And So the .CO Aftermarket Begins, Already Over 100 Domains on Sale

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Well just a few hours after the registrations for the .CO extension opened up there are already over 100 .co domains for sale on the aftermarket

Over at Godaddy.com there are around 100 .co domains for sale.

The prices range from Feline.co which has a “buy it now” price of $250 all the way up to Thegambing.co which has a buy it now of $50K.

Of course as you would expect there are some three letter .co and three number .co for sale along with some trademark terms.

The one that sums it up best I think is Wishing.co on sale for $1,900, but that just an “offer” domain not a buy it now price.

Over at eBay.com there are around 30 .co domains on sale with the the highest price domain on sale is London-2012.co for a mere $1,521,200, or best offer.  I have a pretty good feeling they would accept just the $1,521,000 and you can save yourself the $200.

Filed Under: .CO

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

Comments

  2. James says

    @ MHB – “Over at eBay.com there are around 30 .co domains on sale with the the highest price domain on sale is London-2012.co for a mere $1,521,200, or best offer. I have a pretty good feeling they would accept just the $1,521,000 and you can save yourself the $200”

    But why risk missing such an opportunity for the sake of $200? 😉

  5. Foxy says

    “The prices range from Feline.co which has a “buy it now” price of $250 all the way up to Thegambing.co which has a buy it now of $50K.”

    I wonder how much my Foxy.co worth.

  6. brianwick says

    Agreed Mike – contrary to others on thsi and other threads, .co is purely a defensive domain.
    I am curious how the .cm defensive domains worked out

  8. BG says

    Dont get me wrong, there is money to be made in .co. But in my opinion, this will just further increase the value of .com
    If someone is going to pay say $10k for a .co domain, what would they pay for the .com domain? My guess is a lot more.

  9. Brad says

    While .CO does have some generic use, and is the ccTLD of a reasonable country, the main value of both .CM and .CO are the same IMO. You can tell by the sheer number of backorders for TM typos.

    The difference is .CO is $25 – $30 and .CM is what about $300?

    Brad

  10. Simeon says

    Tell the truth, its all about the general public and how they will use the .co as its them that will ultimately be giving you all the web traffic you want.

    I really went after the .co just for a play on words. I wanted ..

    Cis.co
    Tes.co
    Co.co
    Cho.co
    Cost.co

    also tried for ones like Holidays.co and Holiday.co, even HBOS.co …

    All taken (because stupid UKreg.com aka Fasthosts.co.uk slowed down and nearly crashed out leaving all my request hanging and timing out!) so all I got was …

    Tez.co … going to use it for a url shortening website so look out for it soon.

    Tez.co … Every little Link helps 😉

  11. Em John says

    .co is extremely versatile and if there is extra traffic coming through typos, what’s the problem? It’s still it’s own cctld.

    I think big .comers are angry because some traffic may taken away from their sites with .co typos. This just requires more solutions not to make a villain out of .co. Plus an economy is healthier when you have a bit of competition and not just a monopoly. The existence of .co will make .com stronger, in some way, and both shall co-exist, happily.

  12. tim davids says

    @BG…maybe they only have $10k and the .com owner wants $100k. That’s also why you see companies buy .nets and such. What a .co sells for won’t matter to the .com.

    The flip side is developing a .co when the .com is parked. A nice site may make them equal.

  13. Brad says

    There is no problem with traffic to generic terms obviously.

    There is going to be a big problem with obvious TM typos with no other potential legitimate use being used in bad faith.

    .CO is also going to be a problem with phishing sites. All you would have to do is get a famous TM term and spoof the login page.

    I will say to the benefit of .CO, at least I did not see them market it as a .COM typo, but it still exists and will be a major factor.

    Brad

  14. Rob Sequin says

    How many .co domains are in development?

    Not many I’m sure.

    All just speculation which is fine but lack of development of ANY extension will lead to place on the crap heap.

    .travel
    .pro
    .jobs
    .aero
    .museum
    .coop
    etc

    (yes, these are all real extensions for those new to the industry)

    • MHB says

      I know there were some domains granted during the founders program that require development, like the one Elliot got

  15. Em John says

    bg I agree with you. All the really great .coms are taken so what does the next generation do if they want a good name? Let a dotcom cybersquatter clean out their bank account with an exorbitant price? Yes, .co prices are driving up quickly based on sheer demand and this can happen overnight. This DOES, however, drive up .com prices substantially.

