New Domain Aftermarket Sites

In the last couple of months, I have learned about several new domain aftermarket sales websites. Most of the new sites haven’t been started by amateurs, but rather by professional domain investors who make their living in the domain space. Here are a few of the newer aftermarket websites:

DomainMarket.com – This site was founded by Mike Mann, the successful domain investor who founded BuyDomains and Grassroots.org. The company features domain names such as Angola.com, Cameroon.com, Fleece.com, Dusseldorf.com, Females.com, and many other great names. In addition, there are thousands of less expensive keyword domain names costing $500 or less.

SimpleDomains.com – This domain aftermarket was founded by the founders of several websites and businesses on domain names that include Beer.com, Diamond.com, CreditCards.com, Shop.com, and Luggage.com. The company features domain names such as BusinessTravelers.com, TableWines.com, ForeignAuto.com, and GreenInvestments.com. There are also a variety of other domain names in several categories at pretty good prices.

OneOfAKind.com – This website was started by members of the Domain Consultant team, who have over $15 million in domain purchases and sales to date. Some of the site’s showcase domain names include Ring.com, HappyBirthday.com, LifeVests.com and DiamondRings.com. There is a wide variety of names for sale on the site, although most are listed as “make offer” rather than having a sales price.

BestDomainsWebsite.com – This website was started by one of the co-founders of the Targeted Traffic conference, Howard Neu. In addition to regularly priced domain names, they have a list of specials that include TeleconferencePhones.com, FrankensteinMasks.com, and AnimalRightsAdvocates.com.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

29 COMMENTS

  1. They are selling domains but not really an aftermarket selling platform for the masses like Sedo. Those listed above target other pros, passing names back and forth. Sedo is the only platform that draws a nice share of endusers as well. That is why they have pulled so far ahead. By the way, all pros started as amateurs

  2. Another one that opened up this week is the first aftermarket dedicated to a country code tld, and that’s MyID.ca Domain Marketplace. They opened with more than ten thousand .ca domains for sale including auction.ca, dogs.ca, houses.ca, fitness.ca,…. But mostly tons of .ca domains for all prices:

    http://domainmarket.myid.ca

    and the system does what it is supposed to do very well.

    .ca here refers by the way to Canada not California

    Maybe this is the sign of things to come where there will be dedicated aftermarkets to each of the major country codes. Why should Canada be the only country with a comprehensive and dedicated aftermarket? Sedo sucks anyway and alternatives should be made.

  3. “Those listed above target other pros, passing names back and forth.”
    How’d you come to that conclusion ?

    No way to know for sure, but I’d bet 30% of sedo’s sales come from domainers, 30% from “this domain for sale” on park pages and 30% from outbound efforts and brokering.

    I’d bet the same #s apply with afternic/buydomains

    Really, though, who cares who you sell a domain or how you do it. The market seems to be fragmenting a bit with small sales boutiques popping up. Say goodbye to some of your sales Walmart’s of the domain aftermarket. It’s really all about the inventory and some good stuff is going to be sold elsewhere.

  4. I wish one of these sales interfaces would have a clear-cut geo category. If someone wanted to list “HoustonComputers.com” in Geo rather than Computers, good. Let them have that option. The ones who are left out in the cold are people who are looking to buy (or looking to sell) decent pure geo names, since there is no way to sort them out from the rest of the inventory. People tend to classify pure geo names in the weirdest categories… Are they “Real Estate”? No, no… Are they “travel”? Wait, no… Are they “business”?

    A clear “Geographical Names” category would solve this.

  5. @ LS Did you see oneofakind.com does a pretty good job? Nice names! It appears oneofakind accepts mainly .com extensions.

    When I launch InexpensiveDomains.net , it will give people an alternative to list inexpensive domains . . . Not the premium, top-of-the-market domain names, like the sites listed, above!

  6. Domainmarket should slash almost all of the price listings for their domains by 50% or more. A company that lists prices to sell will be the company that makes a profit. That is why SEDO is heads above all of the companies listed above.

    Domainmarket has so many domains for sale at 100k dollars that I wouldn’t even pay $2,000 for.

  7. @ whoknows

    I would bet they’ve sold some $xx,xxx domain names that you wouldn’t value at much at all. One man’s treasure is another’s trash.

    Prices on domain names can always be negotiated down by a serious buyer. They can never be negotiated higher than the list price though.

  8. Quote –
    “No way to know for sure, but I’d bet 30% of sedo’s sales come from domainers, 30% from “this domain for sale” on park pages and 30% from outbound efforts and brokering.

    I’d bet the same #s apply with afternic/buydomains”

    And, the remaining 10% ?? 🙂

    I would think 40+% are domainers and webdesigners with Sedo.
    Especially the lower priced transactions.

