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September 01, 2015

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Short .Coms Continue to Sizzle! 2-Letter Domain Tops Chart at Over 500K Followed by a Big Numeric Sale and Nine 3-Letter .Coms

Domain buyers continue to go long on short domains. A look at our latest weekly all extension Top 20 Sales Chart makes that crystal clear. The hit parade was fittingly led by a blockbuster $554,000 sale of an ultra-short 2-letter .com - QE.com. That deal - one of the four biggest sales reported so far this year - was jointly handled by eNaming.com's Tracy Fogarty (the buyer's broker) and Andrew Rosener of MediaOptions.com (broker for the seller). As has been the case with so many of the high end .com sales we have seen this year the domain went to a Chinese buyer.

That was also the case with the #2 domain - a nice four-digit numeric name - 9595.com - that Rick Schwartz sold for $180,000. The Chinese have always loved numeric domains but that figure appears to be a new high water mark for one extending to four digits. 

The always popular 3-letter .coms then took center stage - actually almost half of the entire stage - with nine domains from that category landing on the elite list, led by the $125,000 sale of #3 Tie.com at Heritage Auctions (HA). HA accounted for all eight of those LLL .com sales including #4 BOP.com at $80,000. HA piled up 12 of the 20 chart entries overall. 

By Ron Jackson

Sedo rounded out the first five with a four-letter.com - Newy.com - at a cool $66,000. Only three domains on the entire chart ran longer than 6 letters.

The only two non .com domains on the Big Board - both ccTLDs - were also short acronyms. UnicDomains.com had a very nice Canadian country code sale, getting $30,000 for #7 AHS.ca and Heritage Auctions secured $20,000 for #13 (tie) SEO.co. 

Michael Mann's DomainMarket.com helped fuel the .com onslaught by selling #6 Arabesq.com for $34,000. Mann said he has purchased that domain for just $300 in 2009. 

In a related note this week, given the interest in prices that have been (and are being) paid for ultra-short .com domains, Leap.com's George Kirikos, who is a master at finding domain sales information buried in financial filings, made an interesting discovery regarding HL.com. International investment bank Houlihan Lokey (HL) acquired that domain back in 2007 for an undisclosed price. Fast forward to 2015 where we now have HL filing to go public, requiring release of an S-1 statement.

In that report Kirikos found a $303,000 entry for a "Domain Name" in the listing of goodwill and intangible assets. George told us, "That $303,000 is for both 2014 and 2015, demonstrating that they've not been depreciating it. So, I think with 95% certainty, the $303K was the price used when the domain name was purchased and that the domain name was most likely HL.com." Further evidence of that is the entry uses the phrase "Domain Name" in singular, rather than the plural "Domain Names". 

In 2007 that price would have fallen in the middle of the range paid for the eight two-letter .com domains on that year's Top 100 Chart. They ranged from just $100,000 for VN.com to $500,000 each for AZ.com and LI.com. While $303,000 is certainly not chump change it would have been a real bargain for Houlihan Lokey by today's 2-letter .com standards. Most people would look at 2007's $500,000 ceiling as today's 2-letter .com floor. 

Thanks to George for his always outstanding spadework. Now back to how the sales leaders stacked up for the week ending Sunday, July 19:

HealthInsurance Services, Inc
eHealthInsurance Services, Inc
eHealthInsurance Services, Inc

The DN Journal Top 20 
Highest Reported Domain Sales - Mon. July 13,2015 - Sun. July 19, 2015
(Foreign currency to U.S. Dollar Conversions Based on Rates in Effect July 22, 2015)
  Domain

Sold For

 Where Sold
1. QE.com $554,000 eNaming/MediaOptions
2. 9595.com $180,000 Pvt Sale
3. Tie.com $125,000 Heritage Auctions
4. BOP.com $80,000 Heritage Auctions
5. Newy.com $66,000 Sedo
6. Arabesq.com $34,000 DomainMarket
7. AHS.ca $30,000 UnicDomains
8. Donna.com $24,000 Heritage Auctions
9. IGL.com $23,000 Heritage Auctions
10. Philae.com $22,000 Sedo

