TRAFFIC Las Vegas Auction List Announced

Rick Schwartz emailed out the list of domain names that will be up for auction during the TRAFFIC conference in Las Vegas later this month. The live auction is scheduled for May 30th from 2PM-4PM. Although the reserve prices weren’t shared, half of the domain names will have no reserve prices.

Details about the actual auction weren’t included in the email. If it’s like recent TRAFFIC auctions, there won’t be an online bidding component. As someone who sells domain names (not in this auction though), it is bothersome that people won’t be able to bid online. However, I assume there will be a bidding phone line for people who wish to bid remotely.

The list of domain names up for auction is below:

More Info About Bargain.com and ETM.com Auctions

Hilco StreambankAndrew Allemann reported that Bargain.com and ETM.com are coming up for auction, among other domain name and IP assets. The auction is being held by a company called  Hilco Streambank, an intellectual property advisory firm, and the auction will be held beginning on May 20th and closing on May 22nd.

I reached out to the company to get more information about the auction, most specifically about the Bargain.com and ETM.com domain names. Here’s what the company had to say about them:

The domain Bargain.com is being sold by Velo Holdings, Inc., a reorganized chapter 11 debtor that is liquidating pursuant to a Chapter 11 Plan. Velo was a direct marketing services company and Bargain.com was one of its internet properties. Most recently it was licensed to a related company that maintained a Bargain.com ecommerce page. That license expires on May 1st and the domain will be transferred to the successful bidder. We currently have an opening bid of $150,000 and are starting bidding at $166,000 with no reserve. The assets include the single word dictionary .com domain Bargain.com and the mispelling Bargin.com.

ETM was owned by ETM Entertainment Network Inc. a start-up that pushed its technology to transform the ticketing business that went bankrupt. This domain was purchased along with other remaining estate assets by an investor and is being marketed by Hilco Streambank on their behalf. It is a valuable three letter domain comprised of all “high value” letters.

The auction will be held on Hilco Streambank’s proprietary online auction platform, HilcoIPAuctions.com. If you are interested in bidding on any of the domain names, you’ll need to sign up in advance.

NameJet Holding Premium .Info Auction

NameJet is holding a private  auction  with Afilias, and 79 keyword rich .info domain names are up for sale. The actual auctions will take place from May 3rd to May 10th, although backorders need to be placed in order for bidders to participate in each of the private auctions. There is no reserve on any of the auctions.

Here are a few of the domain names that are up for sale in this auction:

Sedo Holding “Premium .CM Auction”

Sedo has been running a “Premium .CM Auction,” and it ends in a couple of hours. There are over 200 .CM domain names listed for sale at auction, and there are many good keywords up for auction.

As you might recall, .CM is the ccTLD (country code) for the African nation of Cameroon. Journalist Paul Sloan wrote an article that discussed .CM domain names and their connection with Kevin Ham in a 2007 article in Business 2.0 magazine (now found on CNN Money). The article spawned quite a bit of discussion about the domain industry.

All auctions have reserve prices under $1,000. At the present time, just 16 of the 207 auctions have bids on them. I did a quick Whois search on several of these domain names, and the names I checked had privacy enabled, so I don’t know who is selling them.

 

Update: Rallying Cry “Boston Strong” Domain Name Listed for Sale on Go Daddy

Boston Strong

Since the Boston Marathon tragedy, the term “Boston Strong” has been the unofficial rallying cry for those showing support for the city of Boston and everyone touched by the bombings. The Red Sox had a Boston Strong uniform in their dugout last night, and a variety of Boston Strong shirts are showing up for sale.

BostonStrong.com is a domain name that has been registered to a Vermont resident since November of 2012. It appears that this person also registered other extensions of this domain name this week, including the .net, .org, and others. BostonStrong.com forwards to Brick-Skins.com.

When doing a Whois lookup on the domain name, I saw that

How to Promote a Domain Auction

Let’s say you are selling a domain name at auction and want to make sure it receives maximum attention from the best potential buyer(s). I want to share some tips on how to let people know that your domain name is up for auction. Not that it matters all that much, but I didn’t do this when I had my own auctions at NameJet, and I regret it.

The first thing you should do is perform a Google search for the keyword or keyterm pertaining to the domain name. Much like you would do if you are selling a domain name in private, you’ll want to contact potential buyers to  gauge  their interest.

When contacting buyers, I personally wouldn’t include a link to the auction in an email. While this might not make all that much sense, it’s probably best to find out if the buyer is interested first because you’ll most likely need to educate them on the auction process. I would send an email telling them that the domain name is for sale, and they should reply if they are interested and want more info. If the domain name is good (or better) and relevant to their business, they will reply.

In your reply email to them, give them all of the auction details. Mention