Expired domain name note: 1280.com for $26k and more
Joseph Peterson’s weekly roundup of expired domain name sales.
The sadist in me contemplates a cruel reality TV show in which some unsuspecting person answers a knock on the door to find a camera crew pointed right at him. “John Q. Public, you’ve just won $26,010!” Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he sees a beaming fashion model holding out to him a cartoonish bag of money. Then, just as our surprised victim reaches for that bulging prize, Alex Trebek blurts out: “Wait a sec! You let the domain expire over 10 bucks? Never mind. Come along guys; we’re done here.” And the camera crew slinks grumblingly away with the cash.
Each and every week, we could tantalize former domain owners with thousands of dollars that they flushed down the drain. Such a show would by now have run for 2 decades, simply since the general public remains oblivious to the potential value of domain names. Slow learners …
The prior week at NameJet, the high expired sale was 1280.com at $26.1k. Even if we can’t precisely predict final prices, this NNNN.com category is known to sell consistently for significant amounts. If domain owners were rational and attentive, they wold always renew such domains, and the entire asset class would become undroppable.
Weeby.com is more of a surprise at $10.2k. Part of me wonders if some bidders saw a traffic leak from well known website builder Weebly.com. MedicalSoftware.com defines a cross-section between 2 enormous industries – sizable enough to include multiple firms. I find it unimaginable that ownership of MedicalSoftware.com wouldn’t eventually lead to at least 1 extra client, and that client would certainly be valued above the domain’s $5.3k cost.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1280.com | 26010 | Weeby.com | 10200 |
| MedicalSoftware.com | 5300 | OVOO.com | 5200 |
| CounterTerrorism.com | 5099 | FindANanny.com | 4656 |
| CostaMaya.com | 4102 | Collected.com | 3850 |
| InsulinPumps.com | 3411 | GolfSmart.com | 3356 |
| InfinityMedia.com | 2525 | COMZ.com | 2300 |
| PurpleTree.com | 2205 | ComeClean.com | 1855 |
| Banju.com | 1766 | DigiFlex.com | 1601 |
| Polster.com | 1545 | MissingPersons.com | 1533 |
| Neptuna.com | 1500 | BarberPole.com | 1433 |
| FalconRidge.com | 1010 | CardProcessor.com | 1005 |
| HGSL.com | 1000 | ANW.net | 909 |
| Lastra.com | 902 | WhiteRidge.com | 862 |
| Hebbes.com | 859 | OxfordRealEstate.com | 858 |
| Topio.com | 815 | IMIR.com | 810 |
| QIRO.com | 805 | BXV.net | 800 |
| ContinentalAirlines.com | 787 | HFDI.com | 725 |
| YoShop.com | 710 | 9×5.com | 700 |
| Cinnamon.net | 695 | GO88.com | 680 |
| India24.com | 650 | Abarca.com | 625 |
| KTVD.com | 610 | iParticipate.com | 565 |
| InsideWashington.com | 565 | IHTI.com | 540 |
| PLGA.com | 520 | WXS.cc | 520 |
| IntrepidTrips.com | 510 | LMLP.com | 489 |
| CHLP.com | 480 | NDNE.com | 470 |
| ZYX.cc | 460 | PEMC.com | 459 |
| Civitas.org | 420 | PTJW.com | 420 |
| IEX.org | 415 | MNPN.com | 410 |
| AdAdvisor.com | 410 | FastPlumbing.com | 400 |
| TruckTrade.com | 400 | TGWY.com | 390 |
| Innovius.com | 390 | 9L6.com | 380 |
| VeloMoto.com | 350 | AlbanyNYHotels.com | 350 |
| Visign.com | 350 | CustomPainters.com | 339 |
| PrimeStore.com | 329 | StartupPower.com | 322 |
| ZLQG.com | 320 | PBPL.com | 319 |
| WRZY.com | 311 | Ceiling.net | 310 |
| NBXG.com | 309 | USPatentAttorneys.com | 269 |
| KazooChamber.com | 252 | TATF.com | 242 |
| GHAA.com | 237 | Crusaders.org | 232 |
| Anpanman.com | 210 | TheVI.com | 210 |
| PayPerCallAds.com | 180 | Putas.net | 180 |
| ChildrenOnline.org | 170 | XGEE.com | 161 |
| WangSang.com | 161 | RecipeJournal.com | 160 |
| 74564.com | 160 | 987KXW.com | 160 |
| TopLimousine.com | 159 | PoliticalCartoons.net | 149 |
| Sprint800.com | 149 | AGoodBook.com | 133 |
| MessageApps.com | 130 | EPCAE.org | 128 |
| JerryResists.net | 119 | LocalFoodsConnection.org | 117 |
| Tabernacle.net | 109 | IrishFreeStyle.com | 109 |
| Precincts.com | 101 | SellMachinery.com | 100 |
