Fewer domains, better quality on tap for next live domain auction.
This headline may seem contradictory. But it aptly describes the change Moniker has made with its live auctions of late, and it’s very apparent with February’s DOMAINfest Auction.
What’s the change? Fewer domains. Better quality.
The Premium Live auction on February 3 will have no more than 100 domains and should take less than two hours to complete. (Only 90 minutes is scheduled, but you know how these things go.) Even better, the extended auction will include fewer than 500 domains and last two weeks. A couple years ago the extended auction had over 5,000 domain names, which made it an all day chore to find the winners.
Of course with fewer domains in the premium auction you won’t see as many inexpensive ones, either. Domains under $10,000 will be hard to come by in the premium auction (you’ll find them in the low and no reserve auction on February 1 auction instead).
Here’s a look at some of my favorite (and least favorite) domains from the auction, but live and extended:
Favorites
Row.com $50k-$100k – solid three letter word with many uses, including for rowing
AJY.com and IZT.com – $500-$1000 – not great letters, but a great price.
Candygrams.com $2500-$5000 – you could build an entire candy delivery business around this inexpensive domain
CatholicSchool.com $2500-$5000 – plural would be better but great for an online directory
LTE.com $500k-$750k – probably won’t sell to a domain investor at this price, but LTE.com is one of the top names for 4G wireless.
Worst
These are good names just at the wrong price.
PepperoniPizza.com $100k-$250k – what would you do with this? Have a site that just sells pepperoni pizzas?
Cotton.com $750k-$1M – I recall being surprised when this domain name sold for only $75k back in a 2008 Moniker auction. It seemed cheap. Yet it appears the domain name never transferred hands, so maybe it didn’t sell. It’s worth more than $75k, but I don’t think it’s worth 10x that much.
ComicBook.com $250k-$500k – I only add this to the list because I’ve seen it for sale in a domain newsletter about a dozen times over the past couple years.
Jeff Edelman says
Definitely a good move to have fewer, better names for the live auction. And it definitely makes sense to have fewer names as well in the silent auction.
David J Castello says
Cotton.com is easily worth 750K to be the intuitive brand/site for the entire cotton industry. For years, they’ve spent millions on print, radio and cable promoting cotton as the “natural fabric” for apparel. Can you remember their web site address for more info? I can’t, but I know what it should be.
Alex says
in response to worst:PepperoniPizza.com $100k-$250k
Best: I have two sites called OriginalPizza.Co & OriginalPizza.co.uk what would you do with these2 and what would you sell them for !!!
Anybody want to fill me in on the above please.
Eric K says
Less is definitely better. Nice change.
Regarding your favorites and worst, it all comes down to buyers. If brokers do their job and interest more than just domainers, some of those will go for big money.
But if it’s just a bunch of domainers looking for bottom-feeder pricing, not much will sell.