Tag: greatdomains

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Who paid $500,000 for Gamesforgirls.com, the top-selling domain so far in 2011?

Games for Girls

One thing is for sure: Bill Kara of Hallpass Media didn’t pay $500,000 USD for the casual games domain name, gamesforgirls.com. 

While the buyer may not be known as of yet, the seller is.  As pointed out by Jamie Zoch over at DotWeekly, what is known, is that the domain name was sold by Garry Chernoff, of NetIncome Ventures Inc, an established domain investment and web development company.

Casual gaming domain sales create buzz

Like the buzz the domain industry had in early 2010 after cookinggames.com sold for $350,000 to Bill Kara, the price paid for gamesforgirls.com in early 2011 is sure to be the topic of many discussions after the owner is revealed.

I contacted Bill Kara, the CEO of Hallpass Media, which operates one of the largest networks in the United States ) including Girlgames.com (a site roughly estimated by Compete to receive nearly 400,000 unique visitors per month), to see if he was the buyer – after speculation by many that he may have purchased the domain despite owning girlgames.com. 

And the answer was as I expected: No.   

So who paid $500K for gamesforgirls.com?

At the time of this story, the domain name still remains in Sedo’s Domain Transfer Escrow Service according to Whois, so we won’t know anything until the name is in the hands of the new owner. 

But you can bet after the new owner or website is revealed, it’ll be reported quickly.

Readers: Who do you think purchased the domain?

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News

Top domain sale of 2011 blown out of the water by sale of Action.com for $270,000

Ip Man Donnie Yen

It wasn’t like the sale of Soulmate.com was expected to stay at the top of DNJournal’s year-to-date domain sales charts at $100,000.  Soulmate.com, which sold at AfternicDLS for $100,000 in early January has now been blown out of the water by the sale of Action.com over at GreatDomains for $270,000.

In 2008, the domain Action.com sold at Moniker for $230,000.  By the time the New Year rang in for 2009, it finished at #36 among the top sales of 2008, the same year Fund.com sold for $9,999,950.

But you can’t expect Action.com to enjoy its reign at the top too long in 2011 either, with domain names like gambling.com and tournament.com  up for sale.  Gambling.com is expected to fetch a price tag in the millions.

Though billionaire Calvin Ayre has no comment on whether he’ll bid on gambling.com, some think he’ll be the new owner by the beginning of February. 

At the time of this story, action.com is parked at Sedo.  The registrant’s information is hidden by Moniker’s Privacy Services.

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News

EUROBOTS GmbH goes on a buying spree for robot domains

eurobots

EUROBOTS GmbH, an internet retailer based in Germany that is authorized to sell autonomous robot helpers like the Roomba, has been on a robot domain name shopping spree. 

The company which used Eurobots.de as its home page, acquired Eurobots.com this month for 22,000 Euro (or about $29,000 USD) through Sedo GreatDomains. 

Before that acquisition, the company paid $3,239 USD in 2010 for Eurobots.co.uk.

Eurobots.net, a different company than EUROBOTS GmbH,  which buys and sells used industrial robots,  currently owns the top spot in the search engines for Eurobots.

EUROBOTS GmbH owns a number of “bot” domain names and online properties including Lawnbot.de and Cleanbot.de. 

Small robots are making a move

You might not see them on store shelves everywhere you go, but small, autonomous robots like the Roomba are doing well when it comes to sales.  iRobot reports that in 2009, the company, “generated more than $298 million in revenue and employed more than 500 of the robot industry’s top professionals, including mechanical, electrical and software engineers and related support staff. iRobot stock trades on the NASDAQ stock market under the ticker symbol IRBT.”

According to CNET: “iRobot demoed its updated line of robot floor cleaners at CES 2011, showing off a more powerful Roomba vacuum bot and a much more compact Scooba floor scrubber.”

While you can watch a video of iRobot showing off their robots at CES, if you really want to see one of the coolest videos that has to do with robots and domain names, watch this video of Diapers.com robots working in the warehouse.

(Hat tip to Hallpass Media’s Bill Kara)

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News

IrishFood.com sells for $14,000; Food domains enjoying several five-figure sales over the last year

Cat Food

Over the past year, food-related domain sales have been enjoying some of their strongest sales.  According to Sedo’s GreatDomains, IrishFood.com is the latest in the group, selling for $14,000 USD. 

2010, appears to be the strongest year for food domain sales, with the majority being brokered by Rick Latona, according to publicly reported sales records.

In early 2010, DietFood.com, a name that sits parked at Sedo, sold at Latonas.com for $49,000 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Las Vegas.  CatFood.com also sold during the auction for $41,000, according to DNJournal. 

BabyFood.com, another five-figure sale, sold in June for $70,000 at RickLatona.com. 

Other notable sales in the last year include two sales brokered by Sedo – Streetfood.com for $13,000 and GermanFood.com for $15,000.

GermanFood.com was purchased by SurfMyAds.com, the same company that recently purchased the Canadian domain Coupon.ca for $75,600.00.  Based in Santa Barbara, California, SurfMyAds is heavily involved in buying and developing domain names.  Some of its leading projects include: PromotionalCodes.com, Shoes.tv (a name it purchased for $18,000 in May 2010), and promocodes.com.

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News

Next Navigation putting several category-killing domain names up for auction at GreatDomains

feline

Feline.com for $1,000 USD?  Some very highly valued, category-killing domain names are being put up for auction at the next Sedo/GreatDomains auction starting January 20, 2011.  And it looks like Sedo, has one company in particular to thank for making the auction so great – Next Navigation Pty Ltd, the Australian web development and online advertising company.

Among the domain names being offered by Next Navigation include GasStation.com, Pathology.com, Feline.com, InternetBrowser.com, Rivalry.com, Trillion.com, and Neonlight.com.

Just how much money will Next Navigation make?

The shortlist of names mentioned previously, is valued at over $1 million by Valuate.com, but the auction listings combined have a significantly lower reserve price.  

GasStation.com, which appraises at $840,000 is currently listed with a reserve range  of 5,000 – 9,999 USD. 

Feline.com, which appraises for $117,000 is only listed with a reserve price range of 1,000 – 4,999 USD, as are names like InternetBrowser.com and Rivalry.com.

While Feline.com has a low reserve price, it’s final auction price will be much higher with the bidding action it’s likely to draw.  In 2005, Feline.com sold for $15,000 at GreatDomains and Pathology.com sold for $22,000, so you know Next Navigation is looking to make a deal.

The company owns hundreds of category-killing domain names, not included in the auction as well.  Names like Salaries.com, Jail.com and VOIPphones.com. 

It’s unknown why the company is putting up so many names at once, but these kind of reserve prices will certainly attract bidders early, and create some bidding wars right up until the very last minute.