sales Test.Center New Extension Domain Sells for $195,000 at Auction (Update: Purchase Not Completed)

Michael · Jul 26, 2019

Sorry, this is my fault. An extremely small percentage of the Sedo sales we track are from watching their auctions, and those aren't verified. Otherwise all of the Sedo data comes from their RSS feed or their weekly reports, and those only consist of completed sales $2k+ where nobody paid Sedo for privacy.

When I saw this one I got distracted and forgot to check if it came from the RSS feed or the auction tracking, and it didn't really seem likely to be an auction anyway given the price. But it turns out this was an auction with one bid, maybe an offer came in and the seller decided to push it to auction instead of counter/accept.

Had I not dropped the ball on this one I would have deleted it right away, and waited for it to show up in the RSS feed or the weekly report (assuming it completes and neither party pays Sedo for privacy). I went ahead and removed it now, and also updated yesterday's Daily Market Report.

Sedo · Jul 29, 2019

Hope everyone's week is already off to a great start. We just wanted to follow up on the thread here as promised regarding Test.Center.

We have had to cancel the transfer of this to the buyer involved. No completed sale at this time but it's a domain with a lot of potential so it will interesting to see who ends up with it down the road.

Ategy · Jul 25, 2019

Thanks for the report @Bob Hawkes.

I actually hate domains with the word Center .. usually because they actually seem like amazing domains .. but the alternate center/centre spellings is a nightmare. English is my mother tongue .. but I'm still not sure sometimes if it's just the regular British/American difference, or if there are other subtleties (because I see the centre version used in American context at a higher ratio than most other "British" spelling words).

Note .. there currently doesn't appear to be a .centre tld .. so that somewhat helps the value of this domain.

Internet.Domains · Jul 25, 2019

We continue to see the combination of the best keywords that integrate with the extension do well.

In other words, the keyword has to work with the extension and vice versa. It doesn't matter what the extension is, as long as the keyword works with it.

With NewG's it's less about the extension and more about the combination, the complete string.

All too often people focus on only the extension or only the keyword. Thats a big mistake. We see it all the time when people see a sale in an extension and then reg keywords that have no business on the extension.

Test.Center
Vacation.Rentals
Home.Loans

What do these (above) have in common?

Again, you need a good combination of both the keyword and the extension to align for a winner......of course IMO......

Ivan Rasskazov · Jul 25, 2019

Six figure sales are still rare based on what I see for nTLDs, but it is encouraging to see them. The industry would benefit if there was more supply that could be transacted, because it would lower the cost of entering the industry. Not everyone can focus on premium .com acquisitions. More transactions would also mean more data, and more capital attracted from outside.

EJS · Jul 25, 2019

Addison said:
Sedo reported it as sold, indicating that Sedo received the money for it. Why wouldn't it close? The seller transfers. The buyer, who already paid, is surely going to accept. It's as good as a done deal.

The tweet seems like unnecessary hyperbole by @EJS.

No, it is not hyperbole. When I saw the NameBio tweet this morning, I reached out to Sedo to ask if this deal closed because I was going to write an article about it and wanted to do my own due diligence before publishing an article. Typically, Sedo will report large sales like this on its own Twitter feed, and it reports sales on its RSS feed. I did not see a tweet from Sedo, nor did I see it on Sedo's sale RSS feed (it is still not there): https://sedo.com/rss/rss_list.php?rss_id=17

A rep from Sedo told me this: "I can't confirm the sale at this time. "

Of course this deal may close, but as of this morning, Sedo did not confirm the sale to me when I asked. Hopefully it does close because it is pretty spectacular.

Ivan Rasskazov · Jul 25, 2019

dande said:
This view point doesn't make sense to me. Perhaps it makes a lot of sense to Estibot and that supports your business model, but not to us domain investors.

The advent of the nGTLD is what is killing the domain aftermarket. It is succeeding in lowering the price and demand for .com, and the only people benefiting from the new extensions has been the registry.

I don't see how you can make the claim it's lowering the price of .coms, when premium .com domains have consistently been selling for more money. It may be lowering prices for middle to lower tier domains theoretically, but I would have to see data for that. Certainly it's not the case for Huge Domains, for example, they seem to be selling all types of .com domains just fine. EstiBot can't be supported as a business by a model that hurts domain investors, because lead generation is where we focus a great deal of development time. Domain investors are the ones that use those tools, so if they go out of business, so does EstiBot.

