When looking through the just released Moniker live auction list, the most important thing I am looking to find are domain names that I can use commercially. When buying at auction, I assume the domain name’s sale price is far greater than any potential PPC revenue I could ever earn, and I also assume that since the sale price is public, it would be difficult to re-sell the name in the short term at a profit. As a result, the only time I personally would buy at an auction is if I plan to develop the domain name.

At this point in my career, I am now looking to buy domain names that I can develop and build into another website/business, so that’s what I am looking for on auction. I haven’t spent much time reviewing the list yet, so I don’t know if I will bid, but I am going to take some time this weekend to look. When you have a chance, check out the TRAFFIC Auction list (via TheDomains.com blog).

It’s great to wake up and see an article in my local newspaper about an upcoming domain auction. In this morning’s New York Post, there is a small article announcing that Israel.com will be on the auction block at TRAFFIC East in May. From the article,

“Israel is being sold off to the highest bidder.

Jean-Noel Frydman, 46, registered the domain name in 1994 and never imagined at the time it would be worth millions.

“Mainly, I didn’t want anyone to misuse it. That’s why I registered it,” he said, noting he retains final approval on the sale at the May 23 auction.”

Of interest is that Moniker may have given the owner authority to back out of a deal if he doesn’t approve of the new owner. On a strictly personal level, I am glad to see this as it would be terrible for Israel.com to go into the hands of a terrorist or other extremist group. As a domain investor, I think this sets a pretty poor precedent, as a domain owner shouldn’t be able to cancel an auction because he doesn’t approve of the bidder.

If I was a betting person (which I am), I would wager that the domain name will not sell for $5m despite the hype. I think it’s a fantastic opportunity, but organizations who could afford to spend $5m probably can’t justify spending it on a domain name - yet. People will kick themselves for missing out on this opportunity in a few years though.

I took a quick glance at the just-released preliminary list for the Domain Roundtable live auction next week, and there are a few pretty good names listed at reasonable reserves. Just on a very quick glance, the few that strike me as well priced include:

Sirloins.com - $10k
Tuscan.com - $15k
Renewals.com - $25k
Dangers.com - $6k
Bicyclists.com - $5k
Moral.com - $10k

Anyway, maybe it’s just me, but I found some of the owner-included descriptions to be particularly humorous (in no particular order):

1) “huge potential over next few months. Huge ROI.”
2) “Country in the Middle East. Pizza.com sold for more.”
3) “Paramedic students and people interested in Paramedic courses will be flocking to this domain.”
4) “Old people are always looking for solutions to this huge health problem.”
5) “Priced and an extremely great price. It is catchy and easy to remember. This is a deal!”
6) “Alcohol is a confusing subject. There are thousands of recipes for types of alcoholic drinks.”
7) “There is literally a Park St. in every city. Only one company on all those streets in all those cities can claim their street name as their domain name. Great investment.”
“Mothers are ordering these like crazy”
9) “The First Club! There are literally tons of clubs that use this name. This is so generic and a great investment. You will have people begging you to sell it to them.”
10) “Extremely common last name. Several Williams have companies. There are hundreds of Williams Family Companies that would repurchase this one.”

Name Intelligence’s DomainTools has something like half a million registered users, and the company blog has an Alexa ranking much greater than any other industry blog, so I applaud Jay Westerdal for the marketing effort he is putting forth for the upcoming Domain Roundtable conference auction. While many industry auctions seem to rely on emails and press releases announcing the domain names that will be auctioned, Jay has been writing up mini-reviews for some of the better names that are due to be auctioned in a little over a week. As we get closer to the auction, I anticipate seeing more auction names released.

While the ideal marketing effort would be to distribute informational kits about each domain name to potential end-users, I think Jay’s effort goes above and beyond what other auction houses do (he may already be marketing to end users behind the scenes for all I know). With auction commissions reaching up to 20% per sold name, you would think auction houses would really be marketing the domain names in auction to get the best prices for each name. I think this is a great step.

Since end-user businesses should be able to justify spending the most for a domain name, they would be the most likely target. I look forward to the day that domain auction houses market certain generic domain names to the potential end user audience. Educating end users on why they should purchase a generic domain name to support their marketing and branding efforts will be the key to fully unlocking the true value of generic category killer domain names.

If you still haven’t signed up to attend the Domain Roundtable conference, you still have a few days to do so. If you vote in the Name Intelligence User Choice Awards, you will be given a coupon to save $50 off the registration fee. Although it says the voting ends 4/11, it doesn’t look like it has been disabled yet, so you might want to check it out ASAP.

Just a reminder about my auction that ends in a little less than three hours. I am selling the entire set of names below for the highest offer that I receive by 12pm EST (noon) Today. No extension will be given for last second bids. Highest bid received by 12pm (noon) EST will get the names. Since I have to go back and forth between 2 forums and my blog, I think it would be best to put your best bid in a few minutes before noon, that way you may be able to update it should another higher bid be received. The auction is for all of the names below, and the highest bid on TTF is $900.

This is a multi-venue post, but I will update the thread when offers are received. All names are registered at Moniker for an easy free push to your Moniker account.

