Sunday Afternoon Update

Elliot Silver
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27

Hope you are having a nice weekend. I’m exhausted, having just completed the 44 mile 5 Boro Bike Tour this morning. My muscles are sore, but it feels great to have done this for such a great organization.

Here are some of my thoughts this weekend:

  • I am very surprised that Boston.net didn’t meet it’s reserve (somewhere under $25,000) at Sedo last week. I was almost positive the domain name was going to sell, although I personally don’t invest in .net domain names.
  • I am strongly thinking about re-developing TropicalBirds.com using my DogWalker.com business model (while keeping all the content). The site receives over 10,000 visits a month, and many of those people are looking for breeders. The only thing that scares me a bit is that I don’t have many inquiries about advertising. I am conflicted – what do you think I should do?
  • People always seem to be interested in learning what names I am buying. Here are a few recent aftermarket acquisitions: XXD.com, InsuranceInvestigations.com, NoBarkDogCollar.com, InternetResearchers.com, HousekeepingService.com, HomeImprovementForum.com, IndiaOutsourcing.com, CollegeInterview.com, and NetworkingForum.com. How about you?
  • The other day, someone commented that my blog was a bit less “sticky” since I am rarely discussing my development projects. I have not been starting new projects lately because I have enough work with my current projects. Additionally, sales have been picking up, so I am focusing more on acquisitions and sales rather than development. When times are tough, development can help build new revenue streams, but when my sales are great, there’s far less of a need to build these new streams, although I continue to focus on my current projects.
  • I’ve said this several times, but people continue to email me questions about domain investing. I don’t offer private consulting services, but I will do my best to give you a thorough answer if you post your question on DomainQuestions.com.

CarInsurance.TV Sells for $13k and Now CarInsuranceQuotes.TV on The Market for $16+ Million

Elliot Silver
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20

DN Journal reported the $13,200 sale of CarInsurance.TV in this week’s domain sales report. The sale was closed by the team at Sedo, and it was the second highest ccTLD sale of the week, trailing the sale of Deals.co.au, which sold for $100,000.

In case you are interested in a similar domain name, I may have found one for you, although the price is a bit higher.

CarInsuranceQuotes.TV is currently on the market at Sedo for the ambitious listing price of just $16,777,215. That would be around €11,383,632 at today’s exchange rate. If it sold, it would likely set the record for highest recorded domain sale of all time, and certainly set the record for highest ccTLD sale.

Sedo Closes Nearly $440k in .com Domain Sales Last Week

Elliot Silver
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4

SedoSedo closed approximately $440,000 in .com domain sales last week (according to my currency conversion calculations). Leading the way was Instyler.com, which sold for €50,000, which is roughly $73,000 at a $1.46 conversion rate to USD. Fiver.com was next at $70,000.

The buyers of both names have privacy protection, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Fiverr purchased the less confusing Fiver.com. Fiverr is a popular startup that’s known as the “place for people to share things they’re willing to do for $5.”

Here are the publicly reported .com domain sales from Sedo last week:

fiver.com 70000 USD
instyler.com 50000 EUR
b3.com 25500 USD
goutattack.com 15500 USD
takeon.com 10000 USD
enfore.com 10000 EUR
jl-i.com 10000 USD
lifecity.com 8500 USD
freewebstore.com 7500 USD
kidar.com 6500 USD
cash-back.com 6500 EUR
somit.com 6050 USD
instigate.com 6000 USD
safeonlinecasino.com 5500 USD
mobileimpact.com 5010 USD
exu.com 4500 USD
c2cc.com 4200 USD
investinguniversity.com 3500 USD
namestrategy.com 3333 USD
chairmaker.com 3333 USD
citypath.com 3200 USD
bravada.com 3000 USD
yellowboard.com 3000 USD
cheapfires.com 3000 USD
abva.com 3000 USD
topjeans.com 2932 USD
paymyphone.com 2900 USD
coranet.com 2800 USD
mybestshot.com 2800 USD
topnames.com 2785 USD
vinciconsulting.com 2750 USD
kote.com 2610 USD
onlinescasino.com 2600 USD
networkeffect.com 2512 USD
newvodka.com 2500 EUR
usponsor.com 2500 USD
limelightdigital.com 2500 USD
cloudgeek.com 2200 USD
myestatesale.com 2022 USD
n-1.com 2000 USD
myeim.com 2000 USD
adpark.com 2000 USD
clevermail.com 2000 EUR
aeroseeker.com 2000 USD
motornews.com 1963 EUR
speicherstadt.com 1890 EUR
agencedevoyages.com 1800 EUR
orderdrinks.com 1800 USD
energygood.com 1795 USD
nive.com 1700 USD
vidyos.com 1677 USD
dating-websites.com 1677 USD
summerlandkey.com 1651 USD
chrg.com 1600 USD
unixsolutions.com 1595 USD
starnumber.com 1500 USD
netbooklive.com 1500 EUR
hundeerziehung.com 1500 EUR
serabella.com 1500 USD
vvzv.com 1500 USD
africaelectricity.com 1500 EUR
rifis.com 1350 USD
retusz.com 1300 EUR
chinaguy.com 1290 USD
petbuy.com 1250 USD
lawberry.com 1250 USD
jouerjeuxgratuit.com 1250 EUR
retailintegration.com 1250 USD
motorleasing.com 1250 USD
emoneybroker.com 1200 USD
myscans.com 1200 USD
godinheaven.com 1200 USD
biura.com 1150 USD
tiketo.com 1100 USD
e-care.com 1100 USD
2game.com 1050 GBP
spend360.com 1000 EUR
inkpond.com 1000 USD
webcelebs.com 1000 USD
nepadailydeal.com 1000 USD
new-medicine.com 1000 USD
partycocktails.com 1000 USD
careergold.com 1000 USD
biosole.com 1000 USD
oravo.com 995 USD
abacuspartners.com 970 USD
drivedatarecoveryservices.com 950 USD
holidayblog.com 930 EUR
breastfeedingbook.com 899 USD
quotesautoinsurance.com 899 USD
skopelosvillas.com 899 USD
esl.com.ar 850 EUR
tobaccoking.com 800 USD
breedgame.com 800 EUR
phukethouses.com 800 USD
scrive.com 800 USD
tvcheck.com 790 USD
restaurantrecruitment.com 775 USD
podiobook.com 750 USD
tinyhelpers.com 750 USD
nicetomeet.com 750 EUR
fine-jewelry.com 750 USD
draincleaningmachine.com 714 USD
lightningloan.com 700 GBP
beyonder.com 700 USD
pompandceremony.com 700 USD

