3-Letter .COM Sells for $1.4 Million in Cash and Stock to Pour Gas on Red Hot Domain Market

by Ron Jackson
  

Many press reports about this deal will cite only the $1.4 million total package value. However, as we learned in the hot late 90's domain market, stock does not always equate to an equivalent dollar value. Many of the blockbuster deals reported a few years back were largely based on stock. When the bubble burst and the stock had to be liquidated, sellers often found themselves actually receiving 10 cents or less on the dollar from the announced selling price of their domain. For that reason, when we chart sales we use only the cash component of the deal when ranking the transaction while noting the other considerations involved. 

When stock comes along as part of the deal, there is often a requirement that the recipient not sell for a certain period of time. That (and in the case of VIP.com, future delivery of additional shares), makes it impossible to know what the real value of the stock will be in the end. That is not to minimize the VIP.com deal in any way as it is a truly major sale. We just want you to know why you will see this domain (and others sold in similarly structured deals) ranked on our weekly and year to date charts according to cash paid on the day the transaction closed. Of course, in terms of our weekly chart, the point is moot. The 600K is more than enough to give VIP.com a very important place on the Big Board - #1 - and by a wide margin.

When you look at the right hand column on this week's Top Ten chart, another story that will jump out at you is Sedo.com's almost complete dominance of our new list. CEO Matt Bentley's crew was hitting on all cylinders as they swept all but two spots on the leader board. After VIP.com's chart-topping performance, Sedo would have run the table if it wasn't for SnapNames.com slipping into the #6 slot with Envisage.com at $16,250. Sedo's power hitters were #2 eBaby.com at $60,000, #3 Join.com at $40,000 and #4 SecureConnect.com at $25,000. SecureConnect.com is a story in itself. Starting with their acquisition of the Ultimate Search portfolio last year, Marchex, Inc. has been on a buying binge. They rarely let a domain go, but somehow Sedo became the first broker to get them to part with a name, the aforementioned SecureConnect.com.

A couple of other Sedo sales of special interest were #5 D�fiscalisation.com and #7 SMS.se. As you can see by the special character in D�fiscalisation.com, that is an International Domain Name (IDN). We haven't seen many significant sales of those, but the �10,000 ($17,669) paid for this domain might spark some new interest. SMS.se, a Swedish country code domain, went for an eye opening �13,500 ($16,217), continuing an increasingly impressive run for that ccTLD.

Things were hopping on the new TLD (.info, .biz and .us) side of the ledger as well, with Business.us commanding some major money. We'll save the details on that and some other encouraging new extension news for the New TLD section coming up a bit later. First we want to give you a look at the complete leader board for the week ending Sunday, Sept. 25 and run down the dozens of other sizzling sales we've seen over the past seven days:

Sedo completed their romp in the park with Xbet.com and IIS.net tying for 8th place at $15,000 each and a nice British country code domain, Creative.co.uk, anchoring the chart at �7,000 ($17,669). 

Afternic.com had a strong week as well with their list including a pair of five-figure domains that finished just shy of the chart. Those were BrandIndex.com at $10,500 and Cheap-Tickets.com at $10,000 (so much for hyphens killing value)!  Afternic's winners also included Quixote.com ($9,000), CaseStudies.com ($6,000) and Jyco.com ($5,588). LiveLobsters.com pinched $5,000, DailySex.com aroused $4,500 and LCD.tv gave the Tuvalu country code a nice $4,200 sale. A two-number .net, 93.net, attracted a four-number price, $3,900. FlexCables.com wrapped up $3,000 and CMPS.com commanded $2,888 while StandardMedical.com and MNACreative.com went for $2,500 apiece. Acutronics.com accounted for $2,200, followed by a trio of names at $2,000 each; WirelessVision.com, SexyFilms.com and DailySportsbook.com. 

SnapNames earned a basket full of blue ribbons to go along with their latest Top Ten trophy. The All-Stars on their roster included ShaveDice.com ($7,015), CatLovers.com ($6,211), BabyCam.com ($6,100) and Lasantabiblia.com ($5,133). GoldWeddingBands.com brought $4,200, DallasFlorist.com delivered $3,999 and WineStorageRacks.com popped $3,650. GirlMagazines.com showed off $3,199, FirstBible.com booked $3,122 and two others, InternetCompanies.com and BrideHairstyles.com brushed up $3,100 each.

Also at SnapNames, TodaysKids.com and OilHistory.com pumped out $3,099 each. HawaiiMoving.com transported $2,700, Logo-Mojo.com logged $2,600 and ChicksRockChicksVote.com cast a $2,500 ballot. A pair of .nets also did well with SLA.net selling for $2,450 and 2E.net totaling $2,351. PantyParty.com pulled $2,300, GoldenPond.com produced a $2,256 ripple and SkiHotels.com lifted $2,150. Another group at $2,050 each included TheWatchWarehouse.com, TeensHitchhikers.com and eRealEstateOne.com. ProfessionalChoice.com ($2,000) and Crankcase.com ($1,800) were also among the notables at SnapNames.

