i.CO Auction Canceled by Registry

Elliot Silver
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20

.CO RegistryMoniker/Snapnames was scheduled to hold an auction for i.CO from Februrary 3-10, and I expected the sale to be significant, especially with a reported minimum bid of $100,000. I still expect i.CO to sell for a lot of money, but it looks like that is not going to happen in the very near future.

According to Lori Anne Wardi’s  post on the .CO Registry blog, the i.CO auction has been canceled. Apparently, the demand has been significant, with “well over a hundred businesses expressing different level of interest in the domain name.” As a result,  the .CO Registry has decided to scrap the auction format and work with Moniker/Snapnames to find a buyer for this domain name.

I think this was probably a very good strategic move. If the .CO Registry and Moniker/Snapnames think they can hammer out a better deal in private – or without the confines of an auction, then that’s what they need to do.

As a domain investor, I am a bit disappointment. I had hoped to really see what the market would yield for this domain name, as I believe it would be a good indicator of the strength of .CO investments, especially if a large company purchased it.

The wait for another .CO auction to  gauge  the health of the premium domain name aftermarket won’t be too long, as Sedo’s auction will take place February 10-17.

Sedo Great Domains Auction Ending in an Hour

Elliot Silver
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5

There are some very good domain names up for auction in Sedo’s GreatDomains featured auction, which ends in under an hour. Many of the domain names have met reserve prices and will sell.

My favorites include the following (with current bids as of posting):

  • GasStation.com $7,500 high bid
  • RDH.com 6,800 GBP high bid
  • InternetBrowser.com $1,500 high bid
  • Pathology.com $8,200 high bid
  • Trillion.com – $9,000 high bid
  • UnderPressure.com – $905 high bid
  • IRACalculator.com – $4,100 high bid

Submit Domain Names for Domain Roundtable Auction on Aftermarket.com

Elliot Silver
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4

The Aftermarket.com live auction platform, operated by Thought Convergence, has been completely revamped and will debut at the Domain Roundtable conference on March 3, 2011  in the Bahamas.

Domain owners that are interested in selling domain names during the live auction can submit their domains on the Aftermarket.com website now thru January 21, 2011. The final auction list is expected to be published mid-February.

I would imagine Aftermarket.com and Domain Roundtable organizers will select only the best domain names at reasonable (sellable) prices, so keep that in mind when you are submitting names.

Please email questions or inquiries to support@aftermarket.com.

How Rick Latona Marketed Traffic Auction Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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11

I was a recipient of a fruit basket from Rick Latona, which was a marketing tool to announce the sale of FruitBaskets.com. Rick and his team are always being creative when it comes to marketing domain names they are selling.

I want to share the top 10 things Rick and his team sent domain investors and end users to help spread the word about domain names for sale that were sold (probably because of the marketing):

  1. Shock.com – Horse heads, ala The Godfather
  2. Taxidermist.com – Headless horses
  3. WebsiteDesigners.com – AEIOU credits
  4. Dogs.cm – Feral dogs from Cameroon
  5. Cats.cm – Feral cats from Cameroon
  6. OxygenTanks.com – Camel Full Flavor Unfiltered  Cigarettes
  7. FamilyStress.com – Adult Friend Finder subscription to wives and Ray Neu to daughters
  8. Depressants.com – Same as above
  9. 10 LLL.mobis – Pigeon shit
  10. VirusRemoval.net – The flu

(Kidding of course)

My Picks for Today’s Traffic Auction in Miami

Elliot Silver
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4

Rick Latona will be holding the live Traffic conference auction in South Beach / Miami this afternoon at 4pm EST.  The entire list as well as more information about bidding online, is available at Proxibid (you can follow along there, too).

As I mentioned on Sunday, FruitBaskets.com is my top pick for the auction, but below are a number of other domain names I like.

  • DUL.com
  • SNS.com
  • GG.net
  • Shock.com
  • KeyLimePies.com
  • FloridaOranges.com
  • FruitBaskets.com
  • SEM.com
  • IHP.com
  • WeddingCoordinator.com
  • Internet.CO
  • Gambling.CO
  • LasVegas.CO
  • ForeignAuto.com
  • MadridJobs.com
  • CigarBlog.com

Traffic Sunday Updates

Elliot Silver
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3

I am driving down to Miami tomorrow for the Traffic conference. Based on what I am hearing, it sounds like its going to be a pretty big conference. Here are a few things I am looking forward to at the show (on an iPad so my apologies for any typos):

– I hear that somewhere in the ballpark of 300-400 people will be in attendance. This is a great turnout compared to some recent Traffic shows. It will be a good chance to meet with people I don’t see very often. The last big conference I attended was DomainFest in January. Rick and Howard have put a lot into making this a big conference.

– I think the auction is going to see some good results. There are quite a few good names that seem to have reasonable reserves. With some recent underwhelming auctions, I think Rick Latona and his team have been working harder than ever to ensure a successful auction.

– One of my favorite domain names at Rick’s auction is FruitBaskets.com, and it’s not because I received a fruit basket advertising the name. Aside from a company like Harry and David’s and Baskets.com, I don’t know many brands of fruit basket companies. Without a  dominant leader, a company that operates on the generic domain name can become the perceived leading brand. I think 1800-Baskets, which operates Baskets.com (owned by 1800-Flowers) would be a good candidate to buy this name. They should probably make a business case to buy it, so at the very least, they don’t give another company a chance to compete immediately.

– There are quite a few premium .CO domain names like Pizza.co up for auction. This will be a big test for .CO since their closed auctions have been doing great, but there haven’t been many big sales happening outside of these (from my perspective). It will also be interesting to see what companies bid.

– Aftermarket.com has been preparing for a re-launch for a while and has been collecting email addresses on its website. Perhaps some new details about the relaunch will be released during the course of the conference. Thought Convergence is a dynamic company, and it will be exciting to see what the brand will offer its customers and clients.  

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