I dug up some old drop chasing data from my personal logs. The data is from May 19, 2004-May 31 2004. I chased/monitored 198 expiring names. Since these are my personal drop chasing logs, I am disproportionately represented, I was never anywhere near as big a player as most of the others on the list. It's selection bias that I show up at all.
First up, which companies actually won domains?
If I recall correctly, Pool was relatively new and kicking ass. BuyDomains and NameAdmin had personal registrars for chasing and left almost everyone else in the dust.
So who was winning all the domains?
Frank Schilling (NameAdmin), Mike Mann (BuyDomains) and Yun Ye (Ult Search) were clearly dominating the market. Anyone who ever bid on drops hated seeing names like benfranklin and competing with these guys. A few other big companies/individuals were sniping very specific names, but nobody competed on the scale of those three.
I was surprised that Vertical Axis (Kevin Ham) didn't show up. I don't know/recall when he got very active, but he didn't show up once during this ~2 week period.
What about the traffic?
I ran the names through January 2007 Overture data to get overture numbers for each domain. Then I counted the cumulative overture score of domains owned by a company. The second graph looks at current whois and makes assumptions that they were purchased by the company originally but my winner data was incomplete.
The most shocking part of looking at traffic is, UltSearch dominated BuyDomains and NameAdmin. UltSEarch only won 16% of the names but took home 37% of the traffic. NameAdmin and BuyDomains get approximately their expected percentage.
Notable Stats
- Frank Schilling (NameAdmin) has sold only 1 name (disti.com) out of the 43 he won during this period.
- BuyDomains has sold 24 of 41 (58.5%) domains picked up during this period.
- Only 3 domains out of 198 (1.5%) expired again.
- I didn't sell any of the names I bought during this period :(
- The quality of drops was exceptional compared to today.
I am attaching the list of names, I bolded a few of my favorites. You can see some killer brandable names, pronouncable CVCV.coms, premium generics (mobile.net), a ton of solid 2 word .coms, geo, geo services, and names.
The List of Domain Names
4warn.com
ades.com
armo.com
artios.com
asms.com
aspforums.com
babu.net
bashar.com
bdj.net
beaches.net
beadworld.com
beatup.com
beatworks.com
bendel.com
beoutdoors.com
bepos.com
bestlinux.net
bhost.com
bitas.com
bitz.com
bmv.net
bombaystores.com
bondgirls.com
bookers.com
brookshields.com
buddylink.com
businessgraphics.com
cack.com
canadacases.com
canadaprescriptions.com
catilina.com
cebra.com
cheatnetwork.com
childtracker.com
citizenwatches.com
claimservices.com
clinicalresearch.com
cpaa.com
cracksoftware.com
crazygames.com
cwi.net
darkbeer.com
datasuite.com
decil.com
delico.com
detin.com
digitalphilosophy.com
directweb.com
disti.com
dogzone.com
donotcallregistry.com
drylife.com
eapi.com
earthfriendlybaby.com
earthsaver.com
eitc.com
ejy.net
ensol.com
esw.net
eua.net
europartners.com
evl.net
eyeteasers.com
f0.net
fab.net
fatwallets.com
finalbid.com
finalthoughts.com
fishingreport.com
fishreport.com
fragged.net
freshmeat.com
gamespider.com
gamestorm.com
giantsquid.com
globalmodels.com
grac.com
graphicsplanet.com
gunsmiths.com
hairclip.com
hkd.net
homefromschool.com
hoton.com
hotters.com
howes.com
ibizaguide.com
ibug.com
imageit.com
imh.net
itf.net
jgw.net
joined.com
keeper.net
kiddos.com
kidspictures.com
kosar.com
kosin.com
lesbianpictures.com
linox.com
locatex.com
macroeconomist.com
mds.net
memoryaccess.com
metroauto.com
mobile.net
modelportfolio.com
multivisual.com
mxtab.net
nastywomen.com
newsjunky.com
newspaperarticles.com
nexum.com
njcaa.com
noreserve.com
novs.com
oakleaves.com
ocw.net
ofa.net
oholic.com
onlinemusicindia.com
ordo.com
pagination.com
penfriend.com
picoftheweek.com
pila.com
pixil.com
planetringtone.com
plantlife.com
plastique.com
plateau.net
populartickets.com
portablevideo.com
posan.com
pps.net
prompictures.com
pussi.com
quiksex.com
rajeev.com
rapper.net
reanimation.com
rella.com
rusa.com
rzv.com
screenart.com
scriptcave.com
searchpics.com
seld.com
sexpistols.com
shadowlands.net
simm.com
simplythebest.com
sipo.com
sistergirls.com
southasia.com
sovreign.com
spacedisk.com
speakyourmind.com
squaremeal.com
studiohost.com
sumisa.com
superdownloads.com
systemwatch.com
tdg.net
tekos.com
theduplicator.com
tidechart.com
tofo.com
tone.net
topup.com
totaldigital.com
travac.com
tupaclyrics.com
ultracruise.com
unixdeveloper.com
unixforums.com
vastu.com
veras.com
verex.com
vermontinc.com
videosmart.com
virusscan.net
visitblackpool.com
voiceofwomen.com
voids.com
webdirectory.com
webengine.com
webfacts.com
webguy.com
wicka.com
wickedentertainment.com
xploder.com
xrn.net
xtrem.com
yaa.net
yourmatch.com
zms.net
zonehost.com
zooweekly.com
zum.net
