Kabei.com, JunGong.com lead expired domain report

[Editor’s note: this Expired Domain Report normally would have been published at the end of last week. It was delayed due to the New Year holiday.]

After a pair of 5-figure Chinese Pinyin domains topped the previous chart, my first reaction this time around was to assume the same thing had happened. The second highest item, JunGong.com ($8.1k), is Chinese: jùn gōng (竣工) means “project completion”. However, I can find no Chinese match for Kabei.com ($10.1k); and at this stage the buyer’s nationality is unknown.

Until further notice, all signs point to Japanese. Only the habitual absence of Japan from the domain market (and the usual big spending from China) makes me reluctant to believe we’re looking at a Japanese buyer. There was a Japanese film called “Kabei”, but movie titles seldom fetch much – surely not $10k long after the release. More likely it’s a surname – perhaps the novelist Yukako Kabei or even some company named after its founder. We shall see.

Domain	End $	At	Domain	End $	At
Kabei.com	10,099	NJ	JunGong.com	8100	NJ
eCharge.com	5601	NJ	Contours.com	4123	NJ
TCWY.com	4000	SN	Home Restoration.com	3488	NJ
IGMC.com	3433	NJ	DAFA9999.com	3301	SN
SITG.com	3110	NJ	Oceans.org	3050	NJ
Whiff.com	2613	SN	GPCW.com	2599	NJ
AGAD.com	2588	NJ	DBNY.com	2500	NJ
iLender.com	2220	NJ	Borscht.com	2201	NJ
88882888.com	2170	SN	CGHW.com	2150	SN
SBTF.com	2124	NJ	DNTP.com	1942	NJ

The fashion for “e” and “i” prefixes seems to be holding strong even after many years. Just look at eCharge.com ($5.6k) and iLender.com ($2.2k). HomeRestoration.com ($3.5k) shows how long domains can feel shorter than they actually are, provided the concept itself is simple and familiar. Home restoration involves lucrative contracts. And the phrase is broad enough to include both contemporary remodeling and historical preservation.

Contours.com ($4.1k) would make a good brand name for fitness (rather like the women’s gym, Curves), strategic planning (think “outlines”), data analytics – almost anything. You’ve even heard The Contours as a Motown group:

They’re still performing. Whiff.com ($2.6k) is another great brand name. Even if some consumes will find the spelling tricky, it’s a very common English word – unforgettable. Everybody has caught a whiff of it by nose and by ear (in conversation) if not by eye (in print).

Domain	End $	At	Domain	End $	At
BCPH.com	1908	NJ	Attractions.net	1610	NJ
People Business.com	1605	NJ	JustGold.com	1600	NJ
SGR.org	1560	NJ	Physics2005.org	1550	SN
9798888.com	1511	SN	ThePiper.com	1409	NJ
82510.com	1401	NJ	SweetPeppers.com	986	NJ
LuckOfThe Irish.com	938	NJ	898888888.com	907	SN
Periwinkles.com	898	NJ	NaturalShine.com	888	NJ
CallADoctor.com	863	NJ	ClusterFlock.org	849	NJ
Business System.com	848	NJ	PinkyFinger.com	840	NJ
ClearSpeech.com	800	NJ	Elino.com	789	NJ
Cimos.com	786	NJ	Matgar.com	775	SN
47511.com	750	NJ	Moppet.com	740	NJ

Attractions.net ($1.6k) is a domain simply begging for development. Everywhere you go has something to see or do. Even Baker – a pit stop on the way to L.A. with population 700 – boasts the World’s Largest Thermometer! Invariably, stopping to see the sights means spending money; so a site promoting local attractions ought to be eminently monetizable.

Numerical domains are getting longer and longer – 8 digits at $2.2k, 7 digits at $1.5k, even 9 digits over $900. With all those lucky “8”s, what’s the LuckLuckOfTheIrish.com ($938) beside the luck of the Chinese? ClusterFlock.com ($849) puts me in mind of a very different kind of cluster. Now who will pull that PinkyFinger.com ($840)?

In English we have a saying that, sooner or later, you must pay ThePiper.com ($1.4k). The connotation is that unpleasant consequences ultimately catch up with us. That phrase always reminds me of the legendary pied piper who exterminated Hamelin’s rats as promised and, being cheated of his pay, led away all the town’s children into oblivion. Every last Moppet.com ($740) among them. Equally cynical is a second saying: “He who pays the piper calls the tune.”

