Skirt.com – $100,000

September 21, 2009

A previously unreported 6 figured sale has just come to light – thanks to George Kirikos.  The domain Skirt.com sold recently for $100,000.  It was reported in this SEC filing by Morris Publishing Group LLC:  “During the second quarter of 2007, “we acquired the domain name for the Skirt! magazines’ Web site for $0.1 million.”  A great sale for a great domain!

Rick’s Adult Domain Auction – Results, Analysis, Opportunities

April 7, 2009

Results
There has been a lot of discussion in the domainersphere lately about Rick Latona’s Adult Domain Auction held at The Phoenix Forum.  However, I haven’t seen the results posted anywhere.  Here they are:

PornCzars.com -$1.00
ChicBars.com – $50.00
HispanicPornos.com – $75.00
HispanicCouples.com – $100.00
boned.com – $4,750.00
hornychicks.co.uk – $350.00
BigDickPornos.com – $175.00
transsexualpornos.com – $150.00
MatrixContent.com Video Package 1 – $200.00
Hispaniccoeds.com – $100.00
Offshoring Package 1 – $200.00
Boys247.com – $50.00
SinglesListings.com – $125.00
MatrixContent.com Video Package 2 – $2,300.00
RackCo.com Hosting Package 1 – $300.00
Lot of 25 Adult Domains – $200.00
GroupOrgies.net – $10.00
LiveVoyeur.net – $20.00
P2PAds.com Website Traffic Package 1 – $2,800.00
X2KMedia.com Video Package 1 – $300.00
RackCo.com Hosting Package 2 – $1,000.00
RackCo.com Hosting Package 3 – $1,500.00
StripClubs.com – $101,000.00
Offshoring Package 2 – $400.00
SwingerHouseWives.com – $30.00
nudiebars.com – $500.00
BigCockPornos.com – $80.00
tubegratis.com – $125.00
Offshoring Package 3 – $1,100.00
P2PAds.com Website Traffic Package 2 – $1,400.00
adultwebsites.co.uk – $275.00
voyeurcams.net – $75.00
RibbedDildo(s).com and RibbedVibrator(s).com – $150.00
NaughtyHusband(s).com – $75.00
FirstPornoMovie.com – $30.00

Total – $117,926.00

As you can see, except for the sale of StripClubs.com, there were no major sales.  Interestingly enough, the non-domain items seemed to sell much better than the domains.

Analysis

I’ve thought this for a long time, but now we’ve finally have proof of it – domain auctions are purely wholesale events.  If an end user gets involved, it’s fortunate, but a rare occurrence.

After practically every live auction event, the domainersphere and the forums buzz about how the auction results would have been much better if only the auction house had spent a lot of time and money marketing the domains to end users.  That has never made sense to me – the chance of an enduser wanting and a needing a particular domain at the precise moment the auction is held is very low.  Add in the unfamiliar and somewhat intimidating auction environment, and you can see why not many endusers get involved.

For this auction, Rick pulled out all the stops.  He put together a great lineup of domains with good (and often no) reserves.  The list of domains was announced well in advance, instead of the last minute announcement we normally see for live auction events.  He made sure that the domains were targeted at a particular industry, and held the auction at that industry’s main conference, when all the players were in one spot.  He heavily marketed the auction to these endusers.

In short, Rick basically did everything right (although there were some technical difficulties on the day of the auction).  Despite this, the auction results were disappointing.

On a personal note, I admire Rick for having the guts to do something different.  The most successful people are the ones who fail the most, as they are the ones who are constantly trying new things.  As well, Rick owned up to what happened instead of playing the politician.  Plus, he’s got some brand new strategies for selling to endusers based on what he’s learned from this experience – and I think these will work well.

