Symmetrical Shopping Spree: T.J. Demas Doles Out Over a Million Dollars For 11 Domains 

Wow - what a wild week in the domain aftermarket - and this is supposed to be the slow summer season! You may have seen a cryptic news release a few days ago from Marchex and E8.com about E8 buying six numerical domains from Marchex. The prices paid were not disclosed - but we are going to release them for the first time in this column.

As it happens I know E8 Co-Founder and President, T.J. Demas, an Aspen, Colorado based investor whom I first met at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York conference in June 2007. T.J. was there with veteran domainer William Gormally who was giving T.J. an up close and personal look at the domain business. 

By Ron Jackson

With T.J. Demas taking so many chart positions this week, we decided to expand the Big Board from 20 to 30 positions so other major sales would not get overlooked. Two other domains joined Demas entries in the first ten. Sedo sold JTR.com for a very healthy $60,000 and Michael Ambrose of Cleaning.com also banked $60,000 FreeCoupon.com. That sale was actually completed earlier this year but contractual terms didn't allow Ambrose to release the sale price until this week. 

Sedo wound up having a hand in 12 charted sales, more than any other venue. We also have word that Sedo has completed the $220,000 sale of OD.com but we haven't been able to verify that yet. I do think the report is accurate though so look for that one on next week's chart once we confirm it.

In another interesting piece of news that Matt of WeBuyThe.com directed me to, the Walt Disney Company reported a $14 million gain on their sale of Movies.com to Fandango earlier this summer. The number was included in Disney's latest quarterly 10-Q filing. Not knowing the book value Disney had on the domain, we still don't know the actual selling price of Movies.com. Also, this was not a domain only sale - it was a developed business that sold tickets to 15,000 theaters around the country from the site. Fandango intends to expand the feature set at Movies.com. Also thanks to George Kirikos for his tip on reading that section of the 10-Q properly.

.Com dominated the action this week sweeping 27 of 30 chart entries. The other three openings went to a pair of .nets and a .org. Here is how all of the top sellers stacked up for the week ending Sunday, August 17:

There were four more five-figure sales just off the chart with Sedo ringing up three of those; WorldTourism.co.uk ($11,840), Taux.com ($10,000) and Towns.tv ($10,000). SnapNames.com also had a $10,000 sale with FresherWorld.com. 

.Com Supporting Cast

Another of T.J. Demas' purchases topped the .com supporting cast. That was 247World.com at $8,888.88. 

SnapNames had a group starting at $8,500 (for JVR.com) that included Kidnap.com ($4,225), OpenTrade.com ($4,000) and SPDBCCC.com ($3,607). Neesgrid.com ground out $3,600, Cember.com secured $3,433, Nublies.com notched $3,079 and VisitSouthCarolina.com clicked for $2,001.

Moniker.com sold DataMind.com for $8,100 and also completed a straggler from their live auction at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East, BestMattresses.com at $2,500. By the way Moniker has a live domain auction coming up this evening (Wednesday, August 20) at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose. It is scheduled to get underway at 5:45pm Pacific time which would be 8:45pm in the Eastern U.S. You can download the auction catalog from this page. The names that will be on the block include Ad.com, Pay.com, So.net and Male.org among others.

Some bad news came out in the domain business this week with Oversee.net announcing a 10% reduction in their workforce. Coupled with a continuing decline in PPC revenues it's understandable that some domainers are starting to feel a little glum. But for those who focus on end user sales to small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) the skies are still quite sunny. Name Media tells us they are still enjoying record breaking sales catering to that market. This week their AfternicDLS platform produced about 400 more .com sales, with more than a hundred of those topping the $2,000 level where we start reporting .com sales.

Their roster this week included SelectLife.com ($8,000), Muso.com ($7,915) and a pair at $6,000 each; Ministere.com and WhatsCookingAmerica.com. TattooYou.com inked $5,200 while a quartet of domains that included HDServices.com, Individualism.com, Jete.com and MMIA.com added $5,000 apiece. 

IRCD.com and TopWater.com poured $4,688 each while UPair.com posted $4,500. C-N-G.com collected $4,488 and Sniplets.com snagged $4,188. The AfternicDLS had 104 more four-figure .com sales ranging from $2,000 to $4,000. You can review those in the table below:

Back at Sedo DesignSupport.com provided €5,250 ($7,770) while JeuxCasino.com and NALN.com kicked in €5,000 ($7,400) each. ZeroEmissionCity.com contributed €4,000 ($5,920), Amatrice.com captured $5,500 and RoseBuzz.com brought €3,500 ($5,180).  

Sedo had 24 more four-figure .com sales ranging from $2,000 to $5,000. You can check those out in the table below:

At Sedo's GreatDomains.com site, Christoph.com contributed another $3,000. 

At NameJet.com Seta.com set the pace at $6,501, Brixton.com braked at $5,700 and Zido.com zipped up $5,302. Zobe.com clocked in at $4,999 while CanadaAuto.com and SREB.com booked $3,800 each. 

NameJet has 16 more .com sales ranging from $2,000 to $5,000 that are listed in the table below:

Elsewhere TopWebNames.com sold LiverpoolNews.com for $5,000 and TDNAM.com moved a trio of domains; LejourPlus.com ($3,000), Yab-Movies.com ($2,565) and Gartoo.com ($2,027). 

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

The top three domains on the Global Contenders Top 20 also made appearances on the all extension leader board you saw earlier. #1 Doctor.net led that trio after a $33,205 sale at Sedo's GreatDomains.com. 

.Net took the most chart positions with 11, including the top three GC sales you haven't seen yet; #4 Convert.net ($6,956), #5 Wayfarer.net ($5,990) and #6 Debbie.net ($4,500). .Org and .Info captured four chart entries each with the final opening going to a .biz. 

Sedo had a hand in 11 charted sales, more than any other venue. Here's how all of the Global Contenders stacked up for the week ending August 17:

At Sedo, Websites.mobi went for $2,294, ForexClub.net nailed $2,100 and 212.mobi dialed up $1,850. Catamarca.net counted out $1,628, Korsika.info fetched $1,550 and Oden.net notched $1,500. SUP.biz served up $1,480, MyRobot.net ratcheted up $1,332 and Karten.info cornered $1,290. Korfu.info found $1,200, Shut.net closed the door on $1,125 and Sportswear.info donned $1,030.

At NameJet, Frog.biz hopped to $2,155 while DropWizard.com drew $2,000 for CheatingWives.net. 

At SnapNames 3-letter .nets were in vogue. Sales included PGE.net ($2,000), MOR.net ($1,700), BCD.net ($1,369), KZH.net ($1,030), QLF.net ($1,030) and QTD.net ($1,030). They also sold Mufflers.net for $1,450. 

At TDNAM.com, QQuran.org generated $1,300 and Patriotism.org pulled $1,054).