Six-Figure Domain Sales Headline Blockbuster Week As Buyers Return From Holiday Break

by Ron Jackson
  

The flood of sales forced us to expand both our mainstream and new extension charts for the second time in the past 30 days. The Top Ten becomes a Top 20 this week and the New TLD chart beefs up from 8 to 10 positions with all of those hitting at least four figures.

At 400K, MyBlog.com ranks as the 8th biggest sale reported this year. It was purchased by the ClickDiario.com Network which is now a wholly owned subsidary of Livedoor Inc. ClickDiario CEO Mat�as de Tezanos, a 26-year-old wunderkind from Guatemala (who will be the subject of our December Cover Story), also accounted for this week's #3 sale, acquiring Viajando.com ("traveling" in Spanish) for $90,000 in another private transaction. Tezanos, who has never been one to let grass grow under his feet has already taken both MyBlog.com and Viajando.com live.

The Sofa.com sale was engineered by three partners in a UK start-up company that have set their sites on becoming the leading online retailer of sofas in Great Britain. Two of the partners recently sold a successful retail site at Deliverance.co.uk and the third sold a sofa related business. Group spokesman Pat Reeves told us, "We bought the domain because we will be investing a large amount of cash in the whole set up, and it seemed crazy not to try and obtain the best web address available to give the business the greatest chance of success." It took 200K to do it, but they were able to persuade the previous owner, Dinesen's Leather Only of Milwaukee to part with the domain at that price.

This week's hit parade continued with #4 FantasyArt.com which went for $36,500 at Pool.com. Enom's Club Drop took two of the next three spaces with a pair of high traffic typos; #5 MySpac.com (11,716 with the extension in Overture) at $31,600 and #7 Ebumsworld.com (10,640 with extension) at $27,100. #6 PrivateJet.com flew between those two after being picked up for $30,000 by Harvey Kaplan of HLK Enterprises, Inc. in a private transaction.

SnapNames.com had an exceptional week, placing seven entries on this week's expanded leader board. Three of those,  #9 TigerAir.com at $18,141 and a pair tied for #10; VoodooDolls.com and Conditioners.com at $16,250 each, hit the Top Ten. The only non .com in the first ten was a Hungarian country code domain, #8 Honlap.hu ("website" in Hungarian), which went for 4,000,000 Hungary florints ($18,596) at DomainABC.hu. 

.Com also dominated the second half of the chart, with the only exceptions being a Swedish ccTLD name, #14 Allsvenskan.se ("Premier Division" in Swedish) at �11,100 ($13,074), a geographic .info IDN, #16 S�dtirol.info at �8,750 ($10,308) and a nice city domain, #18 Prague.net at �8,000 ($9,424). All three of those sold at Sedo.com.

While it has been rare until recently for us to expand our Top Ten chart, the rapidly growing domain market may prompt us to permanently switch to a Top 20 chart with the New Year when we will be reorganizing our lists and adding new charts to the current lineup. We'll have more details for you on that later this month. Right now, let's take a look at the complete Big Board for the week ending December 4:

Two more names from SnapNames anchor the chart. One of those, #19 Mayspace.com is another high traffic typo that scores 3,535 with the extension in Overture. In addition to their charted domains, SnapNames had a boatload of additional winners including a pair at $8,600 each; FitnessTrainers.com and Asperger.com. Elegante.com added $8,324, Postopla.com provided $7,000 and Wikapedia.com contributed $6,743.

Mymcard.com ($6,200), NetNoir.com ($6,100) and SportFish.com ($5,100) also graced the SnapNames roster, along with CarrerBuilders.com (typo) at $4,750, HappyThreeFriends.com at $4,600 and two others at $4,200 each; PeePee.com and Hostnet.com. Just a step behind were Eboumsworld.com at $4,102 and BusinessSeminars.com at $4,100. There's still more form SnapNames! Here are another 46 sales ranging from $2,000-$3,900:

SnapNames also sold ArtsAndCrafts.net for $1,895 and BQO.net went for $1,004. You'll hear still more from them in our new extension section where they placed four domains on our New TLD chart.

Back at Sedo.com, PhotoShoot.com captured $8,500, SameDayFlowers.com delivered $8,400 and SearchAgent.com found $7,000. KillZone.com zapped $6,000, CreditScoreKit.com tallied $5,000, HuntingSeason.com bagged $4,500 and InsolvencyAdvice dispensed $4,000. 

In other extensions, Bookoo.com.cn (Chinese ccTLD) rang up �2,000 ($2,356), Agency.be (Belgium's country code) booked �1,500 ($1,767) and ClubDelTigreTono.com.mx (Mexican country code) kicked in �1,400 ($1,649). Taiwan also produced two notable sales, Notebooks.tw at �1,100 ($1,296) and Apartments.tw at �900 ($1,060). Tuning.in (India's country code) dialed up another �1,000 ($1,178). Sedo also dominated our new extension chart, taking half of the entries on that list including the first four. More on that a bit later. 

