Domain Spotlight:

What Kind of Returns Are LLL.coms Giving? A Little Data And a Lot of Opinion

When I first started getting serious about domain investing I was inspired by a guy named Reece Berg.  Reece was the king of the short domains.  He specialized in LLLL.coms and LLL.coms.  He tracked every sale and had more detail on the LLLL.com market than anyone in the industry.  His actual blog was called LLLL.com  (since retired and sold) He essentially came up with a price guide.  I followed his blog and watched the market go from hi to low along with the economy.  My big problem..I put my money into a bunch of smaller domains instead of buying one or two LLL.coms.   But we all have stories like that.   So the recent auction at Flippa of RNR got me to thinking.  We see LLL.coms getting great prices lately.  But if you bought them in 2005, 2008, 2010 what have the returns been?  So I started with a few LLL.coms that recently sold and looked at looked to see if they had any sales history. If I found any I listed them.   I also took some old posts and sales results from Reece and compared prices to today’s results.  The info is below.

RNR.com  

$24,710  2010

$35,000 2014 Media Options (assumed sale since it’s for sale at Flippa)

$46,000 Unsold on Flippa

OUJ.com

$6350  Aug 2008,

$4253  Dec 2012,

$10,100 Sept 2014 (Namejet)

IKT.com  

$5400  Jan 2006

$16,000  Sept 2014 (Namejet)

QOF.com

$5701  Oct 2008

$7610 Sept 2014

FVZ.com

$5100 Aug 2008

$8100 Sept 2014 (final bid but reserve was not met)

EIV.com

$5000  Dec 2008

$7101  Dec 2010

$13,000  Sept (final bid but did not meet reserve)

MRQ.com

$6001 Jan 2009

$12,100 Jul 2014

COA.com

$17,500  Jan 2010

$30,100 Aug 2014

CFF.com

$9500 Aug 2011

$30,100  Aug 2014

IAS.com

$27,000 Feb 2011

$27,300 Aug 2014

 

It’s not a very big data group but the returns have been all over the board.  Almost all returned 100% in the last 6 years with some returning much more.  Pretty comparable to the stock market.   (Apple was trading at an adjusted $12 back in Dec 2008 to give you some comparison)   Below are few articles Reece wrote that show how the short domains moved up and down with the economy.  I know you can’t go back in time but you actually can and it’s fun to go back and read about the prices and thoughts about where everyone thought they were headed.  I’ve also listed some of his LLL.com recaps.

 

December 13, 2008 by Reece
Filed under: short domains

Domainers are feeling what Main Street investors are — a lighter wallet as of late. We’ve seen LLL.coms fall a full 50% from a minimum wholesale of $7600 in June to about $3800 today, with very few domaining segments have done much better, many having done far worse still. The economy as a whole is of course struggling, uncertainty is higher than it’s been in quite some time, unemployment keeps rising, the dollar has appreciated considerably against many currencies over the past few months, etc… Yes, there are plenty of reasons we can explain away about how and why this has happened and all things considered, it really isn’t much of a surprised when you look at how the rest of the economy is struggling as a whole.

Now it’s not all bad news I have to report here. On the positive side, prices are remaining much more constant in the LLL.com market around the $4000 mark. The minimum wholesale fell quite quickly from $7600 to $5000 between June and August, falling at about half the speed another $1200 more to $3800 by the end of November. Since then — 13 days into December, the LLL.com market has held fairly stable at the low end.

We’ll have to see what the future holds for low end LLL.coms, however it’s very comforting to see the rate of decline having slowed down so much. The November – December period is typically a bad period for selling domains. Provided the economy doesn’t get a whole lot worse, we might expect to see a bit of appreciation once we’re in the New Year. At the very least, it seems probable that 10%+ monthly declines are a thing of the past.

 

 

 

June 2008
MEV.com     €10000     Sedo
UMX.com        $10100     Sedo  $10,100  June 2011 (Sedo)
CWL.com     $6800      Sedo   $6800  Jan.  2011 (Sedo)
YMA.com     $20000    Sedo
OYY.com     $7750      Sedo
QLI.com     $10600  Sedo
QHI.com      $13500     Afternic
HLU.com      $17500     Sedo
TFV.com      $13000     Sedo
VWH.com      $11500     Sedo
CWI.com      $15500     Sedo
AOV.com      €7100     Sedo
HNJ.com      €5500     Sedo
RYY.com     $7124     Bido
IQD.com     $7612     NameJet
XKD.com     $7100     NameJet
HJR.com     $12000     Sedo
FUQ.com     $8100    Sedo
ANM.com     €15100     Sedo
BIY.com     $7400      Sedo
JUA.com     $7600      Sedo
WVF.com     $10000     Sedo
XEI.com     $9100      Sedo
GAE.com        $40000    Afternic
VTP.com        $40000    Afternic
NDP.com        $40000     Afternic
JOK.com        $40000    Afternic
NWN.com        $22500    Sedo
WWB.com        $12000    Moniker

