Tomorrow Tuesday April 28, Rick Latona will be holding his live domain auction, from the TRAFFIC show in California at 3:30 PST, 6:30 EST.
Remote bidding will be allowed for those not in attendance.
So it’s time for our picks, pans, and predictions for the auction.
So with all our stats and figures we find that these are the best buys from the auction:
Shows.com at no reserve. A great one word domain with an Estibot Appraisal of $190K.
Our prediction is that this domain will sell for between $125K-$175k.
French.com reserve $200K. Has an Estibot appraisal of $800K, has an Overture score of over 100K. A great domain for food, travel, restaurants, and all things french.
Novelties.com Reserve $90K. Another great one word domain. Estibot appraisal of $190K. Huge category with almost 12 Million Google references.
PinballMachines.com Reserve $50K. Category killer and the best name for the topic it covers. Yes they still make these. Estibot appraisal of $150K.
Mortuary.com & Mortuaries.com Reserve $25K. Huge industry, reasonable price, Esibot appraisal (both names) $60K.
Gauze.com Reserve $3,500. Obviously a product, also anything dealing with first aid. Estibot appraisal of $53K.
Victorville.com $23,000. Nice Geo domain for a city with an estimated population in 2008, of 107,000 people. Estibot appraisal of $43K
MLL.com, Reserve $15K. Like any 3 letter it stands for a ton of businesses and organizations including Major League Lacrosse (yes there is one).
Propertymanagers.com, Reserve$8,500. Can be used for job site, or a company in the business. Estbot appraisal of $46K and almost 1.5 million Google References.
TechnicalSupport.com, Reserve $150K. Category killer, although most of this is done outside of the US. My records indicate it was for sale at TRAFFIC west 2008, but had a reserve range of $250K-$500K. Think this is now listed at a fair price. Estibot Appraisal of $170K.
Here are some domains that I don’t like or think are way overpriced IMHO:
DreamHolidays.com, reserve $109,500. Talk about overpriced. Estibot appraisal of only $2,300. Only slightly over 100K Google references. I know in Europe they talk about holidays instead of vacations, but the term is “dream vacations” not “dream holidays”, as evidenced by the poor Google showing.
JobPlacement.com, reserve $100K. Don’t like the domain at even half this price. Estibot appraisal $35K. I Like FindJobs.com at Moniker .com auction (reserve 100k-$250K) much better.
Cardiology.net, reserve $25K. Price is too high for a .net, which covers a topic, rather than the profession (Cardiologists), Estibot Apprisal $9,400.
CriminalCourtRecords.com Reserve $16K. Way too high (Estibot appraisal of $450) and what would you do with this domain? As an attorney I don’t get its use or value.
Speaking of legal domains another way over priced is Lawsuits.com, reserve $200K. Would a major law firm use this domain? Think it’s way over priced, Estibot appraisal of $88K.
MotorcrossRacingTires.com, Reserve $1,000. I know its only $1K but the correct term is “Motocross” racing tires (check it out in Google). I don’t like typo’s, especially in a 3 word domain. (Esitbot appraisal $0).
This leaves us at Smartphones.com, which has gotten a lot of buzz on industry blogs. Here are my thoughts: A nice name, fairly priced, but don’t think it’s the “deal of the century”. Actually I don’t even think its the best deal in this auction. Why?, because when people go to look to buy cell phones they are either locked in by their carrier, and they buy them from the carrier’s site or store, or if they are savvy enough to look for an “unlocked” phone, they know the model they want (for example an “iPhone” or “Blackberry Storm”) and will go find it on ebay, or Google and do a search for that model. So the domain is going to have to be used eventually by a manufacturer of phones or a store that operates on ebay selling “unlocked phones”. It’s one of those rare names, a category for sure, but in my opinion, of limited use and traffic.
The domain has a ranking of 3.3 Million on Alexa and a Compete monthly visitor count of 722. From the search side it has a word tracker count of only 122 and a Vurr score of only 12.
It should be a lively auction, and we wish all bidders and sellers the best of luck.
There is a reason why smartphones.com is priced at 50K and you’ve just pointed out. The manufacturers and cell providers are very good at branding. They don’t brand by the generic term smartphone. Smartphone is a geek term, not a consumer term. I don’t think the name is worth even that much and believe the buyer will be stuck with a very expensive, under performing domain.
One of my biggest concearns for SmartPhones.com is the longevity of the name. Smart Phones is a term right now, but will they still be called that in 5 more years, or will there be a new term coined? When I buy names I think about “how many years” am I buying the name at. Wouldn’t want to buy a name at 10 years if the world 5 years from now dosen’t have room for my domain name.
In general I avoid technology domains for just this reason. SmartPhones.com is a great name though if you’ve got a good plan on how to get in, make $$$$, and then get out.
Forget smartphones- the bigger money is in the domains as names for iPhone apps. Example of what MLL could be:
http://fragerfactor.blogspot.com/2009/04/mlb-app-is-nearing-1-million-revenue.html
Smartphones.com will not sell even for $50K imho
D
I think those in the industry that love this domain, may bid on it, so I wouldn’t expect it to go unsold