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T.R.A.F.F.I.C Auction Recap: Which domains sold for what

Posted on 31. Oct, 2006 by Carolyn Shelby.

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Here are the domains that sold in the live auction at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East on Friday, October 27, 2006. It’s sorted in descending order by sale price. Since I’ve heard several people inquire about domains sold at the auction, I thought I’d post the list here for posterity.

cameras.com $1,500,000
flowers.mobi $200,000
forclosures.com $150,000
mortgage.net $149,000
vb.com $130,000
sailboat.com $120,000
sexeducation.com $