Opportunity

Rick’s loss is your gain.  The names that didn’t sell, as well as a whole host of other quality names, are now available in an online extended auction.  You can see what is available here.  Highlights of the auction include:

XXX.com
WebCam.com
CamGirls.com
BangedUp.com
Porno.co.uk
GirlonGirl.com
Novelties.com
Sadistic.com
SexShows.com
Skimpy.com
Shocker.com
Nudist.net
CyberPorn.com
NiceLegs.com
Wet.co.uk
Womanizer.com
Whoppers.com
FirstDates.com
NicheTube.com
StudFinder.com
Posing.com

The auction run until 2.00 p.m. Sunday EDT. Get your bids in now.

Lots of Stolen Domains

December 3, 2008

Over 1,000 high quality domains have been stolen by a thief in Iran.  He has brazenly set up a website to sell the domains – LuxaryDomains.com.  As well, he is sending out lots of emails to domainers informing them of the domains he has available.  Here is a partial list of domains stolen:

Problems.com
Mistake.com
Enroll.com
Damaged.com
Statement.com
Evaluate.com
UnClear.com
Upset.com
Shetty.com
Pleased.com
Returns.com
Suggestion.com
Suggestions.com
Replacement.com
Explanation.com
Explanations.com
Failures.com
Inquiries.com
Apologize.com
Volunteer.com
WebsiteFinder.com
Confusing.com
Witnessed.com
Concerns.com
Changed.com
Credit-Application.com
CreditApplication.com
Credit-Report.com
Interview.net
MortgageLoan.net
Notions.net
ProductSupport.com
Recommendations.com
Registration-Card.com
RegistrationCard.com
Technical-Support.com
ServeAuction.com
Shopping-Info.com
Service-Info.com
Service-Information.com
UserFeedback.com
Flaws.com
Free-Catalog.com
Free-Product.com
Free-Service.com
HouseAdditions.com
Howdoi.com
Improvements.com
Inefficient.com
Users-Guide.com
Internet-Info.com
Legal-Advice.com
Message-Center.com
ControlYourCredit.com
Cords.com
Product-Info.com
Product-Information.com
Product-Support.com
Criticisms.com
Customer-Complaint.com
Customer-Feedback.com
Customer-Satisfaction.com
Customer-Survey.com
DisAgree.com
DisLike.com
E-Message.com
E-Messages.com
Electronic-Message.com
ElectronicMessage.com
Airport-Info.com
UsersGuide.com
Business-Info.com
Service-Support.com
Computer-Info.com
WarrantyManagement.com
Consumer-Comments.com
Consumer-Feedback.com
Consumer-Help.com
Consumer-Ideas.com
Consumer-Info.com
Consumer-Poll.com
Consumer-Problems.com
Consumer-Product.com
Consumer-Products.com
Consumer-Questions.com
Consumer-Survey.com
Owners-Manual.com

Messages.net
Payment.net
Jennifer.net
Sensitivity.net
Unclear.net
Upset.net
UserFeedback.net
Organization.net
Suggestion.net
Suggestions.net
Payments.net
Pleased.net
Reactions.net
Replacement.net
Requests.net
Replace.net
Return.net
Rules.net
Opinions.net
Evaluate.net
Twenty.net
Experiences.net
Explanation.net
Explanations.net
Failures.net
Feelings.net
Flaws.net
Improvements.net
Product.org
Products.org
Programs.org
Credit-Application.net
CreditcardApplication.net
CreditApplication.net
Criticisms.net
Directions.net
Electronic-Banking.net
ElectronicBanking.net
Emessage.net
Additions.net
Advise.net
Advisory.net
Cadillacs.net
Checking.net
Concerns.net
Consumer-Product.net
Consumer-Questions.net
Consumer-Support.net
CustomerFeedback.net
Comments.net
Cconfusing.net

Pay.org
Register.org
Copy.org
Organization.org
Samples.org
Schedule.org
Sensitivity.org
Services.org
Statement.org
Suggestions.org
Technical.org
TechnicalSupport.org
Theft.org
Unclear.org
Upset.org
UserFeedback.org
Visit.org
Visitor.org
Worship.org
Opinions.org
Organizations.org
Ownersmanual.org
Payment.org
Payments.org
Pleased.org
Postage.org
Problems.org
Product-Information.org