    When I receive an offer thru Sedo and determine they are probably a domainer/webdesigner by the bidding pattern, I know it is a waste of time.

    As for NameMedia, you have 2 different market places.
    1. Afternic format which is a bidding atmosphere.
    2. BuyDomains format which has the sales rep. involved who are skilled in closing before they get off the phone.

    I would guess 60+% of the Afternic transactions are domainers/webdesigners. And, most of the dollar amounts are in the wholesale range. I have heard most of the professional domain sellers consider it a waste of time and effort.
    I stopped using Afternic a long time ago.

    The BuyDomains format is very good for midlevel priced transactions. The reps are very good at helping the novice/enduser buyers make a purchase.
    The drawback is that most of the sales thru BuyDomains are NameMedia domains. It is more profitable to sell their own inventory. Plus, the rep has the capability to make a decision on the spot instead of contacting the domain seller asking if he will accept ‘this price’.

    If the rep has to get back to the enduser after communicating with the seller, the buyer might have second thoughts or they found more options elsewhere.

    For domain sellers, the BuyDomains program is very good if the buyer/enduser explicitly needs that domain and the rep can walk the novice thru the process which could seem confusing otherwise.

    Now, that BuyDomains is selling domains for Oversee/DomainSponsor, domain sellers might have less success. Buyer has too many choices. Just a guess.

    PLus, I often wondered if my domain lead-in to BuyDomains is being converted to another domain. That is the negative side of having a rep involved which is offering a number of choices to the novice buyer.

    As we know, the novice/enduser buyer are the most profitable for domainers.

    I have not found a good selling platform. I also found that I can close a sale better than some of the other selling platforms available if the buyer is somewhat interested in the domain. Self motivation.

    I guess that is why Schilling and others have gone with their own selling platform.

  9. Simpledomains has some reasonable prices for domains I am interested in. $5,000 for some of the health domains they have for sale are much more affordable than some awkward wording domain that is priced at $100k at Domainmarket.

    IMO, people need to remember that their domain name may be work more than $5,000 in true value, but the chances of it being sold at $100k is not good. You can make more profit by pricing names at an affordable price than having a gazzilion domains listed $100k.

  10. OK, I was unfamiliar with these sites but have taken a brief look at each one. Here are my first impressions.

    DomainMarket.com – the top of the homepage, where categories are listed, resembles a parking page, so that’s not encouraging, as it doesn’t connote “high quality”. They sure do have some terrific domains, though! I also appreciate the wide array of lower-priced ones (tons for $350); bargain hunters are likely to be tempted by some of them. The advanced search is easy to use, and the Google-search button next to each domain (which pops up a window to search for that phrase [without quotes]) is a nice touch.

    SimpleDomains.com – the layout is appealing. However, the “advanced search” is not advanced at all, and clicking the “MORE” button next to a domain brings up a list of domains “you may also be interested in”, which often are totally unrelated to the original one. (For example, the list of domains supposedly associated with HybridTruck.com includes ones like FourthDown.com and TableWines.com.) The number of domains listed here is still relatively small, which is good, as their quality is pretty consistent; I didn’t immediately see as many super-premiums as on some other sites, but there’s not a lot of junk to wade through either.

    OneOfAKind.com – Quality of their inventory is very hit-or-miss. Though there are certainly some strong domains here, there are also many that I wouldn’t view as “one of a kind”. MEapts.com, CPED.com, ScarySoundboards.com, Eyeclop.com … unless I’m ignorant of some hot trends, those aren’t uniquely valuable names, and including those types of names dilutes the value of the OneOfAKind brand. Also, nearly every domain at this site is listed as “Make an offer”, while the other sites here have prices on most or all of their inventories. (That makes the “Advanced Search” seem less advanced, as you can’t search by price; it only narrows the search by TLD.)

    BestDomainsWebsite.com – I find their site design to be overly “busy”; it doesn’t lure me in. Another problem is that NEARLY EVERYTHING ON THEIR SITE IS IN ALL CAPS (INCLUDING DOMAIN NAMES). Partly for that reason, the domain listings take up lots of space, so you can only see a small number of them at a time. Within each category, the domains aren’t listed in a sensible way (alphabetically or by price). I also saw very few dominating domains; on the other hand, the price ranges are generally low (down to lower $xxx range, or even $xx in one case I saw). This site reminds me of a discount warehouse with inventory strewn about; it’s not especially pleasant to shop there, but you might find some bargains.

    As I said, those are just my initial impressions. It’s certainly nice to have more professionally run sites where domainers can buy and sell; I just hope there’s enough room in the market for all of them to succeed.

  11. Hi Elliot,

    I’m sure he has had many sales in the $100k area. My main point is pricing domain names at $100k that don’t even make sense (meaning can’t even understand what the domain word means). There are a lot of those at DomainMarket.

