The moniker.com auction from the Geo show in Chicago just concluded with a total of $284K of domains sold.
Here is a list of all the domains that sold:
SantaClara.com $82,500
Afghan.com $30,000
Asia.org $30,000
OysterBay.com $24,500
Guatemala.net $16,000
Cuban.com $15,000
Secaucus.com $11,000
SaintKittsAndNevis.com $10,500
Strongsville.com $8,000
SaintClairShores.com $6,000
Cayman.info $5,500
GarfieldHeights.com $5,000
PalmHarborFlorida.com $4,000
Brazilians.com $4,000
BrookPark.com $3,750
HazelPark.com $3,500
Fridley.com $3,500
Hawaiians.com $3,250
RosellePark.com $3,100
AmeliaIslandFL.com $2,500
ChicagoHotelReservations.com $2,500
NorthernIsrael.com $2,000
ChileanSeaBassRecipes.com $1,250
GrandCanary.com $1,200
LuxuryCruiseship.com $1,200
DrexelHeights.com $1,000
GlendaleArizona.net $800
CaliforniaVisitorsGuide.com $500
Medford.info $400
HotelPalmSprings.com $325
CaliforniaHomeAppraisal.com $250
NewYorkCityIncomeTax.com $150
ChicagoHotline.com $150
SaltLakeAccommodations.com $125
CaliforniaGasoline.com $125
GovernorsIslandNewYork.com $100
NewYorkCityMedicalMalPractice.com $100
AnnetteIsland.com $100
NewYorkInvestmentBanker.com $75
GuideToMinneapolis.com $75
CaliforniaApartmentFinder.com $50
LosAngelesMarriages.com $25
Where any of the following domain names listed for sale ?
HOLLYWOODBILLS.COM
HOLLYWOODROBERTSONBOULEVARD.COM
RENONEVADALASVEGAS.COM
RENONEVADAONLINE.COM
ROBERTSONBOULEVARD.INFO
MYBATHURST.COM
MYCALIFORNIA.INFO
MYHOLLYWOODLOVE.COM
MYIVORYCOAST.COM
MYLAUNCESTON.COM
MYMALIBUCALIFORNIA.COM
MYPARRAMATTA.COM
MYROCKHAMPTON.COM
FREMANTLEONLINE.COM
GERALDTONONLINE.COM
GERALDTONWESTERNAUSTRALIA.COM
KALGOORLIEONLINE.COM
KALGOORLIEWESTERNAUSTRALIA.COM
LAGOSVIP.COM
TAMWORTHNEWSOUTHWALES.COM
TOOWOOMBAQUEENSLAND.COM
ZAGREBVIP.COM
Cuban.com seems like a really good buy
I think a lot of people are in denial about the state of the economy. Even people with money need to be cautious when banks are on the brink of collapse. Before blaming the reserves or selection committees, check out what Fortune is reporting today about a $5 trillion mess, and even the best domain names at anything but a fire sale price, seem trivial, at best.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created by Congress to help more Americans buy homes. Now their shaky condition threatens the entire housing market.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/11/news/economy/fannie_freddie.fortune/index.htm
Owen,
A few questions:
1.) Does the old Warren Buffett concept of buying when things are at their gloomiest and everyone is selling not apply now?
2.) How do you reconcile the state of the economy, the mortgage/credit crisis and the billion dollar DotTV deal that is about to go down (as posted on your blog)?
3.) Do you have an opinion on what Elysium Internet is doing, their gameplan, etc?
Owen
I have a post about this ready to go today.
I think your right
Tony
I don’t know if Owen will answer but I’ll take a shot at number 1
Maybe things are not yet at their gloomiest.
No one knows where a bottom lies until later on.
There is a thought that the housing crisis has a long way to go. Read my post today I am in agreement.
I think until after the election nothing particular good is going to happen. In six months things maybe a lot gloomier.
Damir
I love you man. Your always reading my posts and commenting on them, but I got to tell you my true opinion which is I do not see one name on the list you posted here that would have sold for any amount in the 4 figures or above or any that are any better than names that did not sell today.
People are getting picky. Good names at low reserves will sell.
Exceptional names will sell if they are priced well.
But things are tight.
Most of us are still unwilling to place low reserves on domains and buyer are looking for bargains.
Once again i don’t that someone submitted say reno.com for $5,000 and moniker picked StateOfNewMexico.org instead.
