Domain Market Continues to Boom With Quartet of Six-Figure Sales Including Macau.com at $550,000

by Ron Jackson
  

A gigantic private transaction sent a very nice geographical domain, Macau.com, to Ben Freischmidt for $550,000. Macau is a thriving casino and entertainment destination. Three more six-figure sales lined up behind Macau.com on our Big Board. Rick Latona of DigiPawn.com bought two of those and wound up purchasing four domains that landed on our expanded list. In private transactions, Latona acquired #2 Brown.com for $300,000 and #4 Dora.com for $100,000. 

In another deal he took ownership of #7 Street.com for $50,000 now and an agreement to pay an additional $10,000 annually for an undisclosed number of years (for charting purposes we are listing the sale at the $50,000 paid up front). Latona concluded his spree by picking up Pesos.com for $11,000, but he plans to be back in the shopping aisle soon. Latona told us he will make at least $5 million in domain purchases this year. 

Moniker.com/DomainSystems.com handled the other six figure sale, moving #3 Blocks.com for $130,000. That was one of three Top Ten entries for CEO Monte Cahn's crew. They also sold #5 KinkyGirls.com for $65,000 and #10 RoyalOrchid.com for $26,285. Moniker has also been handling the liquidation of a prime adult domain portfolio. Two weeks ago they sold a package of 22 domains for $720,000. This week they moved 21 more for a total of $770,000. 

SnapNames.com enjoyed a sensational fortnight and wound up taking half of the entries on our Top 40 chart. Their headliner was #6 AlternativeEnergy.com at $50,138. Other winners at their venue included #11 AutoTransporter.com ($26,000), #12 LaserShow.com ($24,527) and #14 OrganicWine.com ($20,327).

Sedo.com also makes their presence known week in and week out and this time around the track was no different. They wound up with 8 entries on the leader board, led by #8 Navi.com at $45,000. Two others also hit the top half of the chart; #13 MarylandRealEstate.com at $22,000 and #15 CasinoDeauville.com at $20,000.

.Com racked up 18 of the first 20 entries. Only #17 Visa.org ($15,355) and #19 BS.net ($15,100) interrupted the .com run. The world's most popular extension also took 17 of 20 slots on the second half of the board with a trio of ccTLD's claiming the other openings. Here's a look at the 40 biggest domain sales reported in the past two weeks:

The three country code domains that slipped in among all of those .coms on the second half of the chart included the highest one we've seen from Malayasia (Game.com.my at $15,000), one from the UK that looks to us like a very nice bargain, ForSale.co.uk ($14,692) and another from Germany, DVDRecorder.de ($9,262). All three were sold at Sedo, a venue that consistently dominates ccTLD sales.

.Com Supporting Cast

Of course when it comes to sheer numbers, .com can't be beat. At SnapNames alone, there were close to 150 .com sales ranging from $2,000 to $50,000. In addition to their 20 entries on the Big Board they piled up dozens of other notables. Liberalism.com landed $8,646, HondaAccord.com attracted $8,500 and USDOTNumberRegistration.com racked up $8,300. BahamaVacations.com kicked back $8,188, 4News.com reported $8,100 and Fantasmes.com found $7,600.

The SnapNames roster also included Harrier.com at $7,400, TravelGadgets.com at $7,288 and DrugAddictions.com at $7,155. HammerToe.com pounded out $7,100, Plastik.com provided $7,000 and Along.com commanded $6,966. TrackSuit.com sprinted to $6,666, GoldPlace.com gathered $6,600 and two others; OVN.com and Anns.com contributed $6,500 each. NationOfIslam.com went for $6,300, CoolingFan.com breezed to $6,223 and CaliforniaHomeMortgage.com closed at $6,201.

The hits just kept on coming with NetServers.com handling $6,200, Dingos.com hopping in at $6,133 and WineTastings.com pouring $6,100. InternetToolBar.com clicked for $6,088, UniversalCredit.com charged $5,600 and BestHearingAids.com brought $5,555. Tullahoma.com tallied $5,544, AtlantaRealty.com rang up $5,388 and ReportingWorld.com went for $5,105. ThereIsNoCrisis.com and WorldwideSeeds.com sprouted $5,100 each while CoachOutlet.com bagged $5,066 and Sturn.com stacked up $5,000. 

SnapNames had another 83 .com sales ranging from $2,000 to just under $5,000. You can check those out in the table below: 

Back at Sedo, DiosasdeInternet.com connected for €7,000 ($8,420), AZRealEstate.com added $8,000 and Fizzy.com fetched $6,500. MoBuy.com made $6,000, Foroculturismo.com and TenerifeOnline.com uploaded €4,000 ($4,812) each and Gravotech.com grabbed €3,000 ($3,609). Estats4All.com booked $3,400 while AJob.com and Imobiliárias.com (an IDN domain that means "real estate" in Portuguese) sold for $3,000 each.

