Snapnames Deep Pockets
Just a couple minutes ago a few snapnames auctions ended for some of the domains I was bidding on and well.. I was outbidden on all of them today, but I did buy a couple good domains through snapnames in the last few days.
People are bidding like crazy in the last 5 minutes! Imho most of the domains were sold for more than their retail value, and probably more than what would have been offered at dnforums.
The domains: you see it first here! Just a couple minutes after the auctions are over and before the sales are reported.
vasilisa.com - $1,024 - The girl’s name from a popular Russian fairy tale. Ok, how many girls do you know named Vasilisa? Um, let me guess… 0? Right, because except for the Russian fairy tale heroes and porn stars no one uses it. Well I would have paid $300, maybe even up to $500, but come on.. over $1k for some very rare name.
ilsa.com - $5,551 - That one is just crazy. 12 years old, all premium letters and pronouncable, but still maybe $550, not $5.5K 
It has a bunch of possible meanings, but nothing of comercial value, so I just don’t get it.
psdi.com - $632 - All premium letters 4 letter .com - these are the buzz now, so everyone tries to grab them. May be I should have bidden more on this one.
According to acronymattic and acronymfinder it has a bunch of acronyms, most popular one is Partito Socialista Democratico Italiano, which is one of smaller political parties in Italy, s i suppose this one has really good potential.
VND.net - $1350 - I bid $1300 on this one, just 2 minutes before it closed, but was outbidden and decided to give it up, figured $1.4K would be high for a 3 letter .net, even though VND is the Vietnamese national currency - Vietnamese đồng. But you probably never heard of it, so it’s not very popular. I believe that $1.3-1.4k is about the right reseller price for it.
Some ongoing auctions
loran.com - currently at $2,150, 23 hours to go - it’s quite a popular girl name, so my guess is it would sell for around $4-6k
atmcash.com - currently at $1,550.00, 2 days to go. Very premium finance name, will be
interesting to see the final price, but it’s hard to estimate what it’s really worth.
I’ve been following a bunch of auctions on SnapNames and there are really a lot - thousands of domains are being auctioned every day and it’s almost impossible to buy anything valuable at bargain prices 
same goes for sedo auctions. Domain forums are still the best place to get quality domains at bargain prices.
For more reference see 3 character price guide, DNForum, NamePros and DP domain sales
Mike Dammann said,
May 10, 2007 @ 8:09 pm
Ilsa has no commercial value, but maybe the bidder’s wife’s name is Ilsa and he wants to get it for her birthday.
Correctus said,
May 18, 2007 @ 4:13 am
You write a lot dude! I must say I’m damn impressed by your awesome blog. Keep it up! and btw, on this subject, how much do you think my xvoy.com would fetch? Heh.
SaadAhmed007 said,
May 23, 2007 @ 2:34 pm
I am also impressed by your blog since comments does not have nofollow
Jason said,
May 25, 2007 @ 7:18 am
It is really incredible how some names get such a price tag. And remember, this are expired domains. I get snapnames list daily and most of domains there are garbage, domains that someone kept for years probably, tried to sell them, but he couldnt. Now people are buying this trash for incredible prices. I bet vasilisa.com could have been bought few months back for $50 or so from original owner.
But I must say that I had luck on snapnames onece. I wanted a domain for my project and I saw it expired. Waited for the last few minutes of aucton and got the exact perfect domain I wanted for the project for 39$. And its probably worth around 500$.
Soroush said,
May 30, 2007 @ 1:22 am
Sometimes you find real good prices specially when they face a nonpaying bidder and restart the auction.
I remember Exu.com ended up with 8k but the second time ended around 4k that seems pretty reasonable.
I really like their service and I’m happy with domains I got but I just wished their price was a little less