We also have to separate the existence of nTLDs with how some of them were marketed. I have seen plenty of cases where registrants were oversold and were really burned. That part does hurt the industry because those people rarely come back.

dande · Jul 25, 2019

Ivan Rasskazov said:
I don't see how you can make the claim it's lowering the price of .coms, when premium .com domains have consistently been selling for more money. It may be lowering prices for middle to lower tier domains theoretically, but I would have to see data for that. Certainly it's not the case for Huge Domains, for example, they seem to be selling all types of .com domains just fine. EstiBot can't be supported as a business by a model that hurts domain investors, because lead generation is where we focus a great deal of development time. Domain investors are the ones that use those tools, so if they go out of business, so does EstiBot.

We also have to separate the existence of nTLDs with how some of them were marketed. I have seen plenty of cases where registrants were oversold and were really burned. That part does hurt the industry because those people rarely come back.

Your point is well understood and valid to some extent. But here's my point-

The registries reserves the best keyword combinations for themselves, sell directly to end users, make money for themselves, dilute the aftermarket for domainers, and generate more market data for Estibot.

Who wins - nGTLD Registries who makes the sales at premium, and Esibot whose database has been populated with market data from the sales.
Who Lose - Domain Investors whose market has been diluted with all sorts of keywords combinations with no chances of laying their hands on them.

Internet.Domains said:
Test.Center
Vacation.Rentals
Home.Loans

What do these (above) have in common?

Names like the ones listed above is the reason nGTLD is such a bad idea for domainers because there's no level playing field. Good keywords combinations are never released by the registry. They take the best parts, leaving domainers with craps that may never sell. And depriving us the opportunity of selling our normal domains. Instead of coming for my TradeCenterTip.com, an end user may decide to buy Trade.Center from the registry.

No one is accusing Esibot of anything. I am only saying that the odds favors you.

Addison · Jul 25, 2019

equity78 said:
Apparently this sale is not confirmed yet.

Ivan Rasskazov said:
Elliot mentioned that he spoke to Sedo and the sale hasn't closed yet?

Sedo reported it as sold, indicating that Sedo received the money for it. Why wouldn't it close? The seller transfers. The buyer, who already paid, is surely going to accept. It's as good as a done deal.

The tweet seems like unnecessary hyperbole by @EJS.

equity78 · Jul 25, 2019

Bob Hawkes said:
It is true it was bought as a set of 3 domain names, but my understanding is this sale was for the single domain name. Certainly NameBio and DNJournal do not report sales of packages. This case was much like buying a portfolio of a few great names and selling them individually later.
Bob

You are correct Bob, Chad sold one name for $335,000 he purchased it as a package.

WebQuest originally purchased the domain from the registry as part of a three-domain package for $100,000. The domains were free.games, shooting.games and racing.games.

https://domainnamewire.com/2019/06/05/free-games-domain-sold-at-a-big-profit/

iHaveThisIdea · Jul 26, 2019

"Ain't over 'til the funds have been released..."

dande · Jul 25, 2019

That's a huge one. But only the registries can sell at such price or any good price at all. That's what is totally wrong with the new extensions. Still a "no go area" for me and any wise domain investor

dande · Jul 25, 2019

Ivan Rasskazov said:
The industry would benefit if there was more supply that could be transacted, because it would lower the cost of entering the industry. Not everyone can focus on premium .com acquisitions. More transactions would also mean more data, and more capital attracted from outside.

This view point doesn't make sense to me. Perhaps it makes a lot of sense to Estibot and that supports your business model, but not to us domain investors.

The advent of the nGTLD is what is killing the domain aftermarket. It is succeeding in lowering the price and demand for .com, and the only people benefiting from the new extensions has been the registry.

Bob Hawkes · Jul 25, 2019

Ivan Rasskazov said:
Hi Bob, Elliot mentioned that he spoke to Sedo and the sale hasn't closed yet? Could you confirm when you have a moment?

The sale is listed on NameBio, which normally only happens after sale closes. Also, the page directs to a corporate page. But as you say, Sedo apparently say it has not yet closed. Strange, so I guess we should be hesitant until we know for sure. Thanks - I added the Edit line at end.
Bob

Bob Hawkes · Jul 25, 2019

dande said:
But only the registries can sell at such price or any good price at all.

