New gTLD domain sold for $12,500 – 12 domains sold for $3,000 each (+ 32 domains sold for $1,000+)

Last week 7 new gTLD domain names sold for $12,539,99 a piece in the first few hours and then something remarkable happened.

The domain name cree.lighting was registered for $12,500 at Name.com. What was remarkable was that the registration was done exactly 20 minutes before the cutoff time that would have changed the price to $3,000. To make matters worse the registrant Cree, Inc. has a trademark for the term “cree” but it is NOT registered with the Trademark Clearinghouse. Registrant also owns creelighting.com. Panic and ignorance are the key terms here.

Then 12 domain names sold on the 2nd day for about $3,000 each at GoDaddy, Enom, 101Domain and Instra Corporation Party Ltd. (price is $3,164.99 at Go Daddy)

.Equipment and .photography had 3 domain names each, while .gallery .graphics and .estate got 2 each. There were no $3k registrations for .camera and .lighting.

Here are the 12 $3k domain names:
casa.estate
wohnungen.estate
clipart.graphics
vector.graphics
hunterlift.equipment
landscape.equipment
snowremoval.equipment
natureforums.photography (registrar paid $12,539,99 for nature.photography)
vivianmaier.photography
photography.gallery (Gallery.photography is reserved by Donuts.)
serpentine.gallery
event.photography

8 of the domain names were registered at Go Daddy, 2 at 101Domain and 1 each at Enom and Instra Corporation Party Ltd.

3 of the corresponding 12 $3k domainnameNewgtld .com domains are free:
hunterliftequipment.com
natureforumsphotography.com
wohnungenestate.com

Only the registrar of vivianmaier.photography also owns the corresponding domain name: vivianmaierphotography.com.

Considering that most of the new gTLD domains above have generic keywords a lot of the corresponding .coms are owned by domainers.

Then the next 24 hours another 32 domain names were registered for $1,000+ each:
SteveJobs.estate
stevenjobs.estate
stevenpauljobs.estate
etc.

There was the occasional trademark domain name like realtor.estate. I wonder why National Association of Realtors have not bought a DPML block.

Here is an example of wasting money. Company that owns lightingsupply.com bought:
lightbulbdistributing.lighting
lightingsupply.lighting (that would have been more than enough)
lightingsupplyco.lighting
lightingsupplycompany.lighting

And an example, in my opinion, of how NOT to use New gTLDs:
lasvegasreal.estate (because there is a new gTLD .realestate coming soon)
brooklynreal.estate (because there is a new gTLD .realestate coming soon)
realestate.estate (repeating the gTLD)
blackandwhitephotos.photography (because it is 4 words including a variation of the new gTLD that is also a new gTLD coming soon: .photos)

Amazon did a DPML activation with fire.graphics probably to block other “fire” trademark holders from buying the domain name.

Finally, Go Daddy did a test registration with dasfasdfasfsdsadfsf.photography. And then they deleted the domain. I wonder if Donuts will demand it’s $10,000 for this one… I guess not!


Here are a few points about how Donuts’ Domains Protected Marks List (DPML) works:
• Eligible marks must be validated in the TMCH with proof of use
• You can choose to block an exact match or a term containing the exact match
• The block lasts for five years and is renewable
• Blocked terms are inactive (ie they can’t point to a website)
• Anyone with a trademark exactly matching your blocked term can have the block removed for one or more registries at a later date – this includes you, if you decide you need to activate a name

You can register a (.camera .equipment .estate .gallery .graphics .lighting .photography) domain name using the Donuts EAP that is available in registrars that sell Donuts gTLDs. EAP prices start at about $12,500 and are lowered within the course of the week until they reach the regular registration cost after the 7 day period. The EAP wholesale registrar prices are:
$10,000 (day1)
$2,500 (day2)
$950 (day3)
$500 (day4)
$100 (days 5-7)

Go Daddy’s early access prices are $12,539.99 for day one, $3,164.99 for day two, $1,239.99 for day three, $689.99 for day four and $189.99 for days five to seven. After day seven the regular registration cost applies.

Sold.Domains

About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

15 comments

  1. Hunter Lift uses HunterLift.com which is a great domain, total waste of money.

  2. Madness.

    I like your research 🙂

  3. GreatJob.Costa
    Thank.you

  4. Konstantinos, could you please write an article about how the new Registries are managing the reserved domains? I mean: when you check the whois for a domain reserved (try some, they have reserved all the best domains for each TLD), the domain you checked doesn’t appear in the WHOIS. You get a sentence stated the domain you checked is reserved, but the domain is not reported. I think this have to be correct immediately: transparency require that everyone must be able to take a screenshot of each single domain he find reserved by the registry, for future tracking…

    What they will do with those reserved domains? Everyone has the right to track what will happen for those SUPER PREMIUM DOMAINS….

    • The reserved ones will be sold to the companies that have deep pockets that call Donuts up, and say what will it take.

      Or they maybe released in a well advertised auction with min reserves.

      They will not go for reg fee unless the registry is set to collapse. So unless you have money to play with, you can kiss them goodbye.

    • Hi,
      there are various reasons why domains are reserved apart from the DPML block that is for trademark holders. This is the whois for that:
      “This is not a domain registration. It is a DPML block. Additional information can be found at http://www.donuts.co/dpml.”

      It seems that everyone has reserved domains and most of them will never be available:
      ICANN related, 2 character ISO country codes, international organizations, Red Cross/Olympics etc.

      And of course Donuts. But you can’t see which ones belong to Donuts.
      The same way you can’t see if a domain name is Premium in whois.
      You can only see that when you try to register it at a Registrar.

  5. I have a headache now just looking at all of these gTLD “domains”.

  6. Lot of hard work done in this research. Thanks for sharing 🙂

    Looking at those gTLDs registrations it makes me crazy. So much money is thrown in garbage really.

  7. apparently Shop.Camera also has been sold for 8k

  8. I paid $1.2K each for Investing.Tips and Investment.Tips. Within 2 hours of registering, had already gotten an offer for one of them. Nope — not selling yet.

    • i like investment.tips. yes dont sell them, too early 🙂 i have California.Estate and I get new offers on daily basis but not selling unless offer is really really good lol

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