3 companies paid $100k+ for domain forwards

Companies paid big bucks for domains that they are forwarding to other websites.

GoDaddy published its first set of domain name sales data in many years today. The company is publishing 20 of its top sales each month, but four months in arrears to accommodate its investor compliance folks.

There is an upside to the delay: there’s more time for buyers to put the domains to use, so we have a better idea of who bought them.

I reviewed the 20 sales GoDaddy published today. Several end users paid over $100,000 each to buy domain names solely to forward them to another domain. Think about that.

Here’s a look at the top 20 sales GoDaddy published this week and who bought them.

ingles.com $400,000 – Ingles is Spanish for English. The domain name forwards to spanishdict.com, a site that translates Spanish text into English.

lendable.com $125,000 – Lendable Ltd, a UK lender, forwards the domain name to its site at Lendable.co.uk.

wbs.com $115,000 – Wisenbaker Builder Services provides services to help homebuilders. It forwards the domain name to its website wisenbaker.com

vaninsurance.co.uk $106,769 – This is a stunning price for this .co.uk domain, especially when you see they paid less for the .com. The site compares van insurance in the UK.

fivenines.com $100,000 – Five Nines Technology Group is an outsourced IT provider for companies in Nebraska and Iowa.

vaninsurance.com $100,000 – See above

hfm.com $90,000 – The domain name doesn’t resolve yet and it has a private Whois record.

kalibari.com $80,000 – The domain doesn’t resolve yet. The Whois record only discloses that the buyer is in Illinois.

insurancecapital.com $59,995 – Another domain that doesn’t resolve and has a private Whois record.

makey.com $53,000 – DIY Cozy Home is rebranding as part of Makey, a site for do-it-yourself home projects.

appify.com $50,000 – Turbo Systems, a no code app building technology, changed its name to Appify.

autofun.com $50,000 – TANG Internet Limited in Hong Kong bought this domain. It still resolves to a for-sale lander.

skrt.com $50,000 – The domain is still parked with a private Whois record.

nopain.com $47,500 – A great domain for a pain clinic. The domain still resolves to the previous owner’s website.

mygarden.com $40,000 – Burda Senator Verlag GmbH is a home and garden publisher in Germany. The site is still in development.

hifashion.com $39,999 – The buyer in China has not activated the domain yet.

protek.com $39,982 – Intertek Group plc has a service called Protek, a safety and wellbeing assurance program. It forwards the domain name to intertek.com/protek.

variable.com $36,000 – I remember boarding the plane to Las Vegas for NamesCon one year and seeing lots of people dressed in camo. They were headed to Vegas for Shot Show, a massive ammunition and weapons conference. This domain resolves to a website for a business called Variable that says it’s launching at Shot Show 2021.

acaglobal.com $35,420 – ACA Compliance Group, a compliance and risk management company, bought this domain.

booktopia.com $35,000 – Australian bookseller Booktopia bought this domain and forwards it to booktopia.com.au