At Pool.com, TrueReligionJeans.com slipped into $7,600, AmericaVisaLottery.com drew $6,766 and typo Cartoonetwork.com took in $5,000. Another typo, AdictingGames.com scored $4,700, CheapFootballTickets.com threw for $4,600 and WAECDirect.com posted $4,500. MyOwnSpace.com made room for $4,100, InfraredCameras.com zoomed in on $3,655 and AZStateJobs.com paid $3,601.

Others lounging in the Pool included InfraredCamera.com ($3,433), Knauss.net ($3,258) and a pair of typos at $2,900 each; AdditctingGames.com and AddictiogGames.com. LinkSX.com added $2,500, CincinattiBengals.com rolled up $2,300 and Freinster.com found $2,250. AdictingGame.com commanded $2,175, AllegiantAirlines.com took off with $2,053, DeccanAirlines.com landed with $2,051 and AutomotiveZone.com popped the hood on $1,950.

At Afternic.com NailCare.com polished off $6,670, BillBennett.com brought $5,556 and PKR.org picked up $5,500. FXPoint.com hit $5,000, AmericanApartment Association.com added $4,300 and RussianCupid.com attracted $2,999. In other extensions, Seis.tv tuned in $2,700 and 45.net notched $2,606. Afternic's hit list also included iHoldem.com ($2,600) and a pair at $2,500 each; xFun.com and FirstHotel.com. TheFilmGame.com cashed a $2,444 ticket and SilverAndGold.com contributed $2,000. 

In addition to their three entries on the Big Board, Enom's Club Drop scored with AshleySimpson.com ($5,400), DinseyChannel.com ($4,900) and Wikpedia.com ($4,800). KrispyKicks.com caught $4,700, typo BoostMoblie.com banked $3,600 and vMobileNigeria.com was one of three domains at $2,600. MytMobil.com and JordanKicks.com also hit that mark. HomeHandyman.com and typo CelluarSouth.com dialed up $2,500 each and MyFantasyFootballLeague.com celebrated a $2,200 win.

In a private transaction, Castello Cities Internet Network, Inc. added Manicure.com to their already excellent portfolio and it cost them just $5,000.

****

Our Year To Date Top 60 Chart get three new members this week led by MyBlog.com which crashes the top ten after going for $400,000. Sofa.com sits in a tie for the 11th position and Viajando.com lands at #38. Our entry level rose to $60,800 this week as less expensive domains scrolled off the bottom of the chart. Here is a look at the complete 2005 YTD leader board through Dec. 4: 

New TLD Section

The new extensions shared in the market surge this week prompting us to expand our New TLD chart to ten positions so we could include all of the four and five figure sales. .Info was in top form this week taking 8 of 10 chart positions including #1 S�dtirol.info ("South Tyrol" in German) at �8,750 ($10,308), especially impressive for an IDN (International Domain Name). Speaking of impressive, how about Sedo.com? They swept the first four spots on the chart and five of the top six.

.Biz had another good week, banking $6,500 for #2 Pets.biz and �1,450 ($1,708) for #6 Churches.biz despite the apparent mismatch between the keyword and extension. .Info's other heavy hitters included #3 Uniforms.info at $3,250 and #4 Birthdays.info at $2,900. 

SnapNames.com made a strong showing this week with four chart entries, with all but one of those being top quality three-letter combinations they caught on the drop then auctioned off to the highest bidder. Those included #5 DAC.info at $2,001, #7 DCS.info at $1,550 and #10 PPP.info at $1,010. Here is a look at the complete New TLD leader board for the week ending Dec. 4:

The other entries on this week's chart were #9 PeakPerformance.info, sold by TheNameStore.com for $1,200 and Torrent.info which went for $1,110 at SnapNames. In uncharted new extension sales, Carbohydrate.us and Carbohydrates.us sold for $750 each at Afternic while Nutritionist.info and AnneMarie.info went for $700 each in private sales. 

Also, Nicos Evmides picked up FAQ.biz at DNForum.com for $640 and HardDisk.info brought $540 at SnapNames where BPS.info added another $509, UpSkirts.info attracted $490 and NSD.info sold for $421. Dale Porter of TheNameStore.com made a couple of extra sales at Sedo, releasing CanadaPharmacy.info for $500 and Personalized.info for $375.

Our Year-To-Date New TLD Top 50 chart gets two new members this week. S�dtirol.info joins the club at #14 after going for over $10,000 and Pets.biz finds a home at #22. The entry level for this chart rose to $3,500 this week. Here are 2005's highest reported new extension sales through Dec. 4:

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.

Copyright 2005 � DNJournal.com 
A Division of Internet Edge, Inc.
(copying of any material from this site without written consent is strictly prohibited)