| IllumiData.com | 100 | TheVoiceNews.com | 100 |
| BusinessOfSport.com | 99 | LindaTellingtonJones.com | 91 |
| 777221.com | 89 | Uyruk.com | 82 |
| FixerHomes.com | 81 | RickNoriega.com | 80 |
| MobileParkingApps.com | 80 | BrandTune.com | 80 |
| FineMondo.com | 80 | MultiSitePress.com | 79 |
| DomainEm.com | 79 | AutoInsuranceOrlando.com | 79 |
| VegasWager.com | 75 | Science-Education.org | 72 |
| PlatinumMall.com | 71 | PeachFestival.org | 71 |
| YuanJiaoWang.com | 71 | Preprocessor.com | 70 |
| PilotPoetry.com | 70 | ApartmentGarden.com | 70 |
| EuclidTransit.org | 70 | JueZuan.com | 69 |
| Mercextra.com | 69 | PotMedicine.com | 69 |
| Sofresam.com | 69 |
OVOO.com ($5.2k) leads the 4-letter charge, with nearly 2 dozen LLLLs in tow. 18 of those ranged from $300 to $1000, while the domainish COMZ.com climbed to $2.3k. LLLs are represented in a trio of TLDs: ANW.net ($909), BXV.net ($800), WXS.cc ($520), ZYX.cc ($460), and IEX.org ($415).
Apart from those 3-letter domains, .NET and .ORG also show up with dictionary words and phrases. Those sales fall within a typical $xxx wholesale price range: Cinnamon.net ($695), Ceiling.net ($310), Putas.net ($180), PoliticalCartoons.net ($149), Tabernacle.net ($109), Civitas.org ($420), Crusaders.org ($232), and ChildrenOnline.org ($170). “Putas” is Spanish for whores / prostitutes.
As a TLD, .ORG is closely allied with the idea of social conscience – something underlined by the 3 aforementioned sales. Colored by its suffix, ChildrenOnline.org strongly suggests the notion of internet safety. Although “crusaders” has a negative meaning throughout the Middle East, in the West it stands for any moral quest. Last but not least, “civitas” is Latin for citizenry. Whether Latin is a dead language or not, this particular word lives on in multiple brand names.
Coincidentally, Uyruk.com ($82) means “citizen” or “nationality” in Turkish. CostaMaya.com ($4.1k) is a tourist destination in Mexico frequented by cruise ships. Banju.com ($1.8k) may be Maltese for “bath”, and in that sense it brands an importer of boutique bathroom accessories; but image results are dominated by someone named Häkelkissen Banju who makes these quilted objects. Polster.com ($1.5k) is either a surname or a typo of “pollster” (someone who surveys public opinion). VeloMoto.com ($350) reads as a Spanish brand name from my perspective, since “moto” is short for “motocicleta” (motorcycle) and “velo” implies “velocidad” (velocity).
We have plenty of creative names in the list. I quite like AdAdvisors.com ($410), TruckTrade.com ($400), PurpleTree.com ($2.2k), Lastra.com ($902), Topio.com ($815), DomainEm.com ($79) as a verb plus a contraction of “them”, and Neptuna.com ($1.5k) for something oceanic. Some of those undoubtedly match preexisting brands. RecipeJournal.com ($160) makes a lot of sense for a daily cooking blog.
There are also a number of common phrases such as MissingPersons.com ($1.5k) and ComeClean.com ($1.9k). The latter normally symbolizes confession but may act as a pun, canceling that symbolism and returning the phrase to actual cleaning. CounterTerrorism.com ($5.1k) is as symptomatic of 21st-century malaise as any phrase could be. InsulinPumps.com ($3.4k) and CardProcessor.com ($1k) were the top 2 exact-match product domains. I doubt you can count the number of stores in which you’ve swiped a credit card during the past week. Just think: Anywhere you might go to spend money using a card, some business is paying for a credit card processor.
Among the cheaper good deals the prior week were PotMedicine.com ($69) for medicinal marijuana, VegasWager.com ($75) for gambling, MessageApps.com ($130), USPatentAttorneys.com ($269), PayPerCallAds.com ($180), and a AGoodBook.com ($133). Those are prices to curl up with!
Apparently United Airlines deemed its 2010 merger with Continental far enough in the past to let ContinentalAirlines.com ($787) go to auction uncontested. Either that or the firm simply wasn’t paying attention.
