19 end user domain sales.
There’s been a lot of news about new top level domains this week. But what’s going on right now in the domain market? Here are 19 domain sales to end users from the past week, including one to domain registrar Go Daddy.
Afternic
Dispatching technology company Unified Dispatch, LLC, bought zTrip.com for $20,000 from Frank Schilling.
App creator Apps For Life, which published Box Shot, bought BoxShot.com for $3,500.
TV Guide bought TVGM.com for $4,388, which stands for TV Guide Magazine.
Trudeau Homes International paid $1,688 for MahoganyWindow.com
Colorado company 5280 Waste Solutions bought DumpsterRent.com for $1,295
The owner of weight loss site HappyCaloriesDontCount.com shortened her name to HappyCalories.com for $1,295.
BayCare Health System paid $3,388 for YourHealthRisk.com.
Conservative group Focus on the Family bought FamilyProject.com for $4,188. It already owns the .org version but it’s not in use yet.
The owner of swfinancial.biz upgraded to SWFinancial.com for $1,500.
Integra Chemical Company bought ChemicalList.com for $1,695.
Entrepreneur.com bought WebEntrepreneurs.com for $2,100.
Sedo
Enterprise Holdings, i.e. Enterprise Rent-a-Car, bought Enterprise.gd for $1,500. (Sedo)
Austin based cloud company MomentumSI paid $3,790 for CloudMigration.com. (Sedo)
Truven Health Analytics, a Thomson Reuters company, paid $1,999 for Truven.com. (Sedo)
Mercurian LLC paid $1,000 for Vivana.com, which it has launched as a health care management platform. (Sedo)
KSB, a pump and valve manufacturer that owns KSB.com, expanded its horizons with KSB.kr for GBP 1,500. (Sedo)
Even domain registrars have to buy domains. Go Daddy has purchased ThemeMarketplace.com for $1,500. A place to buy web site themes? (Sedo)
Betaworks, the company behind bitly, chartbeat, and news.me, bought Swirl.us for $1,500. I wonder what they’re up to? (Sedo)
Cupid.com bought LoveReturns.com for $1,495 and Yadaa.com for $1,895 (Sedo).
Ron says
I like that we are moving into the mid 4 figure range with most sales, good inventory is becoming more expensive to acquire.
M says
hmmm … BetaWorks is a great company with some neat products (chartbeat rocks), but man they don’t seem to understand the value of a .COM domain. Those weird domain hacks seem so unprofessional. Swirl.us ??? Come on.
Jamie Zoch says
Not many domain investors would ask $20K for Ztrip.com…. (me included) but like wise, not many would pay the $20K either. Heck, I likely wouldn’t have even registered it if it was available. 🙂
That sale is an interesting story by itself.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Jamie – I agree. When I saw the sale price there were only a few possible sellers I could think of, Frank being one of them
Jamie Zoch says
@Andrew,
Michael Berkins would have been another guess just by looking at the sales price / domain.
One heavy advantage Frank, Michael B, Rick S etc have is, they own A LOT of domains and have a fair amount of money. This often equals high asking prices (you can’t get it if you don’t ask for it) and from time to time they get a buyer who agrees to the asking price.
With so many domains, they get a fair amount of offers daily, which increases that bite on the high price on an odd duckling.
Most domainers are cash strapped, so if they asked $20K on all their domains / offers, they couldn’t afford not to sell the three figure, four figure etc. they often do.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Jamie – a very fair point, and it’s why I think people shouldn’t necessarily take others’ advice on how they should price their inventory. I know Michael says you shouldn’t fix price your domains b/c you might miss a big score. But I think for many people, the added exposure you can get with a distributed system like AfternicDLS/SedoMLS is worth it to get sales in the $2k range. It really depends on your specific situation.
Josh says
I love that you report these transactions, I hate what end users are getting names for these days. Are people simply not doing their homework on who the buyer is or are they desperate for $1500? Or maybe $1500 is a better option than a C&D?
M says
Watch the DNS stream with many high quotes on domain names such as zTrip dot com. There is a difference between the elite + the non-elite = resources vs. no resources.
End-users can do research too. They know who sells high and who will take less. Dealing with the elite will cost them top dollars.
We see unappealing domain names go for absurd prices. Maybe we should follow these end-users to determine whether they made a bad or a good investment.
There are more favorable alternatives to buy top domains – master a niche. Buy as many descriptive domain names as you can with good search value.
zTrip dot com actually has good search value, is short, and can be brandable. Most seasoned domainers would not pass up on that domain with local exact match of 2400 on “z trip”. Nonetheless, $20K is on the high end.
If you don’t set a buy-it-now, you may get low offers such as $100. Replying back with $50K will end the negotiation process.
Does Sedo set a cap on offers at above $10K? They restrict buy-it-now at $10,000. You have to order a custom appraisal to increase the price above $10K.
Selling at high prices involve refusing to accept an offer until the right price is reached. There are past buyers that admit to paying too high.
Some end-users make out good with strong domains (see BigGovernment dot com – now acting as a pointer). IMO, we see domains such as TheMeditator dot com sell with only intrinsic value. Seems like CNN is doing well with their iReport domain that cost them a heavy chunk of change.