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Domain names once again fetch top dollar

NEW YORK (AP) -- One more sign the technology sector is rebounding: An Internet domain name is again commanding seven figures.

Last week, a Florida man sold men.com for $1.3 million, a healthy profit over the $15,000 he paid for it in 1997.

The buyers, largely entertainment industry folks who have opted to remain anonymous behind the acquiring company, men.com LLC, want to create a portal for men.

"In the last couple of years, the domain names were selling for significantly less than what they did in '99, 2000," said Monte Cahn, chief executive of Moniker Online Services, which brokered the sale.

He said the seven-figure price tag for men.com "is a big indicator of what's yet to come."

At the market's height, a handful of domain names sold for millions of dollars, including $7.5 million for business.com in late 1999 and $3 million for loans.com in January 2000.

But countless others sat unclaimed, and the dot-com bust forced many domain name speculators to give them up when they came up for re-registration, at roughly $30 apiece.

Ryan Levy, vice president of marketing for men.com, said the company also has purchased more than 1,000 other domain names over the past year at fire-sale prices to use in conjunction with the new portal.

The seller, Rick Schwartz, believes he could have gotten much more for men.com by waiting longer.

But Schwartz, who owns more than 4,000 other domain names, said he wanted the money now -- so that he can buy others before prices really skyrocket.

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