A few days ago we referenced in a blog post that we have sold almost $400K in domain names in the first 40 days of the year.
Today MostWantedDomains.com is announcing one of those sales, the domain name Aili.com for $90,000
We have owned the domain name for over 7 years and picked it up on a drop for registration fees.
We turned down an offer of $40K last year and we received quite a lot of interest in the domain from Asia so its no surprise to the buyer is out of China.
Sedo.com brokered the sale of another one of out domains, NewYorkApartmentsForSale.com for $42,000 which was announced a few weeks ago.
We have two private sales one for $45,00o and one for $35,000.
We also sold since the beginning of the year, TravelCambodia.com for $22,500; VisitCentralFlorida.com for $15K; MakingSense.com for $15,500, and shaonv.com for $5K
Rest to come.
Mike – Congrats on selling NewYorkApartmentsForSale.com that’s got to be the most expensive long tailed name that was ever sold. I’ve been following the sale and find it strange that the whois still shows sedo escrow. Any idea who the buyer is?
Was Meet.me last year or this year? 1/3 of that sale would make the balance . . .
Congratulation Mike and very well deserved! I really like your approach and as usual I’m reading and learning! Always appreciate you sharing this with all of us, it is this kind of transparency that makes this space so incredible!
Wow, that’s incredible work! Most people would give up after a few years, but it shows what persistence can achieve. Congratulations!
Berkens,
I’m not trying to pick you, but why do you have such remarkable different result with Sedo sales with not so much remarkably different domain names?
You got admit that your sales are very very different from the average guy, whereas your domain names are not that much different. As a matter of fact, you end up with a lot of my dropped domains, as well as other domainers drops. I recall you selling a dot CO a few months ago for an unbelievable price.
I need a serious answer to this question, or I’m gonna have to brain storm, and dig deeper to get to the bottom of this conundrum, you are Sedo have got to include everybody in this market. I don’t think it’s fair. I’m a little ticked about it.
Mike’s secret http://fragerfactor.blogspot.com/2011/12/guest-post-mike-berkens-never-knew-he.html
Congrats on the sales, nice start to the new year for MWD. Now I have to go do some research on what Aili is, because I don’t know why that name is valued so high. There must be a reason, I just haven’t heard that word or seen that term before.
In Chinese, Aili means ” love beautiful things” such as beautiful women’s fashion, accessories and all things beautiful….
ViSalus Dishes Out $825K To Buy Challenge.com and Vi.com
Nice!
Re Aili.com – did the $40k offer (last year) come from the eventual buyer or another party?
Congrats in place, this isn’t typical even for large portfolio owners.
James
Different party
Uzoma
The only domain I sold through Sedo.com is NewYorkApartmentsForSale.com
New York is one of the few places in the US that people buy “apartments”, everywhere else they only buy condos
The average sales price of an apartment, condo, coop in New York is over $1M.
I think if anything at $42K the domain sold too cheap.
All the other domains were sold privately
Mike, can I ask you, how did you place a value on aili? Are there a particular set of metrics you apply for a name like that, or do you go off gut feeling to think ‘that’s as much as we’re gonna get’?
JamesD
The amount of interest in the domain.
The more offers I get for a domain the higher the price goes.
Nice sale!
More sales ammo for the industry, thanks!
Congrats, Mike! Amazing transaction.
Mike, ok – so how did you decide $90k was the ceiling?
Congratulations on closing some amazing transactions!
Always enjoy seeing The Master, continuing to Kill It with great sales.
ps. missed you at DFG but you didn’t miss much
Estibot values Aili.com at $4,100, with 1,200 monthly searches for that term. I wouldn’t have paid more than $300 for that domain…shows what I know.
Nice sale.
I don’t get it – how can anyone say anything but *awesome* nice one!!
The reason these domains are selling, over ones that arent, is that someone else wanted them enough to pony up. Simples.
@ Uzoma
Great sales are the function of a few things –
1.) Good to Great domain.
2.) Very interested buyer with money.
and the most important factor –
3.) Owners who are financially secure enough to say “no” to what others would consider great offers. (AKA – you have to ask a high amount to get it)
The average domainer would never have got $90,000 for this domain, because the would never have asked it.
Then again, for the average domainer, how many great sales do you end up losing by waiting for the one huge sale?
Brad
Linda & Brad,
I don’t know…
It appears to me that Sedo is in a position to pick winners and losers. In this industry, we must be vigilant to flush out all hindrances that have slowed healthy growth. The big players are very very narrow minded; they are only interested in a few domainers getting wealthy, and not understanding that if more people make it in this industry then everyone will be better off.
While I applaud Berkens for his sales, I am very concerned that the domains in question, while good, are not that much more better than what you’ll find listed at Sedo by our fellow domainers who have been struggling for a few years now, registering and registering names in the hopes of making it. I don’t care if Berkens rejects offers upto $90,000, if someone was offered something reasonable, they can take it until they are as big as Berkens. The problem as I see it is that the offers are not coming to everyone. I suspect that the relationship people such as Berkens have with domain Brokers at places like Sedo and Godaddy, is like a cabal or gang, and that affects the results. This is my strong opinion, and I intend to look into it. Clearly, Berkens and Sedo have a strong relationship, as you can see Sedo advertising here constantly. There exists awesome, and worrisome conflict of interest all the way round in our field. And I happen to know none of us is an angel. Moses, or not.
News like this makes it seem like everyone is making it big selling domain names. The truth is it’s like winning the lottery. One point in the article should be especially noted–you may have to sit on a domain name for 7 years to sell it even if it’s good and even if you’re actively marketing it.
Selling domains is all about waking up that one interested buyer, and nobody knows who or when that will happen. Be patient and when you get someone interested, ask for the world. You’d be surprised how much someone’s willing to pay for a domain name, even after they tell you a big lie about how they’re broke and want the name for their child’s school project.
Cheers,
Henry
Surely most buyers would just buy the best name they can afford that most closely or exactly matches what they want.
Maybe a few could be swayed by a broker nudging them toward a name owned by one of their best sellers, I dont see it happening very often and frankly I dont see anything wrong with it either.
I just made an amazing sale that has rocked my world so you can’t say noone else is getting a look in – and I assure you I would not wanna be a member of any cabal who would have me 🙂
Congrats on the strong sales, Mike! Off to a great start for 2012. 🙂
To everyone who is wondering about why Mike has such strong sales with similar names to what they have in their own portfolio: it’s a numbers game – if you have ~250,000 domains you’re going to have way more $90k and $42k sales than if you have less than 10,000 names.
Companies and people buy the domains they want, and if you own 250,000 domains, you’re more likely to own one of the names which people want to buy.
-Merlin