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The
All-Time Top 20 All-Cash Domain Sales Reported By
DNJournal.com (2003 to Now)
Editor's
Note: DN Journal can not vouch
for domain sales reported before we started
tracking and verifying aftermarket sales in late
2003. Many of the sales reported prior to that
were not cash deals (payment was often made, at
least partially, with stock that declined
dramatically in value) and some of the reports
were simply bogus. Since no one was checking, it
was something some unscrupulous people would do in
an effort to pump up the perception of value in a
keyword string or TLD they had a financial
interest in.
We
track sales of domain names only - not
developed website domains as the value of the name
only cannot be separated from other developed
assets such as sales of products or services,
customer lists and the cost of the development
itself which can be considerable (just as building
a home on an undeveloped lot in real estate adds
value to it).
This
page was last updated October 30, 2024 after the
sale of #4 Rocket.com at $14 million. The chart will remain
current until another sale occurs that is
large enough to break into this elite list. That
will not happen often as publicly reported sales
at this level are not common occurrences.
Editor's
Notes: In February 2015 we
reported that 360.com had been
sold with China's Qihoo Technology buying
the domain from Vodafone. While a number of
sites have reported the domain sold for $17
million (citing anonymous sources that may or
may not be credible) that has not been
officially confirmed by the buyer, seller or
any other party directly involved in the sale. Until
it is we will not be able to chart the sale
(even though we think that given the quality of
the domain and the deep pockets of Qihoo it is
quite possible it did sell for the $17 million
figure being bandied about, or something close to
it).
In
April 2017 it was reported
that Wal-Mart acquired the category killing
Shoes.com domain name, but the price paid
wasn't known until Elliot Silver at DomainInvesting.com
and George
Kirikos worked together to dig out the
details of what turned out to be a $9 million
deal. George posted links
to bankruptcy court filings that revealed how much
money changed hands. He noted that some minor
domain names, minor TMs and social media accounts
of minimal value were included in the transaction.
Those prevent us from charting it as an all cash
domain sale but there is little doubt Wal-Mart
would have paid the full $9 million for the
Shoes.com domain alone which would have ranked as
the 6th highest sale ever reported, making the
transaction worthy of special note here.
One
other note - we frequently see other top domain
sales lists around the web that include domains
that were sold as part of entire revenue producing
businesses with the business revenues accounting
for much of the price paid. Those are NOT
domain only sales and do not belong on lists of
the top prices paid for domain names. Some of the
most common ones that mistakenly get reported
as domain sales are Insurance.com ($35.6 million
for a business not a domain name) and
VacationRentals.com ($35 mlllion, ditto). Others,
like PrivateJet.com fell into the stock or
cash/stock camp (it was purported to be a $30.18
million deal that involved cash and stock in an
unknown combination). Even Wikipedia lists those
three and also has Vegas.com as the #1 sale - but
that sale has not even been completed - it is
being paid off in annual installments with many
years of payments still to go. |
The
20 biggest cash domain sales ever reported
by DNJournal.com |
1.
Voice.com
|
$30,000,000 |
|
11.
HealthInsurance.com |
$8,133,000 |
2.
Chat.com
|
$15,500,000 |
12.
We.com |
$8,000,000 |
3.
NFTs.com
|
$15,000,000 |
13.
Diamond.com |
$7,500,000 |
4.
Rocket.com
|
$14,000,000 |
14.
Z.com |
$6,784,000 |
5.
Sex.com
|
$13,000,000 |
15.
Slots.com
|
$5,500,000 |
6. Tesla.com
|
$11,000,000 |
16.
Toys.com
|
$5,100,000 |
7.
Connect.com |
$10,000,000 |
17.
Clothes.com |
$4,900,000 |
8.
Porn.com |
$9,500,000 |
18.
IG.com |
$4,700,000 |
9.
Porno.com |
$8,888,888 |
19.
AV.com |
$4,176,922* |
10.
Gold.com |
$8,515,000 |
20.
IT.com |
$3,800,000 |
**19. AV.com transaction was closed in
English pounds at £3,013,000. At the time
of the sale in 2021 the exchange rate was
$1.3863 for £1.00 - making the USD value
of the transaction $4,176,922.
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