Ooo... Let me throw in my $1.86 (inflation... 2 cents not what it used to be).
A few problems that I see with many of these domain extensions (no one in particular). Yes, I will agree that certain keywords and tricky phrases will garner higher results in the form of sales numbers and often these names are kept at "premium" prices.
The problem I see is that these "premium" prices are artificially inflated with no real demand to back them up.
Demand is what drives price (as long as the Government stays out but that is another discussion).
.COM is expensive for keywords because of demand. It has demand built in from name recognition, **number** of extensions sold (i.e. availability is limited), and from the general desire by most people to own one (especially in the keywords and tricky phrases department).
Honus Wagner (T209 baseball card) is the most expensive card of all time. Not because Wagner was any good (he was mediocre at best) but because he pulled all of his cards and a very limited supply made it out into the market place. The demand is high and the supply is low and the price reflects that.
The same can be said of most anything. Flat screen TVs, when they first came out where $10,000 per. Now you can pick up 60 inches for about $1,000. The demand was high in the beginning and eventually the supply caught up and the price came down.
These are just 2 examples of price fluctuation due to supply/demand.
In the case of domain names (nTLDs)... the supply is NOT low. Quite the contrary, the supply is overrunning. The demand is mild (at best), probably more along the lines of small because right now it is just in the domain(er) wold.
There is absolutely no reason to even begin to fathom why any one extension could possibly justify the "premium" prices on many of these domains. $59,000+ to register the name and then $59,000 every year after.
60 grand is a price tag that should be only found on a decent .COM not a brand new domain name that has never been registered.
Yes these companies put forward hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars to bring a particular extension to market. Whether or not that extension does well... still remains to be seen but that still does NOT justify the idea of such extreme premium price tags.
HERE IS THE KEY TO THIS!
The value of these extensions has not been established yet. Probably will not be established for many years to come so, good sound advice to these companies will be VOLUME over VALUE.
Let the volume of the domain names dictate the value. Bring down the prices to make it reasonable and desirable for domainers to want to register multiple names.
Create a scenario where people actually want your particular extension. You sacrifice a small number (keep some/many for yourself) of premium domain names to generate interest and more importantly, sales numbers.
Once you establish the volume (1m, 2m, 3m+ domains sold) then the value of the domains will be sure to follow. That is when a given extension can release the "premium" domain names for these outrageous prices that we are seeing today.
Don't fall into the XYZ or SCIENCE trap and give them away for free. That will come back and bite them in the ass when renewal time comes around.
If you make the price point palpable for common folk, then the numbers will rise and a good chance that you wont see the parabolic spikes and drops of an il-managed product.
Let the volume set the value (which is the way of domains since supply is nearly limitless), be choosy (NOT stingy) in the names that you keep for yourself, and let the market be the driving force.
Long winded (I know)... but I have to give you the full $1.86 worth because I don't give refunds.
Cheers