Joseph Peterson reviews the past week in expired domain name sales.
Turns out this is my 100th article for DomainNameWire.com. Saying “Domain.TLD sold for $$$ because ???, implying Blah” – that’s the easy part. What’s tricky, as a writer, is finding ways to vary that sentence 50 times in a row without going nuts. Harder still: inventing transitions to move through the sentences. After all, looking at a list of prices in descending order, there really are no segues. “Flow” is hard to achieve. With 100+ domains to cover, reports tend to be dense; and the natural structure is flat and monotonous. Yet varying the pace only adds to the length of the journey! Fortunately, while I grapple with making the unreadable readable, busy people can cut loose and skim the tables.
NameJet’s top 3 expired domain sales last week were all English, followed by Chinese in slots 4 & 5. Parent companies / umbrella brands often go for names that suggest unity yet broad universality. We saw that with Google’s Alphabet. It’s true of Unilever, Frank Schilling’s “Uniregistry”, and equally true of UniPress.com. Yes, it’s a good name; but no, the intrinsic value of that domain isn’t $8.6k on the wholesale market. Supply and demand, though. That domain might upgrade several websites, all of which are competing to be seen and remembered: UnipressCorp.com, GetUnipress.com, UnipressSoftware.com, Unipress.co.uk, etc.
Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
---|---|---|---|
UniPress.com | 8605 | LeatherJacket.com | 6876 |
StaffTraining.com | 4600 | HG882.com | 4420 |
ChengJie.com | 3920 | FirstGov.com | 3350 |
GoldenCoast.com | 3145 | FanMedia.com | 3100 |
KunTou.com | 3100 | TIPS.org | 2605 |
TDI.org | 2555 | HG7077.com | 2109 |
LALawyers.com | 2000 | Landmark Homes.com |
1700 |
LALawyers.com was a bargain at $2k. Altogether, L.A. lawyers probably billed more than that in the time it took you to blink. Considering how many people work as staff employees somewhere and how frequently requirements and faces change, there’s money in StaffTraining.com ($4.6k). Coincidentally, KunTou.com ($3.1k) is Japanese for “education”or “training”; but the buyer is Chinese. (Japan remains strangely absent from the domain market.) ChengJie.com ($3.9k) may be a personal name or some broader topic; mostly I find people named Jie Cheng rather than the reverse.
“HG” prefixes like the 2 above have also popped up here and here and here, for starters. But mostly it’s the many 4-letter .COMs and 5-7 digit numerics where you’ll find Chinese buyers in the charts below. Words interest me more than character sequences. Take Pergament.com ($910), for instance. That’s actually a variant of “parchment”, which preceded paper. And the buyer might be either a real estate company or an investment fund. Meanwhile, Yamas.com ($1.0k) and Peruvian llamas are not related; rather, Yamas would be a Hindu system of ethics.
Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
---|---|---|---|
ERNO.com | 1500 | CBM.net | 1410 |
GreenCraft.com | 1400 | OSRE.com | 1350 |
BabysFirst.com | 1300 | Yamas.com | 1021 |
WCBA.com | 931 | Pergament.com | 910 |
Student Ambassadors.org |
820 | SRHS.org | 819 |
NanoBusiness.org | 800 | Retra.com | 785 |
HCFB.com | 730 | Women- Alive.org |
730 |
TEPG.com | 729 | 930999.com | 708 |
MasterBall.com | 704 | LoveSun.com | 691 |
GreenCraft.com ($1.4k) is one of 8 or more “green” domains to have sold at NameJet between $1k and $10k so far during 2015. We saw the second highest last week and the highest back in May. Not surprising, since 100% of all our lives are subsumed in the environment; and “green” is one helluva shortcut for “sustainable” (4 syllables) or “environmentally friendly” (8 syllables)!
