EDR: GoDaddy’s 4 letter, $42,500 domain name auction

This week’s Expired Domain Report from Joseph Peterson.

The gap between last week’s most expensive expired domain auction and the rest of the “stragglers” was roughly a factor of 10 – a full digit difference. Now, in a retail context, $42.5k is a respectable but hardly record-shattering sum to pay for a domain. As we all know, enough domain names sell for 6 and 7 figures each year that $42.5k is quickly overshadowed by the market overall. Even at a wholesale venue such as NameJet, a typical month will see its handful of comparable sales. Yet those top sellers generally are not expired domains. For the expired domain market as such, $42.5k is well above the average weekly high.

JOTT.com, GoDaddy’s $42.5k auction, was a great name for jotting down to-do lists and spur-of-the-moment thoughts, which is part of what this mobile voice-to-text software did or does. I say “does” because Jott was bought in 2009 by Nuance, the maker of Dragon speech recognition tools. Although Jott may have been rolled into the Nuance package, someone at Nuance has let the Jott.com domain name slip. Perhaps JottUSA.com, “a French line of ultra-thin and lightweight goose down outerwear” whose acronym stands for “Just Over The Top”, was ready and waiting to inherit the domain.

Interestingly, JOWW.com sold for $206. Swap out “W”s for “T”s, and it would fetched 200 times as much!

By now, more-ly people-ly than just-ly me are tired-ly of the “-ly” suffix. Even so, it provides a naming convention that is adaptable and recognizable; so domains like Knowly.com ($5.2k) continue to be popular and sell just fine without my approval. While I’m airing my private pet peeves, here’s another: domains with mismatched secondary gTLDs sandwiching the dot — for instance, TeachNet.org ($2.6k) and MiddleEastInfo.org ($701). So close, but so confusing! On the other hand, I like NetAsia.com ($718).

CollegeApparel.com ($4k) has an evergreen audience of students, family members, faculty, alumni, and sports fans. A website could ship out far more than $4k worth of college clothing with Christmas approaching. Am I right in thinking that SpinClass.com ($3.6k) involves stationary exercise bikes? If so, then it’s cousin to HomeGymCentral.com ($2.5k).

Domain Name	End $	Domain Name	End $
JOTT.com	42500	Knowly.com	5200
CollegeApparel.com	4050	SpinClass.com	3550
WorldInsurance.com	3250	TeachNet.org	2555
DubaiMoney.com	2550	HomeGymCentral.com	2509
EatingForLife.org	2225	27778.com	2015
PayDayLoan Lenders.com	1825	RoughPorn.com	1600
Revos.com	1580	BankAdda.com	1548
LibertyCentral.org	1525	HauWei.com	1398
ShopClouse.com	1345	VIPArtFair.com	1325
AIDSHotline.org	1225	EOF.net	1225
SitioCL.com	1054	ArticleRewriter.com	1007
OneEconomy Portal.com	1001	RedTubeDeutsche.com	1001
CompareWalkIn Tubs.com	1000	ICYD.org	970
SwelBlog.com	910	HarvardEALC.org	910
UMOO.com	898	LezGetReal.com	850
VendingService.com	811	OccupyPhilly.org	790
PlanetFoodRecipe.com	781	TimeKiwi.com	780
SovereignHotels.com	760	WegmansLPGA.org	760
AiesecMalta.org	754	HomeBank.net	740
TheNokiaBlog.com	720	NetAsia.com	718
KazanJian.com	710	MiddleEastInfo.org	701
Selfies.me	685	SnapText.com	671
TambayanOFW TV.com	646	Japonais LasVegas.com	610
GirlRising.org	610	ADXX.com	610
Ponti-Nauti.com	574	88601.com	572
Terorist.org [sic]	560	KathyFerreiro.com	560
TileWork.com	547	FloridaCommunities Trust.org	530
SemiZone.com	527	Pancham.com	525
71Miles.com	520	PaymentPros.com	515
HNBYS.com	511	iDesignEco.com	510
BlueBorder.com	493	Skolesekken.com	469
WSTF.org	455	BabeBoob.com	448
Top10BestSewing Machine.com	442	MC8888.com	433
iRiverAmerica.com	425	Sweetie.net	420
CiSalt.com	417	Eco-Portal.com	410
OpenSafe.com	407	RealProAudio.com	407
MAAGraphics.com	406	WindyCityPawn.com	405
NBC.tv	400	OurTruths.org	395
CaribbeanCondos.com	393	BleachBlack.com	385
QSYX.com	375	CPNE.com	370
WoolSuits.com	361	ARWUS.com	360
Podra.com	360	TemplatesCode.com	357
MonarchMountain Lodge.com	355	WesternGolf.com	353
Pamukcu.com	350	RojnamaWar.com	346
CSCCU.org	335	News-AutoCar.com	335
eBIG.org	331	SolarMovie.us	327
TeamWizard.com	327	KSSBEO.com	323
GroundMedia.com	320	Djaridati.com	315
DeadSea-Health.org	315	MPCCorp.com	315
EdoZiedo.info	310	StopPurgen CoalPlant.org	309
eBook-Publishing- Tools.com	305	AcademyK-8.com	305
FitnessAddiction.com	305	5298.net	302
HarryWilson.com	300	RoseCF.com	297
KanTalk.com	295	KeatingEconomics.com	295
StLouisLambertTaxi.com	292	PixelShake.net	281
PairingsBoston.com	281	The-Best-Insoles.com	277
MyDLMS.com	272	LaMuie.com	267
63859.com	265	RPLS.ws	265
InsideSports Illustrated.com	265	Gaafar.com	261
4-ADHD.com	260	SharkFights.com	260
CodeMyCode.com	257	QNCC.com	255
CleverGrip.com	255	EXOI.com	251
PlentyOfFish ComLogin.com	242	QRMarketing.com	240
TBZJ.com	239	ErectileDysfunction Herb.com	235
JogosDeMeninas Online.net	235	AirHostess Academy.com	235
BusyPeople.com	230	WorkLifeMonitor.com	230
BerkeleyThaiHouse.com	230	LoreBrandComics.com	230
GCPA.org	230	HandymanFinder.com	227
VanAbel.com	225	Phuket-Voyage.com	225
TestimonialMonkey.com	225	VUML.com	223
16609.com	220	RadarNews.com	210
CharlotteCommunity Charter.com	210	ExhibitCNTR.com	210
JOWW.com	206	Adefesio.com	206
KadyCross.com	206	OnlineReceipt.com	206
CounterData.com	206	RGLE.com	205
MicroGrids.org	205	MissOlliesOakland.com	205
FoxITBlog.com	205	HWMT.com	205
EJUU.com	201	4Ceda.org	200
RareAustin.com	200	BuenaVentura Press.com	200
Banki.net	200	HouseOfSoulFood.net	200
8MonkeyLabs.com	195	IJEP.com	193
LoseYourAppetite.com	186	AZZG.com	186
BestFreeDating Sites.com	185	EyeInTheSky.net	185
IMRX.com	175	Mayhews.com	165
Colombianos Viajando.com	164	EatSuperFoods.com	160
ChristmasText.com	160	9524.net	157
DubaiGlobal.com	156	SocialNetwork Advertising.com	137
ArtIntel.com	132	Orange.cc	125
05503.com	117	524999.com	111
ETFReport.com	105	BoatHeaven.com	100
StreamBay.tv	100	ZipLane.com	75
HDMovieStream.com	71	DotFest.net	60
RetroFlicks.com	59	PartTime Prosperity.com	39

If you’re watching TV in the USA, you may have seen a spate of commercials for walk-in bathtubs. CompareWalkInTubs.com ($1k) ought to generate its share of orders for products averaging $4k to $5k each. Meanwhile, vending machines all around planet earth don’t replenish themselves. Since someone must come along regularly to collect the cash, restock that junk food, and service those machines, VendingService.com ($811) seems to me like an ideal description for people who staff a multi-billion-dollar-per-year industry.

SnapText.com ($671) riffs on popular app SnapChat, one of whose customary uses is sending selfies. I’ve seen an absurd number of “selfie” domains registered since the term became trendy, but one “selfie” domain that makes complete narcissistic sense is this one: Selfies.me ($685).

