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Domain inquiries heading into annual high season

by — Domain Sales 13 Comments

January and February tend to have a spike in domain name purchase inquiries.

arrows pointing upThe first two months of the year tend to be good ones for domain sales, or at least domain name inquiries.

Ryan McKegney, CEO of domain offer system DomainAgents, says that the platform has a 10% spike in offer volumes during January and February each year. Many other platforms (and large domainers) experience a similar bump.

Multiple factors seem to be at play.

“Companies often have new budgets and individuals are pursuing their New Year’s resolutions,” McKegney told Domain Name Wire.

The latter seems to be a big factor for smaller domain sales of $1,000-$3,000. Many people decide to start a new business or “side hustle” in conjunction with the new year.

Whatever the reason, domain investors should take advantage of this by making sure their portfolio is listed for sale and all domains link to relevant “for sale” landers.

Bipartisan.com among Sedo auctions ending soon

by — Domain Sales 1 Comment

Bipartisan.com and eResearch.com are about to have a new owner.

Sedo holds frequent Great Domains auctions as well as themed auctions, but don’t overlook the site’s regular auctions as well. The regular auctions include domains that registrants have “pushed to auction” after receiving an offer or have paid a fee to start an auction.

There are a few notable names working their way through the auction platform right now.

Most notable is Bipartisan.com with a $7,000 bid. This is a huge political name that could be used by a political action committee or non-profit.

The top bid in the auctions at this moment is eResearch.com at $15,000. Also notable:

Windshield.org €2,500
Tokenfy.com $2,234
Crypto.business €1,200

Get ready for Black Friday domain deals

by — Uncategorized 5 Comments

How domainers can take advantage of Black Friday.

We’re about a week away from Black Friday and you can expect deals to start rolling out a day or two before that.

Domain name registries and registrars have jumped on the Black Friday bandwagon in recent years by offering discounted domain names from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday (the following Monday).

Generally speaking, I haven’t found these deals to be much better than specials run throughout the year. When there are offers for .com there are usually restrictions. (If you hear of any particularly good deals, feel free to post them.)

Regardless, waiting until the day of a sale announcement to take advantage of these deals is futile. Instead, I recommend keeping a list of domains you’d register in each TLD if the price is right. That way you can jump on them when they are discounted.

Keep in mind that almost all domain specials are for one year only. If you don’t think you’ll sell the domain within a year, factor in standard renewal prices.

TajMahal.com sells for $30k on NameJet, down 40% from 2009

by — Domain Sales 5 Comments

Someone took a bath on this domain name.

TajMahal.com sold for $29,999 on NameJet yesterday. The last public sale record was for $50,000 in 2009–also on NameJet.

The domain name TajMahal.com sold on NameJet yesterday for $29,999. That’s down 40% from 2009 when the domain name sold for $50,000 on NameJet.

TajMahal.com has been passed around many times. According to DomainTools historical Whois, Internet REIT acquired the domain in 2007. It sold the domain to Daniel Negari’s Cyber2Media in 2008. The domain went under Whois privacy just before the 2009 sale for $50,000, so it was either Negari’s company that sold it for $50,000 or someone made a quick flip.

It’s been under Whois privacy ever since, so it’s possible the 2009 buyer took a $20,000 bath. It’s also possible they sold it to someone else.

While many domains like this have dropped in value over the past ten years, a Domain Name Wire reader pointed out that there’s a bit of controversy around the name Taj Mahal and a push to change the name. According to this BBC fact check, it’s a right-wing push based on Hindu nationalism. I can’t tell how serious it is, but from what I’ve read it seems unlikely the name will change.

Nonetheless, location and tourism names can be affected by external forces. I bought EgyptianPyramids.com before the unrest in Egypt; I have no doubt its value was negatively impacted by a decline in tourism to Egypt.

Ice.com, a domain with a rich history, sells again. This time for $3.5 million.

by — Domain Sales 9 Comments

Once a dot-com darling, the Ice.com domain name finds a new owner.

Ice.com circa 2004, from Archive.org Wayback Machine

Today’s announced sale of the Ice.com domain name for $3.5 million brings me back down memory lane.

I remember shopping on the site in the early 2000s.

That was in a much earlier incarnation of Ice.com. It was a dot-com darling founded in 1999 (launching in 2000 on Ice.com) that raised about $50 million in funding.

Back in 2006, Ice.com bought rival Odimo for $9.5 million. That included $2 million for inventory at $7.5 million for its domain name Diamond.com — making it one of the most expensive domain names ever sold.

But Ice.com ultimately didn’t make it.

An Austin-based company bought Ice.com for $3.0 million in 2014. They subsequently raised $2 million of investment.

That business didn’t work out, either, which leads us to today: an announcement that the domain sold for $3.5 million, making it the most expensive domain name sale of 2018 in what’s shaping up to be a very big week for domain name sales announcements.

Brian Harbin from GritBrokerage.com and David Clements from Brannans.com represented the seller and buyer respectively.