JULY 2008
RLU.com     $10432     Sedo
QVK.com     $6730     Bido
FQV.com     $6305     TDNAM
MPU.com        $8802     NameJet
VRU.com     $10000     Afternic
NUJ.com     $8001     Sedo
OOH.com     $55000     RickLatona.com
MJN.com     $39162     Sedo
KNU.com     $9450     Sedo
UTQ.com     $6000     Bido
DQF.com       $6750   Namepros
LJL.com     $9300     Sedo
NST.com     $20200  NameJet
bzh.com     $16000     SnapNames
eob.com     $14000    Sedo   $8763  Feb 09 DnJournal
wmr.com     $9600    Sedo
wja.com     $8000    Sedo
zqx.com     $6100   Sedo
VQU.com     $6551    Bido
TQB.com     $6750     Sedo
UNQ.com     $6600    Sedo
ASJ.com        $15300    Moniker

AUGUST 2008
GIW.com     $12300    Sedo
zze.com     $8500     SnapNames
zzl.com     $7501    SnapNames
tyv.com     $7750    SnapNames
JTR.com     €60000    Sedo
IKH.com     $6600     Sedo
IGX.com     $6900    NameJet
TJD.com     $12600  Afternic
YXL.com     $6700   Sedo
EQW.com     $5211   Sedo
FVZ.com     $5100   Sedo
OUJ.com     $6350   Sedo
WZU.com     $5200   Sedo
XAG.com     €3933   Sedo
Nun.com     $18501  Sedo
OLU.com     $5002     SnapNames
TQB.com     $6680     Sedo

 

Sources  DNSalePrice.com  and the now defunct blog of Reese Berg formerly at LLLL.com

September 2008
ZNJ.com        $5299    NameJet
iqx.com     $6250    NameJet
QWI.com     $5469   Sedo
WQI.com     $5800   Sedo
GIW.com     €13500     Sedo
BWE.com     $10100  NameJet
mdj.com     $6900      Sedo
ZXW.com     $5000     Private Sale
VWX.com     $5000     Private Sale
ZZL.COM     $7250     SnapNames
ZQR.com     $5144     Sedo
ZZE.com     $6349     SnapNames
MCC.com     $195000 Rick Latona
EFS.com     $55000     Rick Latona
NAP.com     $47500     Rick Latona
Yii.com     $7100     Sedo
wnf.com     $7100     Sedo
vyk.com     $8000     Moniker
tlg.com     $16400    NameJet
QOF.com        $5701    NameJet

October 2008
ACU.com     $52500     SnapNames
EAJ.com     $7300     NameJet
UGD.com     $7100     NameJet
VXG.com     $4988     Sedo
XAG.com     $7000    Private Sale
pym.com     $8250     SnapNames
ynn.com     $6750    NameJet
RMN.com     $26545  Sedo
YTT.com     $6626    Namejet
EVT.COM     $10500    Sedo
HDJ.com     $7100    NameJet
qav.com     $4700    Sedo
wxq.com     $4610     Sedo
DQF.com     $7600    Fusu
ZQR.com     $4620    Sedo
JIZ.com     $10500     Sedo
VGZ.com     $5250    NameJet
ZUD.com        $10011    Sedo

 

My take away from all these little snippets is that although the returns were nice, I actually made the right move in putting my money into the stock market back in 2009- 2011.  It would be hard to prove that it was safer but it certainly was more liquid and more data to analyze my investments.  But it really proves one thing.  LLL.coms are due for another move up and two, it’s a crap shoot like all other domains.  It all comes down to finding the right buyer and good names have more chances to find the right buyer.

 

 

 

November 2008
RMX.com     $13027  SnapNames
Eha.com       $12555  Sedo
DNW.com        $11500  Namepros
WBJ.com        €6000   Sedo
VLX.com        €8100   Sedo
QBZ.com     $4625   Sedo
ABL.com        $50000     Sedo
TAO.com     $32550     Afternic
ZQR.com     $4200   Sedo
DMG.com     $34000     SnapNames
TJQ.com     $4100      Sedo
OAI.com        $20000     Sedo
QXZ.com     $4595     Sedo
EZW.com        $16190    Moniker
RYE.com        $27500    Sedo
GXX.com        $7116    Sedo

Domain Spotlight:

2 Replies to “What Kind of Returns Are LLL.coms Giving? A Little Data And a Lot of Opinion”

  1. It is insane to spend so much money on 3 letters .com when you can spend a few hundred $ on 3 letter .tel and redirect your difficult to spell website to your easy to remember .tel. Simple, inexpensive and very quick

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