Why the “sweet spot” is NNN.com

[sevent]

As noted in a thread here 90.com sold for about $75k (in USD). Just today, 80.com sold for $99k. This would have to be one of the top 5 NN.com names. It should be clear why 80.com is so great, but if not just ask.

Meanwhile, just minutes ago 434.com closed at Sedo for $18,500. This is only 6 times less than 80.com for a mediocre NNN.com. It begins with a 4, which is very unlucky in the countries where numeric domains are most popular. It has a double number in it, but this is not very special. There are well over a hundred other NNN.com with doubled digits.

The sale of 434.com is no outlier, or it is an outlier for being so cheap. Last year there were 9 NNN.com sales of $100k or more. Some of those were very good number combinations, others were just average. Either way it is not rare for a NNN.com to sell for more than an NN.com.

What is happening here? There are of course 10-times as many NNN.com as NN.com. So NNN.com really should sell for 1/10th the cost for similar quality of digits. But this is not the case at all! NNN.com is selling for much more than its scarcity ratio. NNN is the sweet spot for numerics, with a very robust market.

Note that you can see the same thing with the letters market, but not as strongly. A good (but not great) 3 letter combination will now sell for $8,000. Meanwhile, a good (but not great) LL.com will sell for $100k. This is about 12 times as much, but LL.com are 26-times more scarce than LLL.com. So again the sweet spot is LLL.com. But nothing is as sweet as NNN.com.

[lotsofcoffee]

Originally Posted by sevent

As noted in a thread here 90.com sold for about $75k (in USD). Just today, 80.com sold for $99k. This would have to be one of the top 5 NN.com names. It should be clear why 80.com is so great, but if not just ask.

Meanwhile, just minutes ago 434.com closed at Sedo for $18,500. This is only 6 times less than 80.com for a mediocre NNN.com. It begins with a 4, which is very unlucky in the countries where numeric domains are most popular. It has a double number in it, but this is not very special. There are well over a hundred other NNN.com with doubled digits.

The sale of 434.com is no outlier, or it is an outlier for being so cheap. Last year there were 9 NNN.com sales of $100k or more. Some of those were very good number combinations, others were just average. Either way it is not rare for a NNN.com to sell for more than an NN.com.

What is happening here? There are of course 10-times as many NNN.com as NN.com. So NNN.com really should sell for 1/10th the cost for similar quality of digits. But this is not the case at all! NNN.com is selling for much more than its scarcity ratio. NNN is the sweet spot for numerics, with a very robust market.

Note that you can see the same thing with the letters market, but not as strongly. A good (but not great) 3 letter combination will now sell for $8,000. Meanwhile, a good (but not great) LL.com will sell for $100k. This is about 12 times as much, but LL.com are 26-times more scarce than LLL.com. So again the sweet spot is LLL.com. But nothing is as sweet as NNN.com.

Cool. Will sell you all of my NNN.com for $18,500 each. Let me know how many you want.

[sevent]

Originally Posted by lotsofcoffee

Cool. Will sell you all of my NNN.com for $18,500 each. Let me know how many you want.

Depends on what you've got. I'm still buying top-notch numerics but mostly I like to buy through auctions.

[hina]

What is happening here? There are of course 10-times as many NNN.com as NN.com. So NNN.com really should sell for 1/10th the cost for similar quality of digits. But this is not the case at all! NNN.com is selling for much more than its scarcity ratio. NNN is the sweet spot for numerics, with a very robust market.

Why is NNN.com selling for much more than its scarcity ratio?

[mvl]

I think your analysis does not hold. Almost all of the very very expensive nnn.com were bought by a single buyer. Because the number of nnn.com domains is much smaller than the number of lll.com domains, this has a big influence on the statistics.

If a single person buys 10 nnn.com domains for exceptional high prices the average price for nnn.com goes up a lot. If a single buyer buys 10 lll.com domains for exceptional high prices the influence on the average price of lll.com domains is far less.

If you make the same analysis but leave out the outliers I think your conclusion will be different.

[sevent]

Originally Posted by mvl

I think your analysis does not hold. Almost all of the very very expensive nnn.com were bought by a single buyer. Because the number of nnn.com domains is much smaller than the number of lll.com domains, this has a big influence on the statistics.

