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TheDomains.com

Escrow.com: We Close Domain Sales For More Money In a Week Than What Others Are Reporting For The Year

October 22, 2013 by Michael Berkens

In the final session from the TRAFFIC Conference  some blockbuster statements which indicate a huge amount of big dollar domain sales have gone unreported and the total amount of domain sales are way under-reported.

Andee Hill from Escrow.com had a pretty eye opening statement at the Meeting of the Chiefs. The Must-Attend T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Seminar, that the  total dollar volume of domain sales that get processed through Escrow.com,  greatly exceed the amount that gets reported saying; “we close in some weeks more dollars in domain sales than what other company’s report in sales for the entire year.’

Ron Jackson of DnJournal.com, reported today that $25 Million in domain sold in the last quarter.

Of course that amount is based on publicly reported sales.

However when asked by Rick Schwartz what percentage sales actually were processed through Escrow.com, compared to the reported amount of $25 Million dollars, Ms. Hill answered after a lot of hesitancy, two to three times that amount.

Gregg McNair of Igloo.com said that the bigger the sale the less likely it is to go through any escrow service.

“Very often when you get into the millions buyers and sellers don’t want another set of eyes looking at the transaction no matter how beautiful those eyes are”, said Mr. McNair to Ms Hill

That sentiment was seconded by Adam Dicker adding that most of his bigger dollar sales were handled directly through lawyers without the use of an escrow service.

With Escrow.com saying that they personally handle more transactions in terms of dollars  in domain sales in one week then others (being Sedo and Afternic.com) report for the year, combined with Mr. McNair and Mr. Dicker’s statements that most of the larger dollars sales aren’t even handled by escrow services, means that tens of millions of dollars a quarter in domain sales are taking place outside of reported sales.

On a Final Note the question was asked if anyone on the panel knew of sales higher than Sex.com which sold for $14 Million dollars, Andee Hill from Escrow.com said she has seen one over $20 Million and Gregg McNair said he knows of higher sales than Sex.com as well.

As we look at the Sedo and Afternic/Godaddy reported sales every week we see few six figure sales and even mid-five figure sales are giving the indication that the premium domain name market is weakening however it seems the high end domain market is stronger than ever, we are just not hearing about those sales.

Paul Nicks from Godaddy.com also added a huge amount of the sales take place under $1,000 also don’t get reported

Clearly the session was worth in and of itself the price of admission to TRAFFIC.

 

Filed Under: Domain Sales

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

« The Digital Marketing & gTLD Strategy Congress Returns To New York In March 2014
Afternic/Godaddy Sales Total $1,625,000 »

Comments

  1. Acro says

    October 22, 2013 at 5:01 pm

    Gregg McNair was spot on, regarding the under-reporting of large domain sales and their handling by lawyers’ trust funds and contracts that often come with an NDA.

    It’s a far cry from the forceful reporting of Sedo sales, as well, where one has to pay a fee to keep the sale private. Why?

    Despite our claim to privacy, we all want to know which domains were sold for more than sex.com 😉

  2. jose says

    October 22, 2013 at 5:03 pm

    the beatiful world of make belive

  3. Jeff Schneider says

    October 22, 2013 at 7:09 pm

    No surprise here. I have been on record saying non-disclosure sales are the whole submerged side of an iceberg, out of sight. . Large End-Users keep the big sales secret for selfish reasons.

    I feel blessed to be in the position I am in. Cheers Rick !

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

  4. Jeff Schneider says

    October 23, 2013 at 2:08 am

    Hello MHB,

    The most likely future paradigm shift in attitudes towards extension valuations, from a Marketing Analyst such as myself, fall heavily in favor of the .COM Channel. This shift, in fact, is already happening behind the screen of Non disclosure.

    Of course the Smart money already knows this.

    Just remember the money Frank Schilling is throwing around for hedging his bets, was raked in and will continue to be raked in at an ever increasing velocity, due to his massive .COM portfolio.

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

  5. Denise King says

    October 23, 2013 at 3:12 am

    I feel blessed to be in the position I am in. Cheers Rick !

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

    Pitcher or catcher? lol

  6. Jeff Schneider says

    October 23, 2013 at 10:35 am

    Hello MHB

    The coming shift , that Rick Schwartz has all alonge been predicting, to higher and higher .COM valuations ,in our estimation, is already under way. The hidden truth is that .COM valuations real values are being hidden from the general publics awareness within the fundamental underpinnings contained within the pricing structure of the hidden Shadow Market for .COM Purchases, going on behind the scenes. JAS 10/23/13

    Yes this is one for the history books !

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

  7. ontheinterweb says

    October 23, 2013 at 10:54 am

    oh dear god here we go again. welp, real on topic discussions were fun for a while.

    but who needs that when you can just cut and paste the same crap on 50 blog sites, right?

  8. Louise says

    October 23, 2013 at 12:57 pm

    Interesting insider info = thanx for sharing!!! 😀

  9. steven says

    October 27, 2013 at 12:50 am

    first off… i definitely concur with gregg that andee has beautiful eyes 😉

    we’ve personally never encountered any instances where using escrow.com’s services to facilitate high dollar deals ever raised any ‘second set of eyes’ concerns but i suppose i can see how there would be some large companies/corporations who might feel more comfortable using a law firm, as well as some who might have other ‘incentive’ to run a deal that’s going to generate a potential $20k-30k service fee through the attorney of their choice…

    however, for us escrow.com always has been and always will be the industry standard… we’ve processed all our 6-7 figure sales (and acquisitions) through them for at least the last 10 years without a single issue,
    and i can even think of a couple end user sales in the $3mil+ range where my buyers actually insisted on using escrow.com and they cheerfully paid 100% of the transaction fees.

    just my take…

    steven


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