Moniker Auction at Epik Conference

Elliot Silver
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Epik Domain Conference and Auction

Rob Monster and his Epik team will be holding its first Developer Conference in Seattle September 15-17, 2010. You can learn more about the conference on the Epik website. I haven’t decided if I am going to attend, but it looks like it will be a good conference for people who have been developing, and it certainly promises to bring something different to the domain conference scene.

In conjunction with this conference, Moniker will be running a live auction presumably using the Snapnames platform. Epik is now accepting auction submissions, but domain names must meet at least one of the following requirements to be considered:

  • Is a com with an appraised value of $25,000 or more on Appraise.Epik.com
  • Is a .net with an appraised value of $5,000 or more on Appraise.Epik.com
  • Is .co, .co.uk, .tv., info, or ,org with at least 5,000 exact matches
  • Is currently getting at least 100 monthly unique visitors.
  • Is currently earning at least $50 in monthly revenue
  • Is in the top 5 positions on Google for the exact match term.

There will be 100 domain names listed for sale in the live auction, and the silent auction will consist of 200 additional domain names. Adult and trademark domain names will not be considered for inclusion in this auction.

Visit Epik.com for more information about the conference and auction.

XXX.com For Sale – $7,000,000 Reserve

Elliot Silver
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This afternoon, I noticed that Bari from Moniker posted a note that XXX.com is coming up for sale at the DomainFest New York City auction on August 18th. I have known about this for a few weeks, but she also posted some additional information you might find interesting.

The reserve price is $7,000,000 for this domain name. According to Bari, in April 2010 the domain name received 1,510,670 visits and in May 2010 the domain name saw 1,513,457.   Additionally, “traffic has more than doubled to 120K uniques per day and revenue has doubled since the announcement of the .xxx extension becoming available.” That’s a shit ton of traffic for this undeveloped domain name.

As mentioned, the .XXX extension was recently approved, and there will probably be north of 100,000 .XXX domain names purchased in the first year. This may lead to even more traffic to the site via typo traffic.

Of course a big unknown is the current revenue numbers as a parked domain name. If that number isn’t revealed, people may assume the numbers aren’t great, otherwise there wouldn’t necessarily be a reason to keep that info quiet.

Nevertheless, this is a very valuable domain name that will soon be for sale.

After Liquidation Ski Market Domain Name Expires

Elliot Silver
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SkiMarket.comIn December of 2009, Ski Market filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company, which was founded in 1958 and originally known as St. Moritz Sports, changed its name to Ski Market in 1971. There were 16 locations in the northeast US chain at the time of its bankruptcy filing.

The company also did business on its website, SkiMarket.com. Compete still shows over 1,500 visitors per month, but I’ve generally found those numbers to be light (for my websites anyway).

Because no other retail stores placed a bid to purchase Ski Market, in February of 2010, the bankruptcy court approved the company’s sale to Gordon Brothers, a Boston-based liquidation company. Gordon Brothers was hired to sell the company’s merchandise via liquidation sales over the following two months to help pay back creditors which were owed a significant sum of money.

For some reason, the bankruptcy court didn’t take action on the domain name, which would certainly be a salable asset. In June of 2010, the domain name expired and is currently on the pre-release list at NameJet and already has a $500 bid with 71 bidders.   Instead of the creditors getting anything from the sale (which included South Shore Savings Bank), the proceeds will go to NameJet and Network Solutions if this domain name is auctioned.

How Great Domain Names Drop

Elliot Silver
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I was looking at upcoming dropping domain names on FreshDrop.net a couple of days ago, and I saw that the nice 3 letter domain name JIS.com was pending deletion at Network Solutions. According to the last Whois record before the deletion in June, the domain name was owned by a company named Jacksonville Internet Services, Inc., and it was registered to a person named Karl Renaut.

In July of 1997, Jacksonville Internet Services merged with a company called Southeast Network Services Inc, whose President was Karl Renaut. After further mergers and acquisitions, I believe the company started doing business as Florida Digital Network, using FDN.com as a domain name. In June of 2007, Florida Digital Network, Inc. merged with NuVox, Inc, where Renaut currently serves as VP Technology Development, according to his LinkedIn profile.

In June of 2008, JIS.com was renewed for two years, and it had an expiration date of June of 2010. The domain name was registered to Renaut, whose email address used the floridadigital.net domain name. Unfortunately for the company, it appears that FloridaDigital.net expired in May of this year.

Whether Nuvox/Windstream wants JIS.com is anyone’s guess since they haven’t used it, but it’s interesting to follow the anatomy of a domain drop. It will be also interesting to see if someone picks up FloridaDigital.net at auction or via drop catch prior to the auction of JIS.com and tries to redeem JIS.com after re-creating the registrant’s email address. I have no idea if that would even be possible this late (or legal), but I am sure it’s something to keep an eye on in the next few weeks.

This should also serve as a good reminder for people to keep their Whois information updated and accurate, especially for companies that use email addresses on their own domain names.

Sunday Update: World Cup Final Edition

Elliot Silver
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I bet that there are plenty of people who read my blog that are very excited for today’s World Cup Final featuring the Netherlands and Spain. Since I am a betting person, I will put it out there that I think Holland is going to win the game. Without a doubt, this is going to be a fun game to watch.

On to a few updates:

  • The New York City DomainFest auction list was released this past week, and there are some fantastic names up for sale. Of course the prices are very high for the best names, but I am sure Oversee and Moniker reps are working on connecting with potential bidders. Some of the better names are Artists.com, Rate.com, Quotes.com, Stocks.com, StockQuotes.com, Cable.com, Reggae.com, and Patents.com. Full list can be seen here.
  • I decided that I am going to the DomainFest conference. If anyone would like to meet up, let me know. We may be organizing a pre-conference event, and I will keep you posted.
  • I received an email from Register.com announcing a Verisign contest with the winner getting $10,000. According to the email, “simply submit a 2-minute video or short essay (300 words or less) telling us how .com has affected your life. If your entry is one of the winning stories, you’ll win one of 10 iPads, $2,500, $5,000, or $10,000. The deadline is August 31, 2010—don’t wait to tell your story!” To enter and for more details, visit HowDoYou.com.
  • There’s a new pet store in my neighborhood called Unleashed, which is a PetCo company. I spoke with the GM yesterday, and she offered me a table out front next Saturday to hand out DogWalker.com magnets (at no cost). For those of you developing websites, these are opportunities that you should look for – low/no cost promotional activities. All you need to do is ask.
  • Some sad news to report… According to an article a couple of days ago in UK’s Daily Mail, a 30 year old nanny died from sexual arousal while watching pornography. Wonder if she got her “toy” on Vibrator.com or SexToys.com.
  • Big thanks to Arbel Arif for his Lebron James contest. I won a 2003 Topps Lebron James graded 10 rookie card for correctly guessing he’d sign with Miami.

e.CO Charity Auction Predictions

Elliot Silver
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As you are probably well aware, e.CO is currently in auction at Sedo, with the proceeds being donated to a charity of the winning bidder’s choice. The auction concludes on Thursday afternoon at 4pm EST, with online bidding as well as simultaneous live auctions in New York, Chicago, and Vancouver. This aspect of the auction is certainly going to be very interesting.

With a little over one day to go, the e.CO auction has reached a high bid of $32,000, but I predict the result will end much higher.   I think this could go well past $100,000 but if I was a betting person (which I am), my bet would be that it ends at $125,000.

I am curious to know what you think the final sales price will be. Please vote below:

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