I always keep an eye on the sales of websites and domain names, and it looks like the marketplace is heating up.

The first evidence comes from Flippa. Sometime ago a reader sent this question to the Q&A section: Where And How Can I Sell My Blog?. As you can see from that post, one of the places I recommended was Flippa. Some readers argued in the comment section that Flippa lacked big buyers, so that it was not suitable for selling big websites. I mentioned that this was not the case, and this week we got some hard proof.

The Retweet.com website was listed for sale there. The auction received 45 bids from several buyers, and most of the bids were over $100,000. The winner ended up using the “Buy It Now!” feature, paying $250,000 for the site. Not bad huh?

Another auction to keep an eye on is that of Sex.com. The most valuable domain on the web will be auctioned this coming Thursday, March 18. The starting bid will be $1 million. Interestingly enough if you want to attend the auction you must present a certified check for that amount, else you won’t be allowed in.

For those who remember well, the domain had already set a record when it was sold for $14 million in 2006. How come it is so valuable? Well, just consider that they never developed a real site there, and yet it was making over $15,000 per day in 2008.

I suspect the number of high profile deals will increase in 2010 and beyond, and the marketplace for smaller websites should become more active as well.

Time will tell!