by Ron Jackson
When Chris Chena acquired Paraguay.com for $150,000 three weeks ago, more than one major player mentioned to me privately that they wished they could have gotten the domain for that price. Well, this week someone did almost as well, acquiring the .com for Paraguay’s South American neighbor, Uruguay, at Sedo.com . The new owner paid a bit more than Chena, parting with $175,000 for the privilege of owning Uruguay.com. That ranks as the third biggest sale reported in 2005 (topped only by Local.com at $700,000 and Chat.de at just over $470,000).
Uruguay.com was the headliner in another week of impressive domain sales with every name on our new Top Ten cracking the 5-figure mark. In fact there were so many notable deals that three more in that lofty range didn’t even make it on to the Big Board. A pair of sizeable private transactions backed Uruguay up at the top of our new list. Ken Cunliffe of TopNames.com acquired #2 Fights.com for $62,000 and Chad Wright of Webquest.com Inc. got the keys to #3 Tractor.com for $45,000.
A high traffic typo, CarreerBuilder.com, landed in the #4 position after going for $33,600 at Enom’s Club Drop. SnapNames.com posted the first of their four Top Ten entries with #5 eWeb.com at $30,150. Their winner’s list included a pair of .nets, #7 Christ.net at $18,350 and #9 e-Hentai.net at $14,610. The latter name may not look pretty but it is a very strong traffic domain (9,733 with the extension in Overture). The only other non .com on this week’s chart is #6 Spile.de (a typo of spiele, the German word for “games”) which went for $25,500 at KeywordDomains.com.
On the new extension side of the ledger, the big news is .biz landing the #1 domain on our New TLD chart for the 6th week in a row. We’ll save the details on that for our new TLD section which is coming up later in this report. Right now let’s take a look at the complete mainstream leader board for the week ending July 10:
Domain Name Journal’s Top 10
Reported Domain Sales - Mon. July 4, 2005 - Sun. July 10, 2005
Euro to Dollar Conversion (€ to $) is Based on Rates in Effect Tue. July 12
1. Uruguay.com $175,000 Sedo
2. Fights.com $62,000 Pvt Sale
3. Tractor.com $45,000 Pvt Sale
4. CarreerBuilder.com $33,600 Enom’s Club Drop
5. eWeb.com $30,150 SnapNames
6. Spile.de (typo of German word for “games) $25,500 keywordDomains
7. Christ.net $18,350 SnapNames
8. DomainForums.com $15,000 Pvt Sale
9. e-Hentai.net $14,610 SnapNames
10. Dealmaker.com $13,000 SnapNames
Keep in mind that these are the highest value sales that have been reported to us in the past week. This column is meant to be an educational tool, not a complete list documenting ALL high value domain sales. Such a list is impossible to produce because many sales are kept private at the insistence of buyers, sellers or both.
In another notable private transaction, England’s Jon Wheatley acquired #8 DomainForums.com for $15,000. SnapNames anchored the chart with the final two entries including #10 Dealmaker.com at $13,000. Sedo accounted for two of the three 5-figure domains that fell just short of the chart; Imprimeurs.com (”printers” in French) and Anti-Virus.de which went for €10,000 ($12,241) each. DotcomAgency.com rounded out the trio with MovingToCanada.com at $10,800.
SnapNames had an exceptionally busy week with over three dozen sales in the range we normally report (typically 2K and up for .coms). SUVRims.com rolled out $6,000, SeeIt.com saw $5,548 and $5,388 flowed from IndianCreek.com. ViaHardware.com commanded $5,123, SUVWheels.com spun off $5,000 and $4,626 sprouted from Etre.com. HeavenAndHell.com provided a home for $4,548, Avitar.com added $4,266 and PortablePool.com provided $4,045. Other top performers included VegetarianRestaurant.com ($3,988), Equifacts.com ($3,600), OnlineLending.com ($3,548), GalapagosVacation.com ($3,434) and TicketCharge.com ($3,191).
Gris.com was another step back at $2,976, followed by Victory.net ($2,900), DigitalZone.com ($2,706) and WeddingHumor.com ($2,655). EMailAttachments.com downloaded $2,638, followed by a quartet of domains at $2,600 each; Newswatcher.com, MyanmarMP3.com, GJP.com and Almost-Famous.com. The hit parade at SnapNames continued with IslandShop.com ($2,450), ArabiaOnline.com ($2,403), AlbanyNY.com ($2,383) and a pair at $2,300 each; Pharm-International.com and Epigee.com.
Vedo.com and GlobalSpectrum.com added $2,270 apiece while HispanicScholarship.com booked $2,162. BaldBeavers.com kicked in $2,130, T2ed.com contributed $2,101, RealMoneyPoker.com and GardenTreasure.com brought $2,050 each and CompositeLumber.com sawed off $2,005 to seal still another deal at SnapNames.
Sedo’s sales list featured Cartouche.com (”cartridge” in French) at $7,800, FindYourCar.com at $6,300 and BigFishGames.de at €5,000 ($6,120). They also sold a pair of three-letter .coms, UJU.com for $4,500 and SEI.com for $4,000 (an absolute steal for a letter combination of that quality). Coinbox.com contained another €3,000 ($3,673).
As always, Sedo scored with country code domains from around the world. eOnline.co.uk attracted €3,500 ($4,284), Cruise.cn (China’s country code) reached port with $4,000 on board and Krydstogter.dk (”cruises” in Danish) added €1,600 ($1,959). .TV had an unusually good week with Tipp.tv (the German spelling for “tip”) bringing €2,000 ($2,448) while Programm.tv and Casinos.tv tuned in €1,000 ($1,224) each.
.TV made an appearance at Afternic.com as well with PokerNightLive.tv clicking for $3,500. Ameracare.com was worth $2,500, DCGuide.com contributed $2,100 and InternetVideos.com went for $1,850.
Ken Cunliffe of TopNames.com was all over the place this week. In addition to buying Fights.com he picked up Jaggle.com from Club Drop for $3,507. To help offset his expenditures, he also sold a couple; Rachelle.com for $3,500 and JokeWorld.com for $2,500.
