NNNNN.com Countdown Approaching 10k.
Around 11k NNNNN.com’s are currently remaining unregistered. Latest count shows 10, 736 10,681 8,200! They are likely to run out within a week if this trend continues.
According to NNNNN Domains Marchex owns around 60K NNNNN.com, which are valid US zip codes, so that only leaves the other 40K available on the market and thus makes NNNNN even more rare and more valuable.
Everyone obviously ponders on the prices NNNNN.com’s will fetch right after the buyout. Nothing is certain except death and taxes, but from previous buyouts we can expect the price to climb slowly and I predict it will reach $20 within 2 months after the buyout.
With LLLL.com’s we’ve seen the min prices climbing very fast to around $60 currently within 4 months and premium LLLL.net’s were bought out only a week ago, but are already selling at twice the reg fee. Usually the prices go up within weeks after a buyout occurs.
There are two main questions people ask related to numeric domains and NNNNN.com’s:
1. Many domainers are reluctant to buy numeric domains because they “don’t mean anything” In fact numbers have much use our day to day life and can have many meanings in different countries, cultures and languages. Numeric domains can be:
- Area codes
- Phone numbers
- Zip codes
- Lucky numbers
- Radio and TV stations
- Prices
- Pronounceable words in some Asian languages.
- Car models
- Special meanings (666, 13, 420)
- “Words” on mobile devices (ie. “fly” is 359 on a telephone keypad).
- Addresses
- brands, promotions
2. Which NNNNN.com’s are better than others? To answer this question here is a part of the post originally published on DNF with some corrections and additions to fit our theme:
- Numbers which end in “0” are better. The more 0’s at the end, relative to the length of the domain, the better. Just take a look at how fast 500.com sold here at DNF
- Repeating digits are a good thing. In general, a name like 333.com is going to be worth more than 352.com.
[li] In China the numbers “3”, “6” and “8” are lucky. Don’t ask me to explain why. Ask someone with a Chinese flag next to their name.
- Lower numbers are better. People tend to think that all digits occur with the same frequency throught nature and society. That’s wrong. Numbers starting with 1 are more common that numbers starting with 2 which are more common than numbers starting with 3 and so on. The science behind this could fill a whole book. If you want the full story do a Google search for “Benford’s law”. I think you could argue that, because of pricing, the number “9” probably does better than Benford’s law predicts. At any rate, a name like 1372.com is probably worth more than 8372.com.
- Numbers in sequence are always nice, so 654.com is probably better than 627.com
- Numbers ending in “5” or multiples of “25” are a little bit better.
- Check google results, the more results the better and if there are developed sites with the same domain with other extensions it could result in a potential end user sale.
This guide was originally intended for NNN.com’s and the kind and was written 1.5 years ago, but same rules apply to NNNNN.com now just ignore the prices quoted, or rather compare them to what it would be worth now:
- Numbers beginning with ‘0’ are worth less. Look at the recent sale of 06.com for just $20k. I would guess that’s a full 1/3 less than the reseller price for an average NN.com name. As with the other things which decrease value, keep in mind that a domain beginning with ‘0’ isn’t necessarily a bad investment. It may be a very good investment, just make sure that you pay less for these names than you would for a similar domain starting with a different digit.
- Numbers containing “4” are unlucky for Chinese speakers, though this might not be as strong a preference as expected.
As for the 0 at the beginning it’s indeed bad, but I think 00 at the beginning of an 5N domain could look good and give it more value.
Also note that the NNNNN’s starting with 1 were cleaned out first, so ‘1’ is likely the best digit.
3. Risk Management. As with any investment and domains in particular don’t spend on NNNNN.com’s more than you are ready to lose. Buying 20-50 NNNNN.com’s is the right thing to do if you’re not sure about their perspective and don’t have enough funds at your disposal. 100-300 NNNNN.com’s would make you a small shareholder in the NNNNN.com market. Over 750 NNNNN.com may represent a potentially bigger risk, because they require an investment of over $5K, as well as considerable returns due to higher possibility of end user sales and the lucrative position of having a serious share of the market and being able to affect it in a way.
If you decide to take a bigger amount of 5N.com’s be ready to pay the renewal fees in worst case scenario. It’s also recommended to sell some of the NNNNN.com’s along the way, after the buyout, to mark some profit and minimize the risks.
Check the latest countdown and list of available NNNNN’s – it’s updated several times a day and you can see historical counts from previous days to predict and compare the rate.
Happy regging!
3 Responses