The April 2008 LLLL.com Price Guide is now out, covering the most recent 430 sales in April 2008. LLLL.com prices have fallen again this week in the lower quality LLLL.com market segments, while pronounceable LLLL.coms and other premium LLLL.coms have remained unchanged. In my opinion, investments in this short domain name market should at present be focused on the triple premium or higher quality LLLL.com domain names. Please remember that this short domain name price guide covering the LLLL.com market is intended to serve only as a guide and that suggested LLLL.com prices are minimum wholesale LLLL.com prices per LLLL.com domain name market segment. One thing that’s been observed in the LLLL.com market is that end users sales are becoming increasingly common, not only on LLLL.coms but also in other short domain name markets. Pronounceable LLLL.coms follow the same basic rules as other pronounceable short domains, with ability to form a brand around the domain often more important than what meaning or possible acronyms could be made from the domain. A pronounceable domain, like “Google” for example, need not be an acronym for anything and such a short domain can, given time and marketing, come to mean whatever you want it to mean.

Data derived from TDVR.com, the largest LLLL.com database. Numbers in parentheses reflect Apr 05, 2008 statistics. Current prices reflect the results of the 430 most recent reported LLLL.com sales within the Apr 06, 2008 through Apr 18, 2008 timeframe.

Minimum Wholesale : $33.00 ($37.00) -> 11%

10th percentile: $41.00 ($45.00) -> 9%

25th percentile: $51.00 ($61.00) -> 16%

Median: $85.00 ($103.00) -> 17%

75th percentile: $392.00 ($388.00) -> 1%

90th percentile*: $1010.00 ($995.00) -> 2%

Prices were unchanged in the pronounceable and higher quality LLLL.com segments over the last 13 days. Prices on the lower end continue to plummet with the hardest hit segment this time being the 25th through 50th percentile (typically double and lower grade triple premiums). As many of you know, I’m a big fan of triple premiums and higher grade LLLL.coms with bad letters in general. Avoiding this market isn’t necessary — but a change of strategy from buying at a certain price to buying based on the quality of the letters (more on this will be explained later this week) is necessary.

* Quad Premiums and pronounceables remained relatively stable in price over the last couple weeks. Min wholesale on quad premiums is approximately $330, down from $350 reported in the previous price guide. CVCVs continue to see appreciation on the low end, while the upper end seems to have temporarily stabilized, as have prices on rares and most other pronounceables.

Approximate Reseller Price By LLLL.com Segment:

** Please use these prices only as a reference. They are meant to reflect minimum, not maximum prices one should expect to pay in the process of acquiring a particular type of LLLL.com. Consider the below prices nothing more than a “Buyer’s Guide” to LLLL.com domaining. Prices reported below are intended to illustrate what a typical LLLL.com of a particular type would go for on a typical day at your typical venue… They are not meant to represent what double letter, triple letter, CVCV, VCVC, CVVC, VCCV, other pronounceables, meaningful acronym, or real word LLLL.coms may go for. Always use common sense.

Anti-premium: $35

Single Premium: $35

Double Premium: $40

Triple Premiums

$45 with Q

$50 with X

$55 with Z

$65 with Y

$70 with J

$85 with V

$90 with K

$120 with U

$140 with W

Quad Premiums: $330-$1000+ depending on the letters. Quad premiums containing an F or an H tend to report the lowest selling prices. Strong letters include A, S, E.

Examples of what would usually fetch < $400 :

Likely contains: F, G, H

Likely does not contain any: A, S

Likely does not contain any repeat letters or double letters.

AAAB, BAAA, AABB, and pronounceable quad premiums are noticeably absent from the under $500 group, pretty much without exceptions. Strong double repeating starting letters (such as A or S) generally lead to sales above $600.

Factors influencing LLLL.com valuations include the letter quality, brandability, pronounceability, age, frequency, and traffic. The 2 strongest premium letters are A and S. Other higher quality premium letters include E, M, D, I, T, O. The three weakest selling quad premium letters are F, G, and H. Letter position is also important. Certain letters perform better in certain positions than others (although the above rule holds on average across all letter patterns). C,I,L make stronger ending letters than they typically are elsewhere in an LLLL.com. A and O are strong in either the starting or ending position and S is stronger in the starting position. This is by no means an exhaustive list, merely examples of letters which perform better in particular positions.

Quad Premiums containing 3 of the same letters (eg: SOOO.com, MMMQ.com) tend to sell at a significant premium, regardless of the quality the letters are. Only 4 sales of quad premium triple letters occured in the last 2 weeks, 1 (FFFN.com) sold for $850 and the other 3 sold for $1437, $2250, and $2500. It’s fairly safe to say all quad premium triple letter LLLL.coms will fetch $1XXX at auction (FFFN, being 3 times the second weakest premium letter is more of an exception than the rule). As a whole, (including non-premiums), triple repeats are generally ~ $500-$3000+ depending on whether the triple letter LLLL.com contains bad letters, receives traffic, is aged, has numerous potential endusers, desirability as a collectible,… The names are commonly referred to as AAAB and BAAA, reflecting that they contain 2 different letters, where A and B represent 2 different premium letters from the set of 17 premium letters (A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,L,M,N,O,P,R,S,T). When the triple letter pattern is broken up (eg. ABAA, AABA), we tend to see prices in the $300-$1200 range (depending on if premium or not, as well as factors mentioned above). Triple repeat letters containing at least 1 bad letter tend to sell for $500-$1500. AABB type LLLL.coms tend to sell for between $500-$2000+, with $500 being the floor for combinations containing 2 bad letters (eg. XXQQ.com) and $1000+ being what all premium conbinations (eg. TTII.com) would typically fetch. Palindromes (ABBA type LLLL.coms) tend to sell for approximately $300+, with premium combinations extremely difficult to obtain under $800 and frequently sell for $1XXX. Upon doing some research, I’ve been able to conclude that AABB > AAAB/BAAA > ABBA for quad premium specimens. For other LLLL.coms, the pattern is typically AAAB/BAAA > AABB > ABBA. Important to note that in general AABB > ABBA.

LLLL.coms at the 10th percentile tend to have at least 1 bad letter and 1-2 semi-premiums.
LLLL.coms at the 25th percentile tend to have 1 bad letter and 1 semi-premium, or 2 semi-premium letters.
LLLL.coms at the 50th percentile tend to have a maximum of 2 semi-premiums or 1 bad letter and 1 semi-premium. They often have only 1 bad (or semi-premium) letter and may include repeat letters.
LLLL.coms at the 75th percentile generally contain a maximum of 1 bad letter and often include only 1 semi-premium. Double letter and double repeat letter combinations (eg. ETTW.com) are also commonly found at this percentile. Low grade pronounceables (including VCVC) sometimes find their way into this category, as do lower quality quad premiums.

LLLL.coms at the 90+ percentile generally consist of quad premiums, VCVCs, CVCVs, other pronounceables, dictionary words, and LLLL.coms having AAAB, BAAA, ABAA, AABA, AABB, and ABBA patterns. Enduser sales of lower + higher quality LLLL.coms are becoming increasingly common at this percentile.