Just ask the company that handles a good portion of the private transactions.
Afternic and Sedo release weekly sales reports that are reported by a number of domain blogs. DNJournal aggregates reports from these sources and others.
But at the end of the day, public sales figures probably account for about 10% of the domain sales market.
A lot of private sales take place with the help of Escrow.com. The majority of domain transactions the company handles are with end users, and that means most of the transactions it handles are never made public. Its results are a good barometer for what’s going on in the market.
So I reached out to Escrow.com President Brandon Abbey to find out what he’s seeing so far in 2012. He told me the year is off to an incredible start.
Escrow.com’s year-to-date domain transactions are up 29% compared to the same period in 2011. Dollar volume is up a staggering 45% with the average transaction size up 13%.
I don’t think this is a case of Escrow.com winning more of the market share. It’s already the runaway leader for pureplay domain escrow transactions.
Although .com still dominates, Abbey says that ccTLD transactions are up significantly this year compared to last.
This is all good news for domain name investors.
JamesDouglas says
Andrew, Excellent reporting and analysis again. This is hopefully good news for all involved. The number of online startups seem to be increasing healthily, and they all need names. I would love to see the distribution of names between generic and brandable.
Ron says
Take into account, how many domains which were directly targeted to sedo, were moved last mid way through the year to other top parking providers, with direct links, some of the best names online. Also with the auction houses pushing commissions up, you are going to think twice about paying 15-20%, when you can do it privately for less.
These sort of actions should be pushing escrow’s numbers. Most small businesses do not have a clue, and will simply follow their competition once they go online… This effect will be huge for mid range portfolios in the $xxx-x,xxx range.
Gene says
This is great news. Any additional data points that you can get would be great to know about. Thanks.
Joe says
Great news indeed. It would be possible to have a raw value for the volume of transactions made at Escrow.com?
John says
Great reporting. It’s good you reached out like that. You got some nice data.
It seems accurate in regards to what I’m seeing, which is a sales volume increase and an uptick in price. Also, I’m seeing more acceptance by buyers that domains will cost them some real money, not some silly $500 or $1000 offer.
I agree with Ron. Domain brokerages are getting way ahead of themselves. I pulled all my domains from one brokerage house here recently and will not be working with most brokers anymore since they want such a big cut for my hard work. Also some want to make money on both sides of the fence. Dirty rats!!
They are not all bad, just most of them.
Aggro says
Why don’t you ask him the total value of domains by value (for esrow) & the number of domains.
Then we can a/ see the size of escrow.com domain market by value b/ average domain selling price
Cut the crap with all the fuzzy feel good percentages (which don’t reveal a lot).
It’s all speculation & domainer soundbites to suggest the publicised sales are 10% of the total market
NOTE: Don’t be the shmuck who regs doggy-doo domains, like these:
– ctivist.com
– forensic3d.com
– samedaymarketing.com
Ron says
I think domain prices have fallen in the past year, and you have this fixed pricing war to blame for it. Also Andrew Reyberry has been a huge part of bringing average domain sale values down…
Ron says
@Aggro
With all due respect, I do not think samedaymarketing.com is a bad speculation registration, maybe others can weigh in…
Adam says
Facebook effect. As these guys go IPO and all these, top guys, programmers etc decided to walk and cash out . They’ve got money and ideas and want good domains.
Adam says
Also Schilling effect as he’s pulling domain owners to his system more sales will be handled directly. These were the sort of “bread and butter” sales that sedo liked to get that schilling can now take from them. Most of those are handled on escrow.
lassy says
Interesting all these sales but none here.
Lawrence Summit says
What is the best place to sell a domain?
I have a descriptive domain that valuate says is worth $40k
I will settle for half that amount.
Dont know where to sell though?
Adpals says
Ive always wondered who to use for domains valued over $100,000.00. I have never trusted brokers, but do have some interest in using one in the future.
The main reason I would need a third party involved is for the sales contract and negotiating the sale price, as I have no experience selling names over $5k.
Karen Bernstein says
Adpals, my firm handles these sorts of things. Give me a call.
Adpals says
Karen, I visited your website and have your contact information. I will give you a call when we get closer to moving this domain.
Thank you.
JE says
@Aggro
If you’re going to use ctivist as an example can you a least put the subdomain in there for me. a.ctivist.com
Cheers
Your friend.