    Anyways. There are over 450 pages of domains priced in the 300-400 dollar range. Should be able to find some good ones in there.

  12. We have another domain marketplace at: MediaOptions.com (http://www.MediaOptions.com).

    Our marketplace, unlike most listed above, is open to the general public.

    MediaOptions.com has nearly 20,000 domains listed for sale and is growing daily. We also offer a Domain Newsletter which goes out every Tuesday & Thursday featuring premium domains for sale at below market prices.

    For true premiums (.COM & .DE only) we offer an end user brokerage service.

    MediaOptions.com is responsible for the sale of many great domain names, such as:

    Humiliated.com
    IndoorGardens.com
    100Years.com
    OralSpray.com
    Ganja.org
    AutomotiveForensics.com
    Download-Software.com
    Dusseldorf.org (the .com was referenced by Elliot above)
    LobsterRolls.com
    …plus many more

    At the moment, some of our Showcase Domains (Featured Domains) include:

    HX.com
    ValueChain.com
    PokerLessons.com
    TheaterTickets.com
    MortgageModification.com
    Spearmints.com
    MonthlyNewsletter.com
    Fly.com.pa
    Gamble.com.pa
    Gambling.com.pa
    Gutten.org (“good” or “good day” in German)
    Hungrig.com (“hungry” in German)

  13. Elliot,

    Did you send Rosener your advertising rate card?

    This will result in 10 more people listing their domains for free on Elliot’s blog this coming week.

  14. @ Elliot

    I appreciate your honest journalism and propensity to not censor others’ comments. However, I do not think that my post was Spam. In fact, I would like to know your reason for labeling it as such?

    You created a post about Domain Marketplaces which have you have become aware of recently. In each marketplaces you mentioned certain details about domains listed and domains sold.

    Following in line with your format, I felt that you had overlooked another valuable domain marketplace, which happens to be mine. I felt that it was particularly valuable in this context since the majority of marketplaces you mentioned are private and not for your readers to be able to sell their own domains. (in fact, they are not a marketplace at all, by definition, if you can not Buy & Sell).

    As well, most of the domains listed in my post (above) are not my own and I am not simply . These are simply domains which are listed on MediaOptions.com currently or domains which have been previously sold in our marketplace.

    @ GiveMeABreak

    Easy to throw stones from behind an unlinked alias amigo…

  15. @ Andrew

    I think the person who left the comment saw previous comments where you were promoting your business and this one added to it. For example, here are some recent comments:

    “If salt is your thing, I have got some excellent salt related domains for sale:”

    “Since the New Year, Domain Sales have picked up dramatically (at least for me and my marketplace, http://www.MediaOptions.com)”

    “About 50% of the domains I sold (see above) were sold in my marketplace (http://www.MediaOptions.com).”

    “Anyhow, prior to choosing those names I acquired many other similar names if you’re interested in these types of names or have a specific project in mind.”

    There have been others – and it’s not just you. I appreciate all commentary, but many people don’t like it when others (or even when I) say “Check out my site” or “Visit XYZ.com” in an attempt to get traffic.

    It’s not a really big deal, but some people complain when I have sales posts and it’s my blog! 🙂

  16. I made the comment because you went over the line.

    Professional salesmanship teaches one that it is “ok” to be pushy within limits.

    It is wrong for one merchant to stand in another merchants store and promote ones merchandise.

    It wouldn’t have bothered me if you mentioned your site and maybe 1 or 2 domains. But, to put up a whole table went over the limit.

    Even on the forums, it is not acceptable for someone to post a list of domains in someone elses sales thread.

    Elliot has the right to mention whatever he wants. It is his store.

    I also remember you posting in another thread a list of domains.

    I would love to post thousands of domains in different peoples blogs but I know that it is not right.

    Just show respect to the site owner and his readers.

  17. Noted and point taken.

    But I still believe that a blog post of this nature, which invites others feedback and input IS an appropriate forum for such a post as mine, which was directly related and followed the format to the original post.

    HOWEVER, I agree that perhaps my post was a bit over the top and had a sense of “shameless self-promotion.

    You’ll have to forgive me, I come from a background as a fishmonger, and in the seafood industry it is cut throat. You take any opportunity you can get to promote, market and sell product. If people don’t know who you are, they won’t buy your fish, even if you’ve got cheaper inventory. I was selling over $20 million worth of frozen seafood per year because I was aggressive as hell. I guess I need to tone it down a bit for the domain industry!

  18. @ Andrew

    No big deal… on many of my posts, I ask for input like, “what other sales platform are you using”…etc but didn’t on this one because I figured a lot of people would add their own websites if I did that.

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