Domain name WebCam.com is top sale at Rick Latona auction.
Rick Latona wasn’t happy with the live portion of his company’s adult domain name auction. But he should be feeling a lot better now that WebCam.com sold for $1,020,000 in the silent auction.
Latona previously confirmed a $1 million bid on the domain name was valid, so it’s fairly safe to say this deal will be concluded.
The silent auction sold a handful of other valuable domain names, some of which aren’t suitable for printing here. I spotted a $17,000 sale and a $10,000 sale.
After a frustrating live auction, Latona reflected a second time on what went wrong. One of the changes he made was starting every auction in the silent auction at its reserve (except for domains with existing bids):
Now I realize that the folks at Aftermarket had it right all along. In the 21st century, the days of starting auctions at below reserve to build momentum just need to come to an end. There is really only one way to make sure people who want a name make sure they can buy the name, even if they are the only one that wants it.
wannadevelop.com says
I thought the reserve on most names there was $300 ?
I tried to place bids for individual names but each time proxibid would tell me that the price for the lot was a ridiculous amount such as $40,000 or whatever… I mean, WTF is that ?
The registration process alone to proxibid.com took about 30 mins.
This sucked.
RKB says
Another great sale.
Lda says
Notwithstanding RL’s recent pompous ‘knock them off their high horse’ rant, his ongoing, intelligent modification of sales procedures based on experience and feedback gives one confidence that he will get the final model right.
I can’t avoid comparing this approach with Sahar’s (what planet is he living on) financial penalties for the seller if the domain doesn’t sell at the reserve. It’s as if Sahar hasn’t got a clue about effective marketing and/or PR.
Don’t expect any WebCam.com (with reserve) quality domains at BIDO in the near future.
What high-end domain owner would even think of risking Sahar’s breathtakingly crazy penalties.
Rick Latona says
Lda, thank you. That means a lot. I took down the rant about the horse. I wish I could blame everything on quitting smoking but that would be silly.
Thanks again.
Lda says
Praise where it’s due Rick.
Your approach to this is a breath of fresh air.
> … rant about the horse.
> I wish I could blame everything on quitting
> smoking but that would be silly.
🙂
Absolution is now assured.
Sahar Sarid says
Lda,
Bido is much larger than me. There a
Sahar Sarid says
Oops.. let’s try again shall we?
Lda,
Bido is much larger than me. There are many who are involved, from tech, to marketing, advertising, design, business development, and more.
While you may not like our service we are so far happy with where we are and how we are progressing. So far we have sold 100% of listed inventory. While it doesn’t mean much to you it means the world to us. Yes, not all sold for high prices and that’s OK. Liquidity is about getting the most today, not the most ever possible. What we have in mind is a highly ambitious plan. Executing on such plan will cost serious investment on our part as well as patience. While the sale above is great it isn’t our target right now. If sellers aren’t motivated, right now, we are not the right address. Things will evolve with time.
Thanks for the feedback,
Cheers
Sahar
Lda says
> Bido is much larger than me…..
Are we distancing ourself from the financial penalty question ?
Your comprehensive advertisment for BIDO did not mention the issue that was being addressed … your astonishingly naive financial penalties on sellers.
To alienate the seller demographic that you so desperately need is dumb beyond belief.
AL says
Lda, what do you mean by “seller demographic?”
Tim Davids says
I believe LDS is talking about people that sell names worth more than 50 bucks…
Lda says
> …is talking about people that sell names worth more than 50 bucks…
Spot on Tim.
BIDO desperately needs domains worthy of substantial reserves, but who do they propose to penalize with their ham-fisted, amateur attempts at marketing/PR and their laughable ‘accurate pricing’ pontifications ?
You’ve got it, BIDO wants the high-end seller demographic to take the financial risk & penalties to cover the inability of BIDO to attract high-end buyers.
wannadevelop.com says
I like Bido and the whole concept, been a fan of it since day one but I never got any of my domains approved.
I was ready to auction them off with no reserve, be it $1.
One of the names I submitted was HGHsupplements.com (hgh=human growth hormones = big biz $) which I just sold the other day for $400 to somebody on a domain forum.
I had at least 5 inquiries in regards to that domain actually just last week alone.
At an auction, I am sure it could of gone much higher.
I submitted some other good generic and e-commerce specific domains which could of gone for hundreds if not thousands. But no, they didn’t get accepted.
Instead other garbage names got accepted which were auctioned off and ended up going for peanuts… $xx !
I am not mad or anything like that, but just telling it like it is 🙂
Good luck to Sahar and Jarred, keep the system improving and all that it’s gret for your business and bottomline and domain industry as well but I won’t be wasting my time going through my portfolio or submitting any names for the time being.
