Country Codes & Global Contenders Corner Most of This Week's Top Domain Sales

by Ron Jackson
  

Don't get me wrong. There was a boatload of solid mid-range sales, but only 9 of the Top 20 sales reported this week hit 5 figures (recently it's been common for all of the chart entries to break that barrier). With cupid presumably pre-occupying all of those high end .com buyers, the country codes and global contenders (non .com gTLDs) ran rampant this week. In fact, for the first time more than half of our Top 20 chart was held by non .com domains.

A nice .co.uk, EnergyWatch.co.uk, led the hit parade after going for €20,000 ($23,830) in a private transaction. Many of you know seller Rob Morrison by his forum handle, Rob, at DomainState.com. That was one of four .co.uk's on this week's all-extension leader board. Sedo.com had the other three including #9 eCoupons.co.uk at £6,495 ($11,334). All told, there were 6 ccTLDs on this week's chart with .net and .org splitting five more positions to give the non .com team an 11-9 win over the usually dominant .com crew.

BB.org scored a big blow for the non-coms, tying Manufacture.com for the #2 slot at $20,000 each. Joshua Pelissero, who sold another nice two-letter domain, BS.net, last week for $15,100 was the seller of BB.org. Joshua sent the domain to Scott Richter of OptInRealBig.com and thanked DNElite.com for bringing the them together.

In what may have been the deal of the week, Rick Latona of DigiPawn.com acquired Manufacture.com in a private transaction for the 20K noted above. Latona intends to develop the domain as a lead generator in the red hot field of contract manufacturing (where top PPC advertiser bids currently top $18 per click).

Another big country code sale, Arbeitsmarkt.de ("job market" in German), hit the #4 spot after going for €12,000 ($14,293) at Sedo. SnapNames.com followed with #5 Reloj.com ("watch" in Spanish) at $14,250. That was one of 8 entries placed on the Big Board by SnapNames. Their winners also included #7 Apple.org at $13,850 and #10 KartRacing.com at $9,333. 

Sedo also walked away with an armload of Top 20 trophies (7 in all). Their haul included #6 WebBlog.com at €11,800 ($14,055) and #8 BabyFaces.com at $12,500. Here's a look at the complete leader board for the week ending Sunday, Feb 12:

Afternic.com took a place on the Big Board with a very nice 3-letter .org sale, TPW.org at $8,650. A 3-letter .at (Austrian ccTLD), #17 KFZ.at, put another point on the board for the country codes. KFZ is a popular abbreviation for "cars" in Germany. In another chart highlight, OG.org (sold for $7,600 at SnapNames) giving that extension a rare pair of two-letter sales in the same week.

.Com Supporting Cast

While .com had a smaller share of the Top 20 than usual, there was no shortage of strong mid-range sales for the world's most popular extension this week. At Sedo, TennisForum.com served an ace at €5,500 ($6,551), Poiesis.com posted $6,000 and MillionEuroHomePage.com pulled in €4,500 ($5,360). Fotocopiadoras.com went for $4,300 while NetCube.com and InternetMafia.com muscled their way to €3,000 ($3,573) each. 

Also at Sedo, Godde.com and NelsonsColumn.com commanded $3,490 each while BusinessHealth.com booked $3,200. SearchTheInternet.com found $3,000, IAV-Group.com added €2,200 ($2,620) and IR3X.com sold for $2,599.

Afternic also had some healthy .com extras including RoboticSystems.com at $6,000, Kleen-Team.com at $5,000 and Affiliator.com at $4,000. ZSpot.com sported $3,800 and CoedSex.com cost $3,500. Four other domains; ExecutiveHospitality.com, PropaneMower.com, PropaneLawnmower.com and PropaneLawnmowers.com went for $2,500 each (the latter three went in one package for $7,500 so the prices are averaged out for that trio sold by Scott Haven, a NamePros.com forum regular known as Capiche).