Recipes.org
Redemption.org
Refund.org
Refunds.org
Religion.org
Repair.org
Replace.org
Replacement.org
Report.org
Request.org
Requests.org
Return.org
Reviews.org
Opinion.org
Evaluate.org
Evaluation.org
Experiences.org
Explanations.org
Exploitation.org
FeedBack.org
Feelings.org
FileShare.org
Flaws.org
Grammar.org
Gro.org
GuestBook.org
HelpDesk.org
Helpful.org
HouseBuilders.org
HouseLoan.org
Impressions.org
Improvements.org
Ingredients.org
Inquiries.org
Interview.org
JunkYard.org
Markets.org
MessageBoard.org
Metals.org
Military.org
Mistakes.org
Conversions.org
Covers.org
Credit-Aplication.org
Credit-Reports.org
CreditApplication.org
Criticisms.org
Customer-Support.org
Customer.org
CustomerFeedback.org
Defective.org
Delivery.org
Directions.org
Distance.org
Electronic-Mail.org
ElectronicMail.org
Electronics.org
Additions.org
Advertisement.org
Advertisements.org
Advise.org
Analysis.org
Answer.org
Application.org
Assistance.org
Cables.org
Cadillacs.org
Comments.org
Commercial.org
Concerns.org
Confessions.org
Consumer-Comments.org
Consumer-Feedback.org
Consumer-Product.org
Consumer-Products.org
Easy.org

OwnersManual.info
Explanations.info
Failures.info
Inefficient.info
Emessages.info
Comments.info
Concerns.info

Suggestions.us
Questions.us
Improvements.us
Comments.us

DO NOT PURCHASE ANY OF THESE DOMAINS FROM HIM! You’ll only lose the domain afterwards.  The whois email on many of the stolen domains is imenhost@gmail.com.  Most of the domains are at 1and1.com and some are at Name.com.  You can learn more here about how to protect yourself from domain fraud.

Sedo / dotMobi Registry Auction Results

November 12, 2008

Today the latest Sedo / dotMobi auction finishes.  All eyes are on this auction as it is a bellweather for the state of dot mobi domains.  While the domain market as a whole has fallen during the course of the year, some say that the mobi market has had a meltdown this year.  The domains on auction are all premium domains held back by the dotMobi registry – whatever the results are with these domains will trickle down to mobi domains of all qualities.

The auction results (unofficial) are:

