Puka.com + 200 other expired domain name sales: EDR
Joseph Peterson reviews the past week of expired domain name sales in this Expired Domain Note.
Some time passed without China topping our list of expired domain auctions; first Insurance1.com and then DataTrack.com took 1st place – both English and U.S.-focused. This stretch China once again snags the tape at NameJet’s finish line, coming in 1st with PUKA.com ($9.0k). While it isn’t the $62k monster of 3 weeks prior, this sale nevertheless nearly doubles the price of its runner up.
You’ll recognize Hawaiian puka necklaces, although the domain is most likely prized without reference to cone snail shell fragments. Actually, I’m a bit surprised to see a Chinese buyer for this CVCV pattern, since domainers inside or aiming at China express a preference for vowel-less character strings. Pinyin is another story; but, although I could be wrong, “puka” doesn’t look like Pinyin to me. CVCVs are often sought following within the Western market since of their pronounceability and acronym-friendliness.
Would a Chinese domain investor buy with the West in mind? I find myself mulling over that question. To date, few Chinese domainers have adopted non-Chinese criteria for domain purchases; and the expectation seems to be that anything they buy and sell will be deployed inside China. So whereas an American or European domain reseller will cater to both China and the West, Chinese domainers take a more insular approach. At least, that has been my sense of the international situation. Does PUKA.com refute my view? If the buyer anticipates a Silicon-Valley startup buying it from him, then yes.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| PUKA.com | 8977 | ProTax.com | 4999 |
| StateFund.com | 4999 | TitlePawn.com | 4755 |
| OceanEnergy.com | 4100 | Plazas.com | 3800 |
| GreenBacks.com | 3666 | 557766.com | 3200 |
| Sanad.com | 2977 | ICAA.com | 2612 |
| Swets.com | 2555 | Sillas.com | 2524 |
| FIFS.com | 2447 | SMOS.com | 2028 |
| Somet.com | 1623 | ADGC.com | 1618 |
| WeMove.org | 1610 | RealBody.com | 1600 |
| GCCA.com | 1544 | Medvance.com | 1501 |
| VisualThinking.com | 1435 | Gustavia.com | 1401 |
| SAAE.com | 1400 | Westchase.com | 1252 |
| GlobeCorner.com | 1200 | DigitalText.com | 1189 |
| DigitalConnect.com | 1010 | 币.com (xn--6st.com) | 1009 |
Following that leading LLLL.com sale, we have a quartet of English word pairs, ranging from $4.1k to $5.0k: ProTax, StateFund, TitlePawn, OceanEnergy. The last of these is an extremely significant topic for sustainable energy worldwide – high tech and highly commercial, albeit indirectly. Many websites sell widgets and doodads directly to consumers; but sizable-cap industries like this one market to voters, sell to politicians through lobbyists, and handle transactions mainly on the scale of long-term government contracts. Their online marketing goals differ from, say, LiftingBelt.com ($255). Anybody can ship me a leather belt for squats at the gym. Harder to ship me an underwater power plant. Whether they’re slated for resale or development, the rules of the game for these 2 domains differ.
Sillas.com ($2.5k) are what you’re sitting in now – Spanish for “chairs”. GreenBacks.com ($3.7k) are U.S. dollar bills. Gustavia.com ($1.4k) is an island capital. Westchase.com ($1.3k) both a region of Houston, Texas, and a modest city in Florida. At least half a dozen websites could shorten their domains with this item. Sanad.com ($3.0k) is an Arabic word, but its chief application might be global rebranding effort for Abu-Dhabi-based Sanad.ae, “an asset financing firm … for liquidity in the aviation industry”.
By now, every DNW reader knows that China likes repeating sequences; 557766.com ($3.2k) is a clear example. Much less common in our charts are international domain names (IDNs) like the single-character 币.com ($1.0k). And what does it mean? Well, it’s the category that contains GreenBacks.com – “money” / “currency”.
Apart from PUKA.com at $9k, half a dozen other LLLL.com’s finished between $1.4k and $2.6k – all of them containing vowels. That’s true of the next 2 as well, which sold just below $1k: QOZI.com and QFIN.com. Those of you who pay attention to length will notice that the first domain spilling over onto 2 lines is all the way down at $410. Toward the top of the chart, shorter domains leave so much white space that the visual difference is discernible.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| QOZI.com | 995 | BugPowder.com | 910 |
| HawaiiAttorney.com | 862 | OilChem.com | 820 |
| PVDC.com | 760 | Crowner.com | 760 |
| QFIN.com | 725 | Caryn.com | 709 |
| 4JM.com | 695 | Diligentia.com | 692 |
| BrainTicket.com | 680 | CSCar.com | 640 |
| RCDH.com | 631 | Maclar.com | 625 |
| CargoX.com | 620 | JazzE.com | 619 |
| SanDiegoDivorce Lawyer.com |
600 | NJSN.com | 600 |
| eField.com | 599 | Quello.com | 571 |
| VideoLog.tv | 541 | WhatSold.com | 524 |
| BSRP.com | 520 | WorldReading.org | 510 |
