Auction has bidders but no domains have hit their reserve yet.
The Olympic-themed .Club domain name auction going on at Sedo ends on Wednesday. So far no domain names have hit their reserve price.
I think there are three reasons that no domains have hit their reserves so far.
1. If you’re going to bid to win, you wait until the last minute. You wouldn’t bid up the price a day in advance.
2. The auction has special requirements. Because the .Club sunrise period just began, if you win a domain now it could be taken back in sunrise. It can also be taken back due to name collisions. These are unlikely scenarios, but it means you have to fill out a separate bidder agreement. Adding friction to the bidding process reduces the number of bidders. It certainly makes it difficult to bid if you learn about the auction late.
3. Some of the reserves are rather high. Very few domains in any new extension will sell for more than $1,000. If .club takes off then domains like Snowboard.club and Skate.club might be worth more than a grand. But making that bet now is very risky unless you have definite plans to build out the domain. (Note: most domains have a reserve below $1,000.)
DonnyM says
I’m shocked, shocked to find that domaining is going on in here.
Your winnings sir. And that is how I am summing up 99% of the GTLD’s. LOL
Michael Bauser says
Your forgot the fourth reason: .club is a really dumb TLD.
Pein Moe says
Reason #5: The gtlds are incredibly stupid and will all fail. People are smart enough to foresee that.
John says
You are right. You have to be stupid to register any domains with new TLDs
There will be massive financial loses for the owners of these TLDs
Joseph Peterson says
I’ve seen some sales of vanity extensions above $1k. So even if it’s possible to argue that the extensions (as a whole) “will all fail”, it certainly is incorrect to predict that all individual domains in these nTLDs will fail. Surely we’ll see sales and also development on some scale.
Among the hundreds of vanity extensions flooding the market, .CLUB has a better chance of public adoption than many I could list.
Perhaps the problem with the Sedo Winter sport .CLUB auction is partly due to the nature of winter sport clubs. They tend to be defined LOCALLY, based on the availability of mountains + snow + club members. Audiences are geographically fragmented, and such clubs are frequently either free associations of individual members (none of whom wants to throw $1000 at their domain) or else covered by the GEO term or brand name of the ski resort.
Equally good (if not better) domains for defining winter sports and their communities remain available in .COM. I could name a dozen at least.
Abc says
Many domainers are not stupid as they used to be.
Many learned the hard way but they learned.
New TLDs? No thanks, I would rather wait a few years and then buy something if any of them successful rather than buying now and renewing, renewing and later dropping them.
Mi Pi says
@Pein Moe & @Abc & @John
GTLD’S=Going To Lose Dollars, Suckers!
GTLD’S=Going To Lose, Dear Suckers!
GTLD’S=Good To Lose Dinero, Stupid!
GTLD’S=Great To Lose, Dumb Sh*T!
GTLD’S=Game To Lose, Dip Sh*T!
Yori says
I`ve sold about $60,000 in domains over the past 5 years, and I`ve invested roughly the same amount. I bought a bunch of crap extensions on the aftermarket and hand-registered way too many that “looked cool”.
Today, I am a much wiser domain investor…I took my lumps and learned. I won’t attempt to predict whether or not the gTLD program as a whole will be successful, but based upon past experience, I will not buy domains in any unproven extensions…a strong aftermarket will need to first become established…and that could take many years, if ever.
Pappa G says
“A strong aftermarket will need to first become established…and that could take many years, if ever.”
I’m glad you added the “IF EVER” part. I just don’t see it happening with the gtlds. They seem ridiculous.