Embrace.com at $18.9k and other expired domain name sales

A weekly roundup of expired domain name sales at NameJet.

As a branding consultant, I love this week’s top seller: Embrace.com ($18.9k). It means so much more than a hug. When we “embrace change”, we’re not giving the future a cuddle. If we “embrace challenges”, we’re not being squeezed by Grandma; we’re Davids slaying Goliaths. The word “embrace” is positive, courageous, and social. … And I hate Elliot Silver for buying it instead of me! Oh, well.

China and the rest of the planet have declared a weekly thumb war for top spot in our NameJet chart of expired domain auctions. Usually Chinese market demand lifts an LLL.com or NNNN.com or Pinyin up into 1st place. This week, however, brings an utterly different kind of Chinese domain: AKCMS.com ($5.4k) is or was a Chinese content management system; so the “CMS” functions as an English loan word for a Chinese-language website that persisted from 2007 to 2014. A more familiar sort of China-focused sale would be 551188.com ($4.8k) with its repeating pattern.

CapitalCity.com ($4.9k) is unlikely to list Paris, Moscow, and Abuja side by side; but, as with Continental.org ($1k), it can shorten many an existing website’s domain. Capital City is also a place Simpsons fans will remember Tony Bennett singing about in 1990. Those same fans can hear Lennie.com ($1.6k) talking right now – except that fictional character apparently spells his name with a “Y”. ATOL.com ($3.8k) is an “L” short of an island. As an acronym, it may refer to Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing, a UK requirement for selling airline tickets. DunShi.com might be Chinese for “suddenly”, but I’d need a Chinese speaker to confirm that.

Domain Name	End $	Domain Name	End $
Embrace.com	18877	AKCMS.com	5444
CapitalCity.com	4926	551188.com	4800
ATOL.com	3833	RiverCrest.com	3451
DunShi.com	2600	ProductRatings.com	2600
FountainSquare.com	2548	BabyDresses.com	2501
Permissions.com	2100	PirateCove.com	1702
FLA-Gaming.com	1652	5StarDog.com	1625
US-Soccer.com	1601	ZAEL.com	1600
RAED.com	1600	Lennie.com	1555
Woodville.com	1452	USI.org	1260
BBAI.com	1231	Continental.org	1009
70338.com	905	VZZ.net	900
HBE.net	810	MoneyCalculator.com	810
BTGI.com	790	WSBA.com	760
Mills.org	742	EA6.com	701
TrustedCare.com	670	CTIAEnterprise AndApps.com	667
SPWH.com	620	OKIC.com	610
39136.com	610	LUPA.net	605
AdminTools.com	605	RussellMeans.com	590
XYYP.com	585	ExtremeHost.com	555
HHNZ.com	550	YFS.org	531
BLFG.com	510	BriteLight.com	510
Cornerstone Services.com	510	CFFR.com	510
OHIS.com	501	MimGroup.com	500
LPGF.com	480	DGQH.com	470
AABGA.org	460	HSTX.com	460
3DPosters.com	442	RMOO.com	425
BGGY.com	421	Kiria.com	420
Sogar.com	419	KHHX.com	419
CignaForHealth.com	410	NewZealand Forum.com	408
Parenting101.com	398	CLSX.com	358
IBBD.com	330	IBOX.tv	319
SmartLink.net	301	VIWS.com	301
PortableLight.org	300	TutorialKit.com	300
808866.com	295	PolluTech.com	275
LogoDesign Xperts.com [sic]	269	SoccerHall.org	251
AvoTech.com	239	RUMN.com	235
Cepha.com	232	DSAX.com	215
43394.com	209	OnThree.com	209
CityOfPA.com	198	EuroForce.com	190
ABPOPPM.org	170	InConcert WithNature.com	170
Holid.com	170	Acne-Advice.com	166
54261.com	160	VasLegas.com	130
UFans.com	129	AGFISonline.com	122
COD.cc	115	Hollanda.net	111
WMDFirst Responders.com	111	DKCE.com	109
Safeye.com	109	ValueTip.com	109
LMWeb.com	109	Faifa.com	108
DelanoScientific.com	101	GlynisSmy.com	100
555606.com	90	ACYV.com	80
LSOG.net	80	CIPCommunity.org	80
DebtAdjustment.com	79	GreenMountain Resort.com	79
StreetBikeParts.com	79	MotorcycleRepair Shops.com	79
Lumiq.com	79	OutsourceSystem.com	77
FloridaTravel Reservations.com	77	KidSeed.com	70
EUHSID.org	70	SyncMyWorld.com	69
HardCore Magazine.com	69	DohaJobs.com	69

BabyDresses.com ($2.5k) are the perfect item to ship from an e-commerce website, since babies are mostly the same size (i.e. small) and don’t insist on trying on the latest styles in person. Parenting101.com ($398) is the perfect brand name for new parents, while TrustedCare.com ($670) showcases the opposite of inexperience – whether for children or seniors. ProductRatings.com ($2.6k) is another natural for development.

Although the plural Permissions.com ($2.1k) may sound odd, that impression vanishes once you think of computer directories and readable/writeable/executable file permissions. AdminTools.com ($605) ought to appeal to the same IT crowd. Although it looks like an unfinished sentence about first-name etymology, RussellMeans.com ($590) actually means this man, an Oglala Lakota activist who worked with the UN to promote the rights of native peoples across the globe.

PolluTech.com ($275) and Safeye.com ($109) are tricky elisions to capitalize. ABPOPPM.org ($170) is a 7-letter acronym that stands for the American Board of Podiatric Orthopedics and Primary Podiatric Medicine … not 1 single member of which apparently has any taste! EUHSID.org is scarcely any better. GlynisSmy.com ($100) writes romance novels. KidSeed.com ($70) sounds like a euphemism to me; but I suppose it could be about gardening, couldn’t it. Dyslexic gamblers can go to VasLegas.com ($130). Turks who visit the Netherlands will arrive in Hollanda.net ($111). And if you end up in Woodville.com ($1.5k), then you’re in a tiny Texas town whose domain cost nearly $1 per inhabitant.

Time now for China and the West to duke it out in their thumb war for next week’s chart. Ready? Set? OnThree.com ($209): … 1 … 2 … 3!