Blue Skies for Domain Business With Half-Million Dollar Sale of Blue.com & Big Bucks Paid for IDNs, Country Codes & New TLDs

by Ron Jackson
  

We have often talked about how this market is broadening, spreading the riches to niches that many have ignored in the past. This week's sales are bound to open a lot of eyes.

There wasn't enough room on our new Top 20 chart for all of the five-figure sales. Two dozen domains cracked that barrier including the blockbuster at #1, Blue.com. We don't yet know who made that half-million dollar purchase at Sedo.com (the third biggest sale reported in 2006) because the WhoIs record is using a privacy service. Whoever the new owner may be, they'll have no reason to be blue with a gem like this in their portfolio.

Sedo also made news with the #2 sale, posting the largest IDN (International Domain Name) sale of the year with Städtereisen.de ("city travel" in German) going for a whopping €50,000 ($60,168)! Sedo went on to pile up 10 of the 20 entries on the Big Board including half a dozen in the top ten.

Sedo touched just about all of the bases, scoring with #5 Sunnyland.com at $30,000 plus the week's biggest domain in the Global Contenders category, #6 Broadband.org at $27,500. They also attracted a stunning €19,000 ($22,864) for #9 New-York.info and €17,000 ($20,457) for another hyphenated domain, #10 Travail-Emploi.com ("work-employment" in French). 

It seemed like hyphenated names were running hog wild this week. A third one from that category, Myrtle-Beach.com, landed at #8 after going for $25,250 at SnapNames.com. The country codes were also rocking, led by that German IDN at #2 and the biggest Canadian domain sale we've seen to date, #4 Savings.ca, which sold for $36,050 at Pool.com. Sedo also had another notable ccTLD sale with #12 Hollywood.co.uk going for £10,000 ($17,438).

Moniker.com/DomainSystems.com walked off with four chart trophies while SnapNames bagged three. Moniker's haul included #3 ClassicParts.com at $36,500 and #8 MyThings.com at $24,195. Here's a look at the complete chart for the week ending Sunday, March 26:

Another quartet of five-figure domains finished just off the chart with SnapNames accounting for a pair of those; OhioGolf.com at $10,250 and RetirementBenefits.com at $10,001. Sedo also had two, including another big .info, Physician.info at $10,500. That same domain was sold for $4,150 in January 2005. Sedo also scored another blow for the country codes with DieSeher.de going for €8,400 ($10,108). 

.Com Supporting Cast

As always the .com stars on the leader board had a strong supporting cast off the chart. At SnapNames, IncorporatingABusiness.com booked $8,988, MyHerbalLife.com landed at $6,600 and the gavel dropped on CashAuctions.com at $6,155. Godz.com commanded $6,111, CardProcessing.com provided $6,106 and IngroundSwimmingPools.com floated $6,103. NCDOR.com added $6,101, BlackjackOdds.com drew $5,600 and HealthAmerica.com dispensed $5,300.

Also at SnapNames, despite being a real tongue twister, TempoSoCalMLS.com socked away $5,200 and UniversalTranslator.com decoded $5,088. Teckno.com and Keye.com kicked in $4,800 each while SecurityWatch.com went for $4,600 and PatentLitigation.com picked up $4,333. 

Aron.com rounded up $4,300, OnlineWills.com bequeathed $4,255 and Grabs.com latched on to $4,200. SnapNames has 46 more sales ranging from $2,000-$4,000. You can check those out in the table below:

At Afternic.com TechnicalTrader.com took in $7,500, Hargrove.com collected $6,324 and GameBay.com brought $5,500. Certisign.com sold for $5,000, MortgageMate.com made $3,688 and RouteZone.com rang up $3,000. Rackware.com went for $2,888 while Euristic.com and HappyCookers.com served up $2,000 each. 

Back at Moniker/DomainSystems, USFoods.com fortified the ledger with another $7,200. Meanwhile Pool.com plugged away with GeorgiaResorts.com at $7,100, CedarBrook.com at $5,311 and CorporalPunishment.com at $4,900. Also at Pool, SexyRabbit.com attracted $4,368, Kwiss.com came in at $3,787 and PresbyterianHospital.com admitted $3,560. 

CigarBrothers.com inhaled $3,436, InflatableSwimmingPools.com pumped out $3,250 and BritneySpear.com hit a high note at $3,100. OrchardAply.com pulled in $2,907 and Discografia.com stacked up $2,850. Pool also scored with CricketCellular.com ($2,450), AsianTea.com ($2,350) and WishGirls.com ($2,250). 

Sedo's .com stable included Looki.com at €3,800 ($4,573), BookThis.com at $3,800 and Reggay.com at $3,500. FreeCredits.com fetched another $3,249 and PhoenixBlog.com booked $3,200. Elsewhere, BingoTimes.com changed hands for $4,500 at DNForum.com and FreeOnlineAdvertising.com traded for $3,200 at Enom's Club Drop. Club Drop also sold CatfightBabes.com for $3,000 and DirectPills.com for $2,600.