BabysFirst.com ($1.3k) might struggle with ambiguity. Then again, context clarifies whether we’re talking about a “baby’s first” step / word / fender bender or putting “babies first”. WashingtonUniversity.com ($601) seems better than WUSTL.edu. (Counterintuitively, they’re located in St. Louis, Missouri, not Washington.)
Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
---|---|---|---|
ProjectEarth.net | 630 | FMON.com | 614 |
Washington University.com |
601 | ScoutUSA.com | 601 |
StarCinema.com | 598 | SecurityLight.com | 591 |
YHHQ.com | 581 | CancerSource.com | 580 |
BigMeal.com | 574 | FireBird Raceway.com |
570 |
EVGE.com | 557 | Industrial Pumps.com |
541 |
Anfim.com | 530 | YYOY.com | 510 |
XCDG.com | 500 | MXMY.com | 500 |
Bires.com | 498 | ThePumping Station.com |
475 |
271333.com | 469 | TBFJ.com | 460 |
NPSY.com | 460 | GlobalVisions.com | 454 |
MHPR.com | 452 | TroubledWith.com | 450 |
BossModels.com | 450 | Z4S.com | 445 |
Anfim.com ($530) may be intended as an upgrade for a coffee grinder, whereas Bires.com ($498) is a surname used in several websites, including that of race car driver Kelly Bires. Speaking of racing, FireBirdRaceway.com ($570) matches the name of an Idaho facility using FireBirdOnline.com. Several pump domains also sold: IndustrialPumps.com ($541), IndustrialPump.com ($231), and ThePumpingStation.com ($475). But the biggest cluster of domains was centered around assisted living; at least 9 sold – 5 of them between $300-$400.
Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
---|---|---|---|
ASBH.com | 440 | IndianCrafts.com | 438 |
BLRD.com | 430 | Digital Musician.com |
429 |
SocialMedia Campaign.com |
410 | T8R.com | 410 |
Rat-Dog.com | 405 | Philadelphia AssistedLiving.com |
400 |
SmileyVault.com | 390 | FuelGauge.com | 389 |
ProtoCom.com | 370 | BloodHounds.org | 350 |
LawsOfForm.org | 350 | Boston AssistedLiving.com |
330 |
8884888.com | 319 | AirFranc.com | 310 |
OBBF.com | 310 | Charlotte AssistedLiving.com |
310 |
Opera.info | 301 | StLouis AssistedLiving.com |
300 |
Detroit AssistedLiving.com |
300 | Talfazat.com | 295 |
Week to week, the amount of data collected varies; but the TLD distribution is very consistent. .ORG is doing quite well. I count 12 sales within these charts – 2 above $2.5k and 4 more above $700, three of which are 2-worders. .NET shows up with 4 sales, including an LLL it placed at $1.4k. Usually .NET and .ORG are the only 2 TLDs to feature here apart from .COM, but last week a number of expired .INFOs drew fire from bidders. These 6 included quality single words like Universities.info ($265), Paranormal.info ($238), and Opera.info ($301):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eZLPU3mpBQ
That’s a clue about the meaning of Talfazat.com ($295) = تلفزات . Quite undervalued. Quite.
Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
---|---|---|---|
ALOE.info | 285 | WriterTools.com | 285 |
VoxPhoto.com | 280 | IZODCenter.com | 280 |
OEVA.com | 266 | Universities.info | 265 |
BVMC.com | 264 | MagicMe.com | 258 |
AntiTerrorism.org | 245 | CTEQ.com | 244 |
Paranormal.info | 238 | LYLV.com | 232 |
Industrial Pump.com |
231 | HamFish.org | 225 |
CSCMail.net | 221 | SinoPro.com | 220 |
EnergyNet.net | 211 | TCQA.com | 210 |
FutureInfo.com | 210 | ATMolor.org | 210 |
WriterTools.com ($285) is a nice, straightforward domain. AntiTerrorism.org ($245) reminds me of the MUCH higher sale of CounterTerrorism.com in May. Looks like that’s the very subject currently being tweeted about by someone named Hamilton Fish, whose twitter handle matches HamFish.org ($225). I don’t know wether the SinoPro companies on .CN or .TW bid for or will buy SinoPro.com ($220). However, if you’d like some FutureInfo.com ($210), here are some predictions:
Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
---|---|---|---|
58404.com | 209 | Remarker.com | 209 |
DataConf.com | 209 | Vermundo.com | 195 |
56486.com | 181 | QLAT.com | 180 |
Spectrum Pacific.com |
179 | 81784.com | 177 |
VBDotNet Heaven.com |
175 | HOSX.com | 165 |
FamilyCareGivers Online.com |
161 | VDLR.com | 159 |
VFDI.com | 159 | Aigam.com | 159 |
DanFissel.com | 157 | LColby.com | 152 |
AtrixLabs.com | 141 | DYAW.com | 141 |
Experimental Cinema.com |
140 | IvanaTrump.com | 140 |
12Seba.com | 139 | QatarInvest.com | 129 |
CarlLevin.com | 125 | DirtyBlue Media.com |
125 |
UCQF.com | 112 | KevinSeconds.com | 110 |
Lots of personal names in that $100 – $150 range: Dan Fissel, L. Colby, Carl Levin, Kevin Seconds, even Ivana Trump, former wife of Donald Trump. There appear to be at least 2 travel sites using the name Vermundo – one on .DE and another on .RO; so Vermundo.com ($195) may go to either (or neither) of them. SpectrumPacific.com ($179) matches an existing e-learning company currently using the .ORG.
Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
---|---|---|---|
JVSM.com | 100 | OrangeNYC.com | 99 |
RXGE.com | 99 | InRadio.com | 99 |
Cash-Money.com | 99 | Grandmother Clocks.com |
99 |
W-Water.com | 95 | OJVQ.com | 91 |
WindKraft.info | 90 | GrandLake Webs.com |
90 |
BeidaBiz.com | 90 | TutoWeb.com | 89 |
RazmeSinai.com | 81 | HumanInteract.org | 80 |
YuzBasi.com | 80 | TexasToolBox.com | 79 |
SessionWare.com | 79 | MagnetMotors.com | 79 |
Wholesalers.info | 79 | 789QX.com | 79 |
Buffalo AssistedLiving.com |
70 | Tennessee AssistedLiving.com |
70 |
Pennsylvania AssistedLiving.com |
70 | DayCaseBeer.com | 69 |
Personal Locker.com |
69 | Payments Service.com |
69 |
Missouri AssistedLiving.com |
69 |
Gender equality made progress last week as Saudi Arabian women won the right to vote. While it may not be as crucial, it’s still nice to see someone making a case for GrandmotherClocks.com ($99).
Howie. says
I’ve always had a recall problem with uniregistry.
Thanks for the opera and the classic 90s Enfield
Joseph Peterson says
So much British comedy beyond Mr. Python and Monty Bean …
Jen says
Actually Ivana Trump is Trump’s daughter. Ivanka is his first wife’s name.
Unless the buyer IS Ivana Trump, I think the buyer has bought a heap of trouble, given that Ms Trump is quite active in the Trump businesses.
Joseph Peterson says
Whichever Trump Ivana is, the buyer is more likely to see a UDRP than a sale. Donald Trump is no stranger to that process and has won quite a few UDRPs.
Wikipedia says Ivana is the mother and Ivanka the daughter.
Jen says
Yes, you are right. Ivana is the ex-wife.
Doh to me.
🙂
Absolutely this domain is potential trouble for the buyer, which is why it didn’t realize a high price.
Joseph Peterson says
No problem. I love it when people point out when I’m wrong. 90% of the time, I am.
Maggie says
OMG, I didn’t expect to see classic Harry Enfield on DNW! Loved it. Thanks Joseph!
Joseph Peterson says
My fingers are always crossed for domains that will give me an excuse to cram his genius in.