11.
tie		 MovieQuotes.com $20,500 Sedo
11.
tie		 VapeClub.com $20,500 Sedo
13.
tie		 BVF.com $20,000 Heritage Auctions
13.
tie		 Frisco.com $20,000 Heritage Auctions
13.
tie		 SEO.co $20,000 Heritage Auctions
16. MJU.com $19,000 Heritage Auctions
17. IXA.com $18,000 Heritage Auctions
18. VMR.com $17,000 Heritage Auctions
19. FIQ.com $16,500 Heritage Auctions
20. GXM.com $15,000 Heritage Auctions

Keep in mind that these are the highest value cash only sales that have been reported to us in the past week. This column is meant to be an educational tool, not a complete list documenting ALL high value domain sales. Such a list is impossible to produce because many sales are kept private at the insistence of buyers, sellers or both. Our procedure for verifying the accuracy of domain sales reports is available here.

CLICK HERE for our Year-To-Date Top Sales Charts

Click Link Below for
The All-Time Top 20 All-Cash Domain Sales Reported By DNJournal.com
 (2003 to Now)

There were eight more five-figure sales off the chart including a nice 2-letter .net sale at Heritage Auctions where QV.net.went for $15,000.

Sedo secured seven more sales at this level led by another 3-letter .com - EKC.com at $15,500. HelloEnglish.com added $15,000, Perfectha.com posted $14,820 and Tfax.com fetched $11,000. Three others - CareerGuide.com, CDLP.com and Flone.com - drew $10,000 each.

.Com Supporting Cast

Sedo led the .Com Supporting Cast of four-figure sales with EleventhHour.com at $9,999, DBag.com brought $8,000, ePharm.com fetched $7,500 and TruHotels.com booked $6,750. 

FootMercato.com fetched $6,540, TackleWorld.com went for $6,000 and MaderaGroup.com made $5,500. Destur.com drew $5,450, Envios.com added $5,449, VRSales.com kicked in $4,905 and SalonWholesale.com sold for $4,158. 

Sedo had 24 more four-figure .com sales ranging from $2,000 to $3,975 that are listed in the table below:

Additional Sedo .com Sales Between $2,000 - $3,975
smooz.com $3,975   sinplus.com $2,500
my-brand.com $3,815 etnagroup.com $2,295
slotstorm.com $3,815 wandatour.com $2,244
vytek.com $3,679 longstayhotels.com $2,200
plandecampagne.com $3,270 foot-anglais.com $2,180
guomaowang.com $3,200 cheap-hotel.com $2,179
epado.com $3,000 dinosaursforkids.com $2,126
microh.com $3,000 ovah.com $2,100
tigerbites.com $3,000 shimokita.com $2,095
sparkanalytics.com $2,900 snap4u.com $2,000
messtronik.com $2,725 suffolkpd.com $2,000
hitcell.com $2,695 typoh.com $2,000

Country Codes

AHS.ca set the pace for the ccTLDs this week. That $30,000 sale by UnicDomains is the biggest Canadian country code sale reported so far this year and also the biggest 3-letter sale in any ccTLD. It also ranks among the 15 biggest country code sales of any kind thus far in 2015 (the ccTLD YTD Top 100 is the second chart on the page linked to).

The $20,000 sale of SEO.co at Heritage Auctions (like AHS.ca, a name that made the all extension Top 20 chart you saw earlier) fills the #2 slot on our latest weekly Country Code Top 20 Chart. A pair of $8,175 sales at Sedo followed with Etichetta.it and Stier.de each drawing that amount. Sedo rounded out the first five with TimeShare.co.uk at $7,800.

