This week we’re going 10 years back in time…..to get an update on the top 10 sales from this week in 2004. Ron Jackson took a break from his weekly list one year ago (the nerve!), so we’re mixing it up a little.
1. IQTest.de for $147,635
- A German-language site with a free IQ test. Seems like a steep price to pay to turn it into a site that only has an Alexa rank around 17 million. By contrast, the .com is developed with an Alexa rank near 60,000.
2. Backcountry.com for $75,000
- The traffic leader for the week, by a long shot, with an Alexa rank near 6,500. The company was acquired by publicly traded, $14 billion market cap Liberty Media in 2006, a couple years after this 2004 sale of Backcountry.com. This domain was an upgrade from BackcountryStore.com and BCStore.com.
3. Casino.info for $20,899
- This domain was flipped for $35k in 2006, per NameBio. The design of this Italian-language site looks like it comes directly from 2006. A lead gen site with no Alexa rank and its owner under privacy protection.
4. Certificate.com for $15,900
- Parked at Internet Traffic, with the owner under privacy protection.
5. Sitio.com for $15,000
- Acquired back then by guru Chris Chena, and the owner is under privacy protection now. Per Google Translate, “Sitio.com compiles the most extraordinary and popular online stories. In this space you will find the most exciting day to share with all of your content.” Alexa rank near 700,000.
6. Planners.com for $12,000
- Parked, with the owner under privacy protection. Digging back through my email archives, I see it was marketed for $65k back in 2012.
7. JMM.com for $10,743
- When they acquired the domain, it appears they were called J-M Manufacturing Co., though they appear to have changed their name to JM Eagle, and they have an identical site at JMEagle.com. “the world’s largest plastic pipe manufacturer”
8. Recipes.co.uk for $8,830
- “The Recipes.co.uk website is currently being redeveloped and will be launching in 2013!” Ummmm….it’s 2014!
9. TabooSex.com for $8,100
- Apparently a porn site….the coffee shop I’m at won’t let me look at it. Owner under privacy protection, and no Alexa rank.
10. Wedding.net for $8,000
- Another parked domain. Looking back in my emails, the domain was being pedaled with an asking price of $75k last year.
Nice journey back a decade Aaron.
Re wedding.net – a couple of domain blogs reported in mid June 2007 that an auction for this domain at Afternic had a top bid of $75,000, but this auction figure was not reported in any DNJournal sales charts.
Fizz – thanks for the comments, and the scoop on Wedding.net back in 2007.
I just did another search through my email, and I see it in a Domain Advisors newsletter in March of last year for $75k, though I’m not sure if it sold then.
Love these posts. One thing; You guys should use the ranking from Similarweb.com instead of Alexa. It’s so much more accurate that it’s hard to believe you once actually cared about Alexa at all.
Doron, thanks for the comment. I’ll have to give SimilarWeb a closer look…..I admit I haven’t spent much time with it.
By the way, I love the picture of the board meeting on your site….that’s not your standard stuffy board mtg environment!
Hi Aaron, shouldn’t all board meetings be like that 🙂
Regarding Similarweb, i swear by them to get insights into other web properties. I own (and worked for) quite a few large, developed websites and i can tell you Similarweb’s data is scarily accurate!