I just received Rick Latona’s Daily Newsletter email, which informed subscribers of a change to its format. Instead of listing domain names for sale at fixed buy it now prices, each listed domain name will be for sale in a 24 hour auction on Latonas.com. This is big news, which is sure to drive up interest and participation in upcoming newsletters.
To be eligible to bid, domain buyers must register for an account on Latonas.com. Bid increments will depend on the current price of the auction, but auctions are slated for 24 hours each. Full details can be found on Latonas.com.
Since Sahar launched Bido, he has been discussing the importance of liquidity in the domain space. Similar to Bido, Latonas.com promises to bring liquidity to the marketplace, as buyers will set the price/value of domain names in auction rather than the sellers. It’s a gamble, but as Latona revealed in his newsletter, at least “15,000 domain, internet marketing professionals, and businesspeople” are subscribers.
The quality of domain names is what will set these two competitors apart. With Rick Latona’s ability to offer great in-house domain names as well as pawn-default domain names, he immediately brings a strong product to the market. Likewise, with good names bringing good buyers, it’s likely that others will be willing to take a chance and list their domain names for sale on Latonas.com.
In fact, I am going to be placing several bids today and will probably send a few of my domain names to sell in the coming days.
interesting move, definitely bad for bido and their difficult to understand model.
attn: Latonas – please add an option to view all names – it is annoying to manually have to change to the next page from a drop down. Also – half the battle on these sites is making the lists visually appealing and easy to read – i don’t think your clipart makes it easy to read or adds anything to the page. jmo….
That is certainly a bold move on the part of the sellers. It remains to be seen what the commission structure is given that previously the minimum was $200.
Thanks for your comment Gordon. I’ll take it into consideration.
Interested to see the bidding process after throwing your own names on there and converting to selling others names. Will you be having a BIN then with the option to bid?
Leonard looks like the commission structure is clear at 15%.
@ John
I am a gambling man (blackjack) so if/when I list names, I will go with $1.00 and hope others see the same value I see.
The press release said sellers can set the reserve, they aren’t all $1.00 from here on out. It’s just today to make a big splash, and there’s some really good domains in there.
I’m excited about this development, it’s like Bido style meets Great Domains quality. If Rick and Toby can get sellers to set reasonable reserves, this will be a huge success (and Bido killer).
Alright alright, everyone can stop beating up on Sahar and Bido now. They work hard and do a good job 😉
@ John
Where is anyone “beating up” Sahar or Bido in this article or comments?
My only mention of it – other than saying that Latonas is set to challenge Bido was “Since Sahar launched Bido, he has been discussing the importance of liquidity in the domain space. Similar to Bido, Latonas.com promises to bring liquidity to the marketplace, ”
Michael mentioned that this could be a “Bido killer” but there was nothing negative said about either Sahar or Bido. I do agree that Bido people work very hard… they’ve left me a few voicemails recently. I wouldn’t knock a company that does things to help this biz.
Wasn’t trying to bash Bido. I was just saying that Latonas takes the same daily auction model and drastically improves the quality. Bido will still have the same role of liquidating garbage to new fish, but now they’ll probably never get that rare gem in their inventory when sellers can go to Latonas and have a stronger pool of buyers and a less convoluted listing process.
Sarah is a great guy and he dumped a ton of money into the project to help the industry. But all BS and politics aside, the project is an epic failure without good inventory. I keep telling myself that it just needs more time to earn the confidence of sellers, but again, who will list quality domains on Bido now that there is such a viable alternative to liquidate? Let’s be serious.
hi latona’s
please classify that inventory in2 differrent categories ,
finance , geo , prodserv , etc ,
otherwise ,
i dont see what’s differrence between yours & snapnames , etc
best , 2w
Elliot,
It was more friendly banter at the industry, I’ve seen everyone comparing this to Bido. More of an acknowledgment of that rather than directed at you though in the end I have to agree with Michael.