    So yes, if someone pays Michael Mann $500,000 for advertising.co, than advertising.com will rise right with it and could be sold for $13,000,000. That’s what a lot of people aren’t seeing – how .co will do nothing but continue the success of .com with its own success. It’s like you have a baseball from 1912 and it is worth $XXXXX. Suddenly someone finds a baseball from 1947, the same company and make from 1912. Somebody offers to buy the 1947 version at the same price as the 1912 sales price BECAUSE THEY WANTED IT. The value of the 1912 suddenly skyrockets. Stands to reason…I would pay more for the older ball and most other people would to. This is how i see .co and .com relationship. .cm? Not in the picture. That apple dropped off the tree a long time ago. The dotco organization was a masterful introduction of a new product that people want and it wil continue to grow steadily regardless of typos etc.

    I do agree with brad, however, that a lot of people …and I mean A LOT of people bought personal preference domains and instantly think they are worth a million dollars without knowing what the criteria are for valuable domains. These are all the drops you will see next year when the “personal name” domainer finds out that unless there is a solid company , product or service behind their “personal” name, it has no value for anyone. I suppose this is what makes domaining an art.

  16. fizz says

    “I think big .comers are angry because some traffic may taken away from their sites with .co typos.”

    LOL Em John, where do you think a good chunk of traffic from developed .co domains will be going?

    Through no fault of the .com domain, the biggest typo of developed .co domains will be the .com equivalent.

  17. Brad says

    I think one thing that will limit the growth of .CO is the fact that domainers grab all the best keywords. This has happened in virtually all TLD launches in the past, and will happen in the future launches more than likely.

    Most domainers ask prices they will never receive, so the terms are essentially off the market. With so many top tier keywords not available interest will be lost over time.

    Also, the definition of “development” to many domainers is not the same as to end users. Many “developed” sites I have seen are basically $30 minisites. I don’t think those type of sites add much value to any extension.

    Brad

    • MHB says

      Brad

      I’ll agree with you here, to a large extent domainers killed the .eu extension by taking the best one off the market but it’s not like .co wad a big secret they were a sponsor of Internet week a huge event in the Internet world.

      If the only one that pay attention to the new extensions are domainers, then they will be the one that get the domains

  18. Brad says

    Without the top terms going to true end users I don’t see any new extension getting much traction.

    It is kind of a double edged sword because as a domainer because you want the best domains possible, but you also need the extension to become relevant which is through proper awareness and acceptance.

    Brad

  21. Matt says

    Obviously Michael is in denial. But he will find out that the .CO is really no different than the .CM in due time. I’ve lived through years of TLD launches and this really is I’d say – the biggest proof that it will not work the way some people intend.

    The smart ones will sell early. Just like they did with .mobi. Those were crazy (and fun) times. 🙂

  22. brianwick says

    The only value .co has over .Mobi Dick and the restn of the non.com’s is the typo – which I give less value to than most – to the point I worries more about stray traffic than what I was good at – programming – and that is why I have dropped all my non.coms – not worth the brain damage

  23. brianwick says

    @Rob Sequin,
    lovely heap of crap and denial you documented friend – thanks: .travel, etc..

    One day eNom gave me a free year of .info for all my 7K domains.
    The next day I insisted they cancel them all – which they did.
    The “market”, if any, for .co is exponentially less than those on this thread trying to promote it – even as typos.

  24. Christopher says

    Well, one thing’s for sure…everyone knows everything, nobody knows anything, high hopes and sour grapes abound.

  25. kookooco says

    The big difference between .co and .eu lies in the fact that the sponsoring registry front loaded the .co extension from a financial perspective. They charged a bundle upfront during the sunrise period and made arrangements to auction any domain name where was multiple orders. They are going to take all the cash off the table at the beginning and then who cares where the extension goes. Further evidence of the guys selling picks and shove making all the money!

  26. Jeff says

    How much did .co pay in terms of advertising and all fees? (case study /application fees etc)

  27. Steve says

    ———————-
    “They charged a bundle upfront during the sunrise period and made arrangements to auction any domain name where was multiple orders.”
    ———————-

    I seem to remember this was pretty much the way .mobi handled things.

    Then, when faced with ongoing high renewal costs, massive dropping began.

    IF .co resale prices don’t measure up …they would probably need to drastically reduce renewal/registration costs or see the same thing happen.

  29. brianwick says

    I dropped all my .net’s – never owned CheapFood.net – but it drops July 23rd at namejet – for all of you that still think .net is the next .com instead .mobi oops, .biz oops, .info oops, I mean .co nowbeing the next .com.

    For giggles I back ordered it – even though it is not worth the $69 to me.

  31. Christopher says

    I’m a n00b but I would think that you will lose that to comcast for obvious reasons…there is nothing generic about the word…it is an obvious trademark…and would probably be considered ‘bad faith’…in other words, the only reason you would buy it would be to make money from comcast…they will probably just take it away from you…unless your last name is Comcast.

