What the hell are you doing people? These wholesale prices for .io domains are simply ridiculous!
You are paying $2k-$5k for bad one-word domains in .io? By bad domains I mean domains that don’t go well with .io AND/OR are unlikely to be chosen by startups as brand names.
I noticed that the domain name imagine.io was sold for $11,338 in a backorder auction. Here are all 4-figure and 5-figure the .io sales from the past month according to NameBio.com:
| seal.io | 3,755 USD | 17/9/2020 | Park.io |
| swim.io | 3,488 USD | 15/9/2020 | Park.io |
| generate.io | 2,600 USD | 15/9/2020 | Park.io |
| riser.io | 2,000 USD | 14/9/2020 | Park.io |
| thedomain.io | 4,330 USD | 12/9/2020 | Sedo |
| offer.io | 7,777 USD | 10/9/2020 | Park.io |
| tiger.io | 28,888 USD | 9/9/2020 | Park.io |
| perpetual.io | 1,630 USD | 8/9/2020 | Park.io |
| htg.io | 3,499 USD | 3/9/2020 | Sedo |
| bees.io | 2,457 USD | 3/9/2020 | Park.io |
| amen.io | 5,000 USD | 1/9/2020 | Sedo |
| polaris.io | 3,387 USD | 1/9/2020 | Park.io |
| men.io | 10,790 USD | 31/8/2020 | Sedo |
| sun.io | 49,995 USD | 30/8/2020 | DomainBooth |
| notch.io | 3,574 USD | 30/8/2020 | Park.io |
| mocha.io | 4,250 USD | 26/8/2020 | Efty |
| gravity.io | 13,000 USD | 25/8/2020 | Sedo |
| lawyer.io | 3,500 USD | 25/8/2020 | Flippa |
| aroma.io | 2,500 USD | 25/8/2020 | Park.io |
| moving.io | 2,000 USD | 25/8/2020 | Flippa |
| selection.io | 1,125 USD | 23/8/2020 | Park.io |
| ply.io | 3,753 USD | 22/8/2020 | NamePull.com |
| places.io | 1,775 USD | 20/8/2020 | Park.io |
Are you really paying 4 and 5 figures in wholesale for a 2nd or 3rd tier extension when the average .com sales price is less than $5k?
Seal.io for $3,755 and Swim.io for $3,488 in wholesale? Why? Am I missing something here? Because I don’t see many sales over $10k to justify these prices. And imagine.io must be sold for at least $40k-$50k to make any sense in ROI.
In the past year I see no sales over that sun.io sale for $49,995. Here are the 5-figure .io sales from the past 12 months:
| sun.io | 49,995 USD | 30/8/2020 | DomainBooth |
| jackpot.io | 48,500 USD | 5/7/2020 | Page Clinic |
| cook.io | 39,750 USD | 4/11/2019 | Park.io |
| tiger.io | 28,888 USD | 9/9/2020 | Park.io |
| wiz.io | 28,888 USD | 9/7/2020 | Park.io |
| ease.io | 28,888 USD | 11/2/2020 | Park.io |
| worlds.io | 25,000 USD | 11/12/2019 | Park.io |
| insurance.io | 22,500 USD | 27/7/2020 | Park.io |
| coinpay.io | 22,500 USD | 16/2/2020 | RapidNames |
| manual.io | 20,000 USD | 10/10/2019 | Park.io |
| unicorn.io | 14,988 USD | 12/4/2020 | Pvt Sale |
| propeller.io | 14,500 USD | 26/4/2020 | Morgan Linton |
| luxury.io | 14,000 USD | 2/8/2020 | GritBrokerage |
| gravity.io | 13,000 USD | 25/8/2020 | Sedo |
| gorilla.io | 12,000 USD | 10/10/2019 | Park.io |
| controller.io | 11,918 USD | 4/2/2020 | Sedo |
| anywhere.io | 11,397 USD | 14/7/2020 | Sedo |
| wise.io | 11,323 USD | 13/8/2020 | Park.io |
| aware.io | 11,279 USD | 9/3/2020 | Sedo |
| men.io | 10,790 USD | 31/8/2020 | Sedo |
| bt.io | 10,001 USD | 17/12/2019 | Park.io |
| name.io | 10,000 USD | 21/6/2020 | Afilias |
| cascade.io | 10,000 USD | 28/2/2020 | UltraDomains |
| prompt.io | 10,000 USD | 25/2/2020 | Josh.co |
| thewallet.io | 10,000 USD | 2/2/2020 | Uniregistry |
| thewaller.io | 10,000 USD | 2/2/2020 | Uniregistry |
And these are the top 10 .io sales of all time according to NameBio:
| swipe.io | 68,000 USD | 10/6/2019 | Park.io |
| lucky.io | 67,000 USD | 28/9/2018 | Park.io |
| tank.io | 60,000 USD | 20/11/2016 | Park.io |
| sun.io | 49,995 USD | 30/8/2020 | DomainBooth |
| jackpot.io | 48,500 USD | 5/7/2020 | Page Clinic |
| cloud.io | 45,000 USD | 29/5/2015 | Flippa |
| esports.io | 40,000 USD | 15/5/2018 | Sedo |
| cook.io | 39,750 USD | 4/11/2019 | Park.io |
| matrix.io | 30,000 USD | 8/1/2018 | Park.io |
| library.io | 30,000 USD | 19/12/2017 | Park.io |
These sales don’t justify paying 5-figures for a .io domain in a backorder auction. I mean “imagine” is a popular word but “sun” or “cloud” are a lot better and sold for less than $50k.
(There has been mention of end-users bidding in these auctions but I don’t think this is so widespread. And even if there was one end-user there was also a domainer pushing the end-user to these prices.)
In July 2018 Art Malkov wrote a guest post on OnlineDomain.com about .io domains. I wonder what he thinks now about the wholesale market and the end-user market.
Making money with .io domains
I don’t doubt that you can make money by selling .io domains. But you have to purchase them at the right price! And the right price is well below what people are paying these days.
You do understand that you are now officially in a bubble? Somebody is going to get stuck holding many overpriced domains.
There domains will have a very low ROI (if any) and with renewals at $30+ they are not the easiest to keep as inventory.
Also there is a chance that .io will go out of fashion within startups or something else will happen. Maybe the British Indian Ocean Territory stops being a country??? Or Afilias that bought the .io registry (Internet Computer Bureau) for $70 million in 2018 increases .io domain renewals by x10.
I know I am not going to be the most popular guy between .io domainers and .io marketplaces but I had to call it as I see it. If you got in early in .io domains then you lucky for sure but this seems like a good time to cash out.
