Year's First 7-Figure Sale Shows the High End of the Market Still Has a Pulse 

The severe economic recession brought high end domain sales to a near standstill over the past six months, but just when the coroner was about to pronounce 7-figure sales dead, a blip showed up on the heartbeat monitor. Publicly traded TravelZoo breathed life back into the high end's body with a $1,760,000 cash purchase of Fly.com that was brokered by Sedo. TravelZoo said it will launch a new website on the domain this month.

While that blockbuster sale was welcome news, the market continues to be dominated by low to mid range end user sales. Even though this week's double length report covers two weeks worth of data (we were away last week covering the DOMAINfest Global conference in Hollywood, California) all other reported sales were well below the $50,000 mark. The runner-up slot on our expanded Top 30 chart went to NameJet's $40,200 sale of FlashCards.com. 

By Ron Jackson

Sedo swept the next five positions in a row and wound up piling up 18 of the 30 chart entries. Sedo's run began with a pair of impressive ccTLD sales; #3 Parierenligne.fr ("betting online" in French) at $39,000 and #4 (tie) Roulette.it at $30,000. Those country codes represent France and Italy respectively. Sedo also sold NoHotel.com and NoHotels.com in one lot at $30,000 each.

The AfternicDLS, SnapNames and NameJet all charted multiple domains. AfternicDLS and SnapNames had four Big Board entries each while NameJet had two. The SnapNames list was led by #8 SexyLadies.com at $25,200 while Afternic's roster was topped by #23 (tie) SeniorLiving.net at $15,000. The latter name was one of three .nets on the elite list.

The ccTLDs went one better, claiming four spots on the all extension leader board. The country code quartet was rounded out with #20 FXPro.co.uk at $18,200 and #23 (tie) Miami.us at $15,000. Sedo handled all four of the charted ccTLD sales. .Com maintained its traditional dominance though, filling 24 of the 31 chart positions.

 Here is how all of the leaders stacked up for the two weeks ending Sunday, February 1:

There were six more 5-figure sales just off the chart and Sedo rang up all but one of those with UMA.de ($11,765), OnlineBingo.it ($11,700), Uploader.com ($11,000), CashReady.com ($10,750) and OnlineDatabase.com ($10,002). The AfternicDLS also scored with MovieZine.com at $10,000. 

.Com Supporting Cast

A couple of sales from Sedo's GreatDomains premium online auction venue led the .com supporting cast with Forgive.com fetching $9,999 and Gaps.com drawing $9,800. GreatDomains also sold Myopia.com ($4,999), VXX.com ($4,650) and Institutions.com ($2,499). 

Meanwhile Sedo's main platform continued to fluorish with strong four-figure sales including RemoteScan.com ($9,750), MiddlesexCounty.com ($9,500) and ArmyShop.com ($8,100). Aethna.com added $7,800, GirlClothes.com closeted $7,500 and UmbrellaBases.com brought $7,000. 

A trio on names; InMemoriam.com, SamTech.com and TravelCube.com talled $6,000 each while Institut.com captured $5,550. Another threesome; BingoTotal.com, Mundiales.com and Soloprecios.com produced $5,200 each. Sedo had 66 more .com sales ranging from $2,000 to $5,000. You can check those out in the table below:

Back at NameJet Gooroo.com garnered $8,600 while FirstFriday.com and HotPeppers.com fired up $8,000 each. ePhysician.com prescribed $7,766, UniqueGiftBaskets.com contained $7,600 and Blizzards.com blew in $7,555. 

Babs.com buttoned up $7,200 and Lute.com landed $6,900. Buckley.com banked $6,601, ThousandOaksRealEstate.com returned $6,600 and SimiValleyRealEstate.com secured $5,900. HotelPlanet.com booked $5,700 and TeethGrinding.com tacked on $5,600.

NameJet had 31 more .com sales ranging from $2,000 to $5,500. Those are listed in the table below:

At the AfternicDLS CentralAir.com and ConvertibleCars.com cornered $8,000 apiece while three others; ElvisCostumes.com, ExperientialMarketing.com and SignatureSelect.com sold for $6,000 each. RecordQuest.com found $5,500, WeightLossFast.com trimmed $5,400 and New-Energy.com generated $5,288. 

HighNet.com and PracticalSystems.com provided $5,000 apiece, BikeMaster.com braked at $4,950 and FreedomLovers.com located $4,788. Foxo.com feasted on $4,725 while FunTickets.com and DiscoverMusic.com drummed up $4,500 each. A four-name logjam at $4,388 apiece included BehindTheHeadlines.com, OEOE.com, UniitedTravels.com and WeightPills.com. 

Over the past two weeks, the AfternicDLS had 150 more .com sales ranging from $2,000 to $4,000. Those are listed in the table below: 

The AfternicDLS also used Sedo listings to sell four more domains; Vergleich24.com ($3,188), Camescopes.com ($2,765), ProductUser.com ($2,400) and LifeInsuranceAgency.com ($2,016). 

At GoDaddy Auctions PokerGold.com raked in $5,005, Moskow.com made $2,505 and Dynamode.com discharged $2,500. 

Back at SnapNames EbonyTeen.com turned in $6,180, AdultTorrents.com downloaded $6,000 and eFlash.com earned $4,600. INSS.com kicked in $4,000, ToyCity.com cranked out $3,638 and ServiceAgreement.com grossed $3,200. BigBoobSex.com boosted $2,950, TeePees.com posted $2,659 and TwinsPass.com pulled $2,500. HalfPriceBook.com picked up $2,395 and NYTrends.com spotted $2,250.

Moniker is still closing sales from past live auctions including $9,000 for WirelessHeadphones.com (sold at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York), $7,000 for EbonyGirl.com and $6,000 for Humiliated.com (the latter two both from their last Internext auction). 

Moniker also handled the escrow for several new sales including AdultProfit.com ($9,600), SPFI.com ($6,175) and Busk.com ($4,075). CityOfDreamsMacau.com added $3,675, BDSMPAss.com pulled $3,063, HDMovie.com screened $3,062 and PHPMoney.com pitched in $2,000. 

Elsewhere Stephen Douglas of DomainRelevance.com sold SolarMechanics.com for $3,640.