What else? A good buy at $515, PaymentPros.com is already listed for sale at $80k. BoatHeaven.com, which cost a mere $100, proves that a business can still find a short, clear .COM domain today without spending a fortune. Orange.cc ($125) is an echo of Pink.net’s $8.7k sale the previous week. PartTimeProsperity.com ($39) is a great phrase – something many a domainer is chasing, although most of us latecomers to the industry remain BusyPeople.com ($230).

Those of you who remember the $500k sale of GamesForGirls.com and similar items such as the $15k sale of DressupGamesForGirls.com might be curious about JogosDeMeninasOnline.net ($235). It’s Portuguese for the same 3-word phrase – plus “online” obviously. SitioCL.com ($1k) is Spanish for “website” plus the abbreviation for Chile. We even have “Colombians Traveling” as ColombianosViajando.com ($164). CiSalt.com ($417) was 2-year-old Arabic tech forum. The Turkish surname Pamukçu sold for $350 as a non-IDN .COM. Terorist.org ($560) is not a typo if it’s Romanian; otherwise somebody’s down one “R”. As near as I can tell, LaMuie.com ($267) is Romanian for oral sex.

Two marketing domains sold very cheap: SocialNetworkAdvertising.com ($137) is a significant topic. Indeed, it’s a Clash of the Titans between Facebook and Google. QR codes represent a fundamentally different way to navigate the web, and QRMarketing.com ($240) has room to grow.

NBC.tv ($400), TheNokiaBlog.com ($720), and InsideSportsIllustrated.com ($265) at first blush look like blatant cybersquatting to me. PlentyOfFishComLogin.com ($242) might do plenty of phishing. OccupyPhilly.org ($790) is about as dated as if it said “2011”. With ETFReport.com ($105) we have a strong financial domain at a bargain price. DubaiMoney.com ($2.6k) cost a good deal more than DubaiGlobal.com ($156), but what is $2.6k to Dubai?

One theme shared by both GoDaddy and NameJet last week was banking. Setting aside other financial sectors such as WorldInsurance.com ($3.3k), PayDayLoanLenders.com ($1.8k), or even PaymentPros.com and ETFReport.com, GoDaddy still had BankAdda.com ($1.5k), HomeBank.net ($740), and Banki.net ($200). In addition, you’ll notice OnlineReceipt.com ($206), which I predict will replace paper during the next 10 years.

And NameJet? Take your pick: DohaBank.com ($6k), KoreaBank.com ($591), or MarginCall.com ($1.8k). Actually, the last of these was a movie about yesteryear’s banking crisis starring Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons. Worth a watch …

Domain Name	End $	Domain Name	End $
Praga.com	6901	DohaBank.com	6000
Con.org	2520	MarginCall.com	1755
BetChat.com	1620	BulaFiji.com	1612
BPAI.com	1300	KoreaBank.com	591
AvianInfluenza Info.com	542	Executive Marketing.com	511
PCMCIA.org	510	BRTI.com	360
EpsilonConcepts.com	296	JMTZ.com	269
ZaiDian.com	259	NNKM.com	225
OrganicBaby Clothing.com	216	ACUCouncil.org	210
Smoker.info	160	Watergy.org	150
ToddlerTShirts.com	121	MultiGig.com	69

Praga.com ($6.9k) may turn out to be a decades-old Czech motor company, a district of Warsaw, Poland, or neither. If I were the Public Interest Registry (operator of .ORG), I would use Con.org to raise awareness throughout el mundo hispanohablante about what people can do “With .ORG”. (“Con” is Spanish for “with”.)

AvianInfluenzaInfo.com ($542) reminds us how terrified we aren’t of bird flu now that Ebola is the darling of the news media. Those epidemics come and go, but Smoker.info ($160) is associated with far more deaths outside of Africa.

Global pandemics, market ups and downs, and even EyeInTheSky.net ($185) all remind me of my personal hero, Simpsons reporter “Arnie Pye in the Sky”, whose bird’s eye view of events I do my utmost to emulate.