This posts discusses the unique potential of the top quality CVCV.com names and provides valuable tips and updates on where to get them at bargain prices.
LLLL.com remains the most frequently traded type of domains between domainers on the forums and it’s thus important to know the prices and be aware of the market trends and potential.
High end 4L.com’s names, mostly cvcv.com had the highest increase as of lately and it’s not surprising. There are only 2500 quad premium (e.g. only containing the premium letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T) CVCV.com domains (consonant, vowel, consonant, vowel, e.g. topa.com, dola.com, nama.com etc.). Out of these names containing H and F are lesser quality. Another 2100 cvcv domains consist of the above letters and one of: U, K; which are considered the best of the non premium letters. And add to these another 1500 domains including V, or W and some of the above mentioned letters. In my opinion these 2500+2100+1500 = 6100 names are the top of the creme 4 letter domains. Other letters: Z,X,Y,J,Q are usually harder to make a brand of and are less attractive to a western, English speaking person. Nevertheless Z is popular in German (hint: cvcv.de with z) and Q is great in Chinese – both of these countries are big off- and online. ‘J’ may also be included in the good letters, but personally I don’t like it, other than the first letter in some ‘jixi.com’ cases.
Many of these 6100 names can potentially turn into another Fortune 500 company. Startups always search for good brandable names for their company – branding is the new advertising. Would you rather drink Pepsi, or some new drink you never heard of, that costs 3 times less? Most people and customers are conservative in their purchasing patterns and prefer to stick to the familiar brands – that’s why companies spend millions of dollars on advertising to promote their brand. But what’s a brand without a .com domain? Sure they would pay a fraction of that to get the .com version of their future enterprise!
Many CVCV names are used by the top corporations:
(know any more? Please post them in the comments). So that any CVCV.com domain that reads well and is brandable can have enormous end user potential.
Sure there are many in there that aren’t that good, e.g.: HEFU, CEHE, FOHA, GAHE etc. As you may see H and F make hurt the sounding and brandability so not all CVCV.com’s are created equal!
The easiest way to determine if a CVCV.com domain is valuable? Just pronounce it – does it sound like something you’d like to call your company? If yes then it’s worth the top buck on the market. Out of these 6.1K names probably over half are highly brandable and a large part of these are already used. Which leaves you just about 2-3K good CVCV.com domains that you can buy now from a mininimum of around $1,000 and potentially turn each into a large end user sale. Now where do you get better odds than that?
Many domainers consider the currently observed prices for top cvcv names as quite high and “what they will be worth in a couple years”, but the truth is these are in fact the real bargains. What can you do with ZJQ.com for $6k (yeah the minimum for LLL.com is around $7k, but seriously who would pay $7k for this..)? Nothing really.. other than hope the prices for LLL.com keep rising on the reseller market and sell it for more later. And they probably will as long as the domaining space and the Internet population grows.
And the funniest thing is add another $2k and you can buy RXL.com, which sold on sedo for $8,100, 2 months ago. ‘Rx’ stands for prescription medications and ‘L’ can be ‘list’ – together it makes the perfect site for one of the top online industries: Online Pharmacy which accounts for billions of dollars in online revenues. Check out how popular RxList.com is and you’ll understand what it’s all about. According to compete.com ranking rxlist.com is the 1017th site in US by traffic. In fact the type in traffic from rxl alone may pay off the sale – pharmacy clicks are very high. Pharmacy.com is for sale for an astounding $50 million!
Yes the reseller prices for 3 letter .com’s are quite ridiculous in many cases. The better quality names, like DRT.com have truly high potential and their prices rise dragging the lower quality names behind to adjust the min prices. Same should eventually happen with LLLL.com.
So where and for how much can you buy a decent CVCV.com now?
First of all be sure to check this post, so you’re on the safe side. CVCV.com’s are a rare commodity and thus also represent an easy target for domain thieves and scammers.
And here is a compilation of recent prices, courtesy of tdvr.com:
Sedo sells the most of cvcv’s around. Due to their high reach the prices usually get the top offers for the market, but frequently the sales end up low, due to inconvenient ending time for the auction among the rest. Tip: best time to start your auctions is in the middle of the week at about 9-10 P.M. by CET if you target buyers from Europe, or by EST if you target US customers. Strangely enough according to sedo most buyers for LLLL.com domains are from Europe.
