Here are a couple news notes from Domainer Mardi Gras and WhyPark.
Domainer Mardi Gras special ends today: Domainer Mardi Gras is giving away a 500 GB external hard drive to anyone who signs up to attend by midnight tonight. Registration rates are as low as $595 if you also stay at the conference hotel. This is the lowest fee you’ll ever see for attending an industry-wide domain conference. It’s a lot of fun, too. I recommend taking advantage of this offer if you’re sitting on the fence about attending Domainer Mardi Gras 2010.
WhyPark announces auction details: WhyPark is teaming up with Rick Latona Auctions to test out the latter’s Latonas.com auction platform for WhyPark’s upcoming charity domain name auction. Not only is the auction for a good cause, but I’m excited to see what Latona has developed. His company has used Proxibid.com for its previous auctions, but the system has serious limitations.
To learn more about the auction, listen to the DNW Radio interview with WhyPark founder Craig Rowe.
James Richmond says
Replacing proxibid and going with an unproven product in beta testing? Please, please tell me you are kidding. I have been using proxibid for long time… If you think they have limitations, do you seriously think a beta product will be better? This posting HAS to be a joke.
Andrew Allemann says
James, is this the part where I point out you work for Proxibid?
It may be a fine product for certain types of auctions, but has limitations for domain auctions.
James Richmond says
Ummm, no I don’t.
We live in the technology world – can you give me an example, any example of how a beta product will be a good move?
I eagerly await your response.
Andrew Allemann says
Oh, sorry James. You’re just on proxibid’s network I guess.
Latona is beta testing the platform for a charity auction. Makes sense to me.
James says
Do you have a successful beta example to share with everyone?
Andrew Allemann says
“James”, I wouldn’t take it personally. Proxibid is obviously a good system for many types of auctions; I see you guys are getting a lot of press with the Madoff auction. It’s just, as I wrote, Proxibid has “serious limitations” when it comes to domain auctions.
David Clements says
James,
I wanted to comment on the Proxibid limitations, much of it has to do with the fact that we are limited to 500-1000 domains in an auction because the Proxibid system is not set up to do searches that domainers would find useful, ie only .coms, only LL.coms, NN.coms, no IDN’s, etc. We have been happy with their services and we still have a tremendous relationship with them.
The other thing is that the product that we are beta testing is 100% ours. It is just time for a fully customized solution for our customers, that’s all.
David Clements
President/partner
Rick Latona Auctions
Rick Latona says
Proxibid has been good to us. This is a business decision. A lot of it is about lowering our expenses and the rest of it is about creating the perfect auction platform for intellectual property.
If things don’t work perfectly during the charity auction, that’s ok. If we don’t think they will work perfectly in Vegas, we will use Proxibid again.
We have nothing bad to say about Proxibid, we just want our own system. It’ll be a process.