Rece$$ion Proof Domain Market

This week has been one of big money for a couple of domainers:
the news of another Rick Schwartz accomplishment with candy.com for $3m and then auction.com for $1.7m. Who would have thought that the candy and the real estate industries would be that inclined and ready to shell out that type of coin? But this seems to be a year of large domain name sales, look at toys.com that recently went for $5.1 million and then fly.com for $1.8 million.

With bonuses being cut, bailouts in the works, unemployment at high rates, and almost everyone looking over their shoulder wondering if they are the next to be laid off, this turn of events is a good sign for the domainer world. In fact,others like Allied Internet Solutions Inc.are stating, "While most of the economy is on it's heels the internet sector is showing signs of life and vitality."

One thing is for certain, people and corporations understand that domains are a good investment. There is definitely money out there; however, why put it into a bank or the stock market? If you are skeptical of the recent fraud like I am, you can understand where they are getting this distrust of the financial institutions.

Although these sales are a positive sign, they are very rare names. These "category killers" that are short, sweet and summarize a complete sector are out there, but not that many. I think this investment or buying behavior is mirroring the need for us to understand the content of a website before clicking; thus, the value of these properties should only continue to rise. It is not a secret that we are all looking for information on the Internet that is more and more specialized. Maybe some of these strong, one-word domains will become new tlds? We have already seen it with .travel, which is one of the largest e-commerce categories on the Internet. Are these categories large enough and have enough interest?

Let me know your thoughts.