Famed domain name sells for $5,459.
The domain name that brought down Bido.com — FixedLoans.com — has helped the auction service get back on the radar. Just moments ago the domain name sold for $5,459.
FixedLoans.com attracted a lot of attention in August of last year, and the auction eventually caused Bido’s servers to crash. The company decided to take some time off to make the platform more scalable. In previous auctions bidding topped $5,000 before crashing. The auction today wasn’t without a few glitches, as some visitors to Bido’s chat room stated auction information wasn’t refreshing in their browsers. (It worked fine in my FireFox browser).
Today’s auction looked like it might end for $3,629 before two bids were made in the final minute, pushing the price up to $4,078 and extending the auction for another five minutes. I suspect the final bidders didn’t realize the auction would be automatically extended, or they would have placed their bids with closer to five minutes remaining. The auction was extended several more times.
Upcoming auctions on the platform probably won’t top today’s prices, but should help Bido get back in a groove. Tomorrow DressOrganic.com goes on the block, followed by HipHopPhotography.com on Wednesday and MyAstrologist.com on Thursday. The week ends with an auction for BuyCheaply.com.
Stevie says
I hate to say it, but i have no hope for bido.com making a dollar in profit for 2-3 yrs atleast.
Spent $7k a week skinning NP (or so i figure)
thats alot of auctions to recoup just hat 1 advert.
I like the idea but they need some 100k names to be put up.
Andrew Allemann says
Stevie – the NP thing seems to be an ad swap.
I agree with their current model of one auction a day they won’t make money. But they’ve made it clear they are going to expand, including to non-domain items. They’ve created a platform that can be extended to other verticals.
jp says
They’ve definitely still got some kinks to work out. Load time for Bido.com is very slow for me, except strangely when an auction is running it seems to come up reasonably fast. Don’t know if I’m the only one but I’ve tried from home and my office, same results (both same ISP though). Good for NamePros though as their ad comes up and that is all I see for maybe 20-30 seconds.
Also, I wonder if the chat room concept is a good idea or not. Sure somebody could say things that would help increase the price but I remember some potentially discouraging comments being said too. I wish I could look them up but more bugs, now when I click “view previous 100 messages” there is no response from the site so I can’t cite any examples.
BTW, I experienced the refresh problem too. I was using IE7.?. Its a strange bug though becuase the rest of the AJAX stuff seemed to be working fine.
jp says
oops, the site wasn’t broken with the “view previous 100 messages” it was just super slow. It just finished loading, I had no idea it was even trying, no spinners or progress bars.
Here are the comments that I found discouraging (of course everyone has their own interpretation):
“name sucks”
“My guess is around $5500 – $6k personally (makes you think twice about spending more)”
“i’ve been histanant to buy anything. at least until i get rid of some of mine”
There were many more, but to their defense, there were also alot of positive comments. Negative comments ring louder in my ear though. I think the pre-auction commentary is definitely a keeper because you have time to properly anylize and absorb the information, but the during auction commentary could just be the thing that keeps my finger off the clicker on a big bid. During the auction I’m more likely to have a “gut reaction” to the commentary than a well though thought out reaction. Also this could be used to manipulate the final price to the seller’s benefit.
pjessops says
That is a brutal result for the domain owner.
Someone mentioned in a previous comment that Bido may be expanding the daily line up of domains, but the original Bido concept touted it’s exclusive one a day business model. All a bit crazy and directionless.
Andrew Allemann says
I don’t think the final price is that bad.
Rob Sequin says
I’d say the buyer got a good deal and the seller got some cash.
With the stock now back to 1997 levels, who knows what the right price is anymore.
Anyway, good for bido but the domains in the queue seem pretty lame.
Reg fees unless these strike a chord with TWO buyers. A no reserve auction needs TWO people who want the domain. If only one wants it, all he has to do is outbid the underbidder and that’s it.
M. Menius says
I have said this before and it bears repeating. The one-domain-a-day format, which could be very exciting and newsworthy, MUST be based on very nice quality names … day after day after day. No exception. The stock must be eye-catching day after day. Never a mundane name. This will build perpetual interest and excitement within the domainer community, and even stands a good chance of extending out into the larger business and media circles.
FixedLoans.com is the best name, thankfully, in a long line of easily forgettable domains. And this is no slam at all on Bido because I think their site layout and concept is very unique. I am hoping great success for them because they have an opportunity to raise the bar much higher on perceived quality of auctions.
Nothing kills interest like one ho-hum domain after the other. They’re working out the kinks and will be quite successful in time. But got to start screening the names better. We need an online Christie’s for the domain industry. People are hungry for ANYTHING of quality. Excellence.
Kristoff says
I agree that it’s time to up the ante in the quality department, but herein lies the proverbial domain industry conundrum…
Apart from the no-brainer Tier 1 premiums, which you will NEVER see in a $1 NR auction, how do you consistently and objectively come to consensus on what constitutes “quality”?
We all come to the table with our own standards, measures, metrics, criteria, factors, etc.
I assume the new “Expert Commentary” concept is an attempt to try and bring some balance to this issue.
People often like to make parallels – comparing and contrasting valuation – to the real estate market, but it’s simply not valid.
Historically speaking, the sample size for comparable data in the domain market isn’t even a drop in the bucket.
On a relative basis, you’re comparing a tangible asset (when paid off of course) with an intangible lease.
One area of common ground…
Worth, truly is in the eye of the beholder.
As Rob pointed out on the upcoming queue:
“Reg fees unless these strike a chord with TWO buyers.”
Next week, a new startup comes along, types any of those names into their registrar of choice, decide it’s exactly what they need for a new campaign, tracks down the owner, you know the rest…
Hence, we end up with DRASTICALLY differing views and opinions of true market value.
This is such a nascent industry.
10, 20, 30yrs. from now…perhaps well have our own Christie’s, Sotheby’s and MLS with widely-accepted norms of valuation.
There’s no right, wrong or easy answer.
pjessops says
Excellent post Kristoff.
kodomainer says
The problem is that Bido is selling terrible names.
I suspect that these names are coming from Bido’s owners portfolios and that Bido has become a clearing house for them. FixedLoan.com was owned my Michael B, I believe.
There is no way I’m going to believe these names were “submitted” and “accepted” by Bido. Most are barely worth more than their reg fee.
DN Technologies says
I don’t think Bido has a hope unfortunately. This was the best domain they had in line and it only went for $5K+. The rest of the lot are reg fee domains IMO. If you’re only auctioning 1 domain a day it needs to be high quality. I hope I’m wrong but can’t see it succeeding unless they source much better names.
Jarred says
Thanks for the coverage Andrew, and thanks to all the commentators for the feedback about Bido.
Jarred