Domain Sales Explode With a $3 Million Sale and Four 6-Figure Sales Logged Over Past Two Weeks

Americans expect to see fireworks on July 4th but they arrived more than a month early in the domain aftermarket with the top five sales alone totaling more than $4 million over the past two weeks. The boom has actually been going on all year. As I noted in a talk at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West conference in Las Vegas last week, total dollar volume for sales reported to us in the first quarter of this year was up 47% over the same quarter a year ago (I'll be sharing all of the data I talked about at the show in a pair of upcoming newsletters).

Since I was away for T.R.A.F.F.I.C. there was no sales column last week, but I will bring you completely up to date on all sales reported since our last report with this double length edition. We are also expanding our usual Top 20 Charts to 40 positions each to accommodate the double dose of data.   

By Ron Jackson

Sex.xxx led the sales parade over the past two week's with the ICM Registry's blockbuster $3 million sale of that domain to Barron Innovations (a major operator of adult websites). ICM, who operates the .xxx registry, also sold Barron a group of more than 40 other .xxx domains for an additional $2 million. Sex.xxx becomes the biggest non .com domain sale of the year and the third biggest sale in any extension. As most of you know, the biggest all cash domain sale ever reported also included the keyword sex with Sex.com changing hands for $13 million.

That chart topper was followed by a quartet of impressive six-figure sales led by DataCenter.com, a domain that was acquired by XBT Holding Ltd. for $500,000 in a private transaction. Heritage Auctions filled the #3 slot with LK.com, a sale that closed at $287,500 after the name was auctioned off in their April domain and IP event.

The fortnight's biggest ccTLD sale (and one of the year's 10 biggest in that category), #4 Kaffee.de ("coffee" in German) continued the six-figure onslaught with Sedo collecting $136,000 for that domain. NameJet rounded out the fab five with Liao.com at $100,000. 

The .coms had a dominant outing, sweeping 35 of the 41 chart entries (the extra spot resulted from a six-way tie for the final position). If the arrival of new gTLDs has affected .com in any way, it is certainly not showing in the aftermarket results. I noted above that total dollar sales volume in 1Q-2014 for all extensions was up 47% year over year, but if you break out .com sales alone they outperformed the overall market soaring 60% over the same quarter in 2013.

The ccTLDs and non .com gTLDs had three chart entries each, with the country codes putting a second name in the top ten - #10 Moda.tv, a name that was sold by Legacy Fund LLC for $30,000. The non .com gTLDs put a second name in the top 20 with the $20,125 sale of Smart.org through Heritage Auctions coming in at #18. 

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

There were ten more five-figure sales off the chart led by Sedo's $11,688 sale of MyMart.com. They also moved JobBoerse.berlin for $10,880, Zweitbank.de for $10,200 and Gero.com for $10,001. 

Go Daddy/Afternic added $11,500 for eMailSignatures.com and $10,000 each for Awesome.de and Sendle.com. 

NameJet notched $10,400 for UTH.com and $10,100 for IPSA.com while NetFleet.com.au banked $10,276 for SouthernCross.com.au. 

.Com Supporting Cast

Go Daddy/Afternic led the .com supporting cast of four-figure .com sales with a pair of $9,999 sales, one for 11X.com and the other PIWY.com. Obert.com added $9,500, 1MI.com made $9,022 and CrimpingTools.com cracked $9,000.

SurfsideVacationRentals.com returned $8,900 while NantucketInns.com and VideoScale.com drew $8,000 each. Autosurance.com and StorageDeals.com attracted $7,500 apiece, PetFeeder.com posted $7,277 and MOLV.com kicked in $6,700.

Go Daddy/Afternic had 176 more four-figure .com sales ranging from $2,000 to $6,500 that are listed in the table below:

Back at Sedo, Impactful.com produced $9,999 while Brintelix.com and Brintellex.com tallied $9,995 each. YNK.com contributed $8,999, BestSublimation.com brought $8,500 and three others - LAReserve.com, PremierArtists.com and YHS.com sold for $8,000 apiece.

FarmersFirst.com harvested $7,507 and MobileBridge.com spanned $7,000. XCourt.com and GreenEurope.com yielded $6,800 each while DentalCard.com drilled $6,799.

Sedo had 87 more four-figure .com sales ranging from $2,000 to $6,500 that are listed in the table below:

Numerical names were popular at NameJet where 1258.com captured $9,086, 9526.com secured $8,501 and 6044.com fetched $8,478. Mendez.com corralled $8,111, followed by three more numeric domains: 8752.com ($7,800), 0281.com ($7,700) and 4178.com ($6,766). 

TYV.com commanded $6,707, OJX.com clicked for $6,075 and SilverLine.com landed $6,000. Farallon.com found $5,800 and 2748.com dialed up $5,655.

NameJet had 39 more four-figure sales ranging from $2,100 to $5,600 that are listed in the table below:

More sales from the Heritage Auctions event in April were also closed, including a long string of three-letter .coms: YLQ.com ($8,625), JHY.com ($8,050), JMO.com ($8,050), ZHL.com ($7,475), HQG.com ($6,900), NQZ.com ($6,900), WHJ.com ($6,900), KYU.com (sold for Sedo at $6,900) and XKU.com ($5,750). 

HA also moved GradedCoins.com for $4,600, MercuryMan.com for $2,990 and DiamondExperts.com for $2,070.

Elsewhere, Flippa.com sold Callback.com for $7,000 and Fat City Properties unloaded FindALocal.com for $4,320. 

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