3 Letter .US Names Fetch Thousands?
Domain Industry News March 28th, 2008
According to the lead in to a paid subscription article in Boston Business Journal, a Massachusetts domain investor sold 800 three letter .us domain names to NameMedia for an undisclosed sum. The article states that “web experts” value some three letter .us names at between $1,000 to $2,000 per name. The article speculates that “his take from the deal was likely in the range of $500,000 to $1.5 million.”
I am not disputing this because his names may have been exceptional, but it’s interesting to note because according to a three letter .us price guide I found (3Character.com), they say the average value of a three letter .us name is just $45. According to that site, .com names are the only three letter domain extension worth more than $1,000 each on average.
It would be interesting to see which names were sold to NameMedia and if this will have any impact on the value of three letter .us names, of which I do not own any, nor plan to buy any time soon.
March 28th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Elliot, 3Character.com is not the “authority” of the market, despite their record of posting prices. They tend to post reseller to reseller prices, which can vary remarkably. In the years since the .us namespace introduction I sold LLL .us domains for up to mid 4-figures. As with each exhaustible namespace - most recently, the LLLL .com’s - the cream of the crop is eaten up early on, the rest is just 2nd and 3rd grade leftovers. Furthermore, 3Character.com essentially undercuts other LLL TLD’s by at least 30% (.com, .net & .org). Not sure what is the purpose, other than create the perception that the names are worth less than real value. Opportunists exist in every field.
***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
I specifically didn’t say that I dispute their reporting. I said it would be interesting to note which names he sold for that amount as they could be exceptional. Personally, I haven’t seen any LLL.us names sell for more than just a couple hundred dollars, but I am not too familiar with that namespace. Incidentally, I presume he didn’t sell the names to end users, since they were purchased by NameMedia.
March 28th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
My personal take is the “expert” mislead the reporter. If you look at three character .us sales, they rarely hit this mark. I’d surmise closer to $100-$300/each.
@ Acroplex, I realize most of these sales are reseller prices, but keep in mind that’s what this sale was…a sale to a reseller.
March 28th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
The $1000-2000 price range to buy 800 domains is way too high to the current “sale” value of 3 letters dot us in domain market.
I agree that the “expert” provided high value of the 3 letter dot US extension but it was a successful sale in my own word.
March 29th, 2008 at 11:19 am
They’re a great company to work with, but; except in cases where they purchase names for their own current or future corporate (development) use; Name Media is a very, very conservative buyer…
…and especially for a bulk sale like this, I suspect that Andrew’s $100-$300/name is closer to the mark.
March 29th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
I agree 150% about NM and their tactics for buying domains. Ultra conservative lowballers sounds about right. They certainly will not be paying out standard LLL.us prices when buying in bulk let alone a few.
March 30th, 2008 at 1:59 am
“(3Character.com), they say the average value of a three letter .us name is just $45″
The figures the site provides are estimated minimum value not average values, agree with your other comments though. Namemedia would have been foolish to pay $1million+ for the collection, highly unlikely.
March 31st, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Generally the auction purchase of 3-ltr .CA (Canadian) is $500+. The resale of LLL.ca domains runs about $2,500 to an end user. This is just letters. Of course it depends on the letters which could bring the resale price down to $1,000 or up to $5,000+.
April 4th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Interesting article!
LLL .co.uk prices are generally £500-2500 mark for resellers , end user prices have been as high as £100,000 for ‘word’ three letters and around £25,000 for none word.