These days, three letter .com domains – or LLL .com for short – form part of the domainer “hard currency”.
Prices fluctuate not only based on age, letter quality and traffic, but also by some other factors that seem to not make sense at all.
Three letter .com domains nowadays range from $4,000 to mid $xx,xxx or even more. It really depends on who buys them, and how much competition ensues; e.g. prices are higher during some rare NameJet releases.
In the old days of lore – and we are talking around 2002 – 2004 – three letter .com domains were being traded for a few hundred on domain forums. Sometimes, real deals happened on eBay.
ZWJ.com – We won it on eBay for less than $160 bucks.
In June of 2002, we managed to get hold of one such three letter .com for a mere $159.50
The letters were not that great by today’s standards, however, even this domain would appreciate 25-30 times!
During those “early days of lore” we were also quite illogical with our decisions. So another auction on eBay later with us as the seller, we pocketed a $65 profit at a sale of $227.
*Drumroll*
The cherry on the top is that the buyer let the domain expire in 2005.
Lessons are learned the hard way. 😀
