Expired Domain Note: Wupload.com, LastSupper.com and more
Joseph Peterson reviews the past week in the expired domain name markets.
Early in 2012, the file-sharing website MegaUpload was shut down, its domains seized by the feds, and its owners arrested for copyright infringement. Almost immediately, similar firms like Wupload beat a strategic retreat. As one site put it:
Wupload will now only offer cloud storage for people to access files they personally uploaded. Time will tell how that affects their business in the months to come.
Now, 4 years later, time has told. It’s no surprise that Wupload.com ($8.7k) tops these charts for expiry auctions, given all that accumulated “link juice”.
| Domain | End $ | At | Domain | End $ | At |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wupload.com | 8700 | NJ | H999.com | 3600 | SN |
| PrintRoom.com | 3300 | NJ | Adonix.com | 2509 | NJ |
| LifeSpy.com | 2500 | NJ | CWSS.com | 2350 | NJ |
| BHSZ.com | 2200 | NJ | YFFC.com | 2158 | SN |
| SLYQ.com | 2118 | NJ | HeadHunter.org | 2100 | NJ |
| GreenEco.com | 2038 | SN | HealthyEnergy.com | 2010 | NJ |
Meeting a head hunter wasn’t always a good thing for free agents; but these days HeadHunter.org ($2.1k) means a recruiter, who can brandish nothing sharper than money and benefits. Adonix was a French software firm specializing in enterprise resource planning (ERP). They were purchased by Sage in 2005, at which point Adonix employed 750 people. LifeSpy.com ($2.5k) might be a suitable rebrand for Google if they ever get bored with their ABCs.
Unlike last time, no big Chinese purchases showed up this past week. SnapNames produced the highest: H999.com ($3.6k). If you only look at the 4 LLLL.com “CHIPs” above, you might suppose prices in this category are holding steady. Sorry, they’re still declining. Notice PJRS.com at $1877 below? That low SnapNames sale is not a fluke. Looking at non-expired results, I see another 4 CHIPs under $2k at NameJet. There 9 ordinary CHIPs went for $1900-$2280. Meanwhile, 8 CHIPs with consecutive repeating letters sold between $1955 and $2399 with a median of $2075.
To put that in perspective, just 1 week ahead of, ordinary CHIP sales at NameJet ranged $2089-$2400 (leaving aside 1 outlier at $3.5k). So those fell another $120-$189 in a single week. As for CHIPs with consecutive repeaters, last time there were 3: $2500, $2609, $2900. That category seems to have lost $400-$545 in value (14%-22%) in 1 week.
| Domain | End $ | At | Domain | End $ | At |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LastSupper.com | 1990 | NJ | PJRS.com | 1877 | SN |
| Napas.org | 1834 | NJ | NongMa.com | 1769 | SN |
| SoccerTours.com | 1608 | NJ | BeautyPortal.com | 1553 | SN |
| DietDiary.com | 1535 | NJ | BancoRio.com | 1500 | SN |
| EnglishExpress.com | 1450 | SN | IngeCom.com | 1404 | SN |
| Subtitulos.com | 1400 | SN | Naked Nutrition.com |
1255 | SN |
| HoloWWW.com | 1251 | SN | 35428.com | 1107 | NJ |
| Gudok.com | 1069 | SN | 36248.com | 1007 | NJ |
| FootSpecialists.com | 1000 | NJ | MaybeBaby.com | 1000 | SN |
The Last Supper refers to Jesus’s final meal, eaten in the firm of his 12 apostles, in which he predicts that 1 of them will betray him. The scene has been painted many times, most famously by Leonardo Da Vinci. It was also travestied in a 1996 film of the same name.
BancoRio.com ($1.5k) may refer to credit cards from Banco Santander Rio, in which case the domain is Spanish (Argentinian, specifically) and the owner might be flirting with a UDRP. On the other hand, if it’s Portuguese, then it’s any bank in Rio de Janeiro. Not sure what NongMa.com ($1.8k) means, but it looks to be Chinese Pinyin.
