Backdrop for this Week’s Domain Auctions is Shaky
Thursday, September 25th, 2008
This week’s onslaught of domain auctions couldn’t have come at a more unstable time.
Call it the week of domain name auctions: two from Moniker, plus auctions from Rick Latona Auctions, Aftermarket.com, and Sedo.
Also call it the week of economic uncertainty.
Yesterday afternoon the backdrop for the Aftermarket.com auction was knowledge that President Bush was going to address the nation about the financial crisis just a few hours later. In that speech, he warned that failure to swiftly pass his proposed financial injection would result in “financial panic”. No one ever wants to hear those words, especially from the leader of the free world.
Earlier in the day McCain said that the crisis was so bad he was suspending his campaign to return to Washington. He also wants to postpone Friday’s debate.
It was a see-saw day that began with news that Warren Buffet invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), suggesting everything would work out just fine. It ended with the president warning of financial panic.
Hardly a day to over come psychological barriers and empty your pocket book on domain names.
A year or two from now we may look back on this week and think that the buyers were brilliant. They got domains at good prices. They also shifted money out of a currency with downside risk and parked it into an “international good”.
With results from the first three auctions mediocre at best, today’s Moniker auction will be extremely important. It’s possible that Moniker’s slot of Thursday afternoon will prove to be perfect. Today Obama, McCain, and legislative leadership is meeting in Washington to hammer out the details of the bailout. If word gets out that it’s going well, we could see the stock market and economic hopes rise this afternoon. That could carry the auction with it.
Related posts:
- Sedo auctions coming next week
- 3 Online Domain Name Auctions Going on at Once
- Ocean Tomo Intellectual Property Auction This Week
Tags: Aftermarket.com, domain auction, Moniker, rick latona, sedo
“A year or two from now we may look back on this week and think that the buyers were brilliant. They got domains at good prices.”
(DomainNameWire)
Didn’t Buffett say that you want to buy the farm land during a drought, not during a banner crop yield? (paraphrasing)
I’m sure the uncertainty of the U.S. economy is affecting domain purchases.
But, I also believe one of the major underlying problems effecting domain sales is the declining PPC and Adsense revenue.
The adversarial relationship between domainers and Google/Yahoo continues to create doubt about the potential growth of that revenue stream in the future.
Domainers know they are not getting a fair (honest?) share of the revenue from G/Y so they are focusing more on full blown domain development rather than additional domain inventory with unknown revenue possibilities.
But, I agree there have been many excellent purchases at the recent auctions.
Case in point is the recent purchase of Aftermarket.com a few months ago. Look at the branding being developed for this domain.
Monte, good luck on the sale today. There are a number of great domains on the list.
(I hope this is not a double post. The first one didn’t post.)
[...] 3PM TodaySedo Great Domains Auction Ends Today 2 PM EDTI’ve Got Domain Renewal Fatigue; 5 Days to GoBackdrop for this Week’s Domain Auctions is ShakyAftermarket.com Sells $150,000 in Live Domain AuctionRick Latona Domain Name Auction Nets [...]