The auction can be heard LIVE at another PubCon favorite webmasterradio.fm - if you hurry you can listen in, it is supposed to last until 5:00pm EST. I think they will be replaying it over the next couple of days.
WSJ coverage [online.wsj.com] (sorry, paid sub)
[marketplacepro.moniker.com...]
Auction sales as of 3:00 P.M. EST:
Sailboat.com - $120,000
Own.com - $115,000
LoanFinance.com - $8,000
Golfer.org - $4700
Above.com - $50,000
Dent.com $30,500
StockTickers.com $27,000
and rolling right along.
Listen to live auction: WebmasterRadio.fm
Person posting live from auction site: xr.com/auction
[edited by: Webwork at 11:56 pm (utc) on Oct. 28, 2006]
Interesting: Top 4 bids on Overture:
(Advertiser's Max Bid: $5.61)
(Advertiser's Max Bid: $5.60)
(Advertiser's Max Bid: $5.50)
(Advertiser's Max Bid: $5.00)
I'll venure a guess that whomever purchased that domain will recoup their investment in months, not years, not by pure PPC but by selling leads.
Shhheeessshhhh. I should have been bidding.
I think development is far more interesting than speculative registrations or parking. Parking is a good use pending full blown development. Still, it's nice to have a few "exit lots" on the internet highway.
Nice to see University.org just went for $100,000. We (that domain and my domain) once talked, briefly. Guess I'll just have to hold onto the property that I didn't swap. IMHO, at $100K University.org is still a bargain.
When you get down to it, once your start to develop, the TLD extension isn't determinative of much - 'cept that the .com version will gain some spillover from the development of a "lesser TLD".
I can live with that . . as long as they sometimes return the favor. ;0)
except sex.com, off course
£1.5 million for a domain name?
A domain name that surely can't even be trademarked?
I am sure i'm missing a lot here
My understanding is that they bidders are prequalified. That is especially true with the big ticket buys. This is a live auction so the buyers are in the room, not clicking on a mouse. ;)
As to the values there's reason to believe that the values-in-use will be going up, not down, for the key-in web addresses. All the more so as more companies more their advertising dollars online and the PPC/other bids creep up in a competitive marketplace.
It could all prove wrong.
[edited by: Webwork at 8:14 pm (utc) on Oct. 27, 2006]
I'm betting there will be a website hot on that domain post haste, to take advantage of any media coverage.
Sometimes a bid can create free advertising worth the bid.
Business.com received millions in free promotion . . and squandered it.
[edited by: Webwork at 8:21 pm (utc) on Oct. 27, 2006]
[(ps comment) hmm. not as high as I expected]
[edited by: httpwebwitch at 8:22 pm (utc) on Oct. 27, 2006]
THINK BIG
[edited by: JeremyL at 8:27 pm (utc) on Oct. 27, 2006]
Question: IF your wife wants to track where you surfed whilst on the road will she be able to load a keystroke logger on your mobile phone? Maybe a trojan (no pun) that "rings her up" with info whenever you surf to a .mobi website.
I have a much better domain name, one that is not limited to just cameras, travel or creditcards, but its applies to everything e-commerce
I have one that would make a good domain for e-commerce, forum discussion, travel, education, hair removal, knitting, underwater sports and free pron.
Some of these .coms that I thought would fetch a royal penny are being passed by. The auction is getting more sedate... I get the feeling many of the big buyers have spent their wad and left the room.
[edited by: Webwork at 9:06 pm (utc) on Oct. 27, 2006]
you know what? I have a much better domain name, one that is not limited to just cameras, travel or creditcards, but its applies to everything e-commerce. $1.5 mil is insane for cameras.com...
I think what makes it so valuable is the narrow focus.
If you own this domain you are "the" place to purchase cameras from. You have instant credibility with shoppers and you will be able to source products from places and at profits that only the largest companies selling cameras can buy from. You now have a guaranteed cash cow for as long as ecommerce is around.
I have a similar domain to this and it has generated over 10m in revenue with almost no advertising and little effort over the last few years.
I have a few product.com sites and some good general shopping.com type sites and the product.com's do much better.
There are a few companies out there built solely on product.com domains that are generating 10-50m revenues operating with low overhead and "under the radar".
I doubt that they will flood the TV and radio with ads promoting that narrowly focused domain. As far as the cameras.generic.com depends on whether "generic" adds value to a person seeking to buy.
type-ins alone might add a lot of value?
Credibility might add even more value. A lot of people are going to assume that a site named Cameras.com is the big kahuna in its category. If the site is supported by advertising (the way Hotels.com is supported by advertising), so much the better.
Sailboat.com - $120,000
OK, so when it comes to likely values, where would sailboat.com likely fall compared to say, sailboats. or sailboating. as a .com
Obviously an object is worth whatever the buyer is willing to pay, but in this case they're clearly aiming to make an overall profit from the purchase by exploiting the domain name. Will they really gain $1.5 million extra profits purely because they have the name cameras.com?
The most visited sites don't have such obvious names, Amazon sells books, Yahoo is a portal, Google is a search engine, Youtube is a video hosting site... none of these are obvious.
I don't know any major site that has a generic name such as cameras.com, and it could even be that generic names are a hindrance because people DON'T remember them as they're not distinctive in any way.
It's a bit like actors, if they have a name like "John Smith" they're often advised to alter it, make it unusual so that it will stick in people's minds and they won't confuse the actor with anyone else.
That's not something you can say about the domains being sold in this auction, they have "John Smith" written all over them.
I didn't do the math myself but the person who generated the above page, who was at the auction, is reporting sales totalling $4.7 million.
[edited by: Webwork at 12:29 am (utc) on Oct. 28, 2006]
Since I was so close back then, I have decided that I am going to come up with the next ebay in my lifetime.