You won’t need subtitles to guess the meaning of Subtitulos.com ($1.4k). To an American, Napas.org ($1.8k) brings to mind NAPA Auto Parts or wine from the Napa Valley. But wine is only grown there thanks to the Spanish word for aquifer / groundwater, “napa” – “napas” being the plural. Napas is also a branded weight-loss supplement in Mexico.
As unlikely and ungainly as IngeCom.com ($1.4k) seems as a brand name, it does in fact match 2 firms: in Spain, they do intranet and use .NET; in Switzerland, wireless tracking for warehouses. So, far from being ungainly, IngeCom boasts high gain. (Sorry, bad antenna pun. Couldn’t resist.)
| Domain | End $ | At | Domain | End $ | At |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 64897.com | 947 | NJ | BrightFutures ForFamilies.org |
943 | NJ |
| TheInternet WishList.com |
851 | SN | 54802.com | 830 | NJ |
| 06159.com | 828 | SN | 78443.com | 826 | NJ |
| 43872.com | 820 | NJ | 64825.com | 807 | NJ |
| Maveo.com | 799 | NJ | TheBookHouse.com | 787 | NJ |
| 64587.com | 780 | NJ | FreeDiscount.com | 775 | SN |
| AddMap.org | 770 | NJ | Reno-Sparks Chamber.org |
760 | NJ |
| JuYouMei.com | 732 | SN | JetJet.net | 730 | NJ |
| BagsToRiches.com | 725 | SN | AlZahrani.com | 725 | NJ |
| 2R6.com | 725 | SN | Editions-ERE.net | 721 | NJ |
| IAUK.com | 710 | NJ | ZCX.org | 690 | NJ |
When domains as long as BrightFuturesForFamilies.org ($943), Reno-SparksChamber.org ($760), and TheInternetWishList.com ($851) fetch hundreds of dollars at auction from wholesale buyers, 99% of the time back links are why. Here’s what the last site looked like in 2012, 1 year into its existence.
BagsToRiches.com ($725) – which is a pun on “rags to riches” – matches 2 different websites: (1) a contest for shoppers with an $8 million prize; (2) a charity that repurposes promo bags from conferences, giving them to underprivileged youth. Hear that, NamesCon sponsors?
AlZahrani.com ($725) is an Arabic surname. Yasser Talal al Zahrani is unlikely to be the buyer since he died in Guantanamo Bay – either due to suicide or torture, depending on the source. There’s also an Al Zahrani Holding firm in Saudi Arabia.
| Domain | End $ | At | Domain | End $ | At |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SeedSupply.com | 648 | NJ | 581582.com | 625 | SN |
| MichaelFitt.com | 620 | SN | Proven Products.com |
611 | NJ |
| 8888589.com | 610 | SN | FortMorgan.org | 577 | NJ |
| OceansOnline.com | 555 | NJ | ImproveSales.com | 553 | NJ |
| ItsForThe Animals.com |
542 | NJ | ProMom.org | 539 | NJ |
| MaSanteAu Sommet.com |
526 | SN | CrackMonkey.org | 525 | SN |
| Observatorio.org | 520 | NJ | USVetDSP.com | 511 | NJ |
| MiamiMagic.com | 509 | NJ | ImLoving Books.com |
502 | SN |
| C64S.com | 501 | SN | RVZ.org | 490 | NJ |
| FranceMagazine.org | 480 | NJ | AlibabaSub.net | 470 | SN |
| EuradCom.org | 460 | NJ | CorporateEvent Planners.com |
459 | NJ |
| AutoInsurance World.com |
455 | NJ | QueensLawyer.com | 454 | NJ |
Among expired 5N domains, I count 9 ranging $780-$1107 with a median of $828. You’ll see a 6-digit numerical domain at $625, probably since 581582.com consists of consecutive numbers: 581 + 582. There’s also a 7N at $610 thanks to quadruple lucky 8s. Another pair of 6Ns came in at $410 and $367 due to repeating patterns. Most must sell for less. Last September, I could note a pair of 6N sales at $7.5k and $7.3k in a single week. Sales like those may not happen again – not at that rate, not from the expiry channel.
