About a week and a half ago, I noticed a change in one of the headings on DropCatch.com. “Type” was one of the column headings, and I had not seen that before. I reached out to Jeffrey and Andrew Reberry, and they confirmed that the platform would soon allow domain owners to list their domain names for auction.
At some point in the next week or so, I hope to publish an interview with more details about the auction platform. Topics I plan to discuss include how domain investors can list their domain names for sale, safeguards the company is undertaking to protect the integrity of the platform, and information about the mechanics of listing and selling domain names via DropCatch.com.
As Shane Cultra mentioned last week, DropCatch.com is now doing beta testing to work out any bugs. I asked if I could participate in the beta testing, and listed 6 domain names for sale at no reserve beginning today and ending in a week. Depending on the results, I may list additional domain names for sale. For now, here are the 6 domain names I listed for sale today:
- CanadaResorts.com
- CryptographyConsulting.com
- DrugInterventions.com
- FacilityManagers.com
- PlatinumSellers.com
- SecureVaults.com
I am hopeful that DropCatch.com will become a venue for domain owners to sell their domain names.
Curious why you picked up those domains in the first place? I have no inherent value.
Off the top of my head, two of them have had purchase inquiries.
I also chose them because 5/6 were bought via auction and the 6th was a hand registration.
I have to admit, while some of them are not really bad, they mostly don’t really seem worth the time and expense and are mostly much worse than a lot of my three and four worders even. However, I could see domains like that in a portfolio if you got them when you were still thinking maybe you could do the “sell many thousands for tens of millions and sail off into the sunset” thing others have done. I just found a portfolio that no one ever talks about with almost 500,000 domains and they are among the worst I’ve ever seen. Who would pay millions a year to carry that?
We definitely use different criteria for what constitutes domains of value. I would not hand reg your list on first blush. Bt if you’re able to profit from such domains, then who am I to say you’re doing things wrong.
Because I bought some of these at NameJet, you can see four still have backorders there:
http://www.namejet.com/Pages/Auctions/BackorderDetails.aspx?domainname=CanadaResorts.com (3 bids)
http://www.namejet.com/Pages/Auctions/BackorderDetails.aspx?domainname=DrugInterventions.com (2 bids)
http://www.namejet.com/Pages/Auctions/BackorderDetails.aspx?domainname=FacilityManagers.com (11 bids)
http://www.namejet.com/Pages/Auctions/BackorderDetails.aspx?domainname=securevaults.com (6 bids)
Essentially, if I put these up for auction at NameJet and the backorders weren’t deleted before the auction, the 4 names above would already have bids.
These obviously aren’t my premo high value names. DropCatch private auctions are in beta, and I am not going to take a huge gamble until I am confident the audience is there.
You can get an idea of what I think is valuable by looking at some of my better current investments: http://www.topnotchdomains.com/investments.html
That’s the issue – I don’t think the audience would be there at all. It’s really just an insider/domainers site. It’s a really great site, no question about it, and I really like what they’ve done, but who among the end user market even knows about it at all? The name is also not “catchy” for the end user market, only for the domainer market.
Probably created because of NJ shill bidding.
Didn’t NameJet cancel the shill bidding accounts? Assuming they did, it would have removed the bids that are still showing up there.
If these auctions sell for the minimum bid on DropCatch, it will be my loss – both on the sale and the fact that they would have likely sold for more on NameJet (presuming people didn’t cancel those bids before auction).
We shall see what happens. That is a big reason for testing with names of this quality rather than high value names.
As I just touched upon in my “verdict” below, the real test is if you list a good domain that end users would find and bid on, not junk or near-junk domains that too many domainers might focus on.
I don’t list at auction for end users to bid on. End users don’t really bid on NameJet either.
I will email the prospects who inquired to let them know the names are in auction, but I don’t see any end users meandering to the auctions.
I have the same concerns about this model reaching only domainers, although I will also give it a try if allowed.
So, Elliot, where do end users bid?
I think they bid where they see domain names they need listed for sale.
I have sold a couple of names to end users via NameJet after informing them of the auctions. I am sure they would have bid on DropCatch, GoDaddy, or elsewhere.
But that’s really my point. If the domain is really good, then end users might discover it’s taken, type it into their browser or search for “ExampleExample.com” (or even as much as “ExampleExampleExampleExample.com”) on Google, and then discover it’s up for auction. Two important issues come into play, however:
1. If they type “ExampleExample.com” into Google to search for it that way, it may not appear because of how Google operates and how much they hate domain names. (I’m using “hate” figuratively and hyperbolically there, we don’t need to quibble about that.)
2. If the end user does find it, either via Google or via the address bar, then the name, look, feel and branding of the auction platform comes into play. And that is where while I would agree “DropCatch” is okay if the domain is good, it’s still a bit weak. However, a name like “Flippa” is what I would call goofy, and more importantly it conveys connotations of “cheap, not serious, cheap quick flip, and did I say cheap?”
Oh and P.S.: in case you have any doubts, I was once contacted by a big money company that was even listed on a UK stock exchange because they found one of super duper (as in really very) long 4 word ExampleExampleExampleExample.com domains and wanted to acquire it.
Which reminds me: I just remember I have to get back to an inquiry done via a famous intermediary about one of my long ExampleExampleExample.com’s I completely forgot about till just now. Just got that by email a day or so ago and have been preoccupied with other things.
😉
And see my P.S. just below. 🙂
The pluses:
I don’t know who they are at DropCatch.com, but I have always highly regarded them. A great business in the industry.
Wow I can’t believe it: it actually looks like what I’ve been waiting for, finally – a no-nonsense auction platform with no appearance of Estibot or anything like it to ruin everything.
The minuses:
See what I wrote above. In the end user market, no one has ever heard of them. Only domainers know about them. And the branding, i.e. the name, is simply not “catchy” (pun intended) for the end user market.
The verdict:
If you have a good domain listed, then the branding and the name of the site is good enough, not like “Flippa” or some goofy nonsense like that. Listing there may result in some nice news events on DNJ.
We shall see. I am interested in testing the mechanics of the platform as well as to see auction performance.
I was going to test MDMD.com since names like that seem to sell well on DC, but I want to see how the first small batch goes.