Below is another look at a few recent domain flips and flops, with data courtesy of NameBio.
Flips
EstoyBien.com sold for 10,000 USD recently at Sedo, vs 380 USD on 2016-08-20 at GoDaddy. Spanish for “I’m good” or “I’m fine”, if my high school Spanish serves me correctly. An excellent sale by domaining machine Josh Eisenhower. I believe he may have picked it up at less than the $380 on public record, but even if this was the price, it’s a 22x return after a 15% commission….in less than 6 months.
Transporting.com sold for 9,950 USD recently at NameJet, vs 6,500 USD on 2016-07-11 at Sedo. I’m surprised to see this high of a sales price, but kudos to the seller for a profitable flip. I was a prior owner of the domain, and picked it up for about $3,500. On my sale, the buyer paid commissions, so there are a couple nuances here, which probably reduces the most recent seller’s profit to near 15%, but it’s still a profit.
BuildingInspectors.com sold for 6,100 USD recently at NameJet, 3,755 USD on 2015-09-07 at NameJet. I believe this was part of Elliot Silver’s recent batch of sales. It’s not one of his homeruns, but it’s a solid single or double with the 40% return after commission.
Housse.com sold for 2,125 USD on 2017-02-19 at GoDaddy, vs 797 USD on 2014-02-19 at GoDaddy. The increased popularity of these double letters makes no sense to me…..but I guess what’s most important is that they’re selling well….for now at least.
Gem.org sold for 12,500 USD recently at Flippa, vs 4,600 USD on 2012-09-23 at Afternic. A nice 2.3x return after commission. It already has a site live (linked screenshot below), and surprising to me, it’s not related to gemstones/jewelry. This was a big upgrade from Be-A-Gem.org, and GEM in this case is an abbreviation for Grassroots Entrepreneur Mission. “We are on a mission to inspire and enable social entrepreneurs from the grassroots around the World. The Grassroots Entrepreneur Mission aspires to a new paradigm in which completing a philanthropic and entrepreneurial Mission is a standard part of a career path.“
Flops
ICH.de sold for 10,666 USD recently at Sedo, vs 48,451 USD on 2006-01-10 at Sedo. A monster loss near $40k.
TVNO.com sold for 355 USD on 2017-02-21 at NameJet, vs 1,900 USD on 2016-02-29 at NameJet. Big loss in a year’s time…..we’ll blame it on the leap day acquisition in 2016.
SpamFilters.com sold for 875 USD recently at NameJet, vs 6,000 USD on 2011-06-15 at Sedo. Has the term gone out of style?
Note: I didn’t do an exhaustive search of the ownership history of each domain. There are likely cases where there were multiple owners between the sales prices I list.
You can find past Flips and Flops posts here.
I’m sure that Mr. Eisenhower after that sale must “Sentirse Bien”. 🙂
What’s the reason for the flops? Terms not being used anymore or domainers don’t want to hold the name any longer… ?
Julio, “Sentirse Bien” is beyond my high school Spanish, so I had to use Google Translate, but I think you’re correct!
The reasons for the flops are varied….ranging from:
(a) someone simply paying too much for a domain and they had to unload it to raise cash, to
(b) someone buying a liquid domain (LLLL.com, NNNN.com, etc) at the Chinese peak and the market shifted on them, to
(c) someone buying a trendy domain and then the trend wears off, to
(d) oftentimes in these posts, an end user bought the domain a few years back at end user prices, their business didn’t work out (or never got launched), and then they’re selling the domain at a loss at wholesale/domainer prices.
Don’t feel bad Aaron.
My Spanish is terrible. I had to use google translator too to make sure I was spelling it out correctly.
Thank you for the reply and the explanation.