Earlier this year, it was announced that Aron Meystedt was hired by Heritage Auctions (HA / HA.com) to head up its new Domain Name & IP Division. Heritage Auctions is one of the largest auction houses in the world, and the fact that HA is focusing on domain name auctions is a pretty big deal.
The inventory for the first HA.com domain name auction has been posted, and some of the names I like best are listed below. According to Aron, this is the final list, and it was capped at 68 because the company will be “working like crazy to direct market” to prospective buyers. The live auction will be held November 21, 2013, and bidding will open on November 1.
Some of the better names up for auction include:
- Animation.com
- Dayton.com
- Bicycle.com
- DVDs.com
- NL.com
- QR.com
- MutualFunds.com
- BusinessPhones.com
- DoctorateDegree.com
- Sociology.com
- Suit.com
- Tie.com
- EqualRights.com
- CurrencyExchange.com
- DupontCircle.com
Not only do I think it’s neat to see what HA will be selling at auction, but I also think it’s interesting to check out the format of the auction pages since this is HA’s first domain auction. At the moment, opening and reserve prices have not been listed for any of the auctions, so I can’t comment on whether there will be great deals to be had. I know Aron pushed hard to get good names at good prices.
If you’re curious about how the inventory for this auction was chosen, Aron told me, “the inventory was chosen based on criteria such as: fairly priced LL and LLL .com domains, 1 and 2 word products, categories, services and geos, as well as names that line up with the interests of our current user base of 850,000 clients.”
Some of the things I will be watching include whether or not HA is able to get their regular auction bidders to participate in this particular auction. If they are, that’s an audience that hasn’t really been tapped all that much in the past (in my opinion). If that happens and prices are high, it will be big news for people who invest in domain names.
I will be adding a comment shortly, giving input about the inventory and our marketing plans…
Aron
Great – thanks.
Hi all,
The inventory was chosen based on a few criteria such as:
aggressively priced LL and LLL dot com domains,
or
1 and 2 word domains that name a product, service, category or geo location
or
names that match up with the interests of our current client base of 850,000 (gold, currency, sports, art, wine, etc.)
We are performing a lot of direct marketing on many names, and you will see a big PR effort soon as well.
In addition, there are domains at all price points.
Many LLL dot com domains are at no reserve or at a price under $5000.
Some major names worth mentioning:
MutualFunds.com
Animation.com
NL.com
QR.com
DVDs.com
Bicycle.com
Sociology.com
Dayton.com
Alexandria.com
EqualRights.com
Suit.com
Tie.com
BusinessPhones.com
DoctorateDegree.com
DupontCircle.com
CurrencyExchange.com
The goal was to find around 70 names, at all price points.
There are some flat out STEALS in this auction. Several names have perfect development potential.
Email me with any questions: AronM@HA.com
Thanks!
Aron
Post updated with comments from Aron.
Will be following teh auction with interest, some stellar names there!
What is “fairly priced LL” ? Is it $2mm or $5mm?
NL = Netherlands
Alot of these domains have been shopped around among domainers, will be interesting to see if the auction house brings new heavyweight buyers, or waits for the domaining community to ante up.
There are some serious names in here. Best of Luck!
Outstanding list. Probably the best I’ve seen in a long time.
I absolutely love the domain, MutualFunds.com. I think that this is an example of a name that if it were bought by a company that can really bring the highest value to it such as Vanguard or Fidelity, it would be worth many millions to them.
Nice names. Also saw – Qualify to Bid Online –
So they’re already ahead of that other auction that can’t manage to do that.
There are? Which one[s]? I see:
JazzBlog.com
theCoinBlog.com
DiveSuits.com
are no reserve.
Wanted to ask what ever prices these names end up selling for are those prices going to be made public for anyone to see or only those watching the auction going to know them? I see a few that I would love to bid on and if won would feel a lot more confident in my purchase knowing the prices were not available for anyone to see.
Good question for Aron. I would imagine the sales will be reported because Heritage probably wants publicity after it’s first public domain auction. Publicity is one reason why I am a reluctant bidder in public auctions.
All past auction results are publicly available to view.
Will there be a reserve price range shown as some other auctions provide?