NameJet Expired Domain Note
Frank Schilling made a comment yesterday regarding NameJet that I believe is significant – and not since it’s anything fresh … rather the opposite. Many people, myself included, have observed rising final auction prices and speculated regarding the intermixture of wholesale and retail purchases at NameJet going back at least a year. So why does it matter (and it does) that Frank Schilling calls the present an “interesting moment where the line between wholesale and retail is getting closer than ahead of”?
While I wouldn’t regard Mr. Schilling or anybody else as an oracle and seldom spend my time mopping up another domainer’s casual remarks with exegesis, I do respect his years of experience attending to market prices. Indisputably, one thing Frank Schilling does not underestimate is the retail value of domains. So when he hints that some NameJet prices are venturing into retail territory, few domain investors will step forward to suggest that he doesn’t appreciate domains’ full value. In other words, the perception that retail and wholesale price ranges have merged at NameJet has by now percolated throughout all domainer strata, from aspiring newbies with limited budgets all the way up to the top sellers / big spenders. Frank Schilling’s comment isn’t news per se, but it signals consensus.
The question now to be debated is whether we’re seeing (1) end users and resellers competing side by side to buy the same assets at the same venues or (2) wholesale and retail prices converging with thinner resale margins but (ideally) greater liquidity.
The prior week’s top expired sale is a case in point. To me $14.2k looks like a retail number for OnePass.com. But if a reseller could rely on a quick flip, even at a modest ROI, then appearances would be deceiving. We’ll see where the domain ends up. Perhaps Thomson Reuters .
Another fairly expensive domain, HOBB.com ($7.8k) has all sorts of English overtones, from political philosophers to Tolkien characters with furry Ankles.com ($6.1k). Apparently, it’s also the surname of a best-selling, Tolkien-inspired fantasy novelist. So many viewpoints overlap in the domain market, though, that we could be looking at a future bread & breakfast (“BB”); or the domain might end up speaking Chinese, as so many sequences of Latin letters do these days.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| OnePass.com | 14199 | HOBB.com | 7777 |
| Ankles.com | 6099 | JetRental.com | 4700 |
| MailMarketing.com | 4210 | PaddleBall.com | 3922 |
| Voices.org | 2801 | Lirio.com | 2615 |
| WebSurveys.com | 2400 | InfoShield.com | 2269 |
| Inizio.com | 2101 | Helix.org | 2099 |
| LDAI.com | 1959 | WatchMyCredit.com | 1911 |
| PosterMaker.com | 1433 | Rosca.com | 1423 |
| Toured.com | 1400 | RocketNet.com | 1369 |
| OnlineWriter.com | 1211 | BII.net | 1106 |
| HumanPotential.com | 1005 | SeniorDeals.com | 1000 |
| Motoria.com | 990 | Nicaragua RealState.com [sic] |
960 |
| LifeInc.com | 938 | EdMedia.com | 743 |
| VisitGambia.com | 727 | TeenageFashion.com | 690 |
| NB7.com | 665 | SSHA.com | 628 |
| MixPad.com | 590 | PointWay.com | 580 |
| SpintoBand.com | 570 | SROB.com | 531 |
| Jacket.org | 511 | LHCG.com | 508 |
| TAFP.com | 508 | DiamondExpress.com | 505 |
| VoiceAnalytics.com | 497 | 0LV.com | 496 |
| OffTheDock.com | 470 | Competitiveness Forum.org |
444 |
| Careering.com | 441 | FGPA.com | 415 |
| APHY.com | 412 | UltraLiner.com | 398 |
| MVAP.com | 384 | SuccessManifesto.com | 370 |
| Revisers.com | 366 | MicroElectronic.com | 364 |
| Free-PHP.net | 356 | MyBaptism.com | 342 |
| SoccerPhotos.com | 342 | TVCart.com | 311 |
| MDATechnology.net | 311 | XGSY.com | 309 |
| E5C.com | 290 | OLPB.com | 279 |
| ICCUK.net | 256 | 65937.com | 247 |
| WholesaleRings.com | 232 | TrickGolfBalls.com | 219 |
| SFBrewing.com | 186 | XLSI.com | 182 |
| HealthForge.com | 180 | SRLST.com | 170 |
| SharingFaith.org | 159 | Lifeline-Gallery.org | 152 |
| AdultPersonals.net | 145 | Kenri.com | 130 |
| Searchezy.com | 129 | YouLawyers.com | 121 |
| iPodCases.com | 111 | VRBU.com | 110 |
| SandwichBoxes.com | 109 | TravelAccessories.org | 100 |
| AgePage.com | 85 | Japans.net | 80 |
| ShortSaleSecrets.com | 79 | ResellerTalk.com | 69 |
Despite talk of retail prices, I’d say there is plenty of meat left on the bone for JetRental.com ($4.7k) and MailMarketing.com ($4.2k). Following all, charter jets don’t come cheap; and mail marketing is a vast industry. No, 10 bucks shy of a grand is not the high water mark for an internationally viable brand name such as Motoria.com.
Although many auctions close near retail prices, most do not. TVCart.com ($311) could prove crucial in the future as e-commerce and TV advertising become intertwined. AgePage.com ($85) was a bargain – perfect for a site regarding aging gracefully. Given all its connections to health, travel, and retirement planning, along with the certainty of getting older, such a domain can make money.
Quality in the chart above is generally high. Domains such as TeenageFashion.com ($690) and SeniorDeals.com ($1k) ought to be developed by now, right? I’m sure a number of people selling TrickGolfBalls.com ($219) could increase their sales using that domain. Helix.org ($2.1k) makes a lot of sense for genetics and DNA testing.
SFBrewing.com ($186) probably refers to San Francisco but could also be Santa Fe. ICCUK.net ($256) corresponds to sites built on .COM (auto repair), .ORG (the Islamic Cultural Centre), and .ORG.UK (International Children’s Care). Inizio.com ($2.1k) is Italian for “beginning” or “I start”, yet it’s near enough to “initiate” to start something in English.
Watch out for Searchezy.com, which (as stated by the first website I saw) “is classified as a harmful Google redirect virus, which mainly spreads through Trojans, and hacked websites”! Also, watch out for typos so that you don’t end up spending $960 for the not-so-real real estate of Nicaragua.
