If you’re interested in bidding on the DL.com domain name, currently at auction via Hilco Streambank, I received an update about it that I want to share. The opening bid price has been lowered from $200,000 to $165,000, and the domain name now has one bid. There is no reserve price on this auction, so it will sell to the highest bidder upon closing on October 31.
Because of the former owner of the domain name, Hilco has received some non-domain industry press about the auction, and perhaps that is what attracted the bid. My guess would be that it is a domain investor who placed the bid, since $165k for a 2 letter domain name like this is pretty solid. Prior to the auction, my company made a 6 figure offer for it, but it was a bit below this opening bid, and my offer was not accepted.
If I was going to guess, I would say the auction will close significantly higher than the current bid price, and the fact that there is a bid may spur other bidders to take action. Prospects for the name would include Delta Airlines (has the IATA Code of DL), Dolby Laboratories, DL & Company, or perhaps a law firm that previously competed with Dewey & LeBoeuf.
Update: DL.com sale price was $210,689.
so… how does one get into domain investing… and is it more profitable than domain blogging?
Getting into it is easy. Making a profit probably isn’t as easy for most people.
For my business, domain investing $$$ > blogging $$$.
It is clear that HA uses wrong sales channels, as there have to be several businesses that would buy it for much more, but they just have no idea that it is available for purchase.
That’s a silly comment for two main reasons: 1) you don’t know what channels they’ve been using, aside from what you can see and 2) the sale isn’t over yet, so there will likely be other bidders and perhaps it will sell for much more.
How do you know what I know, Elliot? I am sure that once the auction ends, you write a new post about that, so then we may continue in this topic. Fair enough?
I don’t know what you know, but I do know that neither of us would know about any private sale efforts, let alone using other channels neither of us monitor. For instance, neither you nor I would have any way of knowing if the auction company met privately with corporate prospects in person to discuss. I have no idea if they are or aren’t, but it’s not fair to say that they are using the “wrong sales channels” when you don’t know what channels they are using, aside from the domain investor crowd.
For sure I will write a post when it sells assuming the sale price is reported. I am not tracking it as a bidder and there’s a chance I’ll be busy doing other things when the auction closes. Assuming the sale price is reported (would already by a top sale of 2013 right now), you can analyze the efforts then. I would imagine you should probably wait until the Whois changes to really make a valid point, but you seem like you are ready to criticize right now, so I wouldn’t expect you to wait.
It is a bit silly to judge how a company is promoting an auction when there is a week remaining. I can’t tell you how much more money I’ve personally spent on auctions during the final hours.
BTW, if you think the price is way cheap right now and a can’t miss investment, you should probably try and buy it. I assume you are a wealthy guy based on your previous comments, so why not jump in and buy it to sell it for more? Aside from money, there aren’t barriers to entry for this auction, so perhaps you should participate and get yourself a deal.
Elliot
I’m confused.You say this is a no-reserve auction yet the opening bid you state is $165,000.00 That would in fact be the reserve price,correct?Also at the risk of being told its none of my biz are you done bidding?
What I mean is that it’s not like there’s a $165,000 bid but the reserve is $200,000. Often times at auctions there are left bids and other bids below reserve to help give an auction momentum. Since the auction won’t sell below reserve, there’s not really a risk to bidding. In this auction, the opening bid is the minimum and there is no reserve above it.
I made my offer, and it wasn’t accepted, so I won’t be participating in the auction.