Next Week’s Auctions are Notable for Domain Industry
Geodomain and TRAFFIC auctions conclude next week; notable for industry.
With all of the doom and gloom in the economy and questions surrounding the value of domain names, next week will be an notable one for the domain name industry.
First, Sedo’s Geodomain auction will end on February 20. The auction has by now racked up over $2 million in bids, but none of the big ticket domains have reached their reserves. Iraq.com right now has a bid of 400,000 EUR and the domain has a reserve between 500,000 EUR and 1,000,000 EUR. Arabia is at $350,000, still below the reserve of at least $500,000. Iran.com is at $300,000 and has a reserve of under $500,000. Iran.com sold for $400,000 in June 2007, so I anticipate a reserve of more than that. You may recall that the domain received a bid of $735,000 in December, but the bid turned out to be bogus.
Second, the TRAFFIC live domain auction takes place next week. There are lots of great domains in the auction, but will the big ticket bidders show up? Prospects are good, given that this is Moniker’s first TRAFFIC auction that will be simulcast through SnapNames’ online bidding software. People that don’t go to the conference can bid without submitting absentee or phone bids. This ought to boost sale prices.
Also, for the first time ever, TRAFFIC’s domain auction will take place on two days. On Monday at 8:30 PST there will be a no/low reserve auction featuring domains such as Washington.biz, VideoGames.info, and InsurancePayments.com. The main auction takes place Wednesday, February 20 at 3:30 PST. Some of the domains that look promising at current reserve prices include:
DVDs.com $100k-$250k
Husband.com $50k-$100k
Handcrafted.com $10k-$25k
Baseball.net $25k-$50k
Antidepressant.com $25k-$50k
Trusts.com and LivingTrusts.com $100k-$250k
SanJuan.com $250k-$500k
SearchEngines.com $50k-$100k
Offer.com $100k-$250k
Cotton.com $10k-$25k
Confidential.com $25k-$50k
iam.com $1-$5k
Will the auctions be successful and give momentum to the industry? Or will they prove lackluster and cast more doubt? “Frank”ly, it depends on if a few key people show up with their wallets.