games.mobi – 44,000
xxx.mobi – 10,099 – reserve not met
software.mobi – 9,500 – reserve not met
bank.mobi – 11,500
blackjack.mobi – 9,700
media.mobi – 5,099
dvd.mobi – 4,875 – reserve not met
sexe.mobi – 9,523
funds.mobi – 4,800 – reserve not met
lawyers.mobi – 4,800 – reserve not met
vip.mobi – 10,099
meteo.mobi – 4,200
computer.mobi – 4,000 – reserve not met
shoes.mobi – 4,600
auto.mobi – 3,900
internet.mobi – 9,901
discount.mobi – 2,050
silver.mobi – 1,723 – reserve not met
lawyer.mobi – 1,650
mobilephones.com – 1,600 – reserve not met
law.mobi – 2,850
store.mobi – 2,650
homeloans.mobi – 1,557
school.mobi – 1,502 – reserve not met
any.mobi – 1,500 – reserve not met
online.mobi – 1,550
she.mobi – 1,600
cellphones.mobi – 1,549
cruise.mobi – 2,680
accountants.mobi – 1,300 – reserve not met
baptism.mobi – 1,300 – reserve not meti
chocolate.mobi – 1,350
house.mobi – 1,300
man.mobi – 1,300 – reserve not met
model.mobi – 1,300 – reserve not met
movieclips.mobi – 1,300 – reserve not met
spam.mobi – 1,300 – reserve not met
psychology.mobi – 1,290 – reserve not met
carpenters.mobi – 1,270 – reserve not met
divorce.mobi – 1,320
doctors.mobi – 1,318
downloadmovies.mobi – 1,259 – reserve not met
downloadmusic.mobi – 1,259 – reserve not met 
boys.mobi – 1,253
consulting.mobi – 1,250 – reserve not met
grants.mobi – 1,250 – reserve not met
industry.mobi – 1,300 
international.mobi – 1,250 – reserve not met 
medical.mobi – 1,250 – reserve not met
sexstories.mobi – 1,250
math.mobi – 1,750
quiz.mobi – 1,257
account.mobi – 1,250
babyshower.mobi – 1,200 – reserve not met
bus.mobi – 1,200 – reserve not met
expert.mobi – 1,250
anime.mobi – 1,150
interviews.mobi – 1,100 – reserve not met
quotes.mobi – 5,333
room.mobi – 1,051 – reserve not met
sad.mobi – 1,001 – reserve not met
schule.mobi – 1,001 – reserve not met
screw.mobi – 1,001 – reserve not met
steel.mobi – 1,001 – reserve not met
kamera.mobi – 1,000 – reserve not met
publicidad.mobi – 1,050
research.mobi – 1,000 – reserve not met
special.mobi – 1,000 – reserve not met
suche.mobi – 1,000 – reserve not met
guy.mobi – 999 – reserve not met
recht.mobi – 1,010
support.mobi – 1,010
air.mobi – 1,050
reise.mobi – 950 – reserve not met
sound.mobi – 950 – reserve not met
anwalt.mobi – 1,352
science.mobi – 1,100
jobsuche.mobi – 889 – reserve not met
message.mobi – 930
stars.mobi – 1,050
racing.mobi – 850
sea.mobi – 800
send.mobi – 790 – reserve not met
shock.mobi – 778
sol.mobi – 750 – reserve not met
how.mobi – 3,050
bands.mobi – 800
real.mobi – 666
see.mobi – 3,900
put.mobi – 651 – reserve not met
refinance.mobi – 951
sell.mobi – 2,300
service.mobi – 601
cats.mobi – 600
screen.mobi – 570
run.mobi – 950
sem.mobi – 600
booty.mobi – 510
rock.mobi – 610
used.mobi – 750
road.mobi – 509
rims.mobi – 501 – reserve not met
shit.mobi – 500 – reserve not met
south.mobi – 500 – reserve not met
say.mobi – 480
allergies.mobi – 432 – reserve not met
question.mobi – 510
kinky.mobi – 366 – reserve not met
actors.mobi – 410
memory.mobi – 460
dvr.mobi – 320
robot.mobi – 310
smallbusiness.mobi – 560
may.mobi – 300 – reserve not met
bild.mobi – 900
punk.mobi – 260
quick.mobi – 260
rail.mobi – 411
stamps.mobi – 510
ride.mobi – 260
farm.mobi – 251
public.mobi – 231
retro.mobi – 210
saturday.mobi – 210
searchengines.mobi – 210 
son.mobi – 283
after.mobi – 200 – reserve not met
rpg.mobi – 680
side.mobi – 200 reserve not met
taxes.mobi – 800
rate.mobi – 1,060
sleep.mobi – 560
shirt.mobi – 260
system.mobi – 421
cheese.mobi – 230
fruit.mobi – 755
icon.mobi – 260
raw.mobi – 750
seguridad.mobi – 211
ship.mobi – 800
smoke.mobi – 180
smoking.mobi – 420
spider.mobi – 260
stadt.mobi – 1,050
telefonino.mobi – 300
purple.mobi – 140
sportinggoods.mobi – 300 
scanner.mobi – 250
transportation.mobi – 335
libre.mobi – 310
moviedownloads.mobi – 300 
revolution.mobi – 385
society.mobi – 220
tempo.mobi – 500 – reserve not met
medien.mobi – 211
minutes.mobi – 270
pull.mobi – 100
rule.mobi – 121 – reserve not met
running.mobi – 260 – reserve not met
sicherheit.mobi – 80
sister.mobi – 420
statement.mobi – 120
fertile.mobi – 100
ricerca.mobi – 160
right.mobi – 260
sand.mobi – 370
shower.mobi – 236

Domainersphere War – A Possible Resolution

November 8, 2008


An ugly war has broken out in the domainersphere between Mark Fulton and Owen Frager.  Mark states that Owen’s GrandNames is a “Grand Waste“;  Owen gives a “thumbs down” to Mark’s blog and his AQDN marketplace.  I can’t begin to express how disturbed and sad I am that this war has erupted in our domainer family.  Others agree with me.