Boston.net on Auction at Sedo

Elliot Silver
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26

SedoThere was an article in this morning’s Boston Herald about the Boston.net auction currently taking place at Sedo. Although the owner had turned down nearly 50 offers for this domain name via Sedo, it’s now for sale in an auction, and the reserve price  is somewhere between $10,000 – $24,999.

The current bid price is $13,800, and the auction ends on Thursday, April 28, 2011 at noon (eastern).

I am  bit partial to Massachusetts geodomain names, although .net wouldn’t be my first choice for a geodomain name. However, I think this .net is particularly good, and the reserve price range seems to be excellent for it. My prediction is that this domain name will meet the reserve price and sell at auction.

As you are probably aware, Boston.com is owned and operated by the Boston Globe, and it’s my main source of news and sports information. As a Boston sports fan, I am on Boston.com many times a day.

Earlier this year, Telepathy, Inc. put Massachusetts.com on the market, also using Sedo as the broker.

Rick Latona Pulls Plug on Auction Business; Endorses Sedo’s Auction Platform

Elliot Silver
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11

LatonasAs you may have heard, Rick Latona threw in the towel on domain auctions and has endorsed Sedo’s auction services. According to Rick, “Sedo dominates the online domain auction space and they do it well.” In fact, Rick has his own no reserve auction on Sedo ending in about an hour (ISU.com, KansasCity.net, DayTraders.net…etc).

I think it’s a very smart move to withdraw from a venture that isn’t working, even one as high profile as his auctions. As the old saying goes, there’s no sense in throwing good money after bad, and I think it got to that point that the auctions were becoming money losing efforts.

Rick was in a tough spot because the auctions he was running weren’t all doing well. I am sure he felt pressure auctioning other people’s domain names for lower amounts than he hoped, and he was also auctioning his company’s inventory as well. Not only was it damaging his reputation, but it was hurting his bottom line.

I admire Rick for his audacity in the domain space. He doesn’t do anything half-assed, and he puts a big effort into all of the challenges he undertakes. Although some might say his TRAFFIC conference partnership didn’t end successfully, I had a great time at the Amsterdam conference, and I was planning on attending the Hong Kong conference. This is a tribute to his efforts, as I generally wouldn’t travel to another continent for a conference unless it was for something special.

When you are trying new things, there are going to be some that fail. In a small industry like this one, those failures are usually amplified. Rick spent a lot of money on his auction venture, made some waves in the industry with very good results, but he ultimately realized it wasn’t going to work out for his company, and he pulled the plug.

I think it’s great to see people trying new things to better the industry and drive more revenue for domain investors, and I look forward to his next audacious endeavor.

Sedo’s Travel Auction Begins Today

Elliot Silver
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5

SedoSedo is running a travel-related domain auction beginning this afternoon (March 24) at 1pm EST and running through March 31, 2011.  There are over 225 domain names in this auction, and all of them are related to travel (or could be related to travel). There are many ccTLD domain names included in this auction, and some of the prices are in Euros instead of dollars (so keep that in mind if you decide to bid).

My 5 favorites from the auction include:

  • Philadelphia.org 25,000 – 49,999 USD Reserve
  • HotelNews.com 25,000 – 49,999 USD Reserve
  • VisitPanamaCity.com 5,000 – 9,999 USD Reserve
  • HolidayBlog.com 1 – 499 EUR Reserve
  • Touring.com 25,000 – 49,999 USD Reserve

What are your thoughts on this auction? Do the ccTLD domain names make sense, and how do you think they’ll do?

Diaclaimer: Although I own several VisitCity .com domain names, I do not have any domain names in this particular auction. I may bid on one or more domain names, and the link to the auction is NOT an affiliate link.

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