EDR: A look at 150 expired domain name auctions from the past week

This week’s Expired Domain Report from Joseph Peterson has close to 150 expired domain name auctions from last week. As always, some of the prices paid are head-scratchers.

One thing organizations are good at … is dropping the ball.  Take this week’s top-selling expired domain auction, for instance.

MobiLoans.com seems to have purchased MobileLoans.com in December, 2011.  Last April, the domain expired; and now NameJet has sold it for a whopping $30k.  Although there were 126 bids from 56 bidders, only two were competing beyond $6,500.  My hunch is that MobiLoans, LLC, found itself bidding against someone who wanted to sell their former domain back to them for even more than $30k.

But that wasn’t the only expired auction at NameJet last week:

Domain Name	End $	Domain Name	End $
MobileLoans.com	30099	Taking.com	7255
Canan.com	5050	Run.tv	2900
SignatureHealth.com	2300	HNIP.net	2055
Fearsome.com	1600	SVMoms.com	1551
LetJusticeRoll.org	1511	PerfectVacation.com	1418
7456.cc	1100	VHDL.com	966
ThisWorld.com	807	CEMT.org	777
JWF.org	776	TrophyWives.com	760
Jollys.com	689	MyrtleWood.com	646
RPHG.com	619	DayInTheCloud.com	529
VVY.net	511	LongViewInstitute.org	461
LuxuryDesks.com	454	Spicy.tv	442
GlynisSmy.com	360	CDUS.com	298
MOTG.com	290	SimHost.com	285
BGNA.com	210	MedicalInsurancePlans.net	99

Canan.com has a surprising number of end users for a domain I first interpreted as a typo for the Biblical land of milk and honey.  It’s a Turkish TV show, a law firm, a Gaelic language service / graphic design agency (rolled into one), a photographer, and the Christian Association of Nigerian Americans.

Those are some aggressive dictionary words: Fearsome.com + Taking.com.

Notice the LLLL .NET for $2k … an LLLL and LLL .ORG within $1 of each other at $777 … an NNNN .CC over $1k … and 4 LLLL .COMs between $210 and $966.  Short domains have had a good week.

At GoDaddy, I could barely take a step without tripping over LLLL .COMs with active bidding.  Selecting domains based on their mid-auction bids, I ended up with 255 / 802 = 32% domains that happened to be 4-letter .COMs this week.  That’s unusual.

My lists are never comprehensive — meaning they leave out whatever I don’t look at.  Some auctions become active while I’m not paying attention; and I miss those.  Even so, my sampling turned up 5 LLLL .COMs at GoDaddy that sold in the $401 – $1035 range, another 28 from $150 – $307, and 54 more above $100.  The top 100 of those LLLL.com’s had a median price of $115 and a mean of $163.

For the most part, these weren’t CVCV’s or domains following other patterns beloved by domainers.  On the contrary, DZPM.com + GQPX.com + JLSQ.com surpassed $1000 between them.  That too is unusual.

Normally, if someone suddenly dumps a large inventory on the market, prices are diluted.  Instead I saw an increase in quantity of domains, an increase in bids, and an increase in prices.  Some of you probably noticed the same phenomena.

GoDaddy’s big sale, however, was an anti-Google domain: Scroogle.org.  Raymond Hackney pointed out earlier this week that the domain was once an ad-free Google alternative, relinquished by the owner due to DDOS attacks, among other things.  I have wondered whether the auction might have been a bidding war between Google and Microsoft, since the latter operates Scroogled.com — another anti-Google domain.