Afternic.com also enjoyed a solid sales week with a line-up that included Bogey.com at $8,400, TexasMBA.com at $7,200 and ALawyer.com at $5,500. CAOH.com corraled $5,450 and three others; TheGourmetCook.com, Skybooks.com and BusinessVentures.com attracted $5,000 each. KnowMenopause.com posted $4,000, Studio7.com screened $3,500 and Moviepedia.com sold for $3,356.

Also at Afternic, MoniqueYamaguchi.com yielded $3,222 and ActiveNetworks.com collected $3,200 while SoyNutrition.com and iHomeopathy.com went for $3,000 each. CamHot.com caught $2,688, followed by Tows.com and PurchaseOptions.com at $2,500 each. InstantAttraction.com and GoldenMobile.com brought $2,200 each, BetForce.com booked $2,100 and PornMansion.com maxed out at $2,000. 

You probably noticed TDNAM's $12,000 entry on the Top 40 (October.com). The Domain Name Aftermarket (operated by GoDaddy.com) also sold Wavo.com for $8,000.

At Pool.com, Jobbers.com pulled in $7,300, ExperienceGifts.com added $6,101 and Burgler.com made off with $5,050. CourierJobs.com delivered $4,111, RecreationJobs.com rounded up $4,088 and RenoWeddings.com went for $4,000. DrywallJobs.com drew $3,555, SDRealEstate.com returned $3,100, wwwgodaddy.com deposited $2,750 and eBicycles.com braked at $2,600.

At other venues, InterdotNetwork.com bought PublicPix.com for $5,200 at Enom's Club Drop, DigitSoftware.com sold TicketRush.com for $4,600 and DNProperty.com sold BidOnJobs.com for $4,500.

Global Contenders (.biz, .info, .net & .org)

The Global Contenders got their two highest sales of 2006 since our last report. Visa.org took over the top spot on both the weekly and YTD charts after going for $15,355 at SnapNames. #2 BS.net was right behind after changing hands at Ebay for $15,100. Partners Joshua Pelissero and Richard Souter sold that memorable 2-letter .net. 

We doubled the length of this week's chart (from 20 to 40 positions) since this column is covering the past two weeks of sales. SnapNames was even more dominant on this list than they were on the mainstream chart. They took 27 of the 40 slots available on the GC list, including #3 Strawberries.net at $8,500. .Net was the dominant extension on this chart, taking 25 of 40 entries, including #4 Belcher.net ($8,000) and #5 InsideLive.net ($6,000). Both of those domains were sold at Sedo.

.Biz placed a domain on the top half of the chart with #16 Blockhäuser.biz also scoring for IDN fans at €2,000 ($2,406). The term means "log cabin" in German. .Info has gotten off to a slow start here in 2006 and the four-letter extension was shut out this week.  Here's a look at our expanded Global Contenders chart for the two weeks ending Feb. 5:

.Org made a strong showing this week with 14 chart entries, including 3 of the top 8 domains. In action off the chart, SnapNames sold three more .orgs in four figures; Rachael.org ($1,050), Birthplace.org ($1,050) and Cyber-State.org ($1,007). SnapNames also sold Sandy-City.net for $1,051 while PressStart.net went for $1,100 at Afternic. 

At Sedo, someone picked up a terrific bargain by getting Blog.biz for $1,000. The same venue sold Holzhausbau.org ("wooden house construction" in German) for €650 ($782) and HotelMap.info for €500 ($601).

Country Codes

We rarely see significant sales for Malaysian domains but this week was an exception as Game.com.my shot straight to the top of our Country Code chart after going for $15,000 at Sedo (a venue that took 16 of the 20 openings on this week's expanded chart). .co.uk took the #2 position with ForSale.co.uk fetching $14,692. Germany's .de then posted its first of seven chart entries woth #3 DVDRecorder.de at $9,262. 

.De took the next three positions as well with BRC.de going for $6,977 while Vorname.de ("first name" in German) and Links.de went for $5,413 each. There was lot of variety on this week's chart with other domains from Mexico, New Zealand, Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands, Canada and the U.S. In fact .us was second only to .de in the number of chart entries this week, taking three positions including a tie for 11th with Auto.us at $3,000. That deal at Afternic looks likes a great buy to us.

  Here's a look at our expanded Country Code chart for the period ending Feb. 5:

Do you believe that #16 domain - Pferdehaftpflichtversicherungen.de !? Man, talk about a mouth full. I'd like to see the national spelling bee champion get that one right! The term means "horse insurance" in German and its long enough to cover the whole stable.

Now, don't forget to check out the Year To Date Charts to see who the big winners are at this early stage in 2006.

*****

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 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 DotCom Group, LLC and Gordon Martin of DropWizard.com also provide invaluable help in collecting 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 night publication to give you the freshest sales report in the industry. 

Editor's Note: If you wish to review previous Domain Sales columns, they are available in our Archive.