Domain Auction Report — October 26–November 1, 2026

Supply and demand moved in opposite directions this week. Ended auctions jumped +32.9% to 734,914, but sales fell −8.5% to 9,146 and total bids dropped −7.3%. The added inventory did not bring more buyers: fewer domains sold out of a much larger pool, and sell-through slipped to 1.2%.

Prices in the paid segment told a different story. Competitive (>$1) sales fell to 3,567, yet their median rose from $80 to $105 (+31.3%), while the 90th percentile moved only +8.2%. The middle of the paid market firmed more than the top did. One possible explanation is mix: fewer cheap competitive sales would lift the median without any individual name being bid higher. The data does not separate those effects.

At the top, 88838.com closed at $53,000, more than double last week's top sale. It did so with a DR of 6 and only 49 referring domains, the thinnest link profile in the top-sales table. Numeric .coms filled much of the top of that table, and in several cases the buyers paid well above valuation for names with little SEO footprint.

Key takeaways

• 734,914 domain auctions ended this week; 9,146 sold (1.2% sell-through, −0.6pp week-over-week).
• Top sale: 88838.com closed at $53,000.
• 3,567 sales closed above $1 (competitive segment); their median price was $105 (+31.3% vs last week). The remaining 61.0% of sales were $1-closeout pickups.
• Total bids cast on ended auctions: 50,019 (−7.3% week-over-week).
• Of 76,120 domains AI-classified this week, 2,921 (3.8%) were labeled clean based on the available backlink, archive, and traffic evidence.

The week in numbers

Ended auctions rose while both sold count and bids fell, so the lower sell-through comes from both sides: a larger denominator and a smaller numerator. The >$1 median rose far more than the 90th percentile. This may indicate a composition shift in the paid segment rather than broad price strength, and it is worth rechecking against next week's distribution before reading it as a price signal.

Top sales of the week

Closing prices here track name type more than link metrics. The highest-DR, highest-refdomain names (herb.co, themeskingdom.com) closed well below the numeric .coms, and 88838.com led with the weakest backlink profile in the table. Buyers using this table for comps should compare like-for-like name types rather than DR.

Bid wars: the most contested auctions

Bid count is a poor proxy for price this week. The most-bid auction, 345.co, closed below its valuation, and several high-bid names closed in the low thousands. Many bids may reflect incremental bidding steps rather than intensity of demand, so compare final price against valuation rather than bid count alone.

Live now: the auctions to watch this week

Every live pick currently sits below its listed valuation, but these are mid-auction prices, not closes. As this week's bid-wars table shows, final prices can land on either side of valuation. Treat the gap as a reason to research, not as a discount.

Value picks: clean-history aged domains under $100

The clean label screens backlink, archive, and traffic evidence; it does not screen legal exposure. Several picks have trademark, institutional, or personality-rights risk flagged in their own descriptions (acceleratediagnostics.com, dawnwells.com, amif.org, whitneyplantation.com). Run a trademark and name-rights check before treating a $1 price as low-risk.

Category landscape: what entered the market

Median price is $1 and median DR is between 1 and 3 in every category listed. At the median, category alone does not differentiate inventory, and any pricing differences between categories sit in the competitive >$1 tail, which this table does not break out.

Niche radar

vrogue.co appears as an example under travel, fashion, and lifestyle, so domains can carry multiple niche tags. The niche counts likely overlap and should not be summed into a total.

Spam-risk read on the week's inventory

With the large majority of classified inventory labeled caution, the caution label by itself does little to separate one domain from another. Buyers should open the underlying signals (anchor mix, archive history) for any caution-labeled name rather than treating the label as a verdict.

• 76,120 domains were AI-classified this week from their full enrichment bundles (backlink anchors, archive history, traffic).
• 2,921 (3.8%) were labeled clean based on the available evidence; that label is a screening signal, not a guarantee.
• 72,606 (95.4%) were labeled caution and 478 (0.6%) were labeled toxic after signals such as pharma/casino anchors or PBN patterns were evaluated.

Domains worth a closer look

• 88838.com — Top sale of the week with a DR of 6 and 49 referring domains, closing far above its $9,949 valuation; the price appears tied to the numeric name itself rather than its link profile.
• x456.com — Registered in 2021 with a $391 valuation, it drew 140 bids and closed at $8,088, the widest gap above valuation in the top-sales table.
• themeskingdom.com — DR 75 and 3,851 referring domains against a $671 valuation and no assigned category; buyers paying $5,400 may be valuing the link profile, so check the anchor text and archived site before treating it as a comp.
• herb.co — It carried the largest referring-domain count in the top-sales table yet drew only 34 bids, the fewest on that list, closing close to its valuation.
• 345.co — The most-bid auction of the week at 170 bids still closed at $3,601, below its $7,763 valuation.
• mplsschoolsvoices.news — A 2022 .news registration with no valuation drew 168 bids; one possible reading is that bidders were pricing its 579 referring domains, so review the backlink sources for relevance before using it as a comp.
• marketbhai.com — Registered in 2025 yet showing 1,442 referring domains and 143 bids; for a domain this young, checking whether those links are editorial or built is a sensible first step.
• aircharter.com — An exact-match aviation name with DR 28 and 2,413 referring domains, currently priced well under its valuation with an end date of 2026-11-08.
• 0502.com — A numeric .com with no description and a current price far below its $13,996 valuation; review its archive history yourself, since no summary is provided.
• ozam.com — It has the most bids among live picks at 74 and ends 2026-11-02, so active bidding is already underway on this one.
• brean.com — A UK place-name domain with DR 44; check for existing local businesses or holiday-park operators using the Brean name before bidding.
• acceleratediagnostics.com — Labeled clean at $1 with DR 43, but its own description flags significant trademark risk, which the spam classifier does not assess.
• dawnwells.com — A personal-name domain of a late actress with 2,222 referring domains; personality-rights exposure needs a separate legal check regardless of the clean label.
• vapepensales.com — An exact-match vape retail name at $1 with DR 54; vape is a regulated product, so confirm advertising and payment-processor restrictions for your intended use.
• whitneyplantation.com — Tied to a named museum and memorial; check whether the institution still operates under this name before repurposing it.
• onlinedatingprotector.com — The highest DR among clean picks at 70, priced at $1; review the archived site to confirm its prior content fits your planned use.
• vrogue.co — Tagged under travel, fashion, and lifestyle in the niche radar, which suggests a broad or mixed content history worth checking in the archive.

Takeaway

Before bidding on any name from these tables, pull its archive snapshots and referring-domain list to see whether the links are topically related and editorially placed. Then run a trademark and name-rights search, especially for institutional, personal-name, and brand-like domains. A clean label narrows the field. It does not replace those two checks.

Methodology & data notes

This report is generated from CatchSEO's own auction database: 734,914 auctions that ended from October 26–November 1, 2026 (UTC), benchmarked against 552,931 from October 19–25, 2026, alongside 697,827 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. 76,120 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 2026-11-02. Figures are computed directly from CatchSEO's auction database.