Thanksgiving Break Slows Domain Buying A Bit But For Many It Was Business As Usual 

by Ron Jackson
  

Last week we noted an unusually broad range of extensions in our Top Ten and that trend continued again this week with four country code domains (from four different countries) and that .biz sharing the Big Board with five .coms. The other big storyline this week was an overwhelming dominance of the chart by one venue. That was Sedo.com who took 8 of the 10 slots on our new list. Sedo's charge was led by a high traffic typo, #2 Mypsace.com (2,976 with the extension in Overture) which went for $35,100. 

Sedo also accounted for all of those charted ccTLD sales, a quartet that included #3 DebtConsolidation.co.uk at �14,000 ($24,071), #5 XXX.at (Austrian country code) at �12,000 ($14,145), #9 BriefStation.de (German ccTLD) at �8,000  ($9,430) and #10 PerfectMatch.ca (Canadian country code) at $8,700.

Afternic.com was the only venue besides Moniker.com to break Sedo's stranglehold on our leader board. They scored with #8 FreeAgent.com at $10,100. Sedo also took half of the positions on our New TLD chart where .info turned in a strong showing by claiming six of the eight entries. We'll talk more about that in our new extension section a little later on. We also have dozens of other sales in the mainstream extensions to tell you about, but first let's take a look at the complete Top Ten for the week ending November 27:

In addition to the domains we already discussed, Sedo sold #4 BingoGame.com ($18,000) and #7 ForeverFriends.com (�8,000 = $13,753) to come the closest any venue has ever come to sweeping the entire chart.  

SnapNames.com also had a very strong week, led by a a group of domains that finished just off the chart. AutoTrading.com and TamilRingtones.com dialed up $8,600 each, WebPerformance.com redlined at $8,200 and Biletler.com landed $8,000. PublicLibrary.net booked $7,300, PhotoFactory.com focused on $7,000 and MiniKlip.com got a $6,600 cut. ByeBye.com said hello to $6,400, LinenAndThings.com toweled off $6,313 and CarrierBuilders.com (424 with the extension in Overture) brought $5,655. 

The SnapNames roster also included DebtReliefUSA.com at $5,600, HondaFinacialServices.com (typo) at $4,777 and BelugaCaviar.com at $4,511. SpiritualGrowth.com sprouted $4,488, NationalWeatherChannel.com forecast $4,000 and BuyMP3.com kicked in $3,655. Snap had another 29 sales ranging from $2,000-$3,600:

In addition to having the week's top sale, Moniker/DomainSystems added $8,000 for OptimumRealEstate.com. Moniker CEO Monte Cahn told us they also sold a portfolio of 30 adult domains for $172,475 that included Vibrator.com among others. 

Enom's Club Drop attracted $7,100 with SouthernCharm.com, hit a $4,200 jackpot with CasinoCard.com and tuned in $3,200 with SexPartyTV.com.  

Back at Afternic.com, ChristmasCatalog.com unwrapped $5,500, Outcall.com called in $4,000 and a trio that included No-Dairy.com, Meatrix.com and PokerInvest.com raked in $2,500 each. PortraitPhotographers.com snapped $2,300 while NDSports.com and Actela.com kicked in $2,000 each.

Sedo also had some odds and ends in their sales bin. Medoc.com delivered �5,075 ($5,982), 0311.com commanded $3,750, GUI.net notched $3,500 and ProjectYou.com pitched in $3,000.

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Our Year To Date Top 60 Chart currently has a $60,000 entry fee, so there were no newcomers this week though RapidRefund.com came close. Here is a look at the complete 2005 YTD leader board through Nov. 27: 

New TLD Section

After posting the three highest .biz sales ever reported last week, that extension could be found basking in the limelight again this week with two of the top three domains on our New TLD chart. The headliner this time out was Car.biz, a domain that replaces Cards.biz as the second highest .biz sale reported to date after going for �11,900 ($14,027) at Sedo (the highest .biz sale ever reported was Meningitis.biz at $15,000 just a week ago). .Biz also claimed the #3 slot with a German IDN domain, Holzh�user.biz at �1,500 ($1,768). Holzh�user translates to "wood houses" in English. 

While .biz continued to rack up the higher valued sales, .info was busy booking the largest number of deals. That extension swept all six of the remaining positions on our new list and three of those sales hit four figures, led by #2 Costumes.info at �2,625 ($3,094). Sedo posted that sale which gave them a sweep of the top 3 spots and half of the overall positions on our new extension leader board. SnapNames had a pair of entries including #4 Wifi.info at $1,400.

A trio of three-letter .infos graced this week's list. Two of those were domains I sold privately, including #5 WGA.info at $1,250 and #7 RPT.info at $900. Here is a look at the complete New TLD leader board for the week ending Nov. 27:

As you can see above, Sedo completed their quartet of charted domains with a second German IDN name, #6 Briefk�sten.info ("mailbox" in German) at �800 ($943). SnapNames got the second half of their Daily Double with #8 ANT.info at $525. Afternic reported three sales that finished just off the chart. PKR.us and Jurist.biz went for $500 each while DVDWorld.biz banked $475.

Car.biz drives onto our Year-To-Date New TLD Top 50 chart this week after that $14,027 sale at Sedo. The domain parks at #7 and accounts for one of the two .biz sales ranked among the year's ten biggest deals. .US continues to hold the most high dollar sales with five while .info has three of the first ten. Here are 2005's highest reported new extension sales through Nov. 27:

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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