October Domain Name Sales Report

What a huge month for reported domain name sales. There were at least six, six figure sales, along with countless names changing hands in the high five figures.

It’s amazing to see the general public’s knowledge and understanding of the value of great domain names grow at an exponential rate. There’s no doubt internet real estate is booming.

Join us as we take a look at some of the top grossing and most obscure domain sales of the month of October.

GiftCard.com, $4,000,000- In the top sale of the year so far, GiftCard.com brought in $4 million. GiftCardLab.com was the buyer. While they still have to compete with the plural GiftCards.com, they must be doing pretty well to afford that price tag.

Challenge.com, $500,000- This one word .com raked in a half mill. and went to a company called ViSalus. ViSalus is the “#1 weight loss & fitness challenge platform in North America, rewarding over $25 million a year in free products, prizes, and vacations.” They have a new app out that challenges you to set 90 day goals for yourself and track those goals. The domain name goes hand in hand with their campaign, and $500,000 may have been a bargain for the credibility it establishes in the mind of the consumer.

Webhosting.co.uk, $500,000- WebHosting.co.uk is a now a “free guide reviewing the best 10 Web hosting providers. The web hosting sites which are rated best by professional webmasters and web designers are ranked according to reliablity, price, customer support, features, control panel, ease of use and server uptime.”

Andrew Allemann of Domain Name Wire questions the timing of this domain purchase, as UK domain registry Nominet recently announced that they’re seriously considering introducing .uk domains (vs. the traditional and established .co.uk) to the world and not giving preferential treatment to current keyword .co.uk domain owners.

VI.com, $325,000- Who bought VI.com? None other than ViSalus, the new owners of Challenge.com. They’re really pitching their new program hard, and are enlisting the help of some ultra premium .com domains to firmly establish themselves as the authority in the industry.

RH.com, $304,000- A nice domain shortener for the world’s “leading luxury home furnishings purveyor, offering furniture, lighting, textiles, bathware, decor, and outdoor.” Restoration Hardware has over 100 outlets in the United States, claims over 1,500 employees and brought in nearly $1 billion in revenue. Their ticker symbol is RH, so why not snag the .com?

Cognac.com, $140,000- The exact match .com of the popular drink is registered under privacy protection, so we’re not sure who the buyer is or what they want to do. One hint, though, is that the site lists their twitter handle as @CognacReview.

One thing has been confirmed: the buyer was not Snoop Dogg.

Fahrrad.com, $117,000- Though it may sound like the name of a Middle Eastern male, Fahrrad actually is the German word for bicycle. If you didn’t know, the German’s are actually one of the biggest groups of domain speculators in the world.

We’re not quite sure who the buyer was, as it’s still under the Sedo transfer umbrella, but a safe bet would be Fahrrad.de, a popular German bike parts store.

Pizza.at, $97,000- There are certain keywords that have the innate ability to transcend their TLD, such as gold and poker; and pizza is one of those keywords. .AT is the official country code TLD of Austria, so this domain is either going to become the hub of an Austrian pizza chain, or it went someone who wanted a short and to the point pizza domain.

LHN.com, $80,000- This domain sold to an up and coming clothing line called ‘Look Hot Naked’. LHN.com has a landing page describing itself as a new style “designed for those who want to get more out of wearing less, and who arent afraid to take a chance and want to stand out from the crowd.” The site says there’s more to come in 2013, but my assumption is their competitive advantage will be low overhead costs on their product line.

Sobriety.com, $30,000- I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the purchaser of Cognac.com was not affiliated in any manner with the new proprietor of Sobriety.com.

With a little research, we learned that new owner is actually Right Step: alcohol detox and addiction treatment. Since 1990, Right Step has aimed to “help people with substance abuse and chemical dependency issues achieve sobriety, obtain tools for change, and begin to experience meaningful lives.” Seems like a perfect fit, and it wasn’t too much cheddar for a relevant one word .com with 18,100 exact monthly Google searches.

Ristorante.it, $25,545- If you guessed that ristorante was Italian for restaurant then you’d be correct. .IT is also the official ccTLD of Italy. If you know Italians, you know they love their food. Seems like a bargain purchase for this versatile domain, if it’s cooked up right of course.

Monkey.co.uk, $22,400- While we would’ve liked to see the site go to a British monkey breeder, the domain was actually purchased by Learners.co.uk, which offers services to learn how to drive, get a car or get car insurance. Monkey is an incredibly brandable name, and it seems that’s where the owner’s we’re going with their purchase.

GlueSticks.com, $20,000- Is there anyone in the world who doesn’t love glue sticks? They’re easy to use and they never let you down. Glue sticks come in a number of varieties including permanent, washable, acid-free, non-toxic, solvent free, and dyed. While some products quickly fade away as they’re replaced by something new, it’s really tough to beat the efficiency of a stick of glue.

Space.Travel, $10,500- A pretty good haul for a .travel name, but you’d be hard pressed to find a better match for the TLD.

With thousands of new TLD’s debuting in the next couple of years, once obscure TLD’s that have been around the block for a few years are finding more value.

With space tourism ramping up in the next couple of years, this purchase could definitely look like a major steal five to ten years down the road. The purchasing company was originally OuterSpace.Travel, but stepped up and upgraded to a much friendlier and smoother domain.

Space.travel is branding itself as the #1 space tourism directory, with a members only section offering insider news and benefits.

NoSmoking.It, $5160- We’re not quite sure what ‘it’ is yet, but the new owner thought it was worth five big ones to let you know that you should avoid ingesting it.

LoveChild.org, $3,988- In the 21st century, having a love child is becoming cool again. While we’re not sure what the site is going to be yet, it’s worth speculating that it could become a central hub for people looking to make a love child together.

Source: Ron Jackson, Domain Name Journal

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