Is it worth trying to sell domain names on eBay? An experiment with Headcase.com.

Everyone knows that eBay’s domain name auctions are full of junk. I personally don’t spend any time looking for domains there.

But recently there have been some high profile domain auctions on the site. There are also new tools to sift through the junky domains and find winners.

I’ve decided to give eBay another shot, but this time as a seller. And with a good domain, not some piece of junk. My experience listing the domain — Headcase.com — reminds me why eBay isn’t set up to be a domain seller.

First, listing a domain on eBay takes a long time. eBay has a “quick listing” feature with fewer options, but it still takes longer to list a domain than it does on “made for domain sales” sites such as Sedo and Afternic.

Second, eBay now requires you to accept PayPal for your transaction. Everyone knows that PayPal offers little protection to domain sellers.

Third, the fees. I tried to make Headcase.com a reserve auction. Imagine my surprise when I saw a $50 reserve auction fee before hitting submit! Yikes. eBay charges 1% of your reserve price when you list a reserve auction. I opted to start the auction at $4,900. I’ll be disappointed if it sells for that little, but I’ll just have to take the risk.

Will the domain attract attention? We’ll know in about a week.

Papa John’s has sold over $1 billion in pizza online.

Perhaps the recent $2.6 million deal for Pizza.com isn’t as outlandish as I thought.

Papa John’s pizza has sold over $1 billion in pizza online, the company just announced. $400 million of that came last year alone. It has spend $15 million developing its online ordering technology. What’s another $2.6 million?

Just about every pizza chain with more than a half dozen restaurants allows online ordering, and many provide incentives (such as discounts) for customers to order online rather than call. Pizza Hut claims its online orders have grown sixfold in the last three years, according to the AP article.

It still strikes me as an interesting move for one of the major pizza companies to buy Pizza.com. These companies live and die by the brand. They’d rather have people go to PapaJohns.com than Pizza.com.

I have my doubts on whether the $2.6 million bid at Sedo was legitimate and if the deal will go through. But I’ll be more than happy to “eat” my words.

Sales data from Sedo shows handful of five figure sales.

A fresh batch of sales data from Sedo shows a number of quality domain sales for the week, including a couple .nu domains. .Nu is the country code domain name for the island state of Niue.

Sedo sold Co.nu for $16,111 and Info.nu for $12,500. According to DNSalePrice, the highest ever reported .nu domain name sale was Casino.nu, which sold for $69,269 earlier this year.

Other notable sales at Sedo include:

bucket.com 30,000 USD
mycanvas.com 20,000 USD
mno.com 18,250 USD
tsj.com 10,100 USD
3gforex.com 10,000 USD
photographes.com 7,000 EUR
bankingworld.com 5,800 USD
pokerspot.com 5,100 USD
runshop.com 5,000 USD
h-art.com 5,000 EUR
bangbangbang.com 4,500 USD
looted.com 4,000 USD
rubberbracelets.com 4,000 USD Website
deprave.com 3,600 USD
weatherclub.com 3,500 EUR
vonschmidt.com 3,000 USD
fehu.com 3,000 USD
opendomains.info 4,000 USD
busy.net 3,302 GBP
connect.info 2,500 USD
santafe.biz 2,400 USD
bracelets.net 2,350 USD
dull.net 1,955 USD
co.nu 16,111 USD
info.nu 12,500 USD
reisebüros.de 8,100 EUR (travel offices in German)
outnow.de 8,000 EUR
register.nu 3,750 USD
web-services.de 3,750 EUR
gutscheincodes.de 3,000 EUR (voucher codes in German)
nvr.de 3,000 EUR
strategieberater.de 2,800 EUR
removalcompanies.co.uk 2,600 GBP
cgf.eu 2,500 EUR
smartbox.eu 2,300 EUR
ecomobility.de 2,300 EUR

Domain aftermarket to add new features, time frame unclear.

Domain name aftermarket Afternic is adding two new features. One I support 100%, the other one gives me a couple concerns.

The first feature is a listing verification system. Domains will be verified for proper ownership when they’re listed. But the system will also periodically verify ownership while a listing is live. This is a great feature that will reduce the chances of “buying” a domain that really isn’t listed for sale. Honestly, it will even help me as a seller. When I sell a domain through a different venue than Afternic, I don’t always remember to delete the domain at Afternic. It will be helpful if the site alerts me to the ownership change. Of course, the system will need to account for various ownership names that a seller’s domains are listed under (e.g. multiple company names).

The second feature is a feedback system similar to eBay. This could be helpful if implemented correctly, but I have two concerns:

1. Every member should have 100% feedback. If they have one bad transaction (either they don’t pay or they don’t end up selling the domain) they should be kicked off the platform provided there aren’t extenuating circumstances.

2. I don’t want sellers to know that I’m a “regular”. If they see I have a feedback rating of 20, they might assume I have deeper pockets to buy their domain.

It’s great to see that Afternic is innovating. The verification program will improve the quality of the exchange. As for the feedback system…the jury is still out.

Sale yet to close. Will it?

People outside the domain world were surprised to see that Pizza.com sold for $2.6 million a few weeks ago. But those of us in the domain industry have been on edge ever since. We have one question: will the deal actually close?

As of today there’s no news on the deal. The whois on Pizza.com has been a private registration for many years, although Chris Clark’s (the seller) name is no longer attached to it.

I’ve left voicemails for Clark on both his home phone and mobile phone but he hasn’t responded. (I guess he only takes calls from The Washington Post).

I checked in with Sedo this morning and the company says the domain is still in transfer.

If the deal doesn’t go through, it wouldn’t be the first time a high profile sale was never completed. Often times a second bidder steps in to buy it for more (Cowboys.com) or slightly less (Computer.com), but many other “sales” fall through the cracks. It must be hard enough selling a $50,000 domain and never getting the money. But $2.6 million? Ouch.

My rule of thumb is that the deal isn’t done until the check is in the bank. I’ve been disappointed enough times to get elated before a deal is done.

What do you think? Will this deal close? Who is the buyer?