The OP should still be able to find some with a 4 in them for <$25K, but it may have to be in a bulk sale of 3 or so NNN.com's. Not long ago I saw one go for below $20K so that still happens with a motivated seller wanting cash but it's getting to be the exception. NNN.com buyers are usually loaded and don't go for quick flipping
Asians (esp Chinese and the like) will always avoid a 4. They're the primary buyers of numerics and most don't need or want to resell quickly, esp in the NNN.com category. Now the NNNN.com class is getting pretty high-end, some are selling for around $5K, and not so great ones. I'd normally say it's a bubble and not to participate in that buyout unless you wanna be left holding the bag at a later time, but this one has to do with such limited supply, there are only 10,000 NNNN.com's. But don't be surprised if the NNNN.com prices go down to around $1K again, the pool of buyers may shrink if the world economy worsens. But people who buy NNN.com's usually hold them a long time, they're the wrong type for quick turn-arounds. And when you reach that level of $25K and above the ROI has a different meaning, ie if I buy one NNN.com for $25K and sell it for $27.5K in a couple of months I've made $2,500 just for sitting on a numeric, and no one can tell me "I only made a 10% return"
If the OP has a good money cushion he should go for any NNN.com he can get at a good price. Buyers will come to him, expect an avg of one email a day for any NNN.com you own, someone I know gets this and many are from Chinese brokers. As JP said, they held well in the 2008 carnage and the prices have increased steadily if you look at a % basis. Same story for the NNNN.com's but the rise in these is more recent, and I agree speculation from Chinese domainers drove demand up. But if you look at the rise in prices as a % as opposed to absolute value, NNN.com's are still in line with other types. If you manage to do a quick resale the margins may be narrow but these are the types of domains where if you price them at $25K someone may offer you $30K just as easy, and days later you may get a $35K offer, rich people move in increments of thousands and not hundreds. Still, there's always a chance of getting burned when playing in the big leagues :suspicious:
