Week of July 4th  Brings An Explosion of Sales in the Domain Aftermarket

Things are supposed to slow way down in the middle of the summer, especially during a major holiday week like the one just past. Last Friday was July 4th, America's Independence Day, and just about everyone in this country spent a three-day weekend firing up the backyard grill, going to the beach or catching one of the thousands of fireworks displays around the nation (quite a few did all three, especially where we are based here in Florida). 

Despite Americans supposedly kicking back and forgetting work for half the week, there was a remarkable number of notable domain sales over the past seven days - so many that we are expanding our usual Top 20 chart to 40 positions so we can list all of the five and six figure sales (there are actually 42 names on the Big Board due to a five-way tie for the final position).  

By Ron Jackson

While America celebrated its independence from England, our friends across the pond were busy claiming the week's top domain sale with a British ccTLD blockbuster, Phones.co.uk, selling for  £175,000 ($344,710) in a private transaction. James Dale was the man who made the big sale, one that ranks as the fourth biggest country sale reported so far in 2008.  

Rick Latona has been off traveling much of the past month but he was obviously taking care of business while on the road. He has seven of the week's top 20 sales and eight overall on the elite list. His $115,000 sale of EdistoBeach.com ranks number two and he also claimed the fourth spot with Jake.com at $100,000. Sedo.com completed the quartet of six-figure sales by moving #3 Sevilla.com for $102,000. 

Sedo wound up with more chart entries than any other venue, piling up 19 charted domains, including the biggest .info sale so far this year, #7  Manucure.info (French for "manicure") at a stunning €29,500 ($46,217). That will buy a lot of emory boards! Sedo also placed five ccTLDS on the all extension list including #11 LegalJobs.co.uk at £20,000 ($39,392). MyID.ca also had a nice country code sale with #13 Interview.ca (Canadian ccTLD) attracting $30,933.

While .com enjoyed its usual chart dominance, three .nets also managed to crash the party, led by RickLatona.com's $25,000 sale of #15 (tie) JP.net. 

We are also happy to report that one of the industry's big private players, Nokta.com, began sharing their sales data with us this week and they landed four names on the Big Board right out of the box, including one in the top ten - #8 DollDressup.com at $45,000. The AfternicDLS also have four representatives, with #24 (tie) LuxuryItems.com leading the way for them at $17,000. 

Here is how all of the top sellers stacked up for the week ending Sunday, July 6:

.Com Supporting Cast

Moniker continues to close sales from the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East live auction in May. In addition to  the two names they put on the Top 40, they wrapped up deals for FreeCosmetics.com ($9,500), Masturbators.com ($5,890) and BirthRecord.com (also $5,890). Moniker also sold MagicBra.com for $3,000 through their web platform.

NameJet.com also had a nice list of four-figure sales to supplement their two chart entries,  dispatching EquityTrading.com for $9,200 and two others; XXVideos.com and Franky.com for $7,600 each. Megafiles.com fetched $6,900, Connaught.com collected $5,400 and Medisys.com secured $5,226. 

NameJet had 20 more .com sales ranging from $2,000 to $4,400 that you can check out in the table below:

Nokta notched $9,000 for Arababul.com and $4,000 each for HalloweenCostumeStores.com and Dijit.com. ShowerStool.com doused $3,000 while FinancialServiceCareers.com and Notenbuch.com brought $2,600 each. Salairenet.com sold for $2,300 and RobotReviews.com revealed $2,000. Nokta also sold KissCostumes.com through Network Solutions for $5,500.

Back at Sedo, Ahamoment.com clicked for $9,000, EnergyManagement.com conserved €5,600 ($8,775) and FUQ.com kicked in $8,100. YouHot.com and Prompter.com each posted $8,000 while JUA.com added $7,600. FinanzPortal.com provided €4,800 ($7,521), CountdownTimers.com clocked $6,250 and DiscountCabinetHardware.com went for $5,800. Another pair, DiabeticMedicalSupplies.com and Coures.com collared $5,500 each. 

Sedo had 31 more .com sales ranging from $2,000 to $5,000 that are listed in the table below:

The AfternicDLS had their usual big week. Who3.com drew $5,488, EcoManager.com earned $5,188 and two others; Iedge.com and HandsFreeKits.com contributed $4,500 apiece. BizFax.com transmitted $4,488, AllOnSale.com racked up $4,388 and ConvertibleSecurities.com returned $4,300. NetFin.com and eGazette.com grossed $4,188 each. 

The AfternicDLS had 90 more .com sales ranging from $2,000 to $4,000 that you can check out in the table below.

SnapNames.com was hit by a multi-day service outage last week but still took in $5,250 for MNSN.com, $3,900 for NineInchNails.com and $3,600 for CoCast.com. Reflexes.com displayed $2,250,  Choca.com choked up $2,155, HushPuppy.com pulled $2,150 and DrinkWell.com washed down $2,050. 

Elsewhere, RickLatona.com landed $5,000 for Venetia.com and TopWebNames.com tacked on $3,000 for SignatureGalleries.com.

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

Our Global Contenders Top 20 chart was led by that big $46,217 .info sale of Manucure.info ("French" for manicure) at Sedo. That was one five .infos on the GC Leader board, the best showing for that extension in quite some time. However, as it almost always does, .net had the most chart entries with 10, led by #2 JP.net at $25,000. 

.Org appears four times with #7 Jewellery.org leading the way for that extension at £2,900 ($4,544) via Sedo. The last opening went to a .pro sale, also through Sedo; #6 Clasificados.pro at $5,000. 

Here's how all of the Global Contenders stacked up for the week ending July 6:

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