The top cvcv domains can end up high if the there is a bidding war, like it happened with popa.com which sold for over $15k, thus the sedo brokers always recommend setting lower reserves, usually even way too low. But sedo’s main goal is to sell as many domains as possible to get their commissions. So don’t trust sedo brokers on that, but instead rely on sales data and your own experience. While lower reserves may draw more bidders and produce a bidding war – that usually only happens to the top of the top domains and not always worth the risk. Unless you’re ok with selling at the reserve .
My experience shows that more frequently there is only one bidder who is eager to buy the name enough to bid up to the high reserve – of course if the reserve is high, but still fair – within the market price range. And in this case lower reserve will likely result in lower selling price too. This doesn’t always hold true, but I’ve seen too many low reserve sedo sales where people got much lower prices when what they were offered previously on a forum or in private.
And finally recent sales data from sedo, from this month:
goxa.com $1,520 04/18/2008
gahe.com $1,112 04/17/2008
jixe.com $1,350 04/17/2008
rihu.com $1,566 04/17/2008
pevo.com $2,700 04/16/2008
pohe.com $1,862 04/16/2008
fehu.com $3,000 04/15/2008
popa.com $15,270 04/11/2008
ledu.com $4,002 04/09/2008
vapu.com $2,051 04/05/2008
VUFI.com $1,390 04/04/2008
witu.com $5,100 04/04/2008
fela.com $6,700 04/03/2008
vudi.com $1,550 04/03/2008
GACU.com $1,363 04/01/2008
goso.com $5,600 04/01/2008
nofa.com $3,720 04/01/2008
Other sales:
Lidy.com $1,950 04/17/2008 DomainMagnate.com
rivi.com $2,000 04/16/2008 Afternic
tosu.com $2,600 04/16/2008 NameJet
myfa.com $1,300 04/14/2008 SnapNames
Xaxo.com $1,600 04/14/2008 Namejet
huhy.com $400 04/11/2008 Snapnames
boso.com $5,100 04/09/2008 eBay
geci.com $4,302 04/09/2008 NameJet
muvy.com $800 04/04/2008 SnapNames
Ceso.com $4,944 04/02/2008 Afternic
gomo.com $11,000 04/01/2008 Afternic
haku.com $6,525 04/01/2008 SnapNames
Snapnames auctions usually fetch top prices for the cvcv’s mostly due to their great bidding system and deep pocket customers. Namejet and Afternic are falling behind but still maintain decent ranges.
Snapnames also allows to sell your names through their platform. Their fees are higher than that of sedo and can go up to 20%. Also the bidding starts from the reserve, which is not as good since you need to set lower reserve to have a successful auction and that has a certain risk that it might end up low. But snap is definitely the current best alternative to sedo and may outperform it in many cases.
The best place to buy good cvcv names at bargain prices is usually on the forums. At dnforum and namepros you can frequently find good cvcv’s for prices quite below what they sell at auctions. For example popa.com was listed for weeks on dnforum for $5-7K bin prior to going on sedo auction and ending at over $15k there.
Many domainers have large portfolios of 4 letter domains and may sell them at lower prices individually or in bulk. One such sale is here. Look for bulk sales on the forums with fixed prices, where you can choose and compare. There are always a few good deals hidden in large lists, because you may see something in a name that the seller didn’t.
And for the end, the most valuable advice in cvcv.com investing and in domaining as a whole is this:
Market values don’t always make sense: monitor the trends to be up to date with the prices, but never follow them blindly. Research the market, read, evaluate, compare and think of your own strategy, then act upon it. Trust your own gut, but take into account what other, more experienced, domains advice.
happy domaining to all!
Seems 5L are just as brandable: yahoo, zazzle, baidu, orbit etc…
Seems 5L are just as brandable – GovMp.com , DvdDD.net , UnitG.com, HireU.net and many others
Nice write up here about CVCV.com domains, and good advice about keeping up to date with the trends and keeping an eye on the forums.
Peace.
What do you think of the Actual CVCV.in?
How much worth would it be?
I am looking to sell the domain at the earliest.