Big Sales Keep The Market Hopping As Domain Business Heads Down the Home Stretch for 2005

by Ron Jackson
  

Bachelor.com and its .net and .org siblings created a bit of a quandary for us in terms of charting the sale. We normally only list domains individually. If a sale involves more than one domain and there is no line item breakdown of the prices paid for each (as was the case with the Bachelor set) we usually divide the purchase price by the number of domains and assign an equal value to each domain, assuming they appear to be of roughly equal value. In this case with the .com clearly far more valuable than the .net and .org it would make no sense to do that, so we are making an exception and listing the package, a road we will rarely go down. 

One of the problems is whether it is fair for a package to chart higher than an individual domain that might have topped the highest valued domain in the package. For example this week, Sedo.com had a very strong $85,000 sale of 123World.com which ranks #2 behind the Bachelor.com set.  We think it is fair to assume that Bachelor.com represented at least $100,000 of the value in its package, so there is probably no injustice in this instance, but you can see why we do not want to muddy the waters by including package deals on our charts unless the circumstances are extraordinary (as they are here where it involves a six-figure sale).

Matters are much more clear cut with the rest of our new Top Ten. The Moniker.com/T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East partnership produced four entries on the Big Board (with more to come next week as additional transactions close). Another of their winners was #3 SoapOperas.com, a very nice buy at $55,000. Sedo continued to trade punches in the heavyweight division with #4 PriceDrive.com going for $30,000. Afternic.com completed the top half of the chart with #5 Stardust.com sprinkling $25,555 on their ledger.

SnapNames.com joined Sedo and Moniker among the venues with multiple sales on the leader board. SnapNames did it with back to back entries featuring #7 MyPremiereCreditCard.com at $20,000 and #8 LasVegasCoupons.com at $13,600. Let's take a look at the complete chart for the week ending October 30, then we'll run down dozens of additional key sales for you and tell you about a .info resurgence in our New TLD section.

This week's list was rounded out with the $25,000 sale of #6 DigitalImaging.com at VarChar.com and two more sales from the Moniker/T.R.A.F.F.I.C. auction that anchored the board; #9 LMT.com at $11,000 and #10 CharterTrips.com at $10,500. By the way, Moniker CEO Monte Cahn tells me they are wrapping up a huge deal for Medicine.org at $80,000! We'll have the details on that for you as soon as it is finalized.

SnapNames has another five-figure sale just off the chart, Tippit.com at an even $10,000. As usual, the SnapNames roster was studded with .com, .net and .org stars. GrowthChart.com topped out at $8,688, NinePlanets.com settled into an $8,600 orbit and Trabajo.net ("work" in Spanish) clocked out with $8,220. CNS.org brought $5,988 and Rob Sequin paid $5,560 for VisitHavana.com, a domain he will use to promote his HavanaJournal.com. 

Also at SnapNames, CommodityMarkets.com commanded $5,500, Texla.com landed $5,100 and PetDrug.com drew $4,870. CellBattery.com drained $4,450, CanadaWeb.com connected for $4,400 and DeepThroat.net uncovered another $4,211. Another 20 domains fell in the $2,000-$4,000 range. You can check those out in this chart:

Afternic enjoyed a very busy week as well. DirectEdge.com carved out $8,000, 4DK.com delivered $5,500 and StrangeNews.com reported $3,499. AlNahar.com added $2,900, SwiftRecovery.com found a $2,500 cure and Suez.org gathered $2,400. MDFinancial.com and Sites2Go.com went with $2,288 each and Hydroponic.net grew to $2,095. Afternic also had a quartet at $2,000 each; LosAngelesWedding.com, Italcar.com, Go411.com and Congratulate.com. In more esoteric extensions, Executive.pro secured $588 and Florist.cc sent a $400 bouquet.

Sedo sold the highest .com.cn we've seen to date with Yisou.com.cn climbing to $7,105. Their other country code winners included WVM.de at �5,000 ($6,010) and CarJet.de at �4,000 ($4,808). Curriculum-Vitae.com booked �5,490 ($6,599) and GamesPlanet.com scored $4,999. On the less traveled roads, National-Lottery.uk.com (a CentralNic sub-domain) cashed a $300 ticket and Madrid.ws wound up at $290.

At DotcomAgency.com EstrogenCream.com rubbed out $5,000, EquipHotel.com welcomed $4,800 and PlanTrack.com plucked $4,000. BestGraduates.com earned $3,595 and CollectorsClassifieds.com called in $2,500. 

Those four Moniker/T.R.A.F.F.I.C. auction domains in our Top Ten weren't the only ones that closed this week. CreditHistoryCheck.com found $6,500 and OfficeWork.com tallied $4,500. At Enom's Club Drop, Domaina.com sold for $3,400, DaddysGirls.com attracted $2,400, Feeling.net fetched $1,700 and CorrectGrammar.com coaxed $1,600. At Pool.com, JuiceClub.com squeezed out $2,250, Literotcia.com (typo) tacked on $2,050 and Occupation.net worked up $1,850.

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Our Year To Date Top 60 club gets three new members this week. Bachelor.com (and his .net and .org roommates) gets a new pad in the upper third of the chart, with 123World.com and SoapOperas.com also taking up residence. Here is a look at the 2005 YTD leader board through Oct. 30: 

New TLD Section

After turning the heat up on the .US name space for the past few weeks, the Ohio food company that has been pouring money into the American ccTLD went underground, opening the door for .info to regain control of our new extension chart. The food company is still out there making new purchases but has decided to keep their deals as quiet as possible in an effort to relieve some of the upward pressure on prices. Their own buying binge is making it more expensive for them to acquire the missing pieces for their food industry model.

.Info took advantage of the opening to sweep six of the eight positions on our New TLD chart, including the top spot with Dad.info, a domain that went for $5,556 at Sedo. Afternic, a venue that placed three domains on our new list, nailed down the runner-up slot with Suez.info at $3,500 (note that was a considerably higher price than the $2,400 Suez.org went for this week).

.Biz and .US also had four-figure sales. #3 FreshFlowers.biz went for $1,300 at Afternic and Removals.us sold for �895 ($1,076) at Sedo. .Info ran the board on the second half of the chart with #5 NutritionGuide.info leading that run after going for $995 at TheNameStore.com. Afternic's third chart entry, #7 NewsGroup.info, was also in that pack after selling for $750. Here is a look at the complete New TLD leader board for the week ending Oct. 30:

This week's chart was rounded out with a pair of 3-letter .infos. ADC.info brought $820 in an auction at GoDaddy's Domain Name Aftermarket and I sold UCF.info for $695 in a private transaction. In another sale just off the chart, OnlineFlowers.biz brought $500 at Afternic. 

Our New TLD Year-To-Date Top 50 chart gets two new members this week and the entry level rises to just under $3,000. Dad.info takes the sweet 16 position and Suez.info settles into a tie for #37. Here are 2005's highest reported new extension sales through Oct. 30:

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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