Domain Name	End $	Domain Name	End $
Scroogle.org	17100	LosAngelesPlumbers.com	4261
SCWurl.com	3733	SMTP.net	3550
PCDownloadStation.com	3464	NgorongoroCrater.org	3050
FeelGreat.com	2800	MatterNetwork.com	2500
PropogandaPanda.com	2175	MillionDictionary.com	2125
StopCreditors.com	1725	FXBook.com	1713
TheDateList.com	1461	PressReleaseSpider.com	1385
AsiaPower.com	1358	MyGiving.com	1291
MyUniversalFacts.com	1280	Farm255.com	1261
Cupidtino.com	1251	2244.net	1235
SEOForums.com	1195	Solarise.com	1170
OrganizersDB.org	1125	TPOT.com	1035
Sportaneous.com	1035	SolverFoundation.com	1035
PGEU.org	1009	GorillaArcade.com	1008
CirtyOilsands.org	990	GIAL.com	839
OfficeLetter.com	821	iGlucose.com	810
Avikroy.org	800	TheVoyager.net	741
6TG.com	732	PDASD.org	720
USNiff.com	680	FactorySupply.com	677
HoloLauncher.com	669	GlobalCorruptionReport.org	640
Alyafie.com	611	DZXSW.com	610
ReadingTree.org	610	WorldFootball4u.com	610
ResourcesForAttorneys.com	610	ABCDating.com	600
Fisioterapia.org	600	GamePublic.com	585
RamenRentResumes.com	585	5TF.com	580
FreshCoffee.net	565	IsraeliPalestinianProCon.org	565
WineWiki.com	550	JS6.com	532
Historic.net	530	NiceAir.com	510
Balkanika.com	504	WeLoveToIllustrate.com	502
DZPM.com	501	GaysTubes.com	501
TheOrigins.com	493	YesMusic.com	491
TornadoHockey.com	465	BI0.com	460
PlymouthMosquito.com	450	USBX.com	449
MothersDayFreeCards.com	449	KindnessGrewUp.com	447
ChicagoMomsBlog.com	445	AWORK.com	441
PaulFestival.org	440	PlayTeam.com	435
BestMothersDayCrafts.com	426	BookFetish.org	415
OpportunityAwaits.com	410	MothersDayArts.com	405
PublishingWorks.com	403	MRXW.com	401
Aawaaart.com	395	Chimed.com	384
EIEI.cc	360	97098.com	351
Kuntu.org	351	PrimeBacklinks.com	345
OrangeApple.com	330	Aragia.com	310
eFlick.com	306	MNTrees.org	306
ListingLTD.com	305	NewSpirituality.org	305
GQPX.com	300	LightningRifle.com	293
InsuranceDen.com	275	MobileHealthExpo.com	275
08998.com	272	MediaSoul.com	271
BarbadosMaxwellBeachVillas.com	271	7866.cc	261
UnmadeInChina.com	260	BinaryOptionsComplete.com	256
688881.com	245	15138.com	237
VPSI.org	235	CoffeCorner.com	230
WebDive.com	220	ObsoleteTheBook.com	205
Oooooouch.com	200	AndyGriffithShow.net	183
YJX.org	135	BlueWaterFilmFestival.com	126
InsideForex.com	100	JustPrice.org	80
CoverYourCough.com	47	Apples-N-Oranges.com	35

What have we got here?  A $4k plumber domain that wasn’t .PLUMBING.   Three Mother’s Day domains between $405 and $449, two of which were 4 words long.  BookFetish.org versus ObsoleteTheBook.com.  $230 wasted on misspelled “coffe”.  Ooooooouch.com!  ($200)  We’ve also got Andy Griffith, tornado hockey, a lightning rifle unmade in China, and oxymorons such as OrangeApple.com and MediaSoul.com.

My favorites were FeelGreat.com, OpportunityAwaits.com, Historic.net, Balkanika.com, FactorySupply.com, Solarise.com, YesMusic.com, and Chimed.com.  Maybe the best deal was InsideForex.com at $100 — much cheaper than the $1713 paid for FXBook.com.

Now for next week … Interweb.com is sure to get some notice.  I’m also curious about TheVillas.com, given the “Villas” brand portfolio Andrew Allemann has documented.

Domain Name	Venue	Domain Name	Venue
AuctionBlowouts.com	NJ Pre	BlazeOfGlory.com	NJ Pre
Carlo.com	NJ Pre	CityCrawl.com	NJ Pre
ComQueen.com	GD	DailyKick.com	NJ Pre
DivorceLaw.net	NJ Pre	Dorkies.com	NJ Pre
ExtremeTraining.com	NJ Pre	EZTI.com	GD
FreeCreditReport.net	NJ Pre	FreshGo.com	GD
FXFF.com	GD	GrantArchives.com	GD
Grisham.com	GD	HardOfHearing.com	NJ Pre
Henriksen.com	GD	HolidayProperties.com	NJ Pre
IndoorTrack.com	NJ Pre	Interweb.com	GD
LabQuest.com	GD	MedicalInfo.com	NJ Pre
MerchantCard.com	NJ Pre	NameHeat.com	NJ Pre
NoContact.com	GD	NoLimits.org	NJ Pre
OCH.com	GD	Penner.com	GD
QTC.org	NJ Pre	Quinine.com	GD
RAU.com	GD	RawFoodRestaurants.com	NJ Pre
SciLine.com	GD	Shave.net	NJ Pre
ShootersBible.com	PD	SiteForRent.com	NJ Pre
SiteGauge.com	GD	SmartPhone.net	GD
TheVillas.com	NJ Pre	TodaysQuestions.com	GD
UAUU.com	NJ Pre	Vagoneta.net	GD
VeganFoods.com	NJ Pre	VegetarianGuide.com	NJ Pre
VLG.net	PD	Waibo.com	NJ Pre
ZIY.org	NJ Pre	Zozos.com	NJ Pre

Waibo.com is also very important.  In case you didn’t know, Weibo.com (with an “e”) is a Chinese website ranked #17 in Alexa.