I think they picked the best of the domains that were submitted considering the reserve prices submitted.
SantaClara.com was my pick and I see it brought the most money.
Seems like someone got a really good deal on that one.
Owen,
C’mon man. I expect a little more insight than that from you.
Denial?
It’s not denial it’s the lack of understanding.
The vast majority of people get their daily knowledge from the popular press.
Do you really think the average person fully understands what is happening economically?
What’s in the press now happened in the past. It’s not even close to being timely.
Where’s the smart money now?
CALPERS has been in oil futures for the last few years. It only now was recently reported on and who do you think stands to benefit?
You think they aren’t selling out their position into that market?
Where are the big pension funds investing?
Where are the hedge funds putting their billions now?
You think the press knows?
Why do you think hedge funds need to stay unregulated?
These guys are months ahead of what you are reading about now.
Do you know what happened in the TIMO industry?
Guess who is a huge investor in TIMO’s?
Did you know about the 30%-50% annual returns that are now commoditized down to 6%-7%?
Where do those trillions go now to get superior returns?
The reality of the economy is now evident in the domain market.
Inevitably this had to happen.
The Domaining pricing problem is reserves and the auction co’s screening of them!
There’s money for purchasing, but at lower price points.
Auction co’s are the only ones in position that can control reerves and force them downward. Lower your reserves or they are not accepted for auction.
They have to get ahead of the curve.
Sahar and the BIDO guys are the only group that might be getting it or was the elimination of the pricing guarantee strictly a defensive maneuver because of a falling market?
Either way the realization was that reserves by the average domainer were not realistic with the current economic reality of falling prices.
Reserves and the phsycology of the minds behind the setting of each and everyone of them is going to be flawed. Human behaviour can not keep up with pricing in a falling market.
What you need to think about is where are the opportunities?
Tony, it’s gloomy now!
Don’t try to guess where the markets going.
Don’t wait and try to figure out when it’s at it’s gloomiest.
Otherwise you will have missed it!
Koz
Koz
Here’s my thoughts on these auctions
Lets say moniker get 25,000 submissions for an auction like Geo.
Most are crap names that don’t mean anything.
Out of the potential good ones the reserves are too high and the owner is not willing to reduce it.
That leaves moniker selecting either crappy names or overpriced names. They can only sell what get’s submitted right?
With Bido, Sahar is selling mostly his own inventory and is willing to let the market decide its value starting with a $0 reserve.
You have that choice too Koz.
You can submit your best 10 domains to traffic with a zero reserve and let the market decide what their worth.
All your names will sell and if everyone did that the list would be the best ever.
Regarding your other comments, big pension funds are not investing in domains, nor are hedge funds.
Hedge funds I assume have been investing heavily into commodities as they are all skyrocketing.
In my opinion there is also tremendous opportunity in the alternative energy market.
In our own industry Google and Baidu will continue to prosper.
Wow Cuban is a great buy. I am pretty sure that is an easy flip to a certain person
Juan
I think that was the best buy of the auction as well
Some nice values there…including Brazilians.com, Hawaiians.com, Medford.info (questionable to develop on…but as a 7-letter, 1-word pure city geo, still worth 5k+…); and, to the surprise of many, Secaucus.com did in fact sell for my predicted 10k+ 🙂
Mike,
I’ll address the second part of your comments on pension & hedge funds first.
You miss-understood what I meant.
I never meant to imply that either were invested or investing in domains.
While not out of the realm of what some hedge funds might invest in,I don’t know of any at present.
Pension funds on the other hand are probably alot further off from investing their first dollars in this space. They are alot more risk averse.
Rather I was trying to convey my thoughts as to where the smart money might be investing now.
You can’t read about current economic events in the press and think that you can discern where the smart money is investing now. It’s their job to outsmart and stay ahead of all the reporting.
You, Owen and myself included we all lived through one of the greatest real estate booms in Florida. (Just want to concentrate on one specific market)
When did the smart money (professional investors)
come into this market?
a) the beginning
b) the middle
c) the end
When did they leave this market?
When did the dumb money enter the market?
We all know how that turned out.
Florida property values continue to fall.
How do you think all these huge condo buildings on the beach get built?
To a large extent they aren’t levered developments they are built with pension and hedge fund money.
What about all those luxury apartment complexes that were condo conversions?
Again, the smart money was behind alot of the large condo conversion projects.
These are some examples of the smart money (pro investors) selling smaller pieces off to the dumb money or end users (they could care less which).
