Domain Auction Report — October 19–25, 2026

Supply and demand moved in opposite directions this week. Ended auctions rose to 552,932 (+26.9%), while sales fell to 9,992 (−9.3%) and bids fell to 53,971 (−10.7%). The drop in sell-through to 1.8% is therefore mechanical: a larger denominator over a smaller numerator. The ended-auction count alone does not show whether buyers had less appetite or whether more low-interest inventory reached auction.

Within the competitive segment, the median sale above $1 slipped to $80 while the 90th percentile edged up to $625. Taken together, this may indicate a wider spread between ordinary competitive sales and the upper tier. The top sale, traderx.com at $25,550, sat well below last week's $42,500 headline, so the ceiling was lower even as the 90th percentile held up.

The more distinctive pattern is in how closes compared with the estimator. Names with substantial backlink profiles but modest brand value, such as atlbreakfastclub.com, hkspublications.org, tuckersoft.net and hampshire-history.com, closed many times above valuation. Several aged short generics, including state.net, rarecoins.com and vibed.com, closed below it. One possible explanation is that SEO-motivated bidders and the valuation model weigh link equity differently. That is an interpretation, not something the data measures.

Key takeaways

• 552,932 domain auctions ended this week; 9,992 sold (1.8% sell-through, −0.7pp week-over-week).
• Top sale: traderx.com closed at $25,550.
• 3,828 sales closed above $1 (competitive segment); their median price was $80 (−5.9% vs last week). The remaining 61.7% of sales were $1-closeout pickups.
• Total bids cast on ended auctions: 53,971 (−10.7% week-over-week).
• Of 78,493 domains AI-classified this week, 3,090 (3.9%) were labeled clean based on the available backlink, archive, and traffic evidence.

The week in numbers

Sales fell less steeply than competitive (>$1) sales. This implies the $1-closeout share of sales grew relative to the competitive tier this week. Buyers tracking real demand should weight the >$1 rows over the headline sold count.

Top sales of the week

The table splits into two groups.

• Closed far above valuation: the DR 35–55 names with 1,100–1,900 referring domains.
• Closed below valuation: 1990s-registered short names.

Before treating either estimate as a benchmark, compare anchor-text distribution and archive continuity for the above-valuation group.

Bid wars: the most contested auctions

Bid count tracks price loosely. gying.org (registered 2024) and jili89.com (registered 2023) drew 120+ bids against double-digit valuations. Both pair young registrations with roughly 800–1,000 referring domains, a combination worth checking for injected or casino-pattern links before reading the bid volume as organic demand.

Live now: the auctions to watch this week

These prices are still live and are not closes. Gaps to valuation in either direction say nothing yet about final outcomes. herb.co has the strongest link metrics in the list but no description, so its archive history is unreviewed here and should be checked directly.

Value picks: clean-history aged domains under $100

The classifier's own descriptions flag significant trademark risk on two of these names. The 'labeled clean' screen covers link, archive and traffic evidence, not legal exposure. Run a trademark search on any former corporate or brand name, not only the flagged ones.

Category landscape: what entered the market

Every category shows a $1 median price and a DR median between 1 and 3, so category medians do not separate value at the inventory level. Generic / Brandable supplied more top-20 sales rows than any other category. This suggests price outcomes depend on individual name and link attributes rather than category share.

Niche radar

Niche tags overlap. ellemerswim.com appears under both ecommerce and fashion, and theetiquetteconsultant.com under both consulting and blog. The niche counts are therefore not additive and should not be summed into a supply total.

Spam-risk read on the week's inventory

With caution as the overwhelming default label, a caution tag alone does little to separate one domain from another. Open the underlying anchor and archive evidence rather than filtering on the label. The classified pool is also a subset of ended auctions, so these shares describe the screened inventory, not the full market.

• 78,493 domains were AI-classified this week from their full enrichment bundles (backlink anchors, archive history, traffic).
• 3,090 (3.9%) were labeled clean based on the available evidence; that label is a screening signal, not a guarantee.
• 73,990 (94.3%) were labeled caution and 405 (0.5%) were labeled toxic after signals such as pharma/casino anchors or PBN patterns were evaluated.