I’d really like to see this war ended rather than escalated.  Here’s what I think the parties should do:

1.  Call an immediate ceasefire.  Both Owen and Mark are probably very upset about the situation.  To resolve matters, things need to calm down a bit.  There needs to be some time and distance from the conflict so that both parties can attempt to resolve matter in an objective manner.

2.  Realize that both of them are on the same team.  Ultimately, the interests of Mark and Owen are the same.  While they have different ideas about how to go about doing things, both of them care about domainers and both of them want to help domainers sell their domains.  Both of them want to educate domainers through their blogs.

3.  Look at things from a different perspective.  After some time of quiet, there should be a dialog between Owen and Mark.  In this dialog, the emphasis should be on finding common ground.  If the approach is – “is Mark right or is Owen right” then things will never be resolved. 

As an example, both of their blog posts make clear that they are concerned about ensuring that people don’t purchase “crap” domains.  They could have a dialog about what the best ways to achieve this are. 

Ultimately, I hope that Owen and Mark can work this out.  I urge them both to take positive steps in that direction and end this very ugly war.

Protecting Your Domains – Going Offshore to Canada

November 4, 2008

In an increasingly hostile legal environment in the United States, your domains are at risk. Whether it’s the US Treasury Department blacklisting your domains because they are about Cuba or the governor of a backwards state trying to put his cronies’ competitors out of business, this legal risk is growing every day.

A lot of savvy domainers are proactively dealing with this by moving their domains offshore – to registrars located outside the United States. By using an offshore registrar, you are providing yourself with a layer of protection against these attacks on your domains.

There has been a lot of discussion in the domainersphere about what options are available, ranging from the Bahamas to Australia. However, I haven’t seen discussion about what I consider one of the best options – Canada – and its most domainer friendly registrar – Rebel.com.

There are a lot of advantages to keeping your domains in Canada. It’s a large, wealthy, politically stable country. It’s about as close to the United States as you can get. It’s an English speaking country. There is a solid British based legal system that avoids the excesses of the American legal system, as well as a solid, constitutionally entrenched bill of rights.

Rebel.com is a great registrar. I first started using them during the .asia landrush, and have been very happy with them. There was good support – it was prompt, responsive and friendly. Their interface is slick and intuitive, and seems to have been built with domainers in mind rather than your average domain customer. The pricing is reasonable, with prices going down the more domains you hold with them. Plus, Rebel.com is very domainer friendly, being involved in and supporting many of the domainer conferences, and participating in the domainer forums. They also seem to be one of the fastest growing registrars since the Kentucky court case started, so it looks like a lot of people are seeing things the same way that I do.

I asked Rebel.com what they do if they are served with an American court order, and they told me that they simply ignore it. They confirmed with me that they have no offices or staff in the United States.  They also stated that when they are served with a court order, they immediately notify their customer of all the issues involved, unlike a lot of the registrars in the Kentucky case.

The recent attacks on domains are just the beginning – it is going to get much worse in the years to come. There is not really an advantage to keeping your domains at a US registrar, and many risks to doing this. Moving your domains to an offshore registrar certainly isn’t going to provide you with bullet proof protection (and unfortunately, there is nothing that will). However, it is an additional step you can take to increase the security of your domains. Canada is one of the best options for that, and we have a well established, domainer friendly registrar at Rebel.com.

It’s Time To End Pattern Domaining

October 19, 2008

There is one thing that current tough economic times for domainers has made abundantly clear – it’s time to end pattern domaining.  Although values for all domains have decreased recently, the values of pattern domains have been hit particularly hard.

