Domain Guagua.com sold at auction yesterday for $100,000 USD. While not nearly as much as the $800,000 guns.com fetched, I don’t think I would pass up the chance to earn six figures from a domain.

“Guagua” is a Spanish nickname for a type of small bus common in urban areas. Often called dollar or commuter vans, these vehicles are privately owned and provide transportation in areas not well-served by public transit.

Other sales of note include pepe.com for €45,000 and gastronomie.com for €35,000. The ccTLDs risultati.it (results) and energieagentur.de (energy agency) each sold for €32,000 and €21,500 respectively. It’s been an active week for the domain market indeed.

Continue reading: Guagua.com fetches $100,000 USD

In an effort to boost profits, the Nigerian Internet Registration Association (NIRA) has announced the release of some 1,200 “premium” generic keyword .ng domains. The question is, does anyone care?

Sure, ccTLDs are on the up, but only in developed countries and not in places with bad reputations for spamming and scamming. Names like casino.ng or sex.ng might fetch several hundred or perhaps several thousand dollars at auction, but not much. And I suspect few domainers are scratching to get their hands on cars.ng. Vacation.ng might be a goldmine, if it weren’t for the fact no one goes on vacation to Nigeria.

If NIRA were smart, it would hold most of these “premium” names until a sufficient market exists to garner high sale prices. But as it stands now, does anyone really give a hoot about .ng?

Photo | cgarbiano

Continue reading: Nigeria to release "premium" domains

Qant.as, a domain that resembles you know, the Australian airline Qantas, was sold for $1.35 million USD. The seller, Dominic Holland, said in a statement, “The domain name Qant.as could be snapped up by a competitor so damage to Qantas’s business could be in the millions of dollars.”

The .as ccTLD is used by American Samoa. Personally, I think the idea that this domain could hurt Qantas is absurd. While the name does spell the name of the airline, most Internet users still aren’t comfortable with including the extension as part of a spelled name. No one would confuse it for the real thing.

There is some question as to whether it violates the airline’s trademark or not, but since extensions usually aren’t considered part of the domain name, I don’t think Qant.as is in violation. Either way, the buyer got a horrible deal.

Source | The Domains
Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Qant.as sells for $1.3 million

Leading the domain sales pack this week is metal.com, which has sold for $165,000 USD. The name would be perfect for a heavy metal music website or perhaps a firm in the metal market.

Another sale of note is stockprices.com for $60,000. If developed into a decent stock quote site, I think this domain would be worth quite a bit more. It has a huge potential market of investors, but any developer will need to build something better than competing services from Google and Yahoo.

Here are some other recent sales:

furniture.co.za- $33,000
bigdaddy.com- $20,000
lookup.com- $17,500
netbingo.com- $15,000
isp.co.uk- £7,500
manilla.com- $10,000

Continue reading: Metal.com sells for $165,000 USD

PokerCompany.com, the company that bought Poker.org last week for a whopping $1 million, revealed today that it also bought Blackjack.org for $298,000. This makes the name the second-most expensive .org ever.

The name was sold on October 27, 2007, and the sale was kept secret until now. The company says that Blackjack.org has been wildly successful and that this success influenced its purchase of Poker.org for such a high price.

I think the fact that domain records are being broken every year despite the bad recession says a lot about the domain industry. Let’s just hope it’s not a bubble waiting to burst.

Source | DN Journal

Continue reading: BlackJack.org sells for $298,000

Domain CompanyBook.com sold last week to an undisclosed buyer for €15,000. Of course, that’s not anywhere close to the $1 million Poker.org was bought for, but six-figures is still a good chunk of change.

Also of note are the sales of supermechanics.com, superelectricians.com,superpainters.com and superplumbing.com– all for $10,000 USD each. In all honestly, I don’t think these names are super enough to spend $40,000.

