With over $4.5M in domain sales at last week’s TRAFFIC auction, should it be deemed a success?

$4.5M is a lot of dough. 1/3 of the total sales came from one domain, Cameras.com for $1.5M. (See a complete list of sales from the auction here. See video of the Cameras.com auction here.

But was last week’s auction a success? A number of premium generic domains failed to sell. Perhaps the reserve prices were too high, or perhaps the buyers at the auction were looking for a different type of domain.

ITWeek declared:

Premium generic domain names may be losing their appeal after an auction failed to bring in large sums for many that would once have been deemed highly valuable.

An auction of names including cameras.com, auction.com, elections.com, babies.net* and hell.com late in October saw some names fail to reach their reserve price while others went to modest bids. Expectations of higher prices were fuelled by the $12m sale of sex.com earlier this year.

I don’t think generic domains are losing value. On the contrary, I think they continue to soar. My guess is this is simply an issue of the crowd at TRAFFIC wasn’t looking for some of these domains. You have to have a business plan before shelling out a million dollars for a generic domain. Many of the buyers at TRAFFIC are portfolio buyers who can’t justify paying a multiple of 100x for a generic domain.

One of the bright spots at the auction was .mobi, which had two great sales. Flowers.mobi sold for $200,000 and Fun.mobi banked $100,000.

*My records show babies.net sold for $26k, but perhaps this did not consummate in a sale.

Want to know what it’s like being in a room full of domain investors during a $1M+ auction?

Video from the Moniker/TRAFFIC conference has surfaced, showing the last couple bids of the cameras.com auction. The auction ended at $1.5M, making it one of the most expensive domains ever sold. Cameras.com stole the show, coming in $1.3M higher than the next domain, Flower.mobi.

For a complete list of domains that sold in the auction, click here.

As certain countries ask for the internet to be pryed from U.S. control, advocacy groups argue this may diminish free speech.

Just this month the U.S. Department of Commerce loosened its grip on ICANN, allowing for a review in 18 months to determine if the entity should become free of U.S. oversight.

But apparently that isn’t enough for some of the world’s repressive countries, whose dictators feel freedom of speech on the internet is undermining their stability. A top United Nations official lashed out at U.S. control during a U.N. summit in Athens, Greece, reports CNET.

But human rights groups don’t want to see some of the world’s worst dicatators having a say in internet governance:

Human rights groups, however, have warned that many of the nations most critical of the current arrangement–Tunisia, Cuba, Iran, China–rank among the world’s most repressive. The worry: If those governments have their way, the current, virtually limitless amount of free expression on the Internet may come to an end.

The Paris-based advocacy group Reporters Without Borders last week called those reform proposals alarming and asked: “Do we really want the countries that censor the Internet and jail cyberdissidents to be in charge of the online flow of information?” (The group also noted that the United Nations Commission on Human Rights counted, as members, nations such as Libya and Sudan, no champions of human rights themselves.)

Similarly, Amnesty International has sent a delegation here to the Internet Governance Forum to emphasize the need for protecting free speech. “The Internet Governance Forum needs to know that the online community is bothered about free expression online and willing to stand up for it,” said Steve Ballinger, part of Amnesty’s delegation.

In the 2006 Domain Name Wire survey of over 500 people, only 38% of respondents favored handing control of ICANN over to an international body. 83% of the respondents lived outside the United States.

The live auction at TRAFFIC has concluded with over $4.5M in domain sales.

The list speaks for itself, so I’ll just post it without commentary. Please note that this is an unofficial list that David compiled. He did a fantastic job but the room was loud and the action fast, so there may be a couple that are a bit off. Many thanks to David for recording the auction!

cameras.com 1,500,000
Flowers.mobi 200,000
Forclosures.com 150,000
Mortgage.net 149,000
vb.com 130,000
sailboat.com 120,000
SexEducation.com 120,000
CreditCards.net 120,000
own.com 115,000
university.org 100,000
HB.com 100,000
Fun.mobi 100,000
Credits.com 95,000
Hook.com 67,000
WO.com 65,000
fortress.com 60,000
Bisexuals.com 60,000
above.com 50,000
Workshops.com 48,000
cults.com 45,000
ATF.com 40,000
Hot.mobi 40,000
Trusted.com 37,500
hun.net 35,000
beachfrontproperty.com 32,000
dent.com 30,500
Egreeting.com 30,000
OHL.com 30,000
HouseKeepers.com 30,000
Accelerate.com 28,000
stocktickers.com 27,000
stockquotes.mobi 27,000
Babies.net 26,000
familyphotos.com 25,000
Raise.com 25,000
Cams.mobi 23,600
Acre.com 22,500
Sitcoms.com 22,000
DDE.com 21,200
cd.net 20,000
TelephoneCall.com 20,000
CosmeticSurgery.net 20,000
UniformRentals.com 18,000
vintageautos.com 16,500
girlcams.com 16,000
AustraliaVacations.com 16,000
debug.com 15,000
brooches.com 15,000
CityUniversity.com 14,000
so.net 13,000
XS.net 13,000
Party.mobi 13,000
AccountsPayable.com 12,000
Tuscan.com 11,800
SumoWrestling.com 11,800
WifiAccess.com 11,500
outsourcing.net 11,000
Globe.net 11,000
EmergencyClinics.com 11,000
Discounts.org 10,600
RetirementLoans.com 10,500
Alberta.org 10,500
automotiveimports.com 10,000
FixedLoans.com 10,000
Met.net 10,000
wow.mobi 9,000
amethysts.com 9,000
CableBox.com 9,000
PortablePrinters.com 9,000
pdagames.com 8,500
sweatpants.com 8,500
loanfinance.com 8,000
StockData.com 8,000
ForeignInvestments.com 8,000
rentalcarrates.com 7,000
ValueFlights.com 7,000
TickerSymbols.com 7,000
FileElectronically.com 7,000
BabyOutlets.com 7,000
Firefighter.org 6,500
blogs.info 6,000
StockExchanges.com 6,000
CanadaMortgageRates.com 6,000
Stereos.net 5,900
antibiotics.net 5,500
AmericanHistory.org 5,500
BookSelling.com 5,500
forexquotes.com 5,000
gossip.mobi 5,000
produce.net 5,000
queens.net 5,000
storageserver.com 5,000
Sectional.com 5,000
golfer.org 4,700
Idea.us 4,500
ForeignExchanges.com 4,000
today.us 3,600
Cherries.net 3,600
currencybroker.com 3,500
Concerned.com 3,500
BarbequeSmokers.com 3,000
OilRefinery.com 3,000
Laugh.mobi 3,000
CosmeticDentist.us 2,500
celebs.mobi 2,250
deal.us 2,000
computerjunky.com 2,000
CyberWedding.com 1,500
LakerTicket.com 1,500
DodgerTicket.com 1,000
DigitalDates.com 1,000
SystemFailures.com 1,000
PureBullDogs.com 1,000
guacamole.us 600

Just in from TRAFFIC…Rick Schwartz bought Flowers.mobi for $200,000…

This is one of the better .mobi domains. Think about it…need to buy flowers quickly from my cell phone.

More to come…