ApplePickers.com
ArkansasSite.com
CheapToiletries.com
ChristianityExpert.com
ChristianityExperts.com
ChristianityTeacher.com
ChristianityTeachers.com
ChristianityWebsites.com
CommoditiesInvestors.com
DelawareBusinessLoans.com
DelawareInsurer.com
FloridaSubprimeMortgages.com
HaveBeens.com
HealthcareBargain.com
HiTechFund.com
HMOCompanies.com
ImmediateAlerts.com
ImmediateCreditScores.com
MerlotWorld.com
NevadaForeclosureAuctions.com
NewJerseyBusinessLoans.com
NewJerseyForeclosureAuctions.com
NewJerseyInsurer.com
NewJerseyInsurers.com
NewJerseyShoppingCenters.com
NewYorkInsurer.com
NewYorkInsurers.com
OhioInsurer.com
OhioInsurers.com
OregonTeacher.com
PortableComputerMemory.com
PortableMemoryCards.com
PortableVideoDevice.com
ReusableMemory.com
RhodeIslandLender.com
SubprimeHomeLending.com
SubprimeHomeRefinancing.com
SubprimeMortgageProblems.com
TelemarketingSite.com
TexasInsurers.com
TexasSubprimeMortgages.com
TruckDrivingInsurance.com
WirelessHandheldComputer.com
WirelessHandheldComputers.com
WorkersClothing.com

I am selling the entire set of names below for the highest offer that I receive by 12pm EST (noon) on Thursday. I am not selling the names individually, so please don’t ask. This is a multi-venue post, but I will update the thread when offers are received. Feel free to start the bidding at $10 with $10 increments. All names are registered at Moniker for an easy free push to your Moniker account.

ApplePickers.com
ArkansasSite.com
CheapToiletries.com
ChristianityExpert.com
ChristianityExperts.com
ChristianityTeacher.com
ChristianityTeachers.com
ChristianityWebsites.com
CommoditiesInvestors.com
DelawareBusinessLoans.com
DelawareInsurer.com
FloridaSubprimeMortgages.com
HaveBeens.com
HealthcareBargain.com
HiTechFund.com
HMOCompanies.com
ImmediateAlerts.com
ImmediateCreditScores.com
MerlotWorld.com
NevadaForeclosureAuctions.com
NewJerseyBusinessLoans.com
NewJerseyForeclosureAuctions.com
NewJerseyInsurer.com
NewJerseyInsurers.com
NewJerseyShoppingCenters.com
NewYorkInsurer.com
NewYorkInsurers.com
OhioInsurer.com
OhioInsurers.com
OregonTeacher.com
PortableComputerMemory.com
PortableMemoryCards.com
PortableVideoDevice.com
ReusableMemory.com
RhodeIslandLender.com
SubprimeHomeLending.com
SubprimeHomeRefinancing.com
SubprimeMortgageProblems.com
TelemarketingSite.com
TexasInsurers.com
TexasSubprimeMortgages.com
TruckDrivingInsurance.com
WirelessHandheldComputer.com
WirelessHandheldComputers.com
WorkersClothing.com

Nameade, a new domain auction venue, is now hosting my auction for PuertoRicanVacation.com. Originally, I listed this charity auction on my blog, and Nameade offered to host it to increase awareness and raise more money to support the ICA. The payment and transfer of the domain name will still be done through me to make things easier.

Nameade is a new site that launched last week. They provide a full service staff that contacts domain owners who are not in or familiar with the domain industry and finds individuals or companies willing to sell their domains. The entire inventory of names secured is then auctioned every two weeks to the domain community.

The idea is to move away from domainer-to-domainer or expired domain auctions and introduce new names into the space which otherwise would not be available.

Nameade will make a $1,000 donation to the ICA in addition to providing the venue for this auction.

With the most recent TRAFFIC auction not performing up to my expectations considering the quality of the domain names at auction, I think the premium domain sales market is taking a temporary breather. Sellers still have high expectations for their domain names and buyers are reluctant to pay those prices, causing a stalemate. While there are still areas of growth persevering in niche markets, the overall market is resting.

Previously, domain owners could expect their premium domain names would sell for anywhere from wholesale to end-user prices at an industry conference live auction, but that hasn’t been the case for the past two main industry events. In many cases, buyers aren’t willing to pay the premium asking prices right now, and the sellers are reluctant to lower their reserve prices, causing a stalemate in the market. While this might be a cause for concern for those who are heavily invested in domain names, it could develop into a good buying opportunity, so liquidity is important.

While $10 million in domain sales Read More »

I don’t think the results were particularly strong for tonight’s TRAFFIC West auction in Las Vegas, but it resulted in $4.3 million in domain sales. There were some great names up for auction, but in the end, most of them didn’t end up selling.

The silent auction continues for the next few days, and the names that didn’t sell will be available to purchase. The full auction sales list can be found at TheDomains.com.

I found a few names in tomorrow’s live TRAFFIC auction that I like, but apparently I won’t be able to bid on them online since I have a Mac Book with a Leopard OS. According to the Snapnames website’s online bidding requirements:

“Live Auction Software Requirements

Microsoft Windows operating system
Audio output
Internet Explorer 6.0 (or newer) or Firefox 2.0 (or newer)“

Kind of a bummer, but no big deal I suppose.  Guess I should have thought about this earlier!