What a difference a year makes.
The live auction at the TRAFFIC show netted only $2,555,000 in gross sales
The most lively domain of the day was one we picked out last week, postalcodes.com, which rode all the way from a $1,000 reserve, to a $42,000 selling price.
Reportedly there were only 75 people in attendance at the start of the auction and another 75 online, which is quite different from previous shows when there were several hundred people in live audience.
The highest price recorded was $225,000 which was a tie between, GasPrices.com and InsuranceRates.com
.mobi were the big losers today when 15 of the domains held by the .mobi registry failed to get much interest. as .mobi’s struggled to find buyer’s
computers.mobi and men.mobi sold for $9,500 and $10,000 respectively. The highest .mobi of the day was mortgage.mobi which sold for $18,000.
Only 105 of the domains sold.
Here is the full list of all domains that sold :
$225,000 gasprices.com
$225,000 insurancerates.com
$170,000 rainbow.com
$122,000 athlete.com
$120,000 ow.com
$120,000 ringtones.org
$92,500 track.com
$80,000 computerparts.com
$70,000 grass.com
$55,000 sexshows.com
$55,000 filmmaking.com
$50,000 susan.com
$50,000 asia.net
$49,000 anger.com
$42,500 postalcodes.com
$40,000 maybe.com
$37,500 footballscores.com
$35,000 specialoffer.com
$35,000 usedguitars.com
$33,500 sagittarius.com
$30,000 blueray.com
$30,000 floortiles.com
$30,000 bassguitar.com
$29,000 piano.net
$25,000 closings.com
$25,000 boxingnews.com
$25,000 typo.com
$20,000 conglomerate.com
$19,000 engraved.com
$18,000 labsupplies.com
$18,000 mortgage.mobi
$17,500 exerciseballs.com
$17,500 drugs.mobi
$17,000 tvschedule.com
$17,000 freetrailer.com
$16,500 endorsement.com
$16,000 investmentplanner.com
$16,000 carcenter.com
$15,000 management.net
$12,500 refinancerates.com
$12,500 underconstruction.com
$12,500 onlinecounseling.com
$12,000 patti.com
$12,000 influential.com
$12,000 wwb.com
$12,000 language.org
$12,000 honey.net
$11,000 mufflershop.com
$10,500 sales.mobi
$10,500 virgins.net
$10,000 celluliteremoval.com
$10,000 men.mobi
$10,000 films.mobi
$10,000 escort.mobi
$9,500 migrate.com
$9,500 bathsupplies.com
$9,500 computers.mobi
$9,500 airlines.mobi
$9,500 assorted.com
$9,500 freecosmetics.com
$9,250 michigan.info
$9,000 employmentads.com
$9,000 theaterreviews.com
$8,500 civilclaims.com
$8,500 records.mobi
$8,250 metricconversion.com
$8,000 physicians.info
$7,500 honorroll.com
$7,000 flossing.com
$7,000 hospitalization.com
$6,500 luxuryestate.com
$6,000 boats.mobi
$6,000 busstations.com
$6,000 stockmutualfunds.com
$6,000 20.net
$5,500 webclass.com
$5,000 xmaslist.com
$5,000 scraper.com
$5,000 rabid.com
$5,000 forsale.mobi
$5,000 show.mobi
$5,000 airports.info
$5,000 primebeef.com
$5,000 electronicpestcontrol.com
$5,000 garden.info
$5,000 boot.net
$4,500 exerciseclothing.com
$4,000 medicalsupplystores.com
$4,000 badcreditloans.org
$3,500 usedlamborghinis.com
$3,500 uniformservices.com
$3,500 cemeterylots.com
$3,000 thankyougiftbaskets.com
$3,000 burningdvds.com
$3,000 religion.mobi
$3,000 airforcebase.com
$2,500 graphicssoftware.com
$2,500 coconuttrees.com
$2,500 bestmattresses.com
$2,500 optimize.net
$2,000 greeksculptures.com
$1,500 armtattoos.com
$1,500 slangwords.com
$1,200 campfiresongs.com
$1,000 highdefinitionprogramming.com
The reserve prices on the marquee names were too high. There were million dollar plus bids for Jackpot.com, Yachts.com and Israel.com. None of them hit the reserve. In today’s economy, sellers must have their heads in the clouds to auction an undeveloped name with a reserve over a million.
I sold a few in the auction and was quite pleased with what I got, lemons to lemonade-
I agree with David, the reserves were too high. Additionally, on several domains the auctioneer started with an opening bid that was higher than the listed reserve range, but then the domain was a no sale. I don’t understand that.
Mark
I saw that as well
I assume the reserve was listed incorrectly on the auction list.
who places the $5mill bid for israel.com?
I don’t think anyone did
Its unfortunate that moniker auctions have because a joke now. They used the same auctioneer from the adult auction who was simply unprofessional and created no buzz. Monte’s incessant clapping was annoying at best and didn’t create any action.
