Flood of Completed Live Auction Sales Put Dozens of High Dollar Domain Deals on the Books

Dozens of sales from the recent SnapNames Live auction at the DOMAINfest Global conference in Hollywood, California were completed over the past week, adding a lot of muscle to our new sales charts. As we have done in the past when special event sales produce a huge block of transactions, we are expanding our usual Top 20 chart to 40 positions. Even that move does not make room for all of the five-figure and higher sales reported as 73 transactions at that lofty level were concluded. 

Seven domains, led by #1 Porn.net at $400,000, broke the six-figure barrier. SnapNames accounted for five of the seven with Moniker.com having a hand in the other two. Moniker sold runner-up 173.com for $302,790 and handled the escrow for the private sale that saw #6 FruitBaskets.com go to a new owner for $142,500. For the second week in a row, Moniker also announced they brokered a $4 million developed website sale. This time it was Bored.com - the week before it was FreePorn.com. After being acquired by Oversee.net last month, Moniker appears to be stronger than ever and they are clicking on all cylinders right now. 

By Ron Jackson

There were a quartet of nice geodomains on the elite list, led by #7 Yemen.com at $100,000 and #8 FollyBeach.com at $98,000. The latter domain was sold through Rick Latona's new blog/sales site RickLatona.com. Latona has long been one of the most active players in the aftermarket - both as a buyer and as a seller. By formalizing his sales operation and basing it at RickLatona.com he immediately establishes an important sales venue. RickLatona.com put four names on the leader board and the site had three more five-figure deals just of the chart. In Latona's system, you sign up for at his site for free daily emails in which he offers high quality domain names at below market prices. He has a huge portfolio that allows him to do this and from my personal observation, he has indeed been offering a lot of bargains - many of which are snapped up as soon as his daily email goes out.

Speaking of geodomains, that subject is front and center in our new February Cover Story about one  of the real giants in that sector - Dan Pulcrano of Boulevards New Media. Pulcrano owns an astonishing portfolio that includes 20 of the 30 largest .com U.S. city domains, including LosAngeles.com, SanFrancisco.com and Philadelphia.com. As both a traditional print publisher and a web publisher Pulcrano also provides unique insight into the forces that have created the current boom for domain names and web publishers. If you haven't read it already, I would urge you to check it out as I think you will find your time very well spent.

Great Britain's .co.uk country continues to show solid growth. Three more .co.uks hit the Big Board this week, led by the £38,500 ($75,360) sale of 4X4.co.uk in a private transaction. The buyer was Internet Media Consultants SA, A Swiss company that already operates a popular site devoted to four-wheel drive vehicles at 4X4.com. The only other non .com domains on the all-extension chart are a trio of .nets, a .org and a .mobi.

Here is how all of the top sellers stacked up for the week ending Sunday, February 10:

There were 32 more five-figure sales just off the chart with 20 of those coming from SnapNames. You can check those out in the table below:

Also cracking the five-figure mark were two from RickLatona.com; AlamedaCounty.com ($15,000) and Medics.com ($13,500). The AfternicDLS sold Jetting.com ($18,150), GoFar.com ($13,000), BioSelect.com ($12,000), BComm.com ($12,000) and SinglesChat.net ($10,000). At Sedo.com, Typhon.com tallied $15,000 and FMO.fr fetched $11,662 while VirtualCash.com and LadyEntertainers.com landed $10,000 each. At Pool.com, Video.us yielded $18,500 (more on that in our Country Code section a bit later on). 

.Com Supporting Cast

All of those high dollar sales were supplemented by hundreds of solid four-figure sales this week. At NameJet.com, ParadiseHomes.com produced $9,800, SkinRashes.com scratched up $9,769 and HeartStrings.com pulled $5,110. UpInSmoke.com inhaled $5,000 and PersonalCreditService.com secured $2,958.

Also at NameJet, BioCheck.com discovered $2,751, PersonalLawyer.com posted $2,700 and GreenBar.com banked $2,600. 5882.com counted out $2,100 while EscortsIndex.com and Duero.com delivered $2,100 each and Edgeemu.com added $2,000. 

You may recall that when pioneer dropcatcher SnapNames lost their exclusive contract to sell expiring Network Solutions domains last year some said that was a death blow for the company. I predicted otherwise, writing in our Lowdown section (scroll to bottom of page) on Oct. 1st that the company would reinvent itself as an aftermarket power foucsed on live auctions. They have not only done that, they have blown way past my expectations. Of course their cause was helped by being acquired by Oversee.net who further strengthened the SnapNames brand by buying the leading live auction company, Moniker, and combining its expertise with the new SnapNames Live brand. It has been a fascinating transformation to observe and the results speak for themselves.

In addition to dominating the leader board this week, SnapNames generated a truck load of solid four-figure sales. 3366.com crunched $9,500 while Interpersonal.com and LoveTrain.com arrived at the station with $9,000 each onboard. Greenhousing.com planted $8,750 while four other names; JobFacts.com, Jalopy.com, GamerPC.com and FactoryJobs.com fetched $7,500 each. ZYT.com and ChickenFingers.com fried up $7,000 each while HealthCareRecords.com and GameCatalog.com displayed $6,000 apiece. Other SnapNames winners included StarterHouses.com ($5,883), SEOMarketingTips.com ($5,500) and CollectibleStamps.com ($5,350). 

SnapNames had 59 more sales ranging from $2,000  to $5,000. You can check those out in the table below:

Back at Sedo, LYQ.com captured €5,500 ($8,019) and Though.com drew $7,950. Locative.com found $7,400, StarsOfPoker.com dealt out $6,000 and SpecialReport.com revealed $5,100. LargestMall.com housed $3,600, Sourcea.com sold for $3,000 and Fazzini.com feasted on $2,750. DirectDeposits.com booked $2,550 and SunglassStudio.com shielded $2,500.

The AfternicDLS had another very active week with a long list of winners. They sold  KneeSurgeons.com via Sedo for $8,770, SecureCapital.com for $6,088 and two others; WrapCity.com and Klober.com for $6,000 each. There was a quartet of names at $5,000 apiece that included WindPark.com, PeopleCentral.com, Ellyn.com and EggSoftware.com. 

GotCredit.com gained $4,800, Malaka.com made $4,588 and WBBE.com claimed $4,587. ReservationsEurope.com held a spot for $4,570, GetHomes.com got $4,488, MarineExchange.com cleared $4,390 and XXAA.com added $4,088. The Afternic DLS had 99 more .com sales ranging from $2,000 to $4,000 that are listed in the table below.