One auction ends and another one begins today.

The extended auction for Rick Latona’s TRAFFIC auction ends today, and bidding is open online. A handful of domains have already received bids (which also means they hit their reserve). Notable domains with bids include StateFlag(s).com at $25,000 and DLE.com at $12,400.

In an email sent to Rick Latona newsletter subscribers today, the company said it acknowledges that the Proxibid interface may be frustrating to use for the extended auction. However, the company will release its own bidding platform in time for its January TRAFFIC auction. When I reviewed the domains in the extended auction last week, I found that the inventory in this extended auction is much better than that in Moniker’s auction that concluded yesterday. So take a look.

In other domain auction news, Sedo’s 2 character domain name auction starts today. The auction includes 18 two character domain names, mostly .com. The biggest draw may well be 64.com, which is being offered with no reserve.

It’s time to step back and re-evaluate domain name auctions.

The news today about an employee bidding at SnapNames is certainly disappointing. So here’s my take on what the domain industry should do.

First, chill out. I’ve seen a bunch of comments today from people that now assume everyone who ever beat them in an auction is a fake bidder or scammer. Look, there are a lot of people out there who bid at the last second, bid in a lot of auctions, and bid to win.

Second, it’s time that we re-examine domain name auctions, be they expired auctions, live auctions, or whatever. A lot of questions have been posed in the past that have never really been addressed. Here are few:

-What are domain auction companies doing to prevent this from happening in the future? A lot of people have questioned shill bidding at expired domain auctions. We’ve had to trust the company that it is playing above board. Now claims of illegitimate bidding will have to be taken seriously. That also goes for non-paying bidders. NameJet has done a lot to clean up issues with non-paying bidders; it almost lost its credibility thanks to the issue.

-Should people who financially benefit from a particular auction be allowed to bid? I’m specifically talking about domain conferences that get a cut of auction proceeds. I see two problems with conference organizers bidding in these auctions: if they bid and don’t win, the winning bidder paid a higher price, of which the organizer gets a cut, and second, if they get a cut on a domain they buy then they got a discount.

-Are all existing live domain auctions even legal? In some states you need to have a licensed auctioneer; in others you need to post bond to hold an auction. There are some loopholes, such as calling an auction a “private” auction, but you know what they say about loopholes.

Gambling domain takes top spot for the week.

There were no six figure sales at Sedo this past week, but the broker still scored some big sales. Number one on the list is PokerBonus.com at $85,000. The domain’s whois record has been protected by a private registration for much of the past few years, but last month a public record showed that the domain was owned by an Australian man.

The second highest .com sale was BrowserGame.com at $30,000, although it was slightly edged out by the completion of the 1.biz sale at $30,003. 1.biz was purchased by someone in Beijing.

Here are other notable Sedo sales for the week.

.COM
musica4all.com 18,000 EUR
juegosdemariobros.com 9,500 USD Mario Brothers games in Spanish
wyw.com 6,000 USD
tv-sexe.com 5,000 EUR
photobinder.com 4,500 USD
getoutthere.com 4,000 USD

ccTLDs
blackcard.es 9,000 EUR
europalace.eu 7,000 EUR
direkt-versicherung.de 7,000 EUR Direct insurance in German
auberges.fr 6,000 EUR Hostels in French
zazzle.com.ar 5,500 USD
generations.fr 4,500 EUR
kfz-gewerbe.de 4,000 EUR Automobile industries in German

Other
8.biz 8,200 USD
79.net 5,900 EUR
assurance.info 3,500 EUR Insurance in French
arte.pro 3,000 USD

Moniker launches lead gen web site to attract end user domain buyers.

Domain name registrar and brokerage company Moniker has started marketing the value of generic domain names to end users through a new web site, MonikerBrokerage.com.

The company registered the domain name in August. Today I saw an ad for it on Google Adwords:

The web site speaks to the SEO value of a good domain name, with the headline “Need a Big Boost from a Category-Leading Domain Name?” followed by:

Improve SEO with a Powerful Domain Name

Get a domain with highly relevant keywords, one that offfers (sic) instant traffic and branding advantages. The experts at Moniker Domain Brokerage can help you find and buy domain names that drive SEO.
Get a high-impact, 1-2 word domain name:

* that instantly communicates what you do.
* that drives significantly more traffic to your site.
* that you can build a compelling brand around.
* that you thought was unavailable and out of reach.

The web site includes a lead gen form for visitors to enter keywords or domain names they’re targeting.

Join me online during today’s Moniker auction.

Coming off the heels of yesterday’s successful Rick Latona Auctions event at TRAFFIC in New York, Moniker gets the bill this afternoon starting at 4pm Eastern.

You can join Adam Strong and me in a live chat during the auction. We’ll get started around 3:50 ET. To join, go to tinychat.com/domains, pick a nickname, and enter password domains123. Or just go here.

Here are some of my thoughts on the auction:

.biz – All one and two character .biz domains have no reserve. They will all sell.

SwineFlu.net – $5k-$10k – I think SwineFlu.com sold for about this much, so the .net doesn’t make much sense to me.

eScripts.com – $5k-$10k – Used to be owned by Allscripts before they let it drop. In fact, I think I may have sold it to them, but it may have been another similar domain I’m thinking of.

NewYorkers.com – No reserve, no brainer

HonorRole.com NR – Given that this is a misspelling of HonorRoll.com, I’ve got to think the visitors to this domain aren’t on the honor roll.

NoseJobs.com – $25k-$50k – I helped a previous owner of this domain sell it several years ago. I don’t think it’s worth this much.

TrademarkLawyers.com – $5k-$10k – put up a simple directory site here and get trademark lawyers to advertise…earn your money back quickly.

Zimbabwe.com – $100k-$250k – I’ve given commentary on this one before. Now that Sudan sold for $120k, we have another decent comp on this one. Zimbabwe.com itself sold for $130k at Sedo in 2007. The likely buyer is someone who wants to shed light on the peril in Zimbabwe.

TermLifeRates.com – $2500-$5000 – it’s not “quotes”, but I still like this one

Raspberry.com $25k-$50k – good, brandable name.

Introduction.com $100k-$250k – another domain that has been listed before. Based on permutations of “Introduce”, I think this is priced high.

WoolSuits.com -$1k-$2500 – a great deal

If you have any domains in the auction (or not), feel free to add your commentary.