Sets Ground Rules for Domain Name Auction — Domain Roundtable
Live auction this August will feature 450 domains.
Jay Westerdal, President and CEO of Name Intelligence and promoter of the Domain Roundtable conference, disclosed plans for a live auction at next month’s Domain Roundtable conference.
Last year’s conference had only a modest silent auction. This year the silent auction will be nixed in favor of a 450 domain live auction. Domains submitted to the auction will be ranked using an algorithm and the top 450 will make the auction. The “moving” list of 450 domains will be available on a web site for everyone to view. Among the auction differentiators:
-10% commission compared to 15% at TRAFFIC
-Anyone who buys or sells greater than $50,000 in domains will have their conference fees refunded
-Reserve prices that are too high will be penalized by the auction ranking system
-Only .com domains
-Reserve must be at least $100,000, but only 20 domains with six-figure or higher reserves will be accepted
-No more than three words
-Domains must be at least 3 years old
-Domain must be valued greater than $5,000 by the DomainTools staff
-Anyone can bid; there are no absentee fees
-Sellers are not beholden to a brokerage contract if the domain doesn’t sell
It is unclear if there will be a submission charge for domains. If I were Name Intelligence, I’d charge a modest (say $5) charge per domain submitted to limit the number of submissions. That would make people think twice ahead of setting too high a reserve. Still, this fee might be better received next year so that people can get a feel for Name Intelligence’s selection criteria first.
UPDATE: You may submit your domains for the auction here.
