Toot.com for $31.8k and other expired domain name sales

Toot.com leads expired domain name sales.

Close observers will have noticed the absence of SnapNames results from my last article, which only covered NameJet expired domains. In the week since NamesCon, most of us have drifted homeward and settled back into our normal routines. So this time both auction houses are represented in the charts – 7 days for SnapNames, 5 days for NameJet.

Domain	End $	At	Domain	End $	At
TOOT.com	31,805	NJ	BikeWorks.com	4957	NJ
Jungu.com	4910	SN	Nongle.com	4660	SN
53593.com	4502	SN	MEAS.com	4200	NJ
Gesai.com	3700	SN	LCDS.com	3502	NJ
HRX.net	3401	NJ	PayRight.com	3315	NJ
VideoInsight.com	2650	NJ	SWHT.com	2422	NJ
DWJG.com	2119	SN	Nilton.com	2010	NJ

By far the biggest expired domain auction was TOOT.com ($31.8k). Most of us will recognize that as an English bit of onomatopoeia, standing for the sound of a trumpet, train whistle, or fart. This image sums it up. Mainly, “toot” is a word taught to us as children through illustrated story books rather than a word we continue to employ as adults; so, in terms of branding, TOOT.com evokes childhood, coming across as cute, irreverent, and playful. Not what you’d name an investment fund or a cyber security firm. But a game or a show or a preschool? Sure.

Words cannot express my disappointment at learning that Nongle.com ($4.0k) won’t rhyme with “dongle” and “mongol”. What might have been, alas, wasn’t so far fetched; for Nongle is an Irish surname. Yet it seems to be a place in China, Laos, and Thailand, as well as a person’s full name: “Nong Le” not “Nongle”. Nowhere near as dear to the ear, I fear.

Both Gesai.com ($3.7k) and Jungu.com ($4.9k) look like Pinyin, which is what we’ve been trained to expect in these charts; but I’ve found no Chinese translation for them. With so many languages cohabiting this tiny planet (and name space), single meanings are rarely guaranteed. For instance, Gesai is a place in Papua New Guinea; Jungu in Tanzania. You’ll find people named Gesai (surnames Garcia, Alvarado) and Jungu (surname Yang). The Swiss website, Gesai.ch, teaches Aikido, a form of Japanese martial arts. Meawhile, “jungu” is what a white guy like me might be called in Swahili. There is no melting pot like the domain market.

Nilton.com ($2.0k) is a first name, albeit somewhat rare in the USA. It might also serve as an upgrade for this clothing brand. LCDS.com ($3.5k) isn’t just a “CHIP”; it means LCD TVs (“liquid crystal displays”).

BikeWorks.com ($5.0k) illustrates the tug-of-war between .COM and the nTLDs quite clearly. Its doppelgänger, Bike.Works, remains unregistered with an annual cost of $500 per year. Whether acting on habit or making a deliberate choice, the buyer has spent 10 times as much to buy the .COM up front. Over a decade, he’d need to double his expense in order to own the matching nTLD; and beyond that decade, the .COM is cheaper. Even writing this for an audience of domainers, I doubt anybody will step in between the registry’s high renewal cost and a sales pitch. Too big a risk of being crushed.

Domain	End $	At	Domain	End $	At
LinkPro.com	1988	NJ	ShoeDoctor.com	1927	NJ
Gitan.com	1650	NJ	Poignant.com	1645	NJ
Dopplr.com [sic]	1550	SN	DotCoin.com	1507	NJ
Cropped.com	1500	NJ	Hipsta.com	1420	NJ
QianHai.net	1380	SN	ZhenPianYi.com	1365	SN
LandForLease.com	1309	NJ	GolfPortal.com	1302	SN
SeaVista.com	1215	NJ	Pison.com	1200	NJ
53038.com	1200	SN	622588.com	1191	SN
Stuttgart.net	1163	SN	410000.com	1100	SN
CIIG.com	1100	NJ	Taiga.net	1050	SN
NIDP.com	1013	SN	Narcan.com	1001	SN

Russian for “forest”, the Taiga is “the world’s largest terrestrial biome”. With that meaning in mind, I’d consider Taiga.net ($1.0k) a good brand name for something related to Russia or the outdoors. Surprisingly, what I’ve found is completely unrelated – a project management platform at Taiga.io (which has an Indian owner) and the buyer of Taiga.net located in Japan. The only thing in life that surprises me nowadays is predictability.