  35. Matt says

    Comcast.co?

    You can just give that to me. I will make all your problems go away. 🙂

  36. Brad says

    Brad is a popular name. I know at least 4-5 other Brad’s in the domain world. I am the Brad who does not own any .CO domains

    Brad

  37. Christopher says

    Brad, it looks like you have a lot of domains over there at Datacube…you really didn’t want to hedge your bets with this one?

  38. Brad says

    If .CO ever truly takes off I am no problem getting in then. It is easier to make money in an established market if you make smart investments.

    Regardless, I will never be dealing in .CO typo domains. I can promise that.

    Brad

  39. PAPA says

    I think what most people are missing, is that .co is the new cctld for colombia, which makes spanish generics the best investment you can make in the long term, there it is where the money is. . . . if you can still get one 😉

  41. brad says

    dish.co wasn’t taken a minute ago, it is now.

    I’m sure glad that’s not the generic term I went for :/

  43. Christopher says

    The thing is, lower-case-brad, what you think you have may not be what you have. I registered over 150 domains, all accepted by gdy, and am currently sitting with about 41 that I definitely have. The registrars are just comparing notes at this stage and in about 24 hours when the dust settles (according to a gdy cs rep) we will see what we’re left holding. The ones I was successful with were African cities, Greek gods, a couple of Countries you’ve probably never heard of, several surnames, one major US county, 1 common Spanish word, etc. I’m completely green at the domain thing but hoping to learn a lot in the process.

  44. Christopher says

    Joe, that’s one of the ugliest, most unfriendly websites I’ve seen in awhile.

  45. brad says

    Well, as luck has it I’m glad I don’t own comcast.co. after reading some Wikipedia posts on trademarked domain lawsuits. I did learn something -you can return domains within 5 days of buying them, so all was not lost.

    The kicker here is Christopher was right. I didn’t end up buying what I thought I had at all… I ended up buying comcast(s).co. I swear it was available, yet I’m glad It’s in my pocket.

    At any rate, thanks for raising my heart rate a bit today gentlemen.

  46. Christopher says

    brad, that bracket confused me…did you get comcasts.co? I think they could probably have their lawyers take that off you as well…not sure though…anyone?

  47. brad says

    Yes, I got comcasts.co.

    I called godaddy and I returned it so I think I’m good. I’m not interested in fighting for it, I thought it was an opportunity to make a bit of $ which in all respects in wrong in it’s own right and I understand that, hindsight is 20/20.

  52. Brad says

    Some other eBay gems –

    Portal.co – $999K
    Donzi.co – $350K
    Sext.co – $100K
    ChromeRims.com – $50K

    Clearly they will not last long at these prices.

    Brad

  54. Brad says

    You know I have made the same typo several times. I also put Portal.com before I corrected it. I have seen several others do the same thing as well.

    I guess that just shows the potential traffic loss to .COM out of instinct typing that.

    Brad

  56. joe says

    “Christopher

    Joe, that’s one of the ugliest, most unfriendly websites I’ve seen in awhile.”

    Unfriendly? Heh well it is called a Google search engine, just something I set up to not have to use a parking page. You can call it a home made parking page. Everyone knows parking pages never get indexed, so I have a better chance on my own server then on Parked.com. I may make a better site later. But who really cares, as long as it works?

  58. Christopher says

    Joe…no offense intended. I couldn’t code anything better. I just looked at it and my eyes exploded 🙂

  60. joe says

    Christopher to be clear, I could make something better, but this was a quick set up, and FYI I used similar pages in the past with success to get clicks on domain names that got traffic that I did not want to park at a regular parking place.

  61. Miley says

    Oceanfrontdomains.Com, eh? Very funny. I get it. Even funnier video too. Thanks for the smile. it’s been a while.

  64. Grumpy says

    Oh, duh…never mind. i thought that was an ad. you are right. very very funny and appropriate for the .co launch. rolf. literally! domain humor, ugh.

  65. Sim says

    I managed to get the name Danske.co after the name of Danske Bank. Got it 24hrs after the .co mayhem ended. Now to get in touch with me SEO friend and get to the name to the top of BING and Google then I’m sure Danske will come a knocking … is that bad? They had 24 hrs after .co went live.

  67. Brad says

    Sim,

    “I managed to get the name Danske.co after the name of Danske Bank.”

    You have already shown bad faith with that statement. You admitted registering a domain based on a famous TM.

    “They had 24 hrs after .co went live.”