Germany's .de won the extension race with seven chart entries, followed by .co with four. No other TLD had more than one place on the leader board. Here is how the country code leaders stacked up for the week ending Sunday, July 19:

Country Code Top 20 Chart
Highest Reported Domain Sales - Mon. July 13, 2015 - Sun. July 19, 2015
(Foreign currency to U.S. Dollar Conversions Based on Rates in Effect July 22, 2015)
  Domain

Sold For

 Where Sold
1. AHS.ca $30,000 UnicDomains
2. SEO.co $20,000 Heritage Auctions
3.
tie		 Etichetta.it €7,500 = $8,175 Sedo
3.
tie		 Stier.de €7,500 = $8,175 Sedo
5. TimeShare.co.uk £5,000 = $7,800 Sedo
6. Buddy.co $7,500 Sedo
7. Selfies.de €6,500 = $7,085 Sedo
8. 777.pt €6,000 = $6,540 Sedo
9. MobileBanking.com.br $5,000 Sedo
10. Bewegungsfreunde.de €4,000 = $4,360 Sedo

11. Dufour-Yachts.com.cn $4,000 Sedo
11. Obst-Berlin.de €3,000 = $3,270 Sedo
13.
tie		 Love.st $3,000 Sedo
13.
tie		 Starship.co $3,000 Sedo
15. Psychotherapie-Hamburg.de €2,400 = $2,616 Sedo
16. Abgelaufen.de €2,200 = $2,398 Sedo
17. Groove.co $2,250 Sedo
18. Wein-kiste.de €2,000 = $2,180 Sedo
19. Kahr.at €1,999 = $2,179 Golem.eu
20. Kuhl.eu €1,949 = $2,124 Golem.eu

CLICK HERE for our Year-To-Date Charts.

There were several more four-figure sales off the chart led by Sedo's $1,744 sale of StarModels.eu. They also picked up $1,635 apiece for Bewegungsfreunde.at and GFT.co. 

Sedo had 14 more four-figure ccTLD sales ranging from $1,000 to $1,500 that are listed in the table below:

Additional Sedo ccTLD Sales Between $1,000 - $1,500
therefectory.co.uk $1,560   cook.cc $1,248
partizan.co.uk $1,558 cvo.co.za $1,150
gaps.de $1,400 hochsee.de $1,090
digitalpr.nl $1,363 perkins-engines.eu $1,090
mustervollmacht.de $1,308 bio-gewuerze.de $1,079
carrera.tv $1,299 lava.me $1,000
l5.cc $1,280 smartthings.co.uk $1,000

Elsewhere, BIA.us changed hands for $1,477 in a private transaction.  

If there are country code extensions in our report that you are not familiar with, you can look up the nation each extension goes with here. 

Non .com gTLDs (.net, .org, .biz, .info & others, including new gTLDs)

It was slow going for the non .com gTLDs though they did get a nice five-figure sale in QV.net, a name that went for $15,000 at Heritage Auctions. No others reached that range though the #2 domain on our latest Non .Com gTLD Top Sales Chart came close with Sedo selling UPL.org for $9,888.

Still only ten sales total were reported for the entire category with Sedo booking all but one of those. They rounded out the first five with UTZ.org ($7,500), JH.biz ($1,638) and UBX.info ($1,635).

 Here's how all of the Non .Com gTLD leaders stacked up for the week ending Sunday, July 19:

Non .Com gTLDs Top Sales Chart
Highest Reported Domain Sales - Mon. July 13, 2015 - Sun. July 19, 2015
(Foreign currency to U.S. Dollar Conversions Based on Rates in Effect July 22, 2015)
  Domain

Sold For

 Where Sold
1. QV.net $15,000 Heritage Auctions
2. UPL.org $9,888 Sedo
3. UTZ.org $7,500 Sedo
4. JH.biz £1,050 = $1,638 Sedo
5. UBX.info €1,500 = $1,635 Sedo

6. FBet.net $1,499 Sedo
7. YL.biz £880 = $1,373 Sedo
8. Link.pro $1,350 Sedo
9.
tie		 Accomplice.org $1,000 Sedo
9.
tie		 MyLittleShop.net $1,000 Sedo

CLICK HERE for our Year-To-Date Charts.

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. 

Domain Name Industry Newsletter

 

*****

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. 

Every Wednesday we publish the highest reported domain name sales for the previous week. On Mondays and Tuesdays our contributors send us their sales data for the previous 7 days. We then compile that information and write this article to give you the most comprehensive sales report in the industry. 

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

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