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

The Global Contenders got their fair share of this week's booming domain business, posting two of the year's three highest GC sales. #1 Broadband.org downloaded a whopping $27,500 at Sedo in the second highest GC sale of 2006 (trailing only Camping.info at $28,100). 

This week's #2 domain, New-York.info, ranks third on our year to date list at €19,000 ($22,864), not far off what the non-hyphenated version sold for in 2004 ($28,000). We think it is pretty remarkable that while .net (one of the three original extensions) has posted more sales than any other GC extension this year, there are now two .infos that have sold for more than any .net domain this year. 

In its best outing of the year, .info also scored with #3 Physician.info at $10,500 and #9 Backgammon.info at $3,257. Not bad for a "new" TLD. .Net took awhile to get warmed up, but wound up reeling off five chart entries in a row, starting with #4 TeddyBear.net at $7,600 and #5 Trains.net at $7,100. .Net easily won the overall numbers game, taking 13 of the 20 chart entries.

Among the sales venues, SnapNames and Sedo both had big weeks in this category with SnapNames taking 8 chart positions and Sedo claiming 7. Here's a complete look at the Global Contenders list for the week ending March 26:

Underscoring the strength in the market this week, another 21 Global Contenders cracked the four-figure mark this week. SnapNames had the lion's share of those (13 in all) including NWAir.org at $2,051, WHT.org at $1,550 and a pair at $1,450; CraigLsist.org (typo) and Clara-Mateo.org. FreedomWkend.org (typo) went for $1,151, LDJ.org added $1,050 and OneTableConference.org contributed $1,024.

On the .net side of the ledger at SnapNames, Powerball.net pitched in $2,050, 2Go.net and TravelSite.net sold for $1,100 each and KSH.net corralled $1,050.

The perennial popularity of 3-letter domains was apparent at Sedo as well where BCA.net brought £1,150 ($2,008). Sedo also posted a rare .pro sale, depositing $2,000 for Live.pro. Vacances.org tallied €1,500 ($1,805) and Tradex.net turned in $1,800. Arbeitsschutz.info (translates to "health and safety standards" in German) closed at €1,000 ($1,200) and Anonymous.info went for $1,100. Sedo secured another $1,000 for Simmons.biz. 

At Afternic, VisionAwards.org presented $1,111. At Pool, WeatherForecast.net accurately predicted $1,051 and Virginity.org remained celibate at $1,005.

Country Codes

The country codes also enjoyed a sensational week with three of the year's biggest ccTLD sales coming in the past 7 days. That remarkable German IDN, Städtereisen.de ("city travel" in German) led the way at €50,000 ($60,168) in the year's second biggest country code sale. Only Lyrics.co.uk ($80,000) has been larger.

There were so many strong ccTLD sales this week we expanded this chart from 12 to 20 positions. Canada's .ca accounted for five of those spots, led by #2 Savings.ca at $36,050. Airmail.ca was another big one at $7,500. Auctions at Pool and other venues for additional .ca domains ended in the mid four figure to low five figure range this week. If those transactions are completed you will see another wave of .ca domains on this chart next week. 

This big wave of prime .ca drops occurred because CIRA (the Canadian domain administrator) had halted .ca drops for a month while they reworked their deletion procedure. When the gates re-opened last week a lot of gems came over the transom at once.

In other five-figure sales this week, #3 Hollywood.co.uk went for £10,000 ($17,438) and DieSeher.de drew €8,400 ($10,108). Germany's .de (the world's second most popular extension behnd .com) racked up 7 chart entries this week, including another strong IDN sale, Geschirrspüler.de ("dishwasher" in German) at €4,250 ($5,114).

America's country code, .us, continues to surge with #5 Sales.us selling for $8,000 at Sedo and #12 PetLink.us going for $3,900 at Afternic. Petlink.us is interesting because the .info version sold for just $555 in October 2005. Well-known .us investor Chris Zouzas was the buyer of Sales.us, giving him another prime keyword in an already star-studded .us portfolio.

 Here's a look at the complete Country Code Chart for the week ending March 26:

This was easily the biggest week of the year for ccTLD domains. Even after expanding this chart from 12 to 20 positions we had ten more four figure sales off the chart. All but one of those were more jewels from that flood of .ca domains, all sold at Pool. DomainLaw.ca laid down $1,600 while WebMarketing.ca, ModelCars.ca and Earphones.ca went for $1,250 each. 

Colognes.ca splashed on $1,111 while SmartAss.ca, PopStar.ca, Pickle.ca and DumbAss.ca drew $1,050 each. Sedo cracked the .ca monopoly with FR.cc going for €1,000 ($1,200). Sedo also sold Lawyer-Directory.us for $750 while Pool added $777 for FuelCell.ca. In a bit of a surprise, considering CoffeeShops.ca went for $2,160 (to rank 17th on our chart), the singular version, CoffeeShop.ca, attracted just $500 at Pool.

Now that you're up to date on what happened over the past week, check out how the leaders stand year to date in all categories by visiting 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. Richard Meyer of DotCom Group, LLC also provides 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.