They are definitely trying to change things up including: “The only domains that we will accept directly are the ones that have a flat fee paid in advance for the listing or prime domains with a $25,000 minimum value…We expect more than 50% of the listings will be paid listings!”
“”Every auction should be a contest. That is why we don’t care if there are 5 names in the auction, 10 names, 100 names. The only thing that counts is there are interested parties ready to bid and prepared to win”
Here is the full text regarding the auction:
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. is where the live domain auctions started and where the records have been set. T.R.A.F.F.I.C. took a closed auction process and opened it up for all in our 2008 show.
The only domains that we will accept directly are the ones that have a flat fee paid in advance for the listing or prime domains with a $25,000 minimum value. All other domains will be chosen through one of the brokers like Sedo, or Aftermarket.com or any of the other premiere brokers in the space.
We will be publishing a list from these companies on September 12th. Each broker can submit their list to us and we will work closely with them to choose the ones we think will sell. We will supply the venue, the auctioneer and the production as well as the single most qualified audience in the business.
Those supplying names to us for our Guaranteed Placement Program will pay a flat fee and a very attractive commission schedule that can save you a lot of money IF you are serious about selling and IF you want to participate in your marketing. If you have been frustrated by not having the auction houses select your name, this gives you control.
You can submit your domains right on our website with the form on the bottom of the page.
Every auction should be a contest. That is why we don’t care if there are 5 names in the auction, 10 names, 100 names. The only thing that counts is there are interested parties ready to bid and prepared to win. The days of 200 domains crammed in an auction to put everyone asleep are over.
Reserves will no longer be tightly defined. You will have to bid on the merits and value of the domain not a predetermined value. That is why all auctions will start with a $1 or $1000 bid and work up from there. The days of starting at crazy high prices and working down and showboating are over. If a domain does not sell, at least a TRUE market value will be established by a qualified audience of buyers.
Some domains are already published for sale and more will be added each Friday as contracts come in. We expect more than 50% of the listings will be paid listings!
is this time of deep economy crisis the right moment to sell domains at high prices?
No doubt another game changer huh? Pigeon Shit
New Amazon.com domain names add to Kindle intrigue
techflash.com/seattle/2011/08/new-domain-names-add-to-kindle-intrigue.html
The auction sounds like a breath of fresh air, should get a good clearance rate with that system. It is the right way to go in terms of attracting people who are realistic about selling.
one observation…I think for the approach to work they should have a sept 1 cutoff, allowing a full month of marketing the names they selected, isnt that what the upfront fee is for?
I think this format will be cool to see played out. I don’t know that it will increase sales as there are a lot of delusional people willing to take gambles. Regardless, I have a few questions that maybe Rick can answer. Who is promoting and running the auction ? Rick and Howard ? Moniker ( I doubt) ? Aftermarket.com ? I know there is a lot of effort that goes in to the technical side of broadcasting and allowing online bidding is that going to be part of this auction or just live bidding. I might give this auction a whirl but I’d like to know what’s being done to promote (pre-auction) as well. Look forward to more insight.
This format is getting closer to what we propose but it is not there yet.
We propose allowing the owner of the domain to bid on their own domain.
If they buy it back they pay a fee of about 5% to the auction company. This is sort of how some coin auctions work and they do wonderful.
This is predicated on plenty of advertising and having bidders who would be interested in the domain bidding. So if you are unrealistic and want 1m for a domain and want to take a shot in the top auction and you bid 300K you pay 15K to keep your domain,
The entire fee does not have to go to the auction company. It can be used for marketing and to offset high commisions as part of the profit will be made from these buy back fees. So a seller’s fee could wind up being only 5-10%.
I looked at the crazy prices on some of the domainfest domains. What a joke. How can a company with integrity take domains that have NO chance of selling.
If you look at Heritage coin auctions and most of the other auction houses they have sell rates of 80% or more. Domain auction are under 10%. Something is wrong with this picture.
The domain auction should ONLY accept domains that they think are fairly reserved OR make the consignor PAY to take a shot at a crazy reserve.
Rick is on the right track but we do not agree with flat fees UNLESS they go up based on the size of the reserve. Sure for 2K we would take a shot and see what a potential 1M domain might bring but we might not for 25K
What do you mean “if you want to participate in the marketing”
You want me to pay you a listing fee
You want me to pay you a commission
And
You want me to participate in the marketing
Next you’ll want me to buy the name too
If I am charged with doing all that what the he’ll do I need you for
If I wanted to market the name I would have done that myself
You misunderstood.
If the buy back fees are too much in total the auction company should use part of it to increase their marketing specifially to companies who might be interested in the domains.
Most purchasers now are domainers. It would take lots of time and money to contact companies who might want a domain like babies.com. It should be done and I am suggesting that if an auction company is going to earn 300K in buy back fees that they use some of that for additional marketing and not for their own profit.
Great format for buyers and agents. Nothing for the seller. The rare coin market is liquid and has a very long history – but still has his dark side. Domain name sales are opaque at best and possibly much worse. As far as I can tell, nothing new for domain sellers in so far as determining a fair market value among potential end users.
I pretty much agree with you but I am sure you will agree that in most domain auctions the higher priced domains are a joke and at best one or two sell. Everyone is hoping it is theirs.
But is most cases their one word domain is not good.
Some domain people have money and would pay fair prices for great domains.
Even if you start the bidding at 1.00 and it goes to 400K but the reserve is 2M what is accomplished. So what do you suggest?
The problem is that almost NO ONE is willing to accept the actual market value of their domains. They want major money for slop.
It is rare to find the end user like Rick did with Candy.com. Companies do not seem to value domains like domain owners do. There are very few sales like that. Toys.com, Slots.com are two more examples but again in the big picture that is rare.
We paid 1.8 for pizza.com, great name.
Hot.com is listed in the next auction for 1-5M. We like it.
If there were no reserve it might bring 250K. MIGHT! The auctions do not care about the reserves, the seller needs to be able to bid and pay a fee if their overpriced domain does not sell.
@National A-1
“Most purchasers now are domainers.”
Depends on the price range. We field major offers weekly and nearly 100% of those offering over 100K are endusers.
Agree 100% that MANY lower priced domains are sold to the end users.
In fact when you read the sales reports every month that Sedo sold 700K and XYZ sold
500K they are usually comprised of lower priced domains.,
I see very few sales over 500K and perhaps a few here and there for 250K to 500K.
it seems there are few players for top domains.
@National A-1
Thanks for you comments. Who really knows what is going on in the premium domain market.?I routinely get starting offers of six figure offers for my premium domain – some are clearly identified as end users. I imagine that there are many negotiations going on behind the scenes that the public never hears about. Unfortunately there still isn’t a proper venue for price discovery for premium domains.
@National A-1
What I’m saying is that domainers do not buy high price domains. The reason being is that they are not developers and they can’t recoup their investment parking the name.