Removing the one buyer doesn't change my point at all. They top 2 sales from last year were other buyers (770.com: $343,000 and 173.com: $302,790) as were lots of sales in the mid 5 figure range and at least one 6-figure private sale I know about. Also, my point isn't that NNN.com are worth *more* than NN.com on average: if you think that is true I will gladly trade you 1 for 1. I would even trade 4 NNN.com for an NN.com.

My point is that NNN.com do disproportionately well: clearly they are the sweet spot. We continue to see this: 401.com sold at auction last month for $65k. The recent sales at auction of great NN.com names 90.com and 80.com vs 434.com shows a clear deviation in the ratio of scarcity-to-value.

I think there is one more lesson here: even "bad" number combinations like those starting with "4" are not as bad as many people think.

[DomainLobe]

Thanks for the enlightening evaluation.

NNN are sweet.

[hina]

My point is that NNN.com do disproportionately well: clearly they are the sweet spot. We continue to see this: 401.com sold at auction last month for $65k. The recent sales at auction of great NN.com names 90.com and 80.com vs 434.com shows a clear deviation in the ratio of scarcity-to-value.

But why?

Why is NNN.com selling for much more than its scarcity ratio?

[sevent]

Originally Posted by hina

But why?

Why is NNN.com selling for much more than its scarcity ratio?

I don't know. Maybe it is the perfect length? Memorable, not too long but long enough to have significant meaning.

Instead of why NNN.com are doing better, maybe it is worth asking why the others are doing worse? NN.com could be too expensive for most domain investors. NNNN.com are solid but may be much harder to remember. NNNNN.com are still too close to reg-fee, which is dangerous because you can get sucked in to reg-fee like a black hole, which is what happened recently. Remember also that recessions happen on the margins. So the most effected are the extremes, the boundaries. This can be on the high end or the low end.

[DomainLobe]

I expect NNN are at the crossroads of value and utility.

[newvista]

Originally Posted by sevent

I don't know. Maybe it is the perfect length? Memorable, not too long but long enough to have significant meaning.

As a matter of interest, which NNN combination would be your ultimate pick ?

[PRED]

Originally Posted by newvista

As a matter of interest, which NNN combination would be your ultimate pick ?

i know you're asking sevent
but i would say: 123

[stevo]

Originally Posted by newvista

As a matter of interest, which NNN combination would be your ultimate pick ?

Here are a few, just immediately off the top of my head:

411.com
247.com
any repeating numbers (111.com, 222.com, etc.)
911.com
007.com

[TheLegendaryJP]

NNN .com reseller low 5 figs period, in this market I have to add a big IF to that.

A powerful NNN with meaning like 401.com at $65k imo was than and now still too much reseller.

When I first started domaining people wanted $10k for NNN ( high but they tried ) since it has surpassed that and now again due to the economy, dropped below that in most cases with exceptions. But those are exceptions, not rules.

[sevent]

Originally Posted by newvista

As a matter of interest, which NNN combination would be your ultimate pick ?

Both PRED and stevo had good picks. Ultimate? Maybe 888.com or 800.com. 360.com would also be very nice. So many good ones to choose from...

Of course if you factor in traffic I would have to go for 163.com: Alexa rank 43, hard to argue with that

Here is another related question: would you rather have the best possible NN.com or the best possible NNN.com? And what would it be?

[newvista]

Originally Posted by sevent

Both PRED and stevo had good picks. Ultimate? Maybe 888.com or 800.com. 360.com would also be very nice. So many good ones to choose from...

Of course if you factor in traffic I would have to go for 163.com: Alexa rank 43, hard to argue with that

Interesting, I had never thought about the lasting power of N domains, as you said earlier, they are timeless and will never lose relevance like ' wireless' or 'broadband' which seem hugely relevant now but in future may seem like dinosaur words !

[apostoli]

I have not analyzed this particularly but as an owner of a few lll and nnn.com I have sensed a 'plateau' in their value over the last few years - at around 10k, ignoring the occasional high anomalous sale.

So I am just wondering if the new TLDs and current climate will keep things like that for the foreseeable.

Maybe time to develop .. anyone seen any good nnn.com sites - maybe area codes, that sort of thing? The names seem to get traffic - but a far amount is chinese - difficult/impossible to monetize ..

cheers.