I try to buy domain names at auction every day. I spend a lot of time bidding on auctions. More often than not, I come away with inventory quality domain names I opt to list for sale immediately. The vast majority of my domain auction wins are hardly memorable. I buy them to bulk up my portfolio to move inventory at nice returns.
Last week, Snagged.com posted a question on X that got me thinking for a very quick second:
ASAP.com and related domain names are coming up for sale in a bankruptcy auction. These domain names are owned by a food prep and delivery service called ASAP, which was previously known as Waitr Holdings. The company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in April, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.
The online bankruptcy auction is being managed by Heritage Global Partners. In addition to the ASAP.com domain name and an assortment of intellectual property, other domain names being auctioned include AlcoholASAP.com, BiteSquad.com, ASAPLiquor.com, ASAPPot.com, EATAsap.com, MarijuanaASAP.com, LiquorASAP.com, MunchiesASAP.com, and quite a few others.
Raymond Weil is a well-known Swiss watchmaking brand. The company uses Raymond-Weil.com as the domain name for its primary website, and it also has the Raymond-Weil.us ccTLD domain name for its US-based website. The non-hyphenated RaymondWeil.com domain name had been used as a forwarder to the watchmaker’s primary website, according to Archive.org.
GoDaddy is running a featured auction via its GoDaddy Auctions platform with domain names from its NameFind portfolio. While I would argue the domain names aren’t as valuable as they were in its NameFind auction last year, there seem to be some good inventory-quality domain names up for bid.
Our Premium Auction event has started!
Bid and buy hundreds of domain names in this no-reserve event, including Stung․com, Focusing․com, and more!
Ends 6/20https://t.co/EXnSztagvo pic.twitter.com/ufg3HnUoZE
— GoDaddy Auctions (@godaddyauctions) June 13, 2024
When sorted, I can see there are 4 pages of auctions with the maximum 100 domain names shown. The auctions have minimum bids ranging from $299 to $7,999. This is more than the starting price for its traditional expiry auctions. I do not believe there are reserve prices beyond the minimum bid amounts, so if someone bids on a domain name and there are no other bidders, it will be sold.
I just received an email from my Account Manager at GoDaddy announcing a new round of private auctions featuring GoDaddy-owned inventory. At the end of 2023, the company also auctioned hundreds of its own domain names, including two that I won – Posto.com and DogSitter.com.
While the fact that GoDaddy is running another auction with its own inventory is somewhat notable, something in the email caught my attention:
“GoDaddy is continuing the momentum by hosting another auction event to gather more feedback from investors before potentially opening the doors to other domain sellers.”
The bold emphasis was added by me.