Other recent sales:

bingocity.com- $12,000 USD
jag.de- €5,950
salonworld.com- $5,000
spongy.com- $3,100
ico.mx- $1,000

Source | Domain News
Photo | svilen001

Continue reading: CompanyBook.com sells for €15,000

Biking.com has sold for $250,000 USD. As it turns out, the buyer of this name, a company by the name of Stein Holdings, was also the buyer of Boating.com earlier this week. How about that?

In addition, South African ccTLD fly.co.za fetched $65,000 while toys.co.za brought in $20,000. Two-letter name WO.de sold for $27,600 (€20,000). Finally, lightswitch.com fetched $33,000 and FitnessTrainer.com $20,888.

All in all, I would say all the domains in this batch were very good buys. Generic names are always the best investments.

Source | DN Journal

Continue reading: Biking.com sells for $250,000

Domain boating.com has sold at auction for $250,000 USD. Now is the perfect time to buy such a name. Soon spring will arrive and boaters everywhere will want to get out on the water.

In my opinion, the price paid is a fair one. Boating.com is a stellar name that will bring profit to its owner for decades to come. The only other big .com sale so far this month is Macaroni.com, which fetched $74,607.

Country-code domains have trailed behind generic extensions so far this week. Lundi.fr (French for “Monday”) sold for €50,000, beat by Designer.co.uk’s £76,300 sale price.

Source | DN Journal

Continue reading: Boating.com sells for $250,000 USD

Domain sales in February are off to a slow sort. A number of domains sold over the last week, but no six-figure sales were reported.

Topping the charts is 3p.com, which fetched $19,500. LTN.com sold for $12,501 with screenprinter.com trailing close behind at $12,000. Zipcode.org also garnered €4,250.

On the ccTLD front, the highest sale was highheels.co.uk for £4,500. In addition, finden.at (German for “find”) sold for €4,500. The award for most creative domain sold this week, however, goes to whistle.in. This clever play on words earned its owner £1,850.

Continue reading: Domain sale round-up

The first domain name, Symbolics.com, was registered on March 15, 1985. That makes this March 15 the 25th anniversary of the first .com registration. The web has changed quite a bit since then and it’s no surprise that the .com operator, Verisign, is planning a celebration.

In addition to throwing a “25 Years of .com” celebration, the company has also announced the creation of four $75,000 grants for .com innovation.

So, what ever happened to the world’s oldest domain? Symbolics.com was actually sold by its owner to XF Investments for an undisclosed amount. The name currently hosts a page counting down to March 15.

Continue reading: 25th anniversary of .com almost here

A recent report reveals that although $102 million worth of domain sales were reported last year, this revenue has dropped 12.5% from 2008, when $116.7 million worth of sales occurred. What does this mean for the domain industry?

Keep in mind that this number only represents the gross revenue from reported sales, not the actual number of sales. So it’s not possible to tell if the number of sales went down, the average sale price decreased, or both. It’s also possible that sales increased by average price decreased. In addition, the number does not include private sales.

On a side note, revenue from ccTLD sales jumped 28%. The market is definitely headed away from generic extensions to regional names.

Source | DN Journal

Continue reading: Domain sale revenue falls by 12.5%

At one point or another, you will inevitably want to sell a domain you have registered. You may be doing so to collect on an investment, simply not need the name, or have been approached by a third party. Either way, here are some tips to follow when selling a domain:

1. Watch out for scams.
If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. There are all sorts of con artists out there looking to snatch domains from unsuspecting people. Always research the buyer and avoid payment methods like Western Union or wire transfer. If necessary, use a safe escrow service.

2. Contact potential buyers directly.
Believe it or not, but your largest market of buyers probably won’t know about your name unless you contact them. Domain auction sites are a good second-resort, but first, contact potential buyers in your industry. Find relevant sites and companies and tell them your name is for sale. You could very well end up getting a higher price and avoid auction site fees this way.

3. Wait for the right moment.
Let time be on your side. Don’t try to sell christmascards.com in January, for instance. Rather than give in to the first offer made, don’t be afraid to wait until the right buyer comes along. At the same time, make sure you sell before the market for your name goes sour.

Continue reading: Tips to sell a domain