Mike Berkens, the lead auther of the website The Domains, asks the question “Is The Sale Of Poker.Org For $1M A Game Changer?”
His answer? “We Say Yes”.
I hold a few .Org domains so the sale and the commentary naturally drew my attention.
Arguing that any single aftermarket domain name sale lifts all gTLD associated (.Org gTLD) values is a hard sell. I don’t think that’s Mike’s perspective. Anyone who is excited about the sale influencing their.Org domain portfolio’s value is likely deluded. Temporary delusions are part of the domain aftermarket business, good for registries and registrars. Bad for the domainer. (All of us included at some point in our careers.)
Generally, in the aftermarket, you might see 5% as a historical – and across the board – “relationship equation” between the value of .Com and related .Org domains. I’m not a proponent of pegging domain values to reported aftermarket sales, a matter I’ll address another time, but it’s a data point of some use to some folks – especially when they are on the buy side of better domains. 
What drives .Org values higher than 5% of a related .Com value? Some of the more important predictors of value include:
- Do a significant number of people “expect a website” at the location, that is, “Is the .Org domain well suited to the gTLD”? (Tourism.org versus DownParkas.org)
- Is the .Org’s subject “highly commercial”? (Investing.org versus Handkerchiefs.org)
- If the domain name’s “topic is commercial” what value does the market place on that commerce? (Poker.org vs. Gardening.org)
The sale of Poker.org for $1,000,000.00 isn’t an across the board game changer for the aftermarket value of .Org domains. It may be a leading indicator that the development community is prepared to accept that certain domains work so well for developed websites under the gTLD that .Org aftermarket values may be a bit higher than once “accepted”.
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