I wanted to give Owen some things to think about in regards to why people might not be in denial, by pointing out recent economic events that he may not know about. If he doesn’t know about some of these economic trends how can he expect the average person to understand what’s happened to our economy?
I asked Owen why he thought hedge funds want and need to stay unregulated.
The simple answer is because these guys are super guarded and secretative about where they are investing capital now (today). If it was regulated and transparent thay would all be screwed. The markets are highly effecient and their return would become commoditized down to 6%.
Currently, they don’t have to report where they are investing and therfore can find the inefficiencies in the market and garner huge returns on their investments. This is their edge.
You said:
“Hedge funds I assume have been investing heavily into commodities as they are all skyrocketing.”
You assume they are still there?
When does (did) the smart money leave the commodity markets?
Has the dumb money entered the market?
When the dumb money is buying into a market who are the sellers?
When does the greater fool theory kick in?
Has it already?
Is your neighbor buying oil futures?
(nat. gas, gold, etc..)
Don’t be a fool!
Koz
I understand your comments now.
There is the thing there is no such thing as smart money.
There are people and groups of people who have a little money, a lot of money and a ton of money under the control.
Those guys at Bear Sterns, Goldman Saks and Lehman are pretty smart guys all caught on the wrong side of the housing mess.
Likewise there has been plenty of hedge funds that went belly up, pension plans wiped out.
Will Oil hit $200 or $80 first?
Who knows
Unless you have true “insider information” we are all guessing no matter how much money you have or how smart you are.
Mike,
My thoughts on your thoughts about auctions….
Let’s put a number on the truly good names…let’s say 250.
Now, out of 25,000 names 250 will make the live auction. (forget the extended auction)
Let’s expand your example by 2 more auction co’s (upcoming TRAFFIC auction)
The usual suspects submit those same 25,000 names (w/same reserves) to 3 auction co’s at one upcoming conference.
A large percentage of the good names will be overpriced, but not all.
Now we have 750 names at live auction instead of the usual 250 names from 1 auction co.
For now, let’s not get into competitive dynamics between auction co’s fighting over the same 250 good names and how that may effect current commissions, etc. (this is great for domainers)
But, only 250 are good names. We now have 500 crappy names at live auction.
I can tell you this, this first Triple Live Auction TRAFFIC event is not going to be very successful.
Unless, someone like you, Frank or other large portfolio owners see the opportunity to take say 250 premium names and spread them out over the 3 auctions with realistic reserves. (The auction co’s will be starved for quality names, so all 250 in theory would make it in)
Here’s the rub…
In the first events like this the auction co’s really don’t have any leverage over the reserves. They have to accept the good names with the unrealistic reserves, no matter what they are.
But, we are in a market with falling prices.
You have a conundrum.
Guys like Monty can’t just take the best 250 names anymore.
1) Moniker has to fight for the best 250 names
2) They have to get lower reserves to sell these names in a market w/falling pricing
3) They don’t have any leverage over domainers to get reserves lowered
Most domainers don’t get this so inevitably out of 250 good names actual sales on percentage terms should fall.
You have the lag effect where it will take time for domainers to figure out why their good names aren’t
selling.
It will gradually happen, as a percentage of domainers need to eventually sell something for cashflow. Now, if PPC was rising instead of fallling that process would take longer. But, with cashflow shrinking w/PPC it should accelerate this process.
My understanding of BIDO is that Sahar’s names are just to get the auction off the ground, create traction build up the traffic and submittals of domains until they start getting some good names. Eventually, most of the auctions should not be his names. (although, IMO I think it will take a longer time now without the guarantee)
I think the elimination of BIDO’s pricing guarantee was strictly a defensive measure because in a falling market how can you predict pricing?
I think when they analyzed all the sales pricing data along with that guarantee they realized, when they actually started selling names other than Sahar’s, they were going to end up losing alot of money funding shortfalls on the final sales price.
Better to eleminate it now than after a year of operation, when domainers would moan & bitch about it.
Regardless, I don’t think it’s a smart move to actually have no reserves.
Unless you’re an efficient market theorist. Which I’m not, especially when it comes to our domain market. I think it’s highly inefficient market.
The more I’m thinking about this, Mike, the more I think this should be put in it’s own post. I think our discussion here is important and could be very valuable to alot of domainers. Right now it’s buried under Geoauctions results.
Koz