Narcan.com ($1.0k) is the name of a drug used to combat drug overdoses. Pison.com ($1.2k) might be a river in the Garden of Eden; a “rammer” in Spanish; or “poison” in the dialect of Mark Twain’s boy hero, Huckleberry Finn. Huck says:

There warn’t no more popular man in town than what that undertaker was. Well, the funeral sermon was very good, but pison long and tiresome.

Kind of like my articles – “pison long and tiresome”! They should be Cropped.com ($1.5k). But then I’d have no space to mention how Gitan.com ($1.7k) is French for “gypsy” or refer you the plural, Gitanes.com, which is an interesting case I reported last September. QianHai.net ($1.4k) seems to mean “shallow sea” (浅海 / qiǎn hǎi). Notice that’s .NET. So is the German city, Stuttgart.net ($1.2k). In both the major non-U.S. domain markets – China and Germany – .NET remains popular. American domainers tend to underestimate its reach.

Domain	End $	At	Domain	End $	At
StartSports.com	1000	SN	ChiShenMe.com	980	SN
Muchelleb.com	976	SN	ChilliSauce.com	939	NJ
54686.com	935	SN	AdventureSports Online.com	915	NJ
SGMI.com	908	NJ	Megen.com	890	NJ
SF77.com	875	SN	VineGroup.com	857	NJ
SmallBusiness Lawyers.com	822	NJ	WNOW.com	800	SN
963366.com	800	SN	StreetArtist.com	790	NJ
NCCREST.org	790	NJ	PrintScape.com	772	SN
HunterMarine.com	765	NJ	HomeBuying RealEstate.com	760	NJ
DutchPay.com	757	SN	Meridians.com	704	NJ
IndigoMedia.com	700	SN	SZW.biz	685	SN
SSDS.net	685	NJ	UltraRich.com	676	SN

SmallBusinessLawyers.com ($822) is perfect for attorneys under 5’6″. NCCREST.org ($790) has nothing to do with mountain peaks in North Carolina but everything to do with the federally funded “National Center for Culturally Responsive Education Systems“. Yes, Huck – pison long and tiresome.

Muchelleb.com ($976) used to be one young woman’s lifestyle blog. (A twisted version of Michelle, I’m guessing.) She must have had followers and back links aplenty to justify that bidding. Domains related to real estate often fetch large prices, but I admit finding HomeBuyingRealEstate.com ($760) quite awkward. Probably this matches actual search queries. Still, give me something more idiomatic like LandForLease.com ($1.3k) or more succinct such as SeaVista.com ($1.2k).

Domain	End $	At	Domain	End $	At
SEDU.net	675	SN	Urged.com	674	NJ
Bikel.com	660	NJ	eWiki.com	654	NJ
Raska.com	640	NJ	AIGM.com	625	SN
TurkBasket.com	620	NJ	Helicopter Flight.com	615	NJ
SanPi.com	602	NJ	Conventum.com	577	SN
MedicalGrade.com	560	NJ	Fevers.com	532	NJ
RNX.biz	525	SN	02974.com	525	SN
VineRipe.com	515	NJ	Secure Gateway.com	513	NJ
DAAW.com	506	NJ	VanDen Bossche.com	506	SN
MongolBox33.com	502	SN	AgainstTCPA.com	500	SN
ITHN.com	500	NJ	365VR.com	477	SN
AnimeStars.com	476	SN	EduFarm.com	475	SN
TinyPaw.com	474	NJ	7777988.com	460	SN
LaRotonda.com	460	SN	2379.biz	460	SN
2738.biz	455	SN	Tantoo.com	451	SN

eWiki.com stands out as a good buy at just $654. Ditto HelicopterFlight.com ($615), given the money to be made in that niche. Van den Bossche ($506) is a Dutch surname. MedicalGrade.com ($560) is a common phrase. Beyond that, it has also been used to brand websites such as MedicalGradeScrubs.com. Raska.com ($640) might be a Serbian town or river, or it may be Swedish. Then again, many domainers will regard it as a “brandable” blank slate.