What is pattern domaining?  It’s buying and selling domains simply on the basis that the domains fit a particular pattern.  The best examples are the buying and selling of “short” domains – like LLL.com, LLLL.com, and NNNNN.com.  But pattern domaining is not just about short domains.  It also includes buying domains because they are one word domains – despite the fact that the odds of an end user every choosing to brand themselves under that word are less than the odds of being struck by lightning.  It includes buying domains with an “i” prefix simply because iReport.com sold for a large sum, or buying thousands of domains prefixed with “Iam.”

Domainers are attracted to patterns the way that moths are attracted to light at night.  The lure of pattern domaining is clear – it looks like you get all the benefits of owning domains, without needing to be an expert at valuing the domains.  This expertise takes a lot of time and hard work to develop, so, unfortunately new domainers tend to be the most attracted to pattern domaining, and in the end, the ones who are hurt the worst.

Pattern domaining tends to follow…..  oh, let’s just say a pattern.  You’ll find an increasing number of forum posts that set out recent sales for domains that meet the pattern, the number of domains left of that pattern that aren’t registered, talk about increasing minimum reseller pricing, and so on.  The posts will be full of spin and hype, and made with the goal of drumming up interest in the pattern.  Sometimes even entire blogs are created to discuss a particular pattern.

Pattern domaining has a serious flaw – and that is the lack of enduser sales or traffic.  One characteristic of pattern domaining is that most sales are to other domainers rather than to end users.  Prices can’t continue to rise constantly unless endusers are buying domains.  There needs to be a significant number of enduser sales – not just the odd one that gets pumped up on the forums.  And the prices that endusers are willing to pay have to be high enough to justify the reseller prices.

This flaw is now being exposed.  The examples are numerous.  The reseller value of a low quality LLL.com has fallen by about 1/3 over the last 5 months;  the reseller value of high quality LLL.com has fallen by about 1/2 over the last 5 months.  The value of low quality LLLL.com has fallen a whopping 90% over the last 8 months.  LLL.in’s are trading at less than reg fee.  Sure, all domains have been struggling recently, but the decline in the value of pattern domains has been staggering.

Sustainable value does NOT come from the fact that a domain is rare.  It does NOT come from the fact that all of the available domains that fit a pattern are sold.  Sustainable value comes from the fact that there are a significant number of endusers out there willing to pay a premium for a particular domain name.  Sustainable value also comes from traffic.

Ultimately, each domain is unique and should be valued based on it own merits, rather than the fact that the domain fits a particular pattern.  If you approach buying domains this way, you’ll never get sucked in by the pattern domaining fads that regularly hit the domaining world.

LLL.com – $5,000 Barrier Broken

October 12, 2008

On Friday at 2.00 p.m. Eastern Time, the auction hammer dropped at Sedo on VXG.com – with a closing price of $4,988

While OLU.com previously sold at $5,002, a lot of people said that this was simply the fault of the time and venue.  However, for VXG.com, the venue was Sedo, which most active domainers regularly follow, and the time was 2 p.m. EST, which is convenient for bidders from the West Coast to the East Coast and all of Europe. 

Also, there is a psychological factor to crossing the $5,000 barrier – at the time of the OLU.com sale, a lot of people joked that they would be willing to buy any LLL.com for $5,000.  I’m not sure that they would be saying this now – certainly they’re not acting on it.

I have been advising the selling of LLL.com since June 7, 2008 and written several blog posts about it since then.

While there has been a decline in the value of most domains since June 7, the decine in LLL.com has been particularly steep – at decline of almost 35% in just 4 months.  To put that another way, if you’d cashed out at that time, you’d have about 1 1/2 times as much money as someone who didn’t.

My recommendation remains to continue to sell your LLL.com.  I think that the minimum wholesale price will continue to decline in upcoming months. 

Particularly for the lower quality three letter domains, the fundamentals simply don’t justify the high prices.  For $5,000 you can pick up a decent .com domain that is much more likely to result in a profitable end user sale than three random letters like VXG.com.  The lower end of the LLL.com market has essentially relied on domainer interest for profit, rather than end user sales.  As domainers are hit by the credit crunch and they tighten their belts, these domains are poised to fall in value much more quickly than solid generic dot coms with end user sale potential.

