With the most recent TRAFFIC auction not performing up to my expectations considering the quality of the domain names at auction, I think the premium domain sales market is taking a temporary breather. Sellers still have high expectations for their domain names and buyers are reluctant to pay those prices, causing a stalemate. While there are still areas of growth persevering in niche markets, the overall market is resting.
Previously, domain owners could expect their premium domain names would sell for anywhere from wholesale to end-user prices at an industry conference live auction, but that hasn’t been the case for the past two main industry events. In many cases, buyers aren’t willing to pay the premium asking prices right now, and the sellers are reluctant to lower their reserve prices, causing a stalemate in the market. While this might be a cause for concern for those who are heavily invested in domain names, it could develop into a good buying opportunity, so liquidity is important.
While $10 million in domain sales
Domain Market Resting
TRAFFIC Live Auction Nets $4.3 million
I don’t think the results were particularly strong for tonight’s TRAFFIC West auction in Las Vegas, but it resulted in $4.3 million in domain sales. There were some great names up for auction, but in the end, most of them didn’t end up selling.
The silent auction continues for the next few days, and the names that didn’t sell will be available to purchase. The full auction sales list can be found at TheDomains.com.
TRAFFIC Auction Bummer
I found a few names in tomorrow’s live TRAFFIC auction that I like, but apparently I won’t be able to bid on them online since I have a Mac Book with a Leopard OS. According to the Snapnames website’s online bidding requirements:
“Live Auction Software Requirements
Microsoft Windows operating system
Audio output
Internet Explorer 6.0 (or newer) or Firefox 2.0 (or newer)“
Kind of a bummer, but no big deal I suppose. Guess I should have thought about this earlier!
Results of Moniker No/Low Reserve Auction
Thanks to Mike at TheDomains.com for providing the results of yesterday’s auction at TRAFFIC. The Moniker No/Low Reserve Auction is the precursor to Wednesday’s highly anticipated live auction, and it netted $190,000.
The results of the auction can be seen at TheDomains.com.
Moniker TRAFFIC West Auction List Released
Moniker publicly released the TRAFFIC West live auction domain list this morning. They received over 120,000 submissions for next week’s auction, and after reviewing the names, I think this auction will set a record for highest grossing domain auction – even though it is missing the great multi-million dollar domain name that is still reasonably priced. There are some strong domain names listed, with many at reserves I would consider reasonable.
The full live auction list can be seen
Bookmarks.com – Smart Strategic Purchase
At today’s Snapnames Live Auction at Domainfest, Lonnie Borck was the winning bidder for Bookmarks.com, purchasing it for $310,000. This is a fantastic domain name, and it is a great purchase to incorporate with his netRocket.com website, a bookmark scheduling service.
Bookmarks.com is the category killer domain name for netRocket’s vertical, and it was a smart purchase. Not only will this help drive targeted traffic to netRocket, it is also a nice defensive purchase, as it prevents another upstart company from owning the category.