Expired Domain Report: From CHSI.com to Adroit.com

Joseph Peterson recaps the past week in expired domain name sales.

Tim Schoon is generally credited with coining the term “CHIP”, which stands for “Chinese premium” and refers to the vowel-less, “V”-less, acronym-like domains prized in China – stuff like HNKT.com ($2.0k). Both the concept and the word itself are extremely useful in describing market behavior. Yet it’s simplistic to assume certain letters are always bad.

NameJet’s top expired domain sale last week is a case in point: CHSI.com ($8.3k) contains a vowel; but it sold 5 times higher than the median CHIP price, and the buyer resides in China. Clearly Chinese investors consider factors that go beyond that CHIP rule of thumb, which is (after all) a Western contrivance for understanding a complex foreign culture. Really, I don’t know why CHSI.com was valued so highly. But one possibility is that it’s half pinyin. “Si” can mean

• “pseudo” / “seem” (似 / sì)
• 4 (四 / sì)
• “personal” / “selfish” / “private” (私 / sī)
• “to die” / “impassable” / “rigid” / “extremely” (死 / sǐ)
• “to feed” (食 / sì)
• “to think” (思 / sī)

That hypothesis is just a stab in the dark. If I’m out to lunch, please spoon-feed me.

Domain	End $	At	Domain	End $	At
CHSI.com	8288	NJ	Adroit.com	5311	NJ
MG777.com	4050	SN	Numion.com	3650	NJ
35352.com	3588	SN	X-C.com	3020	SN
Shika.com	2760	NJ	Series.net	2357	NJ
BoatService.com	2278	NJ	CMWK.com	2180	NJ
TennisOnline.com	2166	NJ	TechExpress.com	2156	SN
DSDZ.com	2112	SN	GJBW.com	2000	NJ

Some readers in this global audience may not recognize the English word Adroit.com ($5.3k), which means skillful, nimble, clever. Positive associations like those make for a desirable brand name – especially when the word is so short. Series.net ($2.4k) shows that .NET can still be in high demand at a wholesale venue.

In case you’re wondering if X-C.com ($3.0k) demonstrates a Chinese tolerance for hyphens, it’s worth pointing out that the buyer’s in Massachusetts. Meanwhile, Shika.com ($2.8k), which isn’t obviously China’s type and might have been an upgrade for a hookah company, did, in fact, go to China. Numion.com ($3.7k) was a site for measuring website speed back in 2001.

Domain	End $	At	Domain	End $	At
HNKT.com	1950	NJ	NJPM.com	1950	NJ
Grief.org	1911	NJ	BeautyEquipment.com	1825	NJ
HiDog.com	1810	NJ	Andromda.org [sic]	1805	NJ
DatPhong.com	1800	NJ	Pioner.com	1755	SN
BuFang.com	1702	SN	ZhouSe.com	1680	NJ
Pahtusov.com	1512	SN	NYCOnline.com	1508	NJ
RUXE.com	1505	NJ	IntegralCapital.com	1450	NJ
067.tv	1410	NJ	GameAddiction.com	1410	NJ
RiseGroup.com	1409	NJ	Incentra.com	1405	NJ
138877.com	1360	SN	HanBin.com	1302	SN
SIIN.com	1300	NJ	PlanetLuc.com	1210	NJ

Several Pinyin domains sold between $1k and $2k. With 950,000 residents, HanBin.com ($1.3k) is the largest district of Anbang City. Not sure about ZhouSe.com ($1.7k). Any ideas? BuFang.com ($1.7k) has 2 possible meanings: “might as well” / “there’s no harm in” (不妨 / bù fáng) or else “to lay out a defense” (布防 / bù fáng). Funny: either laid back or uptight!

Although I can’t find a reliable source to confirm the Vietnamese meaning of DatPhong.com ($1.8k), search results orbit the idea of booking a hotel room. Pahtusov.com ($1.5k) is a Russian surname; and it spent 2 years as a music site recommending American alternative rock and reggae. Grief.org ($1.9k) – now that’s a keyword for the socially responsible, compassionate .ORG brand if ever there was one.

Domain	End $	At	Domain	End $	At
MarsCapital.com	1200	NJ	Amazing RealEstate.com	1120	NJ
ResidenceInns.com	1106	SN	Rendezvous WithMadness.com	1103	NJ
EthicsWorld.org	1100	NJ	467.tv	1100	NJ
XAcademy.com	1100	NJ	Maitrise- Orthop.com	1051	SN
GHW.org	1003	NJ	Symphonix.com	913	SN
BeerKing.com	898	NJ	CruisingGuide.com	890	NJ
WebMedic.com	855	NJ	ECUOnline.net	830	SN
ILDPR.com	815	NJ	MadLove.com	809	NJ
SingaporeClub.com	797	NJ	ThePenny.com	787	NJ
CESR-EU.org	760	NJ	TransRail.com	735	NJ
AquaMedic.com	731	SN	NongLai.com	730	SN
ZZBBB.com	710	SN	Goalz.com	709	NJ
NewColonist.com	701	SN	Hirco.com	700	SN

Maitrise-Orthop.com ($1.1k) looks like it’s related to Maitrise-Orthopedique.com, a French website about – shockingly – orthopedic medicine. NongLai.com ($730) turns up restaurant results in Taiwan; beyond that, I dunno. But this much is clear: Here’s why the government won’t tell you about the NewColonist.com ($701) from the MarsCapital.com ($1.2k):

Archive.org has preserved no past screenshots for RendezvousWithMadness.com, but that must have been a developed site to sell as high as $1.1k. I count 6 different “TransRail” websites on page 1 of search results. Any of them might upgrade to TransRail.com ($735). ECUOnline.net ($830) used to be the website for the European Chess Union. Apparently they moved to EuropeChess.org.