QueensLawyer.com was a great buy at $454. Plenty of lawyers in NYC will want that. CorporateEventPlanners.com ($459) defines a modest but lucrative profession. And what DNW reader and/or business owner doesn’t want to ImproveSales.com ($553)?
Observatorio.org ($520) is Spanish for “observatory”. MaSanteAuSommet.com ($526) is French for “My Health Summit”. It was or is a program at the University of Montreal. The website was up in 2008, and their Facebook page was active last year. Most search results for “Alibaba Sub” are subwoofers sold by Alibaba or else questions regarding creating “sub” accounts at Alibaba.com. Apart from that, I see no use for AlibabaSub.net (470).
| Domain | End $ | At | Domain | End $ | At |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeneActes.org | 451 | NJ | GGQQ.net | 429 | SN |
| AsiaMedia Journal.com |
425 | SN | 971122.com | 410 | NJ |
| CSSecurity.com | 400 | SN | TelefonTarife.com | 394 | SN |
| Berhinger.com | 394 | SN | 云端.com (xn--9kqp59h.com) |
394 | SN |
| 金属.com (xn--7gtt75j.com) |
390 | SN | MiniLink.com | 390 | NJ |
| JiFenGi.com | 384 | SN | HitThePillow.com | 380 | SN |
| BJXI.com | 380 | NJ | BContemporary.com | 375 | SN |
| YVHL.com | 370 | SN | 738897.com | 367 | NJ |
| GadgetFixer.com | 359 | NJ | BestMemories.com | 359 | NJ |
| SB17.com | 354 | SN | DreamShake.com | 350 | SN |
| ZBEX.com | 350 | NJ |
2 more Chinese IDNs continue a modest trend that I predicted and have been following. One of these is “metal”(金属 / jīn shǔ); the other means “high in the clouds” (云端 / yún duān). TelefonTarife.com ($394) means “phone rates” in French. Another French domain, GeneActes.org ($451), seems to refer to “gêne dans les actes de la vie courante”. That’s some sort of chronic discomfort (literally), but I can’t pin it on a particular English medical phrase.
That isn’t my only prediction that came true this past month. During the first week of February, I stated that LLLL.net “CHIPs” were regarding to fall below $250. For the next 2 weeks, they fought hard to prove me wrong, with half still selling above that threshold. But at some point since mid February, they gave up. GGQQ.net ($429) looks like the biggest sale in this category by far. Following that, a triple repeater, JFJJ.net, scored $275 at SnapNames. Apart from this pair, I found no CHIP .NETs reaching $250. At NameJet, I tracked 10 of the most active auctions, which ranged $169-$225. At SnapNames, where my data is complete, 41 sold between $160 and $241 at with a median of $195.
When it comes to profiting from Chinese liquid domains, it may be that investors’ BestMemories.com ($359) will date from 2015 – kind of like nostalgia for the heyday of parking revenue some years earlier. To HitThePillow.com ($380) might defuse some frustrations, but it usually means going to bed. Thirsty for that DreamShake.com ($350) possibly.
Even staring at old CrackMonkey.org ($525) screenshots, I can’t really tell which way is up. There’s a logo of an overdosing monkey alongside tabs for “Stories”, “FAQ”, “Hubris”, and “Scientology”. My first question – WTF? – isn’t listed among their FAQs. They did, still, provide these fact-packed nuggets:
Q: What is CrackMonkey?
A: It is a monkey that is smoking crack, you silly person.
Q: How do I post messages?
A: Wildly and with abandon. You ought to post your messages in English, MockDeutsch, or Esperanto if possible.
Well, that’s something I can agree with. Go to!