    That is not how it works. Just because they did not register their domain does not give you the right to cybersquat on it. Since you already admitted the reason you registered it you can’t really argue you got it for a generic use.

    Brad

  68. brianwick says

    CapitolHill.co
    I have reserved CapitolHill.co as a defensive (typo) domain when I move the site from PPC to a production site in 3 months just before the mid term elections.

    My expectations are 1 stray for every 1,000 – contrary to what some seem to be preaching on this thread.
    I will advise mike berkens with my results – others might want to do the same with their .co’s

  69. Em John says

    I think you make a good point there about the TM, Brad. When registering .co, the same rules apply as for .com. Why people are buying TMs or typos for .co is beyond me. That is for a quick buck and will only decrease the value of a .co. I really like .co but I think some people need some education in marketing. As far as i can see, right now there are only valuable .co names in the following:

    1 EXTREMELY Generic English Dictionary Words that are Tangible Products, Services, not Abstract- 1 mil global searches per month, at least.
    2 EXTREMELY Generic Spanish Words including Spanish IDNs
    3 Well-known brands but only to be used by actual brand owners
    4 NNN.co and LLL.co that have super high letter or number quality and a known meaning or acronym..
    5. A name that you really want, probably will develop, and don’t want to sell at any time soon.

    All the rest, at this point, are reg. fee or for very “specific” buyers and might have some value in a year or two. I have read many .co purchase lists and am dumbfounded by what people are buying.

    portal.co for 1 Mill.?!?! LOL LOL LOL Portal.com may sell for $50-70000 so i would estimate that portal.co may be worth $500-700 on the market, if someone really wants it. Plus its somewhat of an abstract term. I thought o.co at $350000 was a good market starter since i think if o.com were available, it would sell for around $15000000.

    It may be too late now, but a lot of people buying .co, in hopes of getting a good term., could have done some research in .com history, sales, legal issues and pricing , seo etc. before they bought their .co.

    Francois from domaining.com is putting up a flipping.co site and I venture to guess he will have his own criteria for pricing and that will be interesting to see.

  70. Em John says

    Brad,

    By the way, the 1995 story about .co is true, I was around when all the news stories were being bandied about. .co was the more desirable extension at the time because of it’s shortness and recognition, but was inaccessible, though they tried really hard to get it. Yes, it is only history, but this is why you are seeing its immediate popularity. i thought the article you pointed out was quite insightful.

  71. Brad says

    Em John,

    No it isn’t. I was on the internet in 1995 and .COM was already widely in use. It was launched in 1985, not 1995. The facts are not correct at all.

    Brad

  72. Em John says

    Brad,

    In 1995, .com had no where near the popularity it has now nor the public recognition. It was still in its infancy and was vulnerable to competition. I’m not disputing that in 1985 .com was introduced, all I’m saying is that .co was a well liked abbreviation in 1995 and that a lot people wanted it, but due to circumstance, it was unavailable.

  73. Brad says

    The problem I have is the facts are just incorrect and being used to mislead about a key point.

    Of course .COM didn’t have nearly the same popularity in 1995 as it did today, as the entire internet was much smaller. There were still 120K+ .COM registered by 1995 though.

    Brad

  74. Em John says

    Brad,

    Yes and now there are 85 Mil. .coms. 120,000 is still “in its infancy” and would not have been such a hard egg to crack, in terms of market competition. I don’t dispute any of your numbers, this was just a happening in 1995. My argument was that people wanted it 15 years ago for a specific reason – short and recognizable. At that time, it was thought that .co could hold its own in the market as opposed to .fzz or something like that, that’s all.

  75. Slate says

    over 275,000 .co domains have been registered already. Just tossing that out there as a random piece of information. If you consider that its only a few days old, that is a lot of registrations. There will be a lot of parking going on, but probably no more then what we find with PREMIUM .com domains.
    Food for thought, There is a chance that some Premium domains will make it to development now. You will never get that with .com.
    And now that Google has come out and stated that they will treat the .co extension as a TLD and not just a ccTLD will probably improve matters somewhat for the .co crowed.
    I just wish I had picked up one or two (just in case).

  77. The Designary says

    I bought up thephoto.co and thunk.co. I wish I had the money to buy a few more. Can’t decide whether I want to try to sell them or develop them. I do wedding photography so the one is a no brainer.

  78. movie2k says

    Brad,

    In 1995, .com had no where near the popularity it has now nor the public recognition. It was still in its infancy and was vulnerable to competition. I’m not disputing that in 1985 .com was introduced, all I’m saying is that .co was a well liked abbreviation in 1995 and that a lot people wanted it, but due to circumstance, it was unavailable.