Do Expired Domains Sell For More Money On Average?

It’s a phenomenon I’ve been seeing for a long time, expired domains can get a lot of attention, and in many cases I have seen names sell for a lot more than they would if they were part of a paid auction. Of course it is incredibly hard to compare individual domain sales since every domain name really is uniquely different, but I still can’t tell you how many times I see expired domains sell for thousands of dollars that wouldn’t sell for more than a few hundred dollars via a paid listing on a domain marketplace.

I have never spoken to any other domain investors about this so I’m not sure if I’m the only one who has seen this over the years or if it’s a trend others have seen as well.

When it comes to highest dollar sales these happen almost exclusively via direct sales. I’m not saying that you’ll see expired domains selling for hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars very often. Without a doubt the monster sales will happen with domains being sold at a premium. A one-word .COM that sells for $3M or $6M didn’t sell for that much because the highest bidder wins. They sold for that much because the owner was someone who highly valued a premium asset and found someone else who also valued it as highly.

With expired domains I often see non-premium one and two-word .COMs sell for thousands of dollars (in the $2,500 – $7,500 range) that I think would sell for a tenth of that in a paid domain auction. Is this just me?

What do you think? Comment and let your voice be heard!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton