New at DNJournal.com: Wild Week in the Domain Aftermarket

[Ron Jackson]

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com and this was really a wild week for the aftermarket. There were three 6-figure sales and something we have never seen before, a stunning wave of 3-letter .com sales including 15 of them at $40,000 apiece at a single venue! Those totaled a tidy $600,000. All told 18 of the 30 positions on our expanded Top 30 sales chart went to 3-letter .coms including the #1 domain at over $200,000. Our new Global Contenders chart is led by the highest .org sale reported so far in 2008 and the leader of the Country Code chart is the year's second highest .tv sale. You can get all of the details here: http://www.dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm

 

[DnEbook]

thanks ron , always fun to read on a saturday morning ..... it's part of my routine now

 

[dotnom]

LLL.com's dominate the list

 

[Jeff]

LLL.com's dominate the list

I'll say ... what's going on with all of the LLL.com's? :gl:
Any insight as to the buyer or buyers, and why they're all happening at this time? :talk:

Thanks much,
-Jeff

 

[betthelot]

I'll say ... what's going on with all of the LLL.com's? :gl:
Any insight as to the buyer or buyers, and why they're all happening at this time? :talk:

Thanks much,
-Jeff

All brought by one company bigfoot.com - At these prices can only be for developing. No pattern or obvious reasoning in the selection of letters, therefore I believe they have brought 15 x LLL.coms to use for new online businesses. There are great benefits of doing this:

1) Using a LLL.com, gives them instant branding
2) They get Kudos, being only 3 letters it creates the impression the web site and the business behind it has been on the web a long time and is a serious player, commanding such prime virtual real estate.
3) Increasing use of mobile devices connecting to the internet, shorter the domain the more user/display friendly.

They will store these in the hopper and use as and when they want to launch a new site

 

[duceman]

I find it interesting that LLL.com's are considered overvalued at the moment yet this group choose to invest heavy in mid quality LLL.com's.

I've seen the same quality LLL.com's be offered for as low as 11K in the past few weeks with no takers.

 

[Pred]

I find it interesting that LLL.com's are considered overvalued at the moment yet this group choose to invest heavy in mid quality LLL.com's.

I've seen the same quality LLL.com's be offered for as low as 11K in the past few weeks with no takers.

:sold:

maybe they don't frequent the forums. maybe they should 8^X

 

[Jeff]

I'll say ... what's going on with all of the LLL.com's? :gl:
Any insight as to the buyer or buyers, and why they're all happening at this time? :talk:

All brought by one company bigfoot.com - At these prices can only be for developing. No pattern or obvious reasoning in the selection of letters, therefore I believe they have brought 15 x LLL.coms to use for new online businesses. There are great benefits of doing this:

1) Using a LLL.com, gives them instant branding
2) They get Kudos, being only 3 letters it creates the impression the web site and the business behind it has been on the web a long time and is a serious player, commanding such prime virtual real estate.
3) Increasing use of mobile devices connecting to the internet, shorter the domain the more user/display friendly.

They will store these in the hopper and use as and when they want to launch a new site

^ Excellent info, thanks kindly betthelot! :gl:

Discussion thread here, too ... (for instance, the seller here was one entity as well):
http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/477619-one-day-high-sales-report-4-a.html

3) Increasing use of mobile devices connecting to the internet, shorter the domain the more user/display friendly.

^ Good point! :talk: :imho:

-Jeff

 

[dotnom]

maybe they don't frequent the forums. maybe they should 8^X

They are not frequent to sedo either because they could see many LLL.com auctions (including mine) and bid on it (selfish post)

 

[fonzie_007]

the seller here was one entity as well):

Seller was BuyDomains, who also owns/operates Afternic (where the domains were sold). I have a strong suspicion that this the large LLL.com transaction was not an arms-length transaction or that other benefits also were purchased by the buyer for the $40k/domain.

 

[Jeff]

^ Hopefully, if there's more to the story ($40k/per does seem out of the norm, at first blush) ... we'll get all the details here in this space! :gl: :imho:

-Jeff

 

[iamneo]

they were going to 4k -8k last year.. and about 8 - 15k this year..

But this is insane.. 40k for average names is WOW!!!

TOA.com was purchased by enduser TN Orthopedic Association.. I guess they had the money and wanted the domain bad..

40k on future bet seems excessive at this point..

 

[snoop]

My guess was the buyer probably did poor research on the market values of those names. Perhaps was convinced by some the sales reps at buy domains or read some over the top news reports on domains. It isn't the first time someone has come into the market and bought numerous domains at crazy prices, the .pro buyer from about a year ago is one that springs to mind.

 

[Aggro]

NO

People able to drop $970,000 are not exactly stupid (maybe if inherited).
Big giveaway is the private WHOIS.

IMO this appears to be a way for one of the Namemedia investors or someone with a vested interest (IPO = big money cashout) to prop up Buydomains lacklustre profits for the quarter.

Definite shenanigans. As previously mentioned "Sold" domains, only to reappear the next quarter - just after the qtr end !

Call it painting profits or window dressing.


(If this turkey ever gets to IPO, the SEC would be VERY interested in carrying out an investigation.)

 

[labrocca]

My guess is that finding someone to sell 15 LLL.com's at a cheap wholesale price is very hard. And buying them one at a time is time consuming and also there are risks of fraud with each transaction. Larger companies can afford to pay the premium price required for a safe quick transaction. Also buying from one seller gives them the quick opportunity to begin the next phase of their marketing plan. If you buy them one at a time you can't begin creating a plan until you know what domains you are acquiring.

I don't see $40k as too outrageous. How many here would sell 15 of them for $10-15k each all to one seller knowing these are increasing monthly and there are plenty of $xxx,xxx sales within the genre to hold out. In 2-3 years $40k could be the bottom price for these at a wholesale reseller level.

Small time domainers have become priced out of the LLL.com market. I think that's why so many flock to the new extensions hoping their $xx purchases will pay off. At this point in the dot com game you need a $xxxx budget to play if not a $xx,xxx one.

 

[snoop]

I don't see $40k as too outrageous. How many here would sell 15 of them for $10-15k each all to one seller knowing these are increasing monthly and there are plenty of $xxx,xxx sales within the genre to hold out. In 2-3 years $40k could be the bottom price for these at a wholesale reseller level.

Probably anyone with 15 to sell?

In 2-3 years they might get their money back?, c'mon it is an outrageous price, 4 times what they are worth. The have bought wholesale quantities at way above retail prices.

 

[Burano]

I've seen the same quality LLL.com's be offered for as low as 11K in the past few weeks with no takers.

Exactly...I wish there would be a bigger push from domainers overall to see who is really behind these transactions. If it doesn't make sense (especially in this economy), than it's good to be asking serious questions...