Domain	End $	At	Domain	End $	At
OXXN.com	450	SN	BabyFat.com	430	NJ
CZ100.com	429	SN	Model-Pussy.com	429	SN
AUFE.com	420	NJ	KAZB.com	412	NJ
AigaDesignJobs.org	410	NJ	BluesBash.com	410	NJ
APKH.com	405	NJ	DaZheCun.com	404	SN
Meezy.com	400	SN	Umera.com	400	SN
XECN.com	390	NJ	CIIJ.org	390	NJ
SelfStory.com	385	SN	Qelios.net	382	SN
88183.net	380	NJ	ElDiccionario.com	379	SN
QYIJ.com	378	SN	FoxHotel.com	377	SN
虚拟游戏.com (xn--unuyrl6y9jy.com)	370	SN	Garnelen.com	360	NJ
LJUC.com	360	NJ	Administrations.com	356	NJ
Cerean.com	352	SN	SanCap.com	352	SN
CashMachine.net	350	SN	OpenThis.com	350	SN

Finding an IDN in these charts is exceptionally rare. Indeed, I’ve only had occasion to report an IDN once before. That was a higher price, but it was a single Chinese character for a very lucrative topic. Clearly, this 4-character item must be something special. What does it mean? Well, 虚拟 (xū nǐ) means “virtual”; and 游戏 (yóu xì) means “game” / “to play”. Given the size of the gaming industry and all the buzz surrounding virtual reality, this isn’t a shock. At such low levels, the presence of IDNs in these charts may be nothing but noise; but if they were to begin showing up with greater frequency, then that would be quite significant.

Garnelen.com ($360) are shrimps, prawns in German. SelfStory.com ($385) might be my favorite brandable in this week’s list. But let me ask you: Say you receive an email from OpenThis.com ($350); isn’t your natural reaction to recoil as if from malware? Maybe that’s just me.

No way I’d pass up BluesBash.com ($410) as a pretext for inserting some gratuitous music clip. Son House is the raw stuff. Watch his “Death Letter Blues” for a guitar sound that’s mercilessly messy and as big as a backing band.

Domain	End $	At	Domain	End $	At
QWUW.com	346	SN	25252525.com	339	SN
BackLights.com	338	NJ	TimeDoor.com	332	NJ
551238.com	331	NJ	Kreativos.com	329	SN
XFinite.com	329	SN	AppleLink.com	329	SN
GastroMarketing.com	327	SN	DKN.co	326	SN
Dewmocracy.com	326	SN	SLW.biz	325	SN
FangDiChan.net	325	SN	LocalTaste.com	311	NJ
AboutDomains.com	306	SN	Zokem.com	301	SN
JJXT.net	300	SN	SJZT.net	300	SN
GranadaDigital.com	300	SN	YCSS.net	297	SN
THFY.net	296	SN	ZLKS.net	296	SN
DCHL.net	296	SN	TYJR.net	296	SN
DGWJ.net	293	SN	CYTW.net	290	SN
MCJS.net	284	SN	ZKSD.net	282	SN
SHWBD.com	282	SN	IQAuto.com	281	SN
FMLR.net	280	SN	YTCK.net	280	SN
ZTFM.net	279	SN	CyberBulevar.com	276	SN

Most of these 4-letter .NET “CHIPs” bore me. But FangDiChan.net ($325) – that catches my eye. Yet another Pinyin .NET. And what does this one mean? If it’s really true that fáng dì chǎn (房地产) equals “real estate”, then I’m aghast seeing a .NET meaning “shallow sea” sell for 4 times as much! One would think real estate is more valuable. But, of course, it’s impossible to gauge the real meaning of words and phrases using a dictionary alone. Learning the language, inhabiting the culture – that’s the only way to be sure.