While no doubt many of the major sales are registries, I don't think it is quite accurate to say only.... Even if we leave this sale out of it, the largest sale of 2019 in the new extensions, the $335,000 sale of free(.)games was not a registry direct sale, but had been held and resold by WebQuest, just like the big .com sales.
https://namebio.com/free.games

If you look at the top 10 new gTLD sales of 2019, while several are registry or registry though marketplace sales, the majority appear to not be. Here is the list.

Bob

Addison · Jul 25, 2019

EJS said:
nor did I see it on Sedo's sale RSS feed (it is still not there): https://sedo.com/rss/rss_list.php?rss_id=17

You must've missed it, but NameBio's bots picked it up. That's where NameBio gets the sales data. No sales from the 24th are on the RSS anymore.

Either Sedo is waiting on the domain transfer before tweeting about it, or they weren't supposed to publish it. This wouldn't be the first time that Sedo has reported sales in their RSS that they were supposed to keep private. Whoops!

Kudos to NameBio!

Bob Hawkes · Jul 25, 2019

Internet.Domains said:
So the question is:

What is the definition of a sale?

Sedo seems to be calling it a sale, but transfer has not completed.

Knowing that:

Can it be called a "sale" prior to any transfer?

It is a good question! With small value sales, such as on a marketplace....

Is it a sale when someone says they will buy it at an agreed price?
Is it a sale when they pay the marketplace those funds?
Is it a sale when 1,2 have happened plus I transfer it to escrow/marketplace?
Is it a sale when 1,2,3, plus the name has been transferred to end user?
Or is it still not a sale until the money has been transferred to me?
Is it a sale only when DNJournal or NameBio list it?

I think we all from experience agree 1 is not a sale. After that, more murky!

Bob

DomainRecap · Jul 26, 2019

Donnyd said:
Really testcenter.com esitbot values at 1200.00 and test.center is 200k. That is because it is a reported so called sale was at 200k What is this amateur hour! ????

GoDaddy Domain Appraisal

test.center: $4,019
testcenter.com: $11,989

Jimmysun · Jul 26, 2019

The thing is if you start a company, which one will you chose below:
1. test.center
2. center.test <---this extension is really existing, but not for regular people.
3. testcenter.com

Aboves can't beat test.com for sure.
-------------------------
How about these below:
1. networkcenter.com
2. netcenter.com
---
3. network.net
4. net.net
5. networkcenter.net
---
6. network.center
7. center.network
8. net.center
9. network.network

Aboves can't beat network.com for sure.

I owned the #6, the only good things about .com and .net is that it is more legitimate, the Facebook now only open for those TLDs for applying as an email account, otherwise I thought the network.center would have a chance to be the one of the best domain address of this competition.

Alessandro Couteau · Jul 26, 2019

Adam27 said:
Tbh any nTLD sale is rare. I don't even believe the registry reported sales.

If someone wants to offer me 6-figures for Blockchain.link though... go ahead.

Get off the couch and go do your homework, learn the industry, find out what your name is good for, and who to approach, write a clear and concise but short email to the top dogs ! Make it happen

Any GTLDs that are double keywords even though the subject “Blockchain” is one word, must be made carefully and the combination has to make sense, what’s the domain good for / can you build a brand off that name, can you use it as an EMD for search engine optimization usage ...

Next you need to understand that any and all domains are rare sales ... if it wasn’t rare then everybody would be doing it, to take an asset and profit 100% - 1000% is a rare thing.

DomainRecap · Jul 27, 2019

Muhaysen said:
Sir do not believe that, Namebio has posted a transaction which i have won it and i have not paid it yet since two weeks , and the transaction going to cancel

Whew, for a second there I misread that you had bought Test.Center.

Ali Adil · Sep 18, 2019

The NameBio database this morning shows the sale of the new extension domain name test.center for $195,000 through a Sedo auction. This is the second highest-value new extension sale so far in 2019, with free.games having sold in May 2019 for $335,000 remaining in first place.

Bob Hawkes · Sep 18, 2019

Note that as mentioned in article update the sale did NOT close and as far as I can see that is still the situation. It is not in database this morning.

Bob Hawkes said:
Update on Jul 29, 2019: The transfer of test.center was cancelled; this sale did not complete

equity78 · Jul 25, 2019

Apparently this sale is not confirmed yet.

https://twitter.com/dinvesting/status/1154396992526835717?s=21

sales Test.Center New Extension Domain Sells for $195,000 at Auction (Update: Purchase Not Completed)

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