And their BIGGEST problem is that they continue to have reserve range auctions instead of min bidding like snapnames had. Much like previous moniker auctions, there were phony bids up to the reserve amount which kills the credibility of the auction. Just have min bidding.. Takes care of the rampant fraud that was present and creates real buzz.
David
I think there were many contributing factors.
The timing and place of the show was not great.
The thought was that people would come to the show then stay for the holiday weekend in Orlando with their family and go to the parks.
However very few people came with children or planned on staying for the weekend.
For one its a business event not a family outing
Second Orlando this time of year is 95-98 with no breeze. Absolutely brutal.
Third the auction was scheduled at the end of the show on a friday afternoon of a holiday weekend so there were few people in attendance live in the auction room. Say what you will about remote bidding, there is nothing that gets bidding going than a room full of people bidding and making noise.
The energy level and excitement cannot be replaced by pure “remote” bidding.
This is why people go to casinos. They like to hear the bells going off. The more they hear someone hitting a jackpot or a hard 8 on the craps table the more they bet.
The prices were as david said too high on the “big dollar names”
I published a report several months ago that basically showed for a domain to be priced 50K or over at one of these auctions and generate bids, it better be a really good name. Over 100K your looking for very short brandable domain and over 500K you have ot have a category killer.
Once you get over 1M your talking about a very select domain, most of which are either one of the best 100 words you can find like sex, porn, computer, or a private sale for someone or company that really wanted or needed that name.
You can never compare such retail sales to wholesale auctions.
I listened to the auction on WebmasterRadio.FM in my office in Laguna Beach. My sense is that more and more endusers are entering the fray. The auctioneers can hoot, holler and clap all they want, but the bottom line today is that many potential buyers are asking themselves, “Can I develop this name to the point where I can recoup my investment?”
If they can answer that question they bid. Otherwise, what is someone going to do with a 100K catchy name with no obvious commercial potential? Park it or wait until they can flip it for more money? Those days are over. On a positive note, the fact that $2.5 million in names were sold is nothing to sneeze at.
My brother Michael and I grew up in Florida and the weather in late May in Orlando can be quite unpredictable. In addition, you have the wacko economy, Memorial Day weekend and the fact that many domainers may not want to mix Wallyworld with business. Rick and Howard are excellent promoters, but at some point they must have started to cross their fingers and hoped for the best. Regardless, I’m sure they’ll bounce back hard for NYC.
We also have the silent auction which ends next Thursday which if it does $500K will put the auction over 3M
cemeterylots.com – a solid buy and a fairly easy development. Someone should bank that one.
Its Friday night and I’m still here at Disney World. This was Traffic’s first show here, and I feel it was an all around success. The weather has been pleasant, with occasional showers. I did bring my kids and found that it was a great mix…I dont like to go to the parks myself, so it worked great for me to spend the days at TRAFFIC and have my wife and kids at the various Disney parks each day. The Grand Floridian Resort is all-around one of the nicest properties I have ever stayed at (no, this is not an ad for Traffic or Disney…just my two cents). As to the auction, this is the sixth TRAFFIC I have been to….and it seemed like the best auction of the six. Many, many names sold. Except for a small group of expensive names with what were probably high reserves, the quality of the names was excellent….and it seemed like most reserves were really reasonable. So it meant there was sale after sale after sale after sale. This was not at all like other TRAFFIC auctions that I have been to, where there were many, many No Sale names in a row. Of course, there was a lot of online bidding and sales to online bidders, that had a big effect too. If the grand total of dollar sales doesn’t compare well to other sales, I think it is because there was not one or two big dollar names to lift the averages….and the total. But I bet it was a very high sales percentage, that is…sold names versus unsold names.
Bob
Thanks for your review of the show. It’s great to get the perspective of people in attendance.
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Orlando definitely looked like a blast and both my names sold in the live auction as well, so I’m happy. Too bad I couldn’t be there myself, but it was amusing to follow the live feed via the SnapNames client. Now I’m really looking forward to T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York, as it’ll be the first Traffic conference I’ll attend. Great work!
“.mobi were the big losers today when 15 of the domains held by the .mobi registry failed to get much interest. as .mobi’s struggled to find buyer’s”
I was at the auction and from my perspective there was enviable interest in .mobi names. In fact all but one sold in the live auction. When one considers all the factors at play for this particular event—the venue, the timing in proximity to a major holiday weekend and general economic conditions, I’d say the .mobi’s fared quite well in comparison to at least 15+ other TLD names that had reserves out of whack with current reality.
Pinky
To your credit, you guys always have placed reasonable reserves on the domains you submit to TRAFFIC.
However men.mobi and computers.mobi sold for 5 times less than hot.mobi sold for a year ago?
There was a .org sale in the six figures, and a .net sale for $50K.