Weekend Fun – Domain Blog Rankings

September 14, 2008

The well known and respected SEOMoz company has come out with a new tool to measure a blog’s popularity, known as the Trifecta.  According to SEOMoz, the Trifecta tool measures metrics to estimate the relative popularity and importance of a blog.  It does this by measuring factors such as the number of incoming links a blog has, how often a blog is mentioned on the web, and how much traffic a blog receives.

I thought it would be fun to apply this tool to domaining blogs and see what the results are.  So, I went through my list of blogs in the domainersphere and looked up the Trifecta score for each of them.

I thought the results were pretty interesting.  The top blog is, without much surprise, the DNJournal Lowdown.  A strong second place contender is The Frager Factor.

Also, when you look at the top scoring blogs, there is not really any surprise about which ones are in the top group.

A lot of blogs with lower scores are new blogs, and I am sure that their scores will improve rapidly over time.  The Namebio blog had a really low score, and I think this is because Justin changed the url over the last few days.

Obviously, the Trifecta tool is far from perfect and it has its limitations.

Without further ado, here are the rankings:

40 – 49
48 DNJournal
46 The Frager Factor

30 – 39
39 DomainTools Blog
37 DotSauce
36 CircleID
36 ICANN Blog
36 Inside Domaining
34 Domain News
34 dotMobi
34 Fractional Domaining
34 Logistik Labs
31 Domain Name News
30 Dot Ca Domains

20 – 29
27 Domain Name Dispute Blog
27 DNXpert
27 Elliot’s Blog
26 Seven Mile
26 The Domains
25 Whizzbang’s Blog
24 Anti-Cybersquatting Blog
23 Dev Mobi
23 Domain Bits
23 Rick’s Blog
23 Rick Latona
21 4 Letter Noob
21 Domain Flipper
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2 Invest In Domains
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Rick Schwartz Cashing Out?

September 7, 2008

I noticed this vignette on the TRAFFIC website:

7:30PM Come and buy as many as 50 Original Rick Schwartz vintage domains as Moniker hosts this special auction. Domains like Mens.com, Men.net, DarkChocolate.com, KinkySex.net, GoldFutures.com and many more. Many with type in traffic and reserves set so low that we are guaranteed to have some very exciting and lively bidding.

It looks to me like Rich Schwartz is selling a big chunk of his most premium domain names – at domainer prices to domainers, rather than to end users.  To me, that is a shock as he has recently said that domains are “appreciating too fast too [sic] measure.”  I’m not entirely sure why a person would sell assets that are appreciating so quickly.

However, as Rick has said many times:

I FOLLOWED THE MONEY!! I do that all the time. In anything. ALWAYS….follow the money.

Actions speak louder than words.  Maybe it’s time to do as Rick does, and follow the money – which seems to be selling a big chunk of their portfolios.

3 Letter Dot Com’s Continue Their Downward Spiral

August 28, 2008


As far back as June 7, I warned that LLL.com domains were going to fall and that it would be wise to sell them.  People laughed.  At that time, the cheapest three letter dot com domains were going for $7,600.  On June 26, LLL.com domains started falling, with several sales in the $7,100 region.  On July 2, LLL.com crashed below the psychological $7K barrier, with QVK.com selling $6,730 – and I continued to encourage people to sell.

Now the floor has finally fallen out.  On Wednesday, DNJournal reported that OLU.com sold for only $5,002.  That was shocking – and many people stated it was simply the venue at which the domain was sold.  But today the evidence came in with overwhelming strength at the GreatDomains auction – eqw.com sold for $5,211, fvz.com sold for $5,100, ouj.com sold for $6,350, wzu.com sold for $5,200, xag.com sold for 3,933 EUR ($5,778), and yxl.com sold for $6,700.

I’m sure there will be the usual round of excuse making for these results.  But the fact is, in June if you offered anyone $5K for even the crappiest LLL.com, it would have been considered a lowball offer and laughed at.  Now, these domains are routinely selling for this amount in highly publicized auction events.