Cheers.
Mike
Sahar Sarid says
Mike,
We get many thousands of submissions. Sometimes we make the right decisions, sometimes the wrong decisions. It is a learning progress. We definitely understand the issue of resubmitting and the feeling of wasting time and are working on solving it, as we plan on opening the platform in the near future. Not asking for much, just a little patience, things will evolve and you will see your concerns are definitely not falling on deaf ears.
Cheers
Sahar
wannadevelop.com says
Sahar, it’s good to hear. Also I was invited to become an “expert” and comment / review names.. But as the quality of the names was “weak” whenever I looked (that is just my personal opinion) I didn’t even bother reviewing them or to come back… What is the point? Ya know.
I do hope you guys get it together. A lot of new platforms generate some initial buzz but then get forgotten quick once the excitement wears off. I hope this won’t be the case with Bido.
Cheers!
Mike
Sahar Sarid says
Mike,
Quality is in the eye of the beholder and quality does not mean million dollar names, sales. There’s lots of business generated at the 50-1K range with all extensions. I think the exercise is we can all learn from one another, and no matter how good you are and how “elite” you may be (or any of us for that matter), there’s always an opportunity to learn, to evolve. I think Bido gives a great stage to some who you may not hear otherwise and I’m very proud to be able to provide that space.
Whenever you are ready to participate, you’re always welcome.
Cheers
Sahar
wannadevelop.com says
Sahar, I know — but the main problem right now, as I see it and as has been mentioned before by many domainers, who do in fact support the service 100% …quality of domains has been disappointing.
If a domain can’t sell at the reseller market for $50 then it’s probably not worth much.
I understand that every name is different, but you have a lot of eye balls and ya’ll have gotten the attention of many in the domain industry community… People want to buy good names — sellers want to unload many of them (liquidity) lets connect the dots and win-win.. Kadima! :p
Stephen Douglas says
Sahar is right, and he is the consummate gentleman in his responses. I actually agree with Mike here about Sahar and Bido, and watching Bido work on evolving his idea, which is what we’re all here to do — watch and work to see our domains, ideas, and investments evolve.
However, even more importantly for all of us, I am going to try use Sahar’s “High Road” discussion style from now on in my own comments. It just looks classy and more professional, and we need to work together. Sahar is a calm sea that most hurricanes pass by.
much success to everyone as we move forward!
Lda says
> Quality is in the eye of the beholder ….
> Sahar
Wow.
Hoist with your own petard !
If you truly believe your quote, then BIDO’s nonsensical ‘accurate pricing’ utterances demonstrate are either totally wooly thinking by BIDO amateurs, or downright duplicitous hypocracy.
BIDO casts their ‘Accurate pricing’ mantra as an *ABSOLUTE* that sellers must guage correctly or else incur severe financial penalties.
Obviously your don’t believe they are in a postion to do so at BIDO because, as you say above, it depends upon the’eye of the beholder’.
At best, BIDO’s finacial penalties are a stupidity cast by BIDO amateurs such as yourself, who haven’t got a clue about their responsibilities for effective marketing.
At worst it is a deliberate attempt to generate undeserved revenue from sellers who have no control over the buyers you are able to get to ‘behold’ their domain assets.
It also demostrates that you haven’t got a clue about who is responsible for generating the buyer traffic at an auction house. No, it’s not the sellers. Their part of the contract is just to provide the valuable assets, NOT to also bear financial penalties for your failures, as you seem to think they should.
Stephen Douglas says
So LDA, what’s your real name, cuz you hand out a lot of negative comments fairly bravely behind LDA handle. And what do YOU have to offer domainers? Many of us don’t know who you are, and either that’s intentional, or you think your initials are so well-known from your importance in this industry, we should ALL know who you are. But, unfortunately, none of us know.
Come on, let us know who you are, and what you bring to the evolution of domain monetization. Don’t be nervous, we won’t spread your name around.
If you’re going to make comments about someone whose name you repeat over and over again, and attacking their company, why not reveal who you are, and what you do? Your website is….? You’re accomplishments are…?
Heck, you could be someone important, but nobody is really paying attention cuz you’re too chickensh*t to reveal your name. Let us know how important you are by revealing your company and name info.
Of course, if you do that, you may be putting YOUR name and business up for ridicule, and that could be quite scary… for a woosy.
Tia Wood says
> Quality is in the eye of the beholder ….
> Sahar
I totally get the thought process of Sahar and why many of you don’t see what Bido is trying to accomplish. Selling to domainers and selling to end users are two totally different beasts.
Bido is FOR domainers, not end users. Stop thinking like an end user.