Sell-Through Rates: What Share of a Portfolio Sells Yearly?
It is the most-asked question on every domain forum, usually phrased as disappointment: I have held 80 domains for a year, why have none sold? The answer is a number most newcomers have never been told. Portfolio sell-through, the share of held names that sell in a year, runs at roughly 1-2% across the industry, and that single figure explains more about domaining economics than any other statistic. This page unpacks where the benchmark comes from, the cash math it implies, and the levers that genuinely move it.
What is a sell-through rate?
Names sold in a period divided by names held, usually annualized. A portfolio of 200 names that closes 3 retail sales in a year ran a 1.5% sell-through rate. Two refinements matter. First, count retail sales (end users paying real prices) separately from wholesale culls (auctioning castoffs to other investors for pocket change), because mixing them flatters the rate while hiding the economics. Second, sell-through is a portfolio property, not a per-name promise: 1% does not mean each name has a 1% chance, it means the portfolio's blended outcome, with quality names carrying passengers.
Where does the 1-2% benchmark come from?
From consistent self-reports and marketplace commentary rather than any audited census, and it is worth being honest about that. No registrar or marketplace publishes portfolio-level sell-through data. What exists, as of mid-2026, is a remarkably stable consensus across NamePros threads, investor blogs and conference talk: seasoned portfolio holders keep converging on low single digits, clustering at 1-2% for retail-priced inventory. The private nature of the market keeps the number fuzzy; NameBio recorded roughly 190,300 sales worth over $244 million in 2025, and that is estimated to capture just 5-10% of retail activity. So treat 1-2% the way the industry does: a planning assumption that has survived years of arguments, not a law of physics.
What does 1-2% imply in cash?
Run the arithmetic and domaining's real shape appears. The table uses illustrative assumptions: renewals at roughly $11 per .com per year, sales split evenly across the year.
| Portfolio size | Sales per year at 1% | Sales per year at 2% | Annual renewal bill (~$11/name) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 names | 0 most years | 0-1 | $275 |
| 100 names | 1 | 2 | $1,100 |
| 500 names | 5 | 10 | $5,500 |
| 1,000 names | 10 | 20 | $11,000 |
What 1-2% sell-through looks like: one sale in a typical year, two in a good one, and 98 renewal decisions at about $11 each
The break-even line falls straight out: at 1% sell-through and $11 renewals, the average sale must net about $1,100, roughly $1,375 gross at a 20% marketplace commission, just to cover the renewal bill. That is the most clarifying calculation in domaining. It is why parking does not rescue weak portfolios (without real type-in traffic, parking typically yields $3-5 a month per domain at best, and many report effectively zero), and why the flipping margin math swings on a single sale.
What moves the rate up or down?
- Pricing style. Visible buy-now prices tend to lift sell-through at the cost of the occasional big number; make-offer maximizes the ceiling on trophy names while slowing everything. Most working portfolios mix the two by tier.
- Landers. A name that resolves to a clean for-sale page with a price or contact converts buyers a dead page never meets. This is the cheapest lever on the list.
- Venue spread. Listing across marketplaces widens exposure: Afternic distributes through a reseller network of 75,000-plus registrar storefronts, Sedo is strongest in Europe and ccTLDs, and brandable-focused venues suit coined names. One venue is a bottleneck by choice.
- Portfolio quality. The dominant lever. Names with real comps behind them, the anatomy we mapped in the data-backed traits piece, sell at multiples of the base rate; hopeless names sell at zero forever and drag the blend down.
- TLD mix and trends. Inventory riding a live trend converts faster, as the 2025 surge in ccTLD sales (+61% year over year in NameBio data) showed. Trend exposure cuts both ways when the wave recedes.
How should you measure your own rate?
Simply, but honestly. Keep a sheet with one row per domain: acquisition date, cost, venue listings, asking price, and eventually the sale date and net proceeds. Your annual sell-through is sales divided by average names held that year; run retail and wholesale as separate columns so a $40 cull cannot masquerade as a $2,000 exit in your statistics.
Then respect the sample size. At a true 1-2% rate, small portfolios produce mostly silence: a 25-name portfolio going two straight years without a sale is entirely normal variance, not proof the names are bad or the benchmark is wrong. Judge a strategy on cohorts of at least a hundred name-years before concluding anything, and compare cohorts bought under the same rules rather than mixing eras. Domainers who track this way make calmer renewal decisions, because a quiet quarter reads as statistics instead of failure.
What rate should you plan on?
Plan at 1%, celebrate 2%, and let the plan drive discipline: every name renewed is a fresh bet that its buyer arrives before your patience ends, so cull at renewal time and replace with better raw material. The replacement side is where research tooling matters; a filter-driven tool like DomCop keeps the quality bar mechanical when restocking from the daily drops, which protects the only lever that reliably beats the benchmark. Then price the survivors from comps, using the appraisal method rather than hope, because a mispriced good name quietly performs like a bad one.
Frequently asked questions
Is a 1% sell-through rate normal?
Yes. For retail-priced portfolios, industry consensus as of mid-2026 clusters at roughly 1-2% a year, and experienced holders treat 1% as the planning baseline. Rates far above that usually indicate wholesale pricing rather than superior inventory.
How many domains do I need to make a living?
Illustratively: at 1.5% sell-through and $2,000 average net per sale, 500 names produce about 7 sales and $14,000-15,000 a year before renewals of roughly $5,500. Real livings in domaining come from higher average prices, not higher volume alone.
Does parking income change the math?
Rarely. Without genuine type-in traffic, parking typically pays a few dollars a month per domain at best, and many holders report effectively nothing. Model parking as noise, and treat any real parking revenue as a signal the name has traffic value worth pricing in.
Do marketplaces publish sell-through statistics?
No. No major venue discloses portfolio-level conversion data, which is why the benchmark rests on practitioner consensus and why public databases like NameBio, capturing an estimated 5-10% of retail sales, can only sketch the market's edges.
Does raising prices always lower sell-through?
Directionally yes, but the curve is not linear. Moving a $2,500 name to $3,000 rarely changes conversion measurably; moving it to $25,000 does. The productive framing is portfolio yield, sell-through multiplied by average net price, and the goal is maximizing that product, not either factor alone.