As for the future, I do not think that the bottom has been hit yet.  My recommendation is the same as it has been over the last three months:  sell any three letter dot com domains that you own, sooner rather than later.

LLL.com Prices Continue to Fall

July 2, 2008

Previously, on June 7, I warned that LLL.com prices were about to fall. On June 26, I showed that prices had already began to fall. I hate to sound like a broken record, but today, evidence comes in that prices continue to fall further.

Today on Bido, the domain QVK.com closed at $6,730. A week ago, people were scoffing at the mention that a three letter dot com could sell below $7,000 – today one did.

[Read more]

Bido Reviewed

June 30, 2008

I recently wrote a review of all the domain auctions. Since that review, there have been two new players who entered this lucrative market. The first is MyID, which is now running a series of Canadian domain auctions. I’ve discussed their auctions many times on my blog already. The second is Bido, run by a number of prominent domainers, such as Sahar, which had been announced at the time of my review, but has just gone live less than two weeks ago.

[Read more]

LLL.com Prices Falling

June 26, 2008

On June 7, 2008, I blogged that I thought LLL.com prices were about to fall. It has indeed started to happen. It looks to me like prices have fallen about 10% since that post.

According to the June 1, 2008 3Character.com Price Guide, the minimum wholesale price (regardless of letter combo) of three letter dot com domains is $7,600. However, in the last week, there have been a number of LLL.com sales at or below this amount.

[Read more]

4200 LLLL.com’s For Sale!

June 11, 2008

Like the title says, someone has apparently put up 4,200 LLLL.com domains for sale on Ebay. You can see the auction here.

4200 is close to 1% of the entire LLLL.com market – so it’s a pretty amazing event. It will be interesting to see how this sale goes.

8o.org Closing Soon

June 9, 2008

My domain 8o.org is on auction at Sedo and the auction will be closing in about 10 hours. Right now the price is only $1,050, which is a steal. You can read more about this domain here. Or, you can just head on over and bid here.

2 Character Dot Org Sale

June 5, 2008

I’m offering up for auction the domain 8O.org – a premium NL.org. It’s a very rare domain – there are only 260 NL.org in existence.

This domain consists of a premium letter and a premium number – which makes it even rarer still and more valuable.

It’s a really old domain, registered in 2000.

I’m told that eight is considered a lucky number in Asian culture because it sounds like the word “prosper” or “wealth” (?; Pinyin: f?). Additionally, it is considered lucky in Japan because the Chinese numeral character resembles a mountain, specifically Fujisan.

There are over 10 Million results in Google for the term “8O”.

See 😯 in the urban dictionary.

There is a no reserve auction.

You can place your bid on Sedo here.

The auction closes June 10, 2008.

What’s A Dot Asia Domain Worth?

May 25, 2008

The sunrise dot asia domains are finished and so are some of the initial landrush auctions. This gives us some idea what domainers are valuing dot asia domains at – and perhaps what you should bid if you’re involved in an upcoming .asia auction. From the Pool DotAsia website, there is a ticker tape listing all the completed auctions. The results are as follows:

[Read more]

Weekly Roundup

May 25, 2008

I’m going to introduce a weekly feature on my blog – every Sunday, I’ll select 10 of the best blog posts from the domainersphere and discuss them in more detail. Like my blog, rather than concentrating on news stories, I’m going to select blog posts that have good practical value and will help you succeed as a domainer.

In no particular order, here are the posts I found most informative this week:

[Read more]

Mobi Market Meltdown

May 24, 2008

Yesterday’s Traffic Auction showed that what I had predicted has come true: the dot mobi market has melted down.

Here are the .mobi auction results:

mortgage.mobi – $18K
drugs.mobi – $17.5K
sales.mobi – $10.5K
men.mobi – $10K
films.mobi – $10K
escort.mobi – $10K
computers.mobi – $9.5K
airlines.mobi – $9.5K
records.mobi – $8.5K
boats.mobi – $6K
forsale.mobi – $5K
show.mobi – $5K
religion.mobi – $3K

[Read more]

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