Of course there was more to Sedo's story as well (as if having eight Top Ten domain in one week wasn't enough)! They also scored with Uploading.com and RingbackTone.com at �8,000 ($9,609) each, Nanolife.com at $8,500, FreeFlow.com at $7,500 and CommodityTrading.com at $7,000. Of course every Sedo sales list is studded with major country code deals. This week those included Bookmarks.de at �6,500 ($7,808), Paket-Abholung.de ("packet pickup" in German) at �5,000 ($6,006) and Telly.co.uk at �2,500 ($4,417). They also hit with more obscure extensions, attracting $4,500 for Vegas.cc (Cocos Keeling Islands ccTLD), �1,000 ($1,201) for Kasino.pl (Poland's country code) and $1,000 for Loans.name. Back in more familiar territory, Odds.net raked in �5,500 ($6,607) and QJ.net sold for $5,000. Markt.org ("market" in German) made �5,050 ($6,066) and VT.org tallied $5,556.

At DotcomAgency.com, AdhesiveMagnets.com attracted $5,000 and ExchangeLists.com traded for $3,000. DotcomAgency was also the seller of FlexCables.com, which as you saw above, went for $3,000 at Afternic. At Enom's Club Drop, SAAQ.com bagged $4,600, OnlineBooty.com shook $4,300 and CorporateGiftBaskets.com contained $3,700. Club drop also got a $1,700 judgment from CriminalLawyers.net. Our next stop is at Pool.com where CantTouchThis.com copped $3,600 and a typo, FreeMuisc.com hit a $3,350 high note. $2,900 sparkled from BlingBling.net with EuroBridesTryouts.com contributing another $2,600. Pool's list was rounded out with DHLJobs.com at $2,161, HotTattoos.com at $2,022 and Canasa.com at $1,600. Ebay got into the act this week as well with Partying.com changing hands there for $5,101.

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Our Year To Date Top 60 chart gets two new members this week. VIP.com was a shoe-in of course. As we noted above, the potential value of this deal is well over $1 million but so far only $600,000 in cash has changed hands, so for ranking purposes this one comes in at #4.  eBaby.com was our other inductee, landing in a tie for #42 at $60,000. Here is a look at the complete 2005 leader board through September 25: 

New TLD Section

This was one of the biggest news weeks ever for new extensions, but unfortunately a lot of what occurred will not be reflected in the sales chart. In what was almost certainly the biggest .us sale this year (and possibly ever), Business.us was sold at GreatDomains for a very strong mid $XX,XXX price. The domain was sold under a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) but from what I have been able to gather, it seems very likely that the final number was in the $50,000-$75,000 range. Hot on the heels of that deal is another major .us sale that is about to be completed at Sedo. We have been asked to keep the details on that one confidential until everything is done but we expect to be able to tell you all about it next week. 

While .us has had more high dollar sales than .info or .biz this year, .info continues to lead in the overall number of reported sales. The 4-letter extension had another very strong week this week. In fact Sedo told us they had three .info sales above the $4,500 mark but could not identify the domains due to NDA's. Even with four major sales kept under wraps, there were four more four-figure sales that were made public, with the top two being nice one-word .info's. Cryptography.info went for $3,100 in spirited bidding at SnapNames and Contractors.info was sold to a French buyer for $2,500 in a private transaction.

.Biz also rang up a pair of four-figure sales, #3 Carports.biz at �1,200 ($1,442) and #4 PTG.biz at �1,000 ($1,201). Both of those were sold at Sedo, a venue that accounted for five of the eight sales on our new extension chart. The .us cheese binge that started last week with three cheese related domain sales at Afternic continued this week with #5 Gouda.us going for �550 ($661) at Sedo. Here is a look at the complete New TLD leader board for the week ending Sept. 25:

A .us and a pair of .infos rounded out this week's list. I sold #6 eShop.us for $525 at Sedo where I also have a four-figure .us currently in escrow. MediaLine.info also changed hands there for �400 ($480). Launch.info anchored the chart after going for $440 at SnapNames. 

With the entry fee for our New TLD Year-To-Date chart currently set at $2,500, two new members qualified this week. Cryptography.info settles in at #35 and Contractors.info slipped into a tie for the final position on the board.  Here are 2005's highest reported new extension sales through Sept. 25:

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 represented on our charts who share their sales information with us to help everyone in the business get a handle on current domain values. Individuals like Richard Meyer of the American Marketing Corporation also provide invaluable help by sending us 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 publication to give you the freshest sales report in the industry. 

We will close with this standard caution. These are not average selling prices - these are top selling domains. One of the biggest impediments to making sales is pricing domains at unrealistic levels. For most of us, pricing domains at the levels achieved on the Top Ten chart will leave us waiting a long time to make a sale! We hope you will use the information presented here as a measuring stick that will help you price your domains at levels that will put more money in your pocket more often!

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

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