries with ThereIsOnlyOne.com at $9,308. In private transactions, Jon Schwartz sold CakeTV.com for $5,000 and David Sawyer sent PokerBooks.net to Jonathan H at the NamePros.com forum for $2,500. We also got word of two very nice private .org sales but were asked not to disclose the names. We can tell you one was a 3-letter acronym that went for $22,000 and the other was a European country's name that went for $7,500.

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Our Year To Date Top 60 chart gets two new members this week. Lofts.com moved into a four-way tie for the 20th position at $100,000 and WebDesign.co.uk slipped into the last available slot. Here is a look at the complete 2005 leader board through September 18: 

New TLD Section

.Biz twirled back into the spotlight this week, taking the top spot on our New TLD chart with the �1,650 ($1,998) sale of Dance.biz at Sedo. .Biz also took lucky #7 with Cookbooks.biz whipping up �670 ($812), also at Sedo, a venue that racked up five of the eight positions on our new list. 

There were a half-dozen four figure sales this week and .info accounted for four of those to sweep positions two through five. #2 Futebol.info kicked in $1,500 at Afternic while #3 Pattaya.info attracted �1,100 ($1,334) at Sedo. Pattaya is a popular beach resort in Thailand. #4 Manhattan.info continued the romp rolling up $1,300 at Sedo while Fun-Ken Lin of Buy.name bought #5 Artist.info in a private sale for $1,200.

.US entered the fray at #6, also with a four-figure sale. Sunshine.us did the honors, going for $1,000 at Afternic. Here is a look at the complete new extension leader board for the week ending Sept. 18:

Albergo.info ("hotel" in Italian) anchored this week's list after going for �500 ($606) at Sedo. Fun-Ken Lin also bought a couple in that range, acquiring Bookstore.info ($600) and Troy.info ($515) in private sales. I sold IQF.us for $500 at Sedo and someone cut the cheese at Afternic where Cheddar.us., CheddarCheese.us and Brie.us all went to the same buyer for $350 each.

The entry fee for our New TLD Year-To-Date Top 50 chart currently stands at $2,500 so no new members were inducted this week.  Here are 2005's highest reported new extension sales through Sept. 18:

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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