| QRSD.com | 500 | BoatingCourses.com | 499 |
| LGBO.com | 480 | 9WV.com | 473 |
| Wooty.com | 460 | Vannessa.com | 460 |
| MapEmbed.com | 453 | TheUN.com | 444 |
| DWHD.com | 439 | LiveFetish.net | 429 |
| YTWJ.com | 420 | GameMaster Online.com |
410 |
| EgyptDeals.com | 410 | Solvate.com | 409 |
| SBLH.com | 408 | AZWD.com | 401 |
| 658000.com | 401 | 84599.com | 400 |
| Draguignan.com | 390 | SpyMasters.com | 390 |
| IntegratedFitness.com | 379 | WJQZ.com | 379 |
| VetSolutions.com | 370 | MysticFire.com | 355 |
| SetFocus.com | 354 | JKOE.com | 352 |
| HappyPerson.com | 350 | BI88.com | 343 |
| LibertySupply.com | 341 | AVKK.com | 341 |
| ReelWomen.org | 335 | IntecGroup.com | 331 |
| Fawwaz.com | 321 | BoxApp.com | 320 |
| MaxDrones.com | 318 | Linberg.com | 314 |
| EnviroDoc.org | 310 | HG1385.com | 310 |
| Kakoon.com | 310 | JGIC.com | 300 |
| LSIB.com | 291 | EquityHouse.com | 270 |
| CarlosHaya.net | 265 | SafeHealthy Schools.org |
265 |
| GoldEarring.com | 260 | LiftingBelt.com | 255 |
| Flyville.com | 253 | MapsEmbed.com | 250 |
| Aetec.com | 250 | Treasurely.com | 245 |
| ManagementZone.com | 230 | OnlineSchools Search.org |
221 |
| EmpowerSolutions.com | 220 | NorthernLeague.com | 210 |
| Zalue.com | 209 | 46689.com | 199 |
| StudentReporter.org | 196 | Baran.net | 190 |
| SEOAdsense Themes.com |
189 | KPOM.com | 185 |
| BusinessFormula.com | 175 | SpaceAndTech.com | 174 |
| BurmeseCats.com | 169 | 209777.com | 161 |
| OVSV.com | 160 | 846555.com | 160 |
| 03347.com | 160 | Sparbalu.com | 159 |
| VirtualRailRoader.com | 159 | ResolveOfThe BayState.org |
150 |
Quello.com ($571) is Italian for “that” – an notable survival word in any language, which, grunted together with a protruding index finger, allows you to buy whatever you can point at worldwide. It’s quite possible the buyer wasn’t thinking of Italian, though, since Quello would be catchy and easily spelled even if meaningless. Not so for the Draguignan.com ($390) region of France. Caryn.com ($709) – also written “Karyn”, “Caren”, and “Karen” – provides a useful reference point for the value of first names. Ditto Vannessa.com ($460). Likewise Fawwaz.com ($321).
Compared to SanDiegoDivorceLawyer.com ($600), the shorter and broader HawaiiAttorney.com ($862) was clearly a bargain. I can’t help but read eField.com ($599) as “electrical field”, although I don’t know how it will be used. BurmeseCats.com ($169) and EgyptDeals.com ($410) are much more straightforward. Given the unrest in Egypt, tourism has been in decline; so I imagine there are real deals to be had. Go!
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 946555.com | 149 | 922111.com | 141 |
| ABMarketWorks.com | 140 | ShuttlePressKit.com | 135 |
| 65949.com | 131 | Get-Shorty.com | 130 |
| YourLifeInsurer.com | 130 | EvolutionNYC.com | 129 |
| AmericaGas.com | 129 | VeroShop.com | 129 |
| 1EMT.com | 121 | BitClockers.com | 120 |
| WPThemes Creator.com |
120 | GramShow.com | 120 |
| VoucherBank.com | 119 | Espero.org | 119 |
| WDJO.com | 119 | BABCN.org | 111 |
| PansLabyrinth.com | 110 | TechnoTax.com | 109 |
| LOJX.com | 105 | TorrentHunter.com | 101 |
| CiberMedios.com | 100 | ChastainLakes.com | 100 |
| RYVD.com | 100 | UltimatePoker Challenge.com |
100 |
| SWTC.org | 99 | MWAE.com | 90 |
| Technosophy.com | 90 | HospitalDe Viladecans.com |
90 |
| BaiSoft.com | 89 | Intermemory.org | 89 |
| Acenta.net | 89 | ShowcaseDisplays.com | 86 |
| ArsSubterranea.org | 81 | Storm-Magazine.com | 80 |
| Audiencia.com | 80 | UMCJ.com | 80 |
| Coumu.com | 79 | Assurance Firm.com |
79 |
| NewQuestCity.com | 79 | Arts-Research- Digest.com |
79 |
| BTDomain.com | 79 | XORadio.com | 79 |
| UCanSave.com | 79 | CPRKits.com | 79 |
| Maraboo.com | 71 | Chicano-Art-Life.com | 71 |
| SocialCarbon.com | 70 | RankYour Websites.com |
70 |
| Pingerati.net | 70 | GoldForBitcoin.com | 70 |
| iTechLogic.com | 70 | ZodRecords.com | 70 |
| Vurch.com | 70 | Sovietico.com | 69 |
| YoureAwesome.com | 69 | Arquitect.com | 69 |
| B2CGroup.com | 69 | Tacos.tv | 69 |
| NegociosRentables DeHoy.com |
69 | LessonsIn Business.com |
69 |
| FilmShaft.com | 69 | WorldPDF.com | 69 |
| TwitAPI.com | 69 | Domestic Marketing.com |
69 |
| PayPerViewAdult.com | 69 | CSSCount.com | 69 |
The nearly 200 domains above are too many to discuss individually. Still, a few more are worth pointing out. Espero.org ($119) is Spanish for “I hope” – a theme eminently well suited for .ORG. If you can self-translate the Spanish words Audiencia.com ($80) and Sovietico.com ($69), then YoureAwesome.com ($69).
You’ll recognize a Spanish crossover hit movie in PansLabyrinth.com ($110): originally “El Laberinto Del Fauno”. Get-Shorty.com ($130) is another Hollywood film starring John Travolta. Films of another kind, PayPerViewAdult.com ($69), are offered to many hotel guests. And if you stand on your head and read this backwards in a mirror, then there’s another movie in FilmShaft.com ($69). But the backup singers have good advice for me: “Shut your mouth!”
