In April, I wrote a blog post, “Domain Names Have Become True Commodities”. It’s now June and the market for Domain names is still rising in prices. It’s much like the housing market two years ago, not quite as hot and profitable yet, but there are a lot of people making serious money from domain names.
Duncan Reily of TechCrunch reports on the domain name market in his post, “Domain Sellers Party Like Its 1999”. The last time domain names were this hot was 1999-2000. It is now 2007 and the market is back.
The announcement of Business.com on sale in the market has sparked major interest in not only web business aspect, but also the domain itself which I believe is a big part of its price tag estimated at around $300-$400 million dollars.
Reily reports, “Last week some $10million changed hands at auction for domain sales, with 16 domains being sold for 6 figures. Free Credit Check.com & Credit Check.com sold together for $3million, although as the DomainTools Blog points outYour browser may not support display of this image. this was at a relatively low multiple of around 7x yearly earnings. Seniors.com sold for $1.8 million and even Blogging.com raised $135,000. The exuberance in the market even extends to the spam infested .info domain, with Houston.info selling for $17,000.”
Many people who don’t follow the domain market, which is much like a real estate type of market, are wondering if they should hold on or sale their domains. “Ultimately it’s up to the market to decide the value of anything; however the domain sales market appears to be outperforming the established site marketplace,” reports Riley. Personally, I would put any domain you may have of value in the market now and see what the market would estimate it at.
Over $10M worth of domains sold in Moniker’s Live Auction last week in New York. Here is a list of some:
- VintageAirplanes.com $5,700
- StockTrades.com $25,000
- PrivateTutors.com $16,000
- TechnologyFund.com $10,000
- Seniors.com $1,800,000
- CreditCheck.com $3,000,000
- JewishDeli.com $9,000
- CarSales.com $400,000
- Grandmothers.com $25,000
- Lips.com $135,000
- Houston.info $17,000
- DUI.net $18,000
For a complete listing of the names sold (and not sold) offered at last weeks auction, visit: DomainNameWire.com.
