In this edition of the Sedo Sales Roundup, I look at five domains that sold at Sedo within the last month, finding out who bought the names and why. This month, the names include Fume.com, Invest.ae, and Collecting.com
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Fume.com – $160,000
The sale of Fume.com for $160,000 leads the Sedo charts this month. It was another sale closed by lead broker Dave Evanson, following other Evanson deals this year including Angel.com for $2 million, and Zag.com for $450,000.
Four-letter .com words are rare assets that often command high prices. In 2021 so far, Near.com has sold for $1.15 million, Able.com for $542,500, and Wolf.com for $550,000. Cope.com and Felt.com sold for $138,000 and $74,750 respectively, too.
Judging by those sales prices, the $160,000 paid for Fume.com seems to be around the average that you may expect to get for such a domain in this market.
The domain is currently under WHOIS privacy protection at GoDaddy, but before the name became protected, I noticed that the new registrant was Empire Funding of New York. I can find little information about Empire Funding, but the company would likely have acquired Fume.com with either a specific project in mind or for a future project.
Invest.ae – $75,000
Invest.ae’s $75,000 sales price sees it enter NameBio’s charts as the second-largest .ae sale in history, behind TV.ae’s $95,000 price. Although, there isn’t a vast amount of data available for the .ae extension in the aftermarket. As of writing, NameBio lists just 58 sales.
The .ae extension is the ccTLD for the United Arab Emirates, which includes the vastly rich cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Invest.ae was acquired by the UAE’s Nation Brand, a government initiative, from what I can tell.
As you might expect, Invest.ae is now being used to exhibit the UAE to potential investors, companies, and innovators that may be looking to move businesses to the Emirates. A smart investment in a domain that is perfect for the project.
Collecting.com – $70,000
Collecting.com was sold by the original owner of the domain, who registered it back in 1995. Given the trend for collecting NFTs, I thought that Collecting.com may have been sold to an NFT project.
However, it looks as though the name was acquired by Collecting Cars, a global online auction platform for cars and automobilia. Founded in 2018, Collecting Cars is a London-based company with a sizable following and a wide array of valuable sports cars listed on its website.
Perhaps Collecting Cars is planning on branching out towards other industries and niches, expanding beyond cars. CollectingCars.com is a suitable brand name for a car-based business, but it is naturally limiting. Owning Collecting.com allows the company freedom to expand beyond cars.
As of writing, Collecting.com redirects to CollectingCars.com.
Deity.com – $60,000
Deity is defined as “a god or goddess,” and while it is a word with obvious religious connotations, it seems Deity makes for a decent brand name, too. LinkedIn lists 65 companies using the Deity name, for example.
A $60,000 price tag for Deity.com, then, seems reasonable as an end-user purchase. Who bought the name?
As of writing, Deity.com resolves to a parked page, but WHOIS suggests that the name was acquired by Salvare B.V., a Dutch company founded by Roland Bastiaansen.
My research shows that Deity.com is a domain upgrade. Bastiaansen is the co-founder and CEO of Deity, a research and development company working in e-commerce. The company currently operates on Deity.io, but with Deity.com in its possession now, expect to see the company transition from Deity.io to Deity.com.
Homesome.com – $59,000
Homesome.com at $59,000 represents another domain name upgrade. In this case, the company that purchased Homesome is, obviously, named Homesome. Founded in 2014, the company used to be known as the tricky-to-spell Phontabulous before switching to Homesome.
Homesome existed on GetHomesome.com before acquiring Homesome.com for $59,000. The company, which helps supermarkets to build thriving online businesses, has already moved its website and assets over to Homesome.com.
The purchase of Homesome.com comes a year after the company raised $6.7 million in Series A funding.