Yesterday’s Aftermarket.com auction started out great. Then it flopped.
I thought yesterday’s Aftermarket.com auction went great. And I still thought that well after the auction was over.
Why? Because I didn’t watch the second half.
I watched the first 25 or so auctions from my office, and then packed up and headed home. The first 25 lots went great. The sell through rate was high and the auctioneer was lively. The online interface was greatly improved from last time.
There were a couple early issues, including the auctioneer accidentally referring to 2o.com as 20.com (a much more valuable domain) and some latency issues between online bids and the auctioneer being able to see them. The auctioneer was very fast, although color commentary on the domains from a staffer was long winded.
But when I logged back onto my computer after the auction ended, it was clear that all was not well. I had an email in my inbox from someone saying “the technology sucked” and a couple comments on the site asking “what happened”.
Adam Strong wrote up the full story of what happened. Essentially there were delays as they tried to fix major latency issues. By the time everything was worked out the auction was scheduled to end, so only the remaining .com.au domains were auctioned and many domains didn’t make it to the auction block.
I’m not sure if the problem was Aftermarket.com’s technology, the distance overseas, or other problems. You might suggest that Aftermarket.com should just punt on its own auction technology and outsource it instead. But then Rick Latona’s auction, which uses outsourced technology, started late due to technical issues. (It may not have had anything to do with the outsourced service). And once Rick got going, it sailed smoothly.
Thanks. I was wondering why all the domains didn’t sell. I have one in the auction that is still up for bids and I didn’t know why.
Overall the Aftermarket team should be very proud. They really did a professional job.
I do agree the staffer was a bit intrusive. He was miked up so you can hear everything he said. At one point he was chiding the audience to bid higher which is very unprofessional.
Auctions need to be run by auction professionals. That’s why auctioneers have to get a license. A LOT of things can go wrong.
They’ll get it perfect next time.
I didn’t see Rick’s so I can’t comment on that.
And no mention of Rick Swartz kicking Moniker Auctions out of his Traffic shows. When was the last time a major domain show sold less than $1m in domains? Cant blame the economy or the technical problems for lack of quality domains.
Whoa.
Where did you hear that Rick kicked Moniker out of TRAFFIC?
News to me and I read the blogs everyday.
Not true.
The domains chosen were horrible for the most part.
Also, their interface for domain submissions was full of bugs, which they did get worked out, but it was still frustrating.
They do seem to need to work on the technology/bugs and work on higher quality domains.