The Domains: A Look At the Some of “The” Sales in the Last 6 Months

When I first got in to domains I didn’t have a lot of money to spend.  I didn’t have the confidence of many of the now wealthy domain investors and even if I did, it really wouldn’t have mattered because I didn’t have any money.  The category killer words were just too expensive.  What I did find was I could by the same names, put a “the” in front of them and get them for a penny on the dollar compared to the words by themselves.  I had pretty good success selling some in my early years, either on ebay or privately.  When I say success it means I made money.  I didn’t make a lot,  but it was a lot then and the fact that I could make extra money buying and selling domain names in general made me all giddy.  Four or five hundred a month was a car payment or cable, phone, and internet….all for very low investment. I look back and I now wish I had kept most of them.  Heck, I barely remember all the names, but I know that the “the” names are really starting to pick up steam.

My buddy Mark over a DomainPicks doesn’t get why I would like “the” names.  He kids Sr. Berkens over at TheDomains.com why he would use such a lesser name for his blog.  I can answer for both of us.  Many businesses and places use the word “The” in their title.  Using the in front often makes it sound even better.  “The Hill” sounds much better than ‘Hill” therefore in many cases the domain with the “the” is a BETTER domain than just the word alone because there are more possible end users.  People often forget the real purpose of domains is to represent an entity on the Internet.  These entities want to have names that people will remember.  Names that will flow and resonate with the user. They can also save tens of thousands of dollars by adding a “the” at the beginning and not lose much traffic as long as that’s the name of the company.  If a bar is called “The Rusty Nail” and they could only pick one I would tell them to buy TheRustyNail.com not RustyNail.com  (actually they should buy both).

Another reason I like the names is the most important. They are selling and they are going up in value every year.  In some cases the “the” names are bridging the gap on the word without the “the”.   For reference here are some of the one word domains with a “the” in front of it that sold in the last 6 months.  Some solid prices and I didn’t list the three word domains nor a few private “the” domain sales that totaled over $100K lately.

TheWok.com $921  08/13

TheSync.com  $500 08/13

TheCapitol.com $3000  08/13

TheArab.com  $830  07/13

TheRetirement $634 7/13

TheJunkyard.com $1469

TheGlimpse.com $470

TheCircus.com $5099 06/13

TheBatteries.com  $202 05/13

TheGritty.com $270005/13

TheRunners.com $6500 05/13

TheHillside.com $265  05/13

ThePlaylist.com $2200 05/13

ThePlayoff.com $1088 04/13

TheCliq.com  $1195 04/13

ThePhotoshoot.com  $1185  04/13

TheGOP.com $7950 04/13

TheDrink.com $1500 04/13

TheWeekly.com $9188 04/13

TheExchange.com $36,000   04/13

TheSignature.com $10,ooo    03/13

TheUpswing.com $1755   03/13

TheIntell.com $3000 03/13

TheObjective.com  $2588  03/13

ThePremise.com  $2500 3/13

All Data courtesy of NameBio