Dewmocracy.com ($326) hurts in that way only a treacherous pun can. Luckily, AboutDomains.com ($306) is plainspoken enough to assuage Dewmocracy’s sting. I suppose XFinite.com ($329) could be regarded as brand protection for the well known company Xfinity. But other people are using the name.

Domain	End $	At	Domain	End $	At
265118.com	275	SN	PCNT.net	275	SN
313398.com	275	SN	KZBG.net	275	SN
BLXF.net	275	SN	ZNTZ.net	275	SN
SpyGear4U.com	275	SN	XLHG.net	275	SN
XZLZ.net	275	SN	HXCC.net	275	SN
WDDZ.net	275	SN	GGDT.net	275	SN
TMGP.net	274	SN	TMLR.net	274	SN
NZHM.net	270	SN	HDWZ.net	267	NJ
HXGL.net	267	NJ	MFNX.net	265	NJ
JWGJ.net	265	SN	WDWT.net	265	SN
CTCD.net	264	SN	925525.com	262	SN
LSGT.net	262	NJ	JFFC.net	262	NJ
JGTD.net	261	NJ	BriefTherapy.com	260	NJ
GroupBonus.com	260	NJ	QHYD.net	260	SN
DHCN.net	260	SN	LCFG.net	260	SN
FLMK.net	260	SN	WT33.com	260	SN
QYRL.net	259	SN	HGFG.net	259	SN
17138.net	258	SN	RKPY.net	257	SN
DNBS.net	256	SN	ZLHQ.net	255	SN
229878.com	255	SN	TenTimesOne.com	255	SN
JCYZ.net	254	SN	Ismene.com	253	NJ
252728.com	251	SN	JXQQ.net	251	SN
THZF.net	250	SN	336353.com	250	SN

You’ve all heard how Oedipus killed his dad married his mom. Well, he and his mother had a daughter named Ismene ($253). All in all, a strange thing to name any subsequent child or brand.

Domain	End $	At	Domain	End $	At
JCJZ.net	250	SN	FZNZ.net	250	SN
SMXQ.net	250	SN	RDMM.net	250	SN
MBKR.net	250	SN	TYPN.net	250	SN
HWHB.net	250	SN	NBTQ.net	250	SN
PRBB.net	246	SN	8172222.com	246	SN
DMGS.net	246	NJ	BMYX.net	245	NJ
XHLG.net	245	NJ	MFBK.net	245	NJ
HCHG.net	245	SN	WXFT.net	245	SN
Nose Reshaping.com	244	SN	Health Dimension.com	244	NJ
8881689.com	242	SN	YDFB.net	240	SN
FYCD.net	240	SN	DJKS.net	239	NJ
Hearts-Ease.org	235	NJ	NYPY.net	232	NJ
Coupe-Mag.com	232	SN	339896.com	231	SN
MarcheNoir.com	228	SN	Poppis.com	225	SN
YunTrip.com	224	SN	Sporting Venues.com	219	NJ
31531.net	215	SN	990989.com	214	SN
EclecticArts.com	214	SN	IPFMA.com	211	SN
Redefining Readiness.net	210	SN	Sociala.com	209	SN
FutureWave Shaper.com	209	SN	809788.com	205	SN
27383.net	205	SN	IsNateSilver AWitch.com	200	SN

As you can see, 4-letter .NETs range between $232 and $300. To find out what they’ll be worth next year, just ask Nate Silver. Apparently, everybody was once agog to know: Is Nate Silver a Witch? First of all, who is Nate Silver? Pop culture and I parted ways long ago; so I’d never heard of Nate Silver. He isn’t a witch. But he was briefly a meme, thanks to his electoral prognostications.