Across the trailing 28 days, the auction market split into two very different tiers. Of 41,345 sales, 24,471 were $1 closeout pickups, which pulls the all-sales median down to $1. Sales that closed above $1 had a median of $85 and an average of $308. Any single "typical price" figure depends on which tier it describes.
Most inventory never reaches either tier. Of 1,776,297 auctions that ended, only 41,700 drew at least one bid, a 2.3% sell-through rate. Because most recorded sales sit in the $1 tier, the share of ended auctions that produced a competitive close is smaller than that 2.3%.
The right tail is thin but real. 29 sales closed above $10,000, and the top close reached $55,000. Even so, the 90th percentile of competitive sales was $610.
Key takeaways
- In competitive auctions (>$1 closes), the median domain sale price is $85 and the average is $308 (trailing 28 days); counting $1 closeout pickups, the all-sales median is $1.
- Only 2.3% of ended domain auctions receive any bid at all (~444,074 auctions end per week).
- Among 983,258 enriched auction domains classified from available evidence, 1.6% were labeled clean and 0.3% were labeled toxic.
- The top sale of the period closed at $55,000.
How much do domains sell for?
Only 1,095 sales landed in the $2–$10 band, compared with 7,969 at $11–$100 and 6,819 at $101–$1,000. Once a sale clears $1, it rarely closes in single digits. One possible explanation is that any contested bidding moves quickly past the low-dollar range.
- In competitive auctions (sales that closed above $1), the median winning price over the last 28 days was $85, the average was $308, the 90th percentile was $610, and the top close was $55,000.
- Counting EVERY sale, the median collapses to $1 — because 24,471 of 41,345 sales (59.2%) are $1 closeout pickups, GoDaddy's clearance tier for auctions nobody bid on. Any "average domain price" figure that ignores this split is misleading.
| Price band | Sales (28 days) | Share of sales |
|---|---|---|
| $1 | 24,471 | 59.2% |
| $2 – $10 | 1,095 | 2.6% |
| $11 – $100 | 7,969 | 19.3% |
| $101 – $1,000 | 6,819 | 16.5% |
| $1,001 – $10,000 | 962 | 2.3% |
| Over $10,000 | 29 | 0.1% |
What percentage of domain auctions end in a sale?
The bid count (41,700) is slightly higher than the sales total in the price table (41,345). The price section also describes $1 closeouts as auctions nobody bid on. Buyers relying on the 2.3% figure should check how closeout pickups and bid-but-unsold auctions are counted before using it as a demand measure.
- Of 1,776,297 auctions that ended in the last 28 days (~444,074/week), 41,700 received at least one bid — a 2.3% sell-through rate. The overwhelming majority of expiring domains attract no bidder at all.
- 791,688 auctions are live right now.
How many expired domains are spam?
The clean, caution, and toxic labels together add up to less than the 983,258 classified total, because their percentages sum to well under 100%. Part of the classified pool carries none of the three labels. With caution covering most of the pool, the classifier works more as a triage filter than a verdict. A caution label should prompt your own review of anchors, archive history, and traffic.
- CatchSEO's AI has classified 983,258 enriched auction domains using available backlink, archive, and traffic evidence. 15,863 (1.6%) were labeled clean; this is a screening result, not independent verification or a guarantee.
- 889,843 (90.5%) were labeled caution and 2,670 (0.3%) were labeled toxic after the classifier evaluated signals such as pharma/casino anchors and PBN patterns.
What kinds of domains are at auction?
Every category shows a $1 median price and a median DR between 1 and 3. At the median, category does not separate pricing, which may simply reflect the closeout tier dominating each group. Comparing categories on closes above $1 only would show whether niche matters for contested domains.
| Category | Domains | Share | Median DR | Median price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business Services | 186,337 | 24.0% | 2 | $1 |
| Generic / Brandable | 88,856 | 11.5% | 1 | $1 |
| Tech & Software | 75,604 | 9.8% | 3 | $1 |
| Health & Medical | 66,463 | 8.6% | 2 | $1 |
| Fashion & Beauty | 60,258 | 7.8% | 2 | $1 |
| Home & Garden | 52,478 | 6.8% | 1 | $1 |
| Food & Drink | 52,301 | 6.7% | 2 | $1 |
| Entertainment & Media | 52,169 | 6.7% | 2 | $1 |
| Finance & Insurance | 40,075 | 5.2% | 2 | $1 |
| Travel & Tourism | 37,961 | 4.9% | 2 | $1 |
| Real Estate | 36,226 | 4.7% | 1 | $1 |
| Sports & Fitness | 26,683 | 3.4% | 2 | $1 |
Takeaway
Before bidding, decide which tier you are actually competing in. Compare your target against closes above $1, not the all-sales median. Treat any classifier label, including labeled clean, as a starting point. Pull the domain's backlink anchors, archive snapshots, and traffic history yourself to check for pharma/casino anchors or PBN patterns before you commit funds.
Methodology & data notes
These statistics are computed directly from CatchSEO's auction database: 1,776,297 auctions that ended in the trailing 28 days (last refreshed October 12–18, 2026), plus the full corpus of 983,258 AI-classified domains and 791,688 live auctions.
"Sold" means an auction ended with at least one bid; prices are final listed auction prices in USD. Spam-risk labels come from CatchSEO's AI classification pass over the available evidence bundle (backlink anchors, Wayback archive history, and traffic). They are screening signals, not guarantees or predictions of search-engine treatment. Every figure on this page is computed from the database and refreshed every week.
For the period-by-period picture, read the Domain Auction Report for October 12–18, 2026. Search live domain auctions, use the expired-domain resource center, 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 2026-10-19. Figures are computed directly from CatchSEO's auction database.