Domain	End $	At	Domain	End $	At
SBON.com	730	NJ	True Believers.com	667	NJ
Informatio.com	666	NJ	99CQ.com	650	SN
SpiritAndSky.com	620	NJ	TMOZ.com	620	NJ
PoolBarrier.com	606	NJ	Hooloo.com	592	NJ
628699.com	589	NJ	USNW.com	565	NJ
SellingSites.com	519	NJ	GroundWire.org	460	NJ
BayTorrent.org	436	SN	Delhi Property.com	436	SN
KJJ.biz	435	SN	I3Theme.com	435	SN
Relaxin.com	433	NJ	Torrent-City.net	426	SN
Inkling Magazine.com	413	NJ	PirateMedia.com	410	NJ
WOHK.com	410	NJ	Hosfelt.com	403	NJ
882116.com	402	SN	E-TB.net	399	SN

If you’re truly Relaxin.com ($433), then you’ll content yourself without a final “G”. American vernacular often pronounces words this way, to the abhorrence of more polished English speakers in, say, India. There the domain market is slowly growing. Witness DelhiProperty.com. $436 ain’t half bad for a city with 10 million residents.

It’s no accident that Flippa began primarily as a market place for selling sites. Some domainers are also into SellingSites.com ($519), either as brokers or as developer-flippers themselves. The surname Hosfelt.com ($403) is also a San Francisco art gallery. Hooloo.com ($592) looks ever so slightly like the popular video site, Hulu. PoolBarrier.com ($606) is a product sold by companies with names like Life Fence. Drowned children make for a compelling sales pitch.

Domain	End $	At	Domain	End $	At
BibleBelt Blogger.com	396	NJ	ColPac.com	395	NJ
Auditing.org	365	NJ	Militia- WatchDog.org	361	NJ
RVOG.com	350	NJ	8956.biz	350	SN
Education FastTrack.org	346	NJ	XAVS.com	345	NJ
XPRV.com	340	NJ	UMRB.com	331	NJ
Negotio.com	329	SN	PhysTech Soft.com	325	NJ
GRAB.org	325	NJ	Homes123.com	321	NJ
Mediavis.com	319	NJ	WZQ.biz	305	SN
WolverineKills.com	301	SN	MSQ.biz	300	SN
LZG.biz	300	SN	AEQM.com	300	NJ
ZXJR.net	295	SN	KnowHIV AIDS.org	290	NJ
HDMM.net	283	SN	NLLH.net	280	SN
RWG.biz	280	NJ	RTJR.net	278	SN
FZQH.net	278	SN	MUQV.com	277	SN
NSLC.net	277	NJ	NPWN.net	276	SN
PRDF.net	276	SN	StockMiner.com	268	NJ
BWXH.net	266	SN	Music Beacon.com	262	NJ
LKWX.net	261	SN	LBZT.net	260	SN
JNDD.net	260	SN	WGDC.net	260	NJ
MathScience Success.org	260	NJ	PGN.biz	260	NJ

Quite a few .NET and .ORG domains are found in these charts. The highest priced among them were single words: Attractions.net ($1.6k) and Oceans.org ($3.0k). After those, various .ORGs are found as high as $1.6k, including an LLL and Physics2005.org, which would mainly be prized because of its back links. Auditing.org ($365) is yet another single-word .ORG sale. And someone made a bargain grab for GRAB.org at just $325. In the case of .NET, there’s nothing more until a couple of hyphenated items around $400. Then beneath $300 the chart is mostly 4-letter .NET CHIPs.

Domain	End $	At	Domain	End $	At
HCLS.net	259	NJ	LYWS.net	259	SN
WKHZ.net	259	SN	DanvilleVT.com	256	NJ
NRYC.net	255	SN	BXWB.net	255	SN
KSQR.net	255	SN	WZRH.net	254	SN
HXGT.net	254	SN	XNYH.net	254	SN
LFCS.net	254	SN	ZZHS.net	254	SN
CFXG.net	251	SN	DQXR.net	250	SN
JKBZ.net	250	SN	DYSX.net	249	SN
MSPF.net	249	SN	RTLC.net	249	NJ
IntoArt.com	242	NJ	XCLN.net	242	SN
Mountains Humane Society.com	236	NJ	Quinua.com	235	NJ
ViralNetwork.com	232	NJ	233191.com	231	NJ
Unosek.org	229	NJ	LYMN.net	229	SN
825823.com	221	NJ	RAR.biz	220	NJ
GoatRiders.org	220	SN	ZBLX.net	219	SN
Utougi.com	213	NJ	858W.com	212	SN
DaveWalker.com	211	NJ	329133.com	209	NJ
208988.com	205	NJ	612286.com	200	NJ

Quinua.com ($235) is almost quinoa. In fact, Google auto-corrects to steer “quinua” searches toward the grain. Depending on your background, you may or may not have eaten much Borscht.com ($2.2k), a delicious, dark red soup made from beets. If this article does anybody any good, persuading some reader to eat borscht during 2016 will be its greatest achievement.

Oh, but I’m ambitious! Let us aim beyond borscht. Periwinkles.com ($898) matches the name of a few Massachusetts restaurants. As a matter of fact, periwinkles are an edible sea snail. So that’s my challenge to you, domainers. Go scarf down some periwinkles, and let me know how they taste.