Joseph Peterson reviews last month’s sales on NameJet.
NameJet had seen 9 domains surpass $100k, going as high as $175.5k – but nothing remotely like July’s $550,050 sale of SX.com. Yes, VVV.com was its 4th highest sale back in April (now 5th); and RingTones.com placed 7th in June (now 8th). Yet SX.com more than triples the auction house’s all-time record.
Of course, 2-letter .COMs are known to retail in the 7 figures with increasing regularity. So it might be thought that NameJet’s massive sale is simply a function of having a couple of LL.com’s in the shop window. However, ZC.com sold at NameJet 2 years ago for a far lower figure: $120k. The change since then is partly attributable to NameJet marketing, but mainly the price discrepancy is due to the LL.com category itself. Not just appreciation within the retail market but greater confidence among wholesale buyers. More liquidity means resellers can edge closer toward the retail range.
| Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|
| SX.com | 550,050 |
Apart from SX.com, July at NameJet was only an average month. Its remaining 93 sales (i.e. those over $2k) totaled $493.4k, a figure more in keeping with 2014 levels – actually, the lowest total since September, 2014. Median and adjusted mean prices reinforce the impression that July was nothing special. And that only makes the gap between SX.com ($550k in 2015) and ZC.com ($120k in 2013) more impressive.
Nobody will be shocked when I mention that NameJet’s second best-selling category last month after that LL.com was … LLL.com. A trio sold right around $30k. The 2 that finished below $20k each contain “V” – a letter unloved by Chinese buyers. As expected, VVC.com ($19.5k) outperformed HVZ.com ($12.4k), thanks to its repeating letters.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| JHM.com | 30,429 | IAS.com | 30,001 |
| NUZ.com | 28,000 | VVC.com | 19,450 |
| HVZ.com | 12,400 |
LLL domains in .ORG and .NET mostly fall below the $2k reporting threshold. Many of them are covered by my weekly articles on expired auctions. But here are 3 that rose high enough to be included in NameJet’s monthly release:
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| GAN.org | 2400 | EMO.org | 2060 |
| DRF.net | 2017 |
After LLL.com’s, the next 2 best sellers during July were what domainers typically call “brandables”. That term isn’t well defined, and you’re welcome to disagree about the way I’ve lumped these 18 items together. DogCare.com ($27k) might be considered more descriptive than creative, and OnlyYou.com ($26k) is a common phrase. After that pair of healthy retail prices, there’s a noticeable gap – a chasm really. If you look past SurfReport.com ($10.2k) and DataTrack.com ($8.9k), everything else sold below $5k or even $4k.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| DogCare.com | 27000 | OnlyYou.com | 26000 |
| SurfReport.com | 10200 | DataTrack.com | 8877 |
| ProTax.com | 4999 | YuPay.com | 3869 |
| PersonFinder.com | 3733 | VoicePro.com | 3622 |
| MotorMarket.com | 3101 | CloudSmart.com | 2811 |
| TechKnowledge.com | 2711 | FreshDaily.com | 2600 |
| CFinance.com | 2499 | ProfitUp.com | 2441 |
| VirtualCapital.com | 2401 | BigJoy.com | 2188 |
| StylePoints.com | 2164 | FundingOffice.com | 2100 |
You’ll notice that the brandables above all consist of 2 words. For comparison, here’s another list of 2-word domains. In contrast, these are real-world, denotative phrases – what might be termed “veristic” domains. BusinessGrants.com ($10.6k) was the top seller among these; and that’s no surprise, since it’s directly related to large sums of money.
Next in line are 2 more “category killers” – OceanEnergy.com ($4.1k) and LatexGloves.com ($3.8k) – each discussed in my weekly articles. Here’s something worth noting: Within this “veristic” group, it’s the category killers that fetched the highest prices last month. Whether a domain “kills” its category or not really depends on the existence of alternatives and synonyms. BitcoinAdvice.com ($2.1k) cannot corner the market on bitcoin tips and pointers. WritingCourses.com ($2.2k) is not the only way to talk about classes and tutorials.
(Disagree about what a “category killer”or a “brandable” is? Superb! The distinctions I’m making ought to be applied only loosely. A term fits or not as a matter of degree. If it isn’t useful, don’t use it. Stick your labels right on top of mine, as you like. Words have accepted and intended but no true meaning.)