ZZBBB.com ($710) gives us a benchmark for the best 5-letter CHIPs – i.e. those with repeating patterns. TZWWW.com ($531) didn’t fare quite as well because it has an extra letter. More impressive are a pair of 3-digit .TV domains: 067.tv ($1.4k) and 467.tv ($1.1k).

Domain	End $	At	Domain	End $	At
NanoProducts.com	700	NJ	JRTI.com	697	NJ
HighDesert RealEstate.com	696	NJ	MedEdge.com	690	NJ
SandyRidge.com	643	NJ	11MM.com	640	NJ
Zonis.com	621	NJ	ABWE.com	615	NJ
American Alliance.com	609	NJ	CalmBaby.com	609	NJ
NMON.com	608	NJ	SEOMasters.com	601	NJ
iShift.com	595	NJ	Ookaboo.com	591	NJ
WaltonMuseum.org	590	NJ	Colca.com	580	SN
HERC.org	577	NJ	SFB.org	575	SN
SweetJuice.com	565	NJ	ShaoZuo.com	560	SN
WorkInEurope.com	559	SN	MakerBook.com	556	SN
Sigarety.com	554	SN	Plakias.com	550	SN
Alexar.com	544	NJ	L3H.com	538	SN
1122337.com	535	SN	TZWWW.com	531	SN
PPLMontana.com	520	NJ	CustomPhotos.com	516	NJ
KUNC.com	515	NJ	AZOE.com	511	NJ
FoundationFor HealthChoice.com	510	NJ	QEYS.com	510	NJ
OsonsLaFrance.com	508	SN	QTIQ.com	505	NJ
CatGirls.com	504	NJ	SaaSNet.org	501	NJ

Say Sigarety.com ($554) aloud, and you’ll probably guess correctly that it’s Russian for “cigarettes”. Not knowing the Russian domain market very well, I can’t be 100% sure; but my hunch is that this domain was considerably undervalued. Plakias.com is a village in Crete where $550 might just book 2 nights in a hotel. For the proprietor of that hotel, 1 lead is worth more than the cost of the domain itself.

Denver, Colorado, is nicknamed the “mile-high city”. Santa Fe is nearly 1.5 miles high. So names like HighDesertRealEstate.com ($696) are pretty common in the area. WorkInEurope.com ($559)? Don’t mind if I do! On second thought, Peru sounds pretty good. Colca.com ($580) is the name of a Peruvian canyon twice as deep as the USA’s Grand Canyon … and that’s only the 2nd deepest in canyon the country!

Domain	End $	At	Domain	End $	At
SkiWest.com	482	NJ	NetworkReady.com	478	SN
FIFZ.com	476	SN	Kaning.com	475	SN
JoiningForces MentoringPlus.org	460	NJ	GreatBuilder.com	459	NJ
WMTech.com	455	NJ	531116.com	454	SN
PhotoConcepts.com	450	SN	Throttled.com	435	NJ
Machines LikeUs.com	430	SN	InsideAmazon.com	429	SN
BookViews.com	420	NJ	EpicPolicy.org	412	NJ
360RealEstate.com	410	NJ	RadarNetworks.com	410	NJ
AissaLogerot.com	409	SN	JBAD.com	408	SN
IHeartStitching.com	402	SN	SEOMaster.com	400	SN
EHKN.com	400	SN	Icoper.org	390	NJ
Klehm.com	390	NJ	ExtremeWeightLoss Casting.com	376	SN
339967.com	375	SN	PlayLearning.com	375	SN
碳纤维.com (xn--gezs0k4g.com)	371	SN	GISMonitor.com	370	NJ
FundResearch.com	368	NJ	ElCoco.com	365	NJ
SLXI.com	364	NJ	Vired.com	362	NJ
VisitTop100.com	360	NJ	FreedomTribe.com	360	NJ
ClassyKids.com	355	NJ	LFPV.com	353	NJ
YLC.biz	350	SN	KnoxPets.org	350	SN

AissaLogerot.com ($409) matches the name of a Paris-based designer – half of a duo, actually, whose initials explain their website’s domain name: AC-AL.com. ElCoco.com ($365) is the Spanish equivalent of the boogeyman:

Duérmete niño, duérmete ya …
Que viene el Coco y te comerá!

Sleep child, sleep now …
Here comes the Coco, and he will eat you!

Chinese IDNs began to appear in these charts a little under 2 months ago, and that trend continues apace. In all, there have been 9 IDNS in as many weeks ranging $250 to $3.6k. Actually, there may have been more, since I raised the reporting threshold to $350. This week’s item, 碳纤维.com ($371), means carbon fiber.

Naming any website with the keyword “Amazon” and getting it seen in SERPs must be a tough row to hoe. I even used that as an example of futility in an article last year. Yet here’s InsideAmazon.com ($429). The name itself is pretty good – especially for showing outsiders what it’s like to work as an employee of the e-commerce giant. For the rain forest, though, “Inside The Amazon” sounds more idiomatic. Hmm … After writing that last sentence, I decided to register InsideTheAmazon.com for the sake of a tour company, book, or documentary. Wait, no, surely that’s impossible; all .COMs were registered years ago.