Domainers can start their own reserve auctions…for a fee.
Sedo is offering domain name sellers a new option to start an auction on its domain name marketplace.
Called Direct Auction, clients can now select domain names to be auctioned, when they start and a reserve price. It costs $59 to start a Direct Auction.
Previously, sellers could start an auction in response to an offer on their domain (aka “push to auction”) or by submitting it through Great Domains. They could also work with an account manager to auction some domains, but control was limited. Getting a domain name to Sedo’s auction page gives it a lot more exposure.
To start a Direct Auction, you click the “promote” link below the domain list in the account manager and then complete the auction information:
Reserves must be $10,000 or less.
Marketplaces run the risk of a bunch of low quality auctions if they give too much control to users. Low quality auctions turn people off from reviewing listings, which hurts everyone. In this case, I think Sedo has smartly priced the service to avoid this problem. I’ll keep an eye on it.
It’s cheaper to start an auction on flippa, snap names, and godaddy.
It is, which is why it will be interesting to see what the sell-through rate is. I’m willing to pay more to have a better shot at selling my domain (and for more). If anyone tries it, please let me know how it goes.
Would love to hear sellers’ experiences with this.
I’m going to list a couple names before end of week
Interesting information!
Here is a great commentary on the Sedo auction platform. I paid for my domain AnyoneButHillary.com to be auctioned there. Hey, it is a topical domain, and now is the time to sell, but after paying and listing the domain, Sedo wrote the following back to me today:
“We are unable to list this domain into direct auction due to a combination of our presidential domain policy as well as potential trademark issues. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
How absurd is that? Is Sedo scared of the Clinton machine? Otherwise, what could be a policy of any policy or trademark issue.
Bad business decision, Sedo. You just lost all of my future business
They would not even let me list Obamo.com for sale because they say it’s a play on Obama. What a joke.
Gonna test it out today, let’s see what happens, to be honest flippas listing fees jump to over 300 dollars to sell a domain name, this is a reasonable price for it. But nothing is concrete, so gonna test it out with one of my domains (choosed).
Will let you know about it when the listing ends and how it went.
Andrew, would love to see your proper review too, this doesn’t send much info to us domainers.
Reviewing might be difficult. There are a lot of variables at play, including the quality of the domain you list and the reserve. I plan to try it out, though.
Looking forward to it!
So far the experience has been underwhelming, i paid for the domain, there was no information on what is to come next and how to check the listing, until just now. (Over 24 hours) The auction is scheduled for today, will keep tabs on how many potential buyers it is targeting, hopefully the overall outcome is good, we desperately need an alternative to flippa.
Imo the normal $9 for listing an auction on flippa is like putting money down the drain, even if you have a semi decent domain.
Best Regards,
Ghufi
Three days have now passed since Sedo cancelled the Direct Auction that I purchased. As I wrote before, it was cancelled simply because they viewed my domain AnyoneButHillary.com as being “Presidential.”
They have still not refunded my upfront $59 payment.