Back at SnapNames, FindRealtor.com earned a $5,400 commission, Roomies.com rounded up $5,360 and Mari.com made $5,301. CarTraderOnline.com brought $4,988, CanisterVacuumCleaner.com swept up $4,888 and ArmyMen.com saluted $4,750. WholesaleOfficeFurniture.com was worth $4,588, YHB.com desposited $4,200 and NYCaptsInc.com corralled $4,133. CommercialPilots.com and FordMustangs.com revved up $4,100 each, ChildTherapist.com drew $4,088 and ColorTherapy.com closed at $3,988.

SnapNames had another 3 dozen .com sales ranging from $2,000 to just under $3,800. You can check those out in the table below: 

In a couple of nice private sales, Rick Latona picked up Https.com for $6,000 and HinesDomains.com sold GGQ.com for $4,100. At Enom's Club Drop, Condones.com ("condoms" in Spanish) approved $3,100, while CheapMed.com and FindMore.com found $2,000 each.

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

The Global Contenders had a bang-up week, booking 33 sales of at least four figures. Two cracked the five-figure mark, including BB.org which also ranks as the highest GC sale of the Year-To-Date at $20,000. #2 Apple.org also took a bite out of five-figure fruit, swallowing $13,850. 

.Org turned the tables on .net this week. The nets have been dominating this chart, but this time around, .org took 7 of the top 10 and went 1-2-3 at the top of the leader board with #3 TPW.org completing the run at $8,650. 

.Info also came off the sidelines this week to claim two chart entries; #11 HostingProject.info ($3,325 at SnapNames) and #20 CivilDefense.info ($1,499 at TheNameStore.com). .Biz also got on the board with #15 Terrorism.biz going for €1,500 ($1,787) at Sedo.

#4 FMBank.net was the top .net, going for $8,100 at SnapNames, a venue that led this chart with 10 of the 20 entries. The SnapNames roster also included #5 OG.org at $7,600 and #6 PayPerClick.net at $5,001. Here's a look at the complete Global Contenders Top 20 for the week ending Feb. 12:

There were 13 more four-figure sales in action off the GC Chart. The .org hot streak continued at SnapNames where FBCNewton.org netted $1,400, Airhead.org hooked $1,261, Teddies.org cuddled with $1,251 and Bibliotheque-Sonore.org added $1,150. SnapNames also got $1,250 for WebDev.net, $1,151 for Pierced.net and $1,074 for CheapPlaneTicket.net. 

BestPractice.org earned $1,400 at Afternic and DongDat.net dinged someone for $1,100 at Enom's Club Drop. Sedo had the rest of the four figure sales, filling their satchel with RBKC.info at £650 ($1,134), Lignin.info at $1,100, a 2-letter IDN .net, Kö.net at €850 ($1,012) and CanadianDrugs.biz at an even $1,000. Sedo also sold Booklets.biz for €750 ($893) and Spanisch.net (German spelling of "Spanish") for €700 ($834).

Country Codes

Like the Global Contenders, the Country Codes enjoyed a breakout week, racking up 14 sales of at least four figures. Three of those topped five figures and as you saw earlier, six ccTLDs crashed the mainstream Top 20 chart. The deluge prompted us to expand our Country Code Chart to 15 entries this week.

Following the six heavyweights led by EnergyWatch.co.uk ($23,830) was another IDN domain, #7 Fitnessgeräte.de  ("fitness equipment" in German) at €4,500 ($5,360). Germany's .de placed five domains on the leader board and .co.uk was right behind with four.

America's country code, .us, also did well with three chart trophies led by #11 Out.us, sold for $2,225 at Sedo. Sedo always dominates the ccTLD list and this week was no exception as they accounted for 13 of the 15 entries, including an odd duck, #13 TV.vc at $2,000. .vc is the rarely seen ccTLD for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Here's a look at the complete Country Code chart for the week ending Feb. 12:

A Spanish ccTLD, Biosfera.es anchored the chart at $953, giving the new list representatives from six different countries this week. 

Now that we've run down the action from the last seven days, check out the year's 40 biggest sales in all three of our tracking categories on our Year To Date Charts page.

*****

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.