Domains worth a closer look

• traderx.com — Closed at more than double its valuation with only DR 15 against 946 referring domains, so a finance-category anchor review is the obvious first check for the new owner.
• bee.org — A 1995 registration with 630 referring domains but DR 3; that mismatch is worth checking for lost or devalued links in the archive.
• canoo.com — Has the highest DR and referring-domain count in the top-20 table, yet closed in fourth place below its valuation-adjacent peers, which may indicate bidders discounted something beyond the link metrics.
• atlbreakfastclub.com — Closed at $10,000 against an $883 valuation; the 87 bids and DR 53 profile suggest link equity, not the name, drove the price, though that is an interpretation.
• hkspublications.org — Took $6,101 on just 14 bids against a $32 valuation, the widest close-to-valuation gap in the table, so its 1,834 referring domains deserve a source-quality audit.
• tuckersoft.net — A 2018 registration closing at $5,101 versus a $136 valuation, another case where DR 38 and 1,169 referring domains appear to outweigh the name itself.
• hampshire-history.com — Drew 102 bids to $5,001 against a $121 valuation; buyers of similar names should verify the history content is continuous in the archive rather than recently repurposed.
• state.net — A 1994 .net closed at well under half its valuation, one of several aged short generics that cleared below the estimator this week.
• rarecoins.com — An exact-match 1995 hobby name that closed at about a third of its valuation, which may indicate the estimator weights keyword age more heavily than bidders did.
• sparklepay.com — 241 bids on a 2019 registration closing near five times valuation; with DR unavailable, its 1,330 referring domains should be reviewed for payments-adjacent spam anchors.
• predpol.com — DR 61 with 2,006 referring domains closed on only 26 bids; a former product name in Legal & Government warrants a trademark check before reuse.
• gying.org — Registered in 2024 yet carrying 982 referring domains and 149 bids; that link volume on a young domain is worth inspecting for injected or scraped links.
• jili89.com — A 2023 gambling domain closing at $1,676 against a $48 valuation; casino-pattern anchors are among the signals the classifier treats as toxic, so check the anchor profile first.
• herb.co — DR 70 and 6,156 referring domains make it the strongest link profile in the live list, but it has no description, so its archive and anchor history need a direct review.
• 88838.com — Only 49 referring domains, far fewer than every other live pick, so the 'Chinese portal history' claim should be verified against archive snapshots.
• paydays.com — The description itself names payday-loan use, a category where anchor profiles are commonly reviewed for spam patterns before bidding.
• 33bits.org — Highest DR in the clean-picks list at a $1 price; confirm the listing is still active and review anchors, since the clean label is a screening signal only.
• primefocustechnologies.com — Labeled clean but described as carrying significant trademark risk, a reminder that the label does not cover legal exposure.
• onurair.com — The airline-brand history behind its 1,679 referring domains is also the source of the major trademark risk the description flags.
• harrisgeospatial.com — Tied to named software documentation, so a trademark search is prudent even though the description does not flag one.
• scientonline.org — Described as an open-access paper repository; check archive snapshots to confirm the content's provenance before relying on its 1,182 referring domains.
• ellemerswim.com — Appears in both the ecommerce and fashion niche examples, which shows that niche tags overlap.

Takeaway

Before acting on any name above, pull its referring-domain list and archive snapshots yourself. Check whether the links point to content that existed under the prior owner, whether anchors fit the stated history, and whether a former brand raises trademark questions. Treat 'labeled clean' as the start of due diligence, not the end of it.

Methodology & data notes

This report is generated from CatchSEO's own auction database: 552,932 auctions that ended from October 19–25, 2026 (UTC), benchmarked against 435,802 from October 12–18, 2026, alongside 847,684 live auctions currently tracked.

Domain intelligence comes from CatchSEO's enrichment pipeline — backlink profiles and authority metrics, Wayback Machine archive history, and an AI classification pass that reads each domain's complete evidence bundle and issues category, spam-risk, and quality verdicts. 78,493 domains were classified this week; classification covers enriched inventory only, so older or unenriched domains may appear without AI fields.

"Sold" means an auction ended with at least one bid; prices are final listed auction prices in USD. Classifier labels are screening signals based on available evidence, not guarantees that a domain is safe or suitable. Every figure in this report is computed directly from the database, and the commentary refers only to figures and domains shown in it. The report is published every week. Compare the rolling figures in Domain Sale Prices: Live Auction Statistics, search live domain auctions, or follow the expired-domain spam-checking guide.

Review the CatchSEO research methodology, browse the expired-domain resource center, search live domain auctions, or continue with the expired-domain guides.

Data snapshot 2026-10-26. Figures are computed directly from CatchSEO's auction database.