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| BusinessGrants.com | 10,600 | OceanEnergy.com | 4100 |
| LatexGloves.com | 3766 | UrbanPlan.com | 2600 |
| CommercialVans.com | 2500 | CandyCompany.com | 2433 |
| ChineseWok.com | 2400 | NewLoans.com | 2342 |
| WritingCourses.com | 2199 | BitcoinAdvice.com | 2100 |
| CarTransporter.com | 2100 | PepperWood.com | 2099 |
| CoolingSystem.com | 2099 | AutoForum.com | 2077 |
| SuperSunday.com | 2000 |
SuperSunday.com ($2.0k) would originally have been a “brandable”; but by now it’s common parlance here in the USA, and I’ve grouped it with the others because it’s, well, … a real thing. Speaking of real things, next up is a batch of English dictionary words and proper nouns.
Most of the higher sales in this set were non-expired domains. That’s a function both of word quality and seller marketing efforts. However, the highest price ($12.7k) was for an expired domain. Several of these have been discussed in previous articles – not only Illness.com but Pruning.com, Wenge.com, Voltaic.com, and Puppeteer.com as well.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illness.com | 12,742 | Verses.com | 6501 |
| Shadows.com | 6100 | Appreciated.com | 5702 |
| Itineraries.com | 5050 | Pruning.com | 4357 |
| Promethium.com | 3999 | Plazas.com | 3800 |
| Wenge.com | 2677 | Voltaic.com | 2501 |
| Tooting.com | 2500 | Siles.com | 2350 |
| Puppeteer.com | 2200 |
Promethium.com (Pm 61) is an unstable radioactive element that falls between Neodymium (Nd 60) and Samarium (Sm 62) on the periodic table. (Chopping up Uranium over the years, it’s possible I produced a bit of the stuff.) Siles.com ($2.4k) is an Andalusian town. While we’re on the Iberian peninsula, here are a few more dictionary words – Spanish for “Thursday” and “chairs”, plus Portuguese / French for “brooch”. You’ll never guess which that is.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jueves.com | 2900 | Broche.com | 2535 |
| Sillas.com | 2524 |
Earlier I gathered 18 brandables consisting of 2 words. But, of course, some brandables emulate single words. Various techniques are used: creative misspelling (Kooler.com), blending 2 words (Globet.com), attaching a familiar suffix (Blogsome.com). Others like Minik.com may or may not simply be invented out of thin air.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minik.com | 4004 | Globet.com | 3601 |
| Blogsome.com | 3600 | Kooler.com | 2000 |
Chinese words and phrases sell frequently in the form of Pinyin domains. As a non-Chinese speaker, I’m never 100% sure of Pinyin meanings. Nevertheless, 5 out of 6 domains have been discussed already: HuiChen.com ($8.9k), ShangXiu.com ($5.6k), DiLiu.com ($4.9k), HeMeng.com ($2.4k), JiangCun.com ($2.3k). If you can confirm or clarify the meaning of any of these, your input is definitely welcome.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| HuiChen.com | 8868 | ShangXiu.com | 5620 |
| DiLiu.com | 4900 | YanQue.com | 4441 |
| HeMeng.com | 2400 | JiangCun.com | 2342 |
China also loves its numeric domains, and there were sales aplenty at NameJet (as elsewhere) during July. Those with “HG” prefixes performed well, as they did in May.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3427.com | 8600 | HG6777.com | 7220 |
| 89992.com | 4000 | 885858.com | 3588 |
| 88933.com | 3000 | HG0678.com | 2220 |
Going back to acronyms / literal strings now, we’d expect to a continued tapering of LL.com and LLL.com prices as we move into LLLL.com territory. While it’s inconceivable that any LLL.com (let alone LL.com) domain could sell below $2k, most LLLL.com domains still do fall well below this reporting threshold. Even so, NameJet placed 11 of them between $2k and $9k during July.
5 out of these 11 follow an alternating CVCV pattern. Several of them are, in fact, meaningful words and phrases. GLIM.com ($5.0k) is an English word. SuFe.com ($4.1k) is Spanish for “your faith”. TVMA.com ($2.4k) applies to television in the USA. CURS.com ($2.2k) are mangy dogs, or else it’s a misspelled curse hurled at them after a kick. “Curs” also means course or school year in Catalan. Even RSRV.com ($4.9k) acts as a word in multiple contexts. And I’d be shocked if DETO.com ($9.0k) fails to be a word in any of the world’s languages. LLLL domain buyers sometimes do and sometimes don’t pay attention to meaning.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| DETO.com | 9000 | GLIM.com | 5000 |
| RSRV.com | 4864 | SUFE.com | 4100 |
| PCTC.com | 3200 | TVMA.com | 2405 |
| OOPA.com | 2276 | JOSU.com | 2201 |
| CURS.com | 2200 | TTCX.com | 2013 |
| GUZY.com | 2000 |
What follows is a domain that still puzzles me. “Desi” describes the people of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Based on the Arabic بابا and our own word “papa”, I expected “Baba” to mean father. Turns out that assumption is correct; muslims spread the word as an honorific throughout Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Pashto, Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, and Hindi. So that geography matches “desi”. My sense, then, is of a father, saint, or elder. Or perhaps even simply a name like Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. So, at first glance, I thought I understood this domain. But the price ($10.1k) may be too high for my interpretation; and matching search results are thin apart from porn, which doesn’t seem to fit.
| Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|
| DesiBaba.com | 10,100 |
Out of 94 sales over $2k during July, NameJet saw only 2 domains longer than 2 words. One of them is a common 4-word phrase in English: “roll with the punches”, meaning to remain flexible enough to lessen the impact of life’s vicissitudes. Huh? Think “go with the flow”.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| RollWithThePunches.com | 2164 | WhoRunsGov.com | 2100 |
During July, 85 out of NameJet’s top 94 sales were .COM. The 9 remaining domains were all .ORGs apart from 1 .NET and 1 .CO. You can see the 3 LLLs above. These are the 6 left over:
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| BestPractices.org | 3600 | NutritionExplorations.org | 2651 |
| CAKE.org | 2623 | AOANet.org | 2400 |
| Tacoma.org | 2156 | NUTS.co | 2000 |
If you live outside the USA, then you may not recognize Tacoma.org ($2.2k). It’s a major city near Seattle, Washington. There’s a surprising fact connected with NutritionExplorations.org, but I’ll let you read my earlier article. No time to repeat myself. Besides, who cares about nutrition explorations? After CAKE.org and NUTS.co, there’s a case of the munchies to explore.
Good on you Joseph Peterson, A good deal of time & research input. Thanks
You’re welcome.
Name Jet is a lot better than Snap Names. Since web.com took over Snap Names, they have gone down the toilet. David Brown, the CEO of Network Solutions, Snap Names, and web.com is a clown and a buffoon.
The surprise ‘reserve price’ at Name Jet is an irritant and a time thief, though. Is there a way to ascertain the reserve before wasting an afternoon with other lumpen bidders? Snap Names has always been suspect. Names won which didn’t show up in the account…names won which are inaccessible at NetSol without direct pleas for support help…repeatedly. Unsavory.
In the past, NameJet reserves would show up as surprise bids. But that hasn’t been the case for a long long time.
Defending domain industry companies isn’t part of my job, since none of them pays me a penny. Still, I don’t think the reserve system NameJet currently uses deserves any special criticism. That is to say: You’re welcome to criticize it, but it isn’t special.
Domain auction platforms today handle reserves in basically 3 ways:
1. Label auctions with reserves in advance but give no indication of the reserve amount. Examples: NameJet and Flippa.
2. Show a “reserve range” to give a broad idea of the reserve level. Examples: SnapNames and Sedo.
3. Specify the reserve amount precisely even before bids have reached it and even though the minimum bid threshold is lower. Examples: Bido and CAX.
Keep in mind, that how reserves are handled affect 2 different groups of people: buyers and sellers. Each method has benefits and drawbacks. For instance, advertising a high reserve amount can have a chilling effect on participation, which might be bad for sales. Conversely, leaving the reserve amount unknown can be frustrating for buyers, who may be discouraged from bidding in this scenario as well.
There is no solution that satisfies everybody, I’m afraid. But expressing frustrations and criticisms is a good thing.
Thank you for that post–and for the good reference data.
NameJet doesn’t merit special criticism, agreed. Enom is an efficient registrar, with minimal mousetrap marketing rubbish, so there’s an assumption that thinking fellows are running NameJet. But some humane gesture would be appreciated, so one doesn’t blow a whole day like that diapered female astronaut.
One feels exploited when it turns out to be a very costly name. As if we’re being used for marketing buzz. Example: Birdhouse.com. After the auction, I found archive pages asking 80K. NameJet knows they’re not getting 80K for it via auction…zero datapoints for that hope. And they didn’t market it to the moon or anything special. Just a flat waste of many peoples’ time. Its not like the auction is wrapping up after the last bidder’s fifth minute, and then they give you the option to jump all the way to the reserve price to complete purchase. If they did that, perhaps things would have looked less suspect.
It leaves a bad taste. One would def appreciate a reserve ballpark as you noted above…at least when the name reserve is well beyond past NameJet comps. Perhaps upon email request.
“… like that diapered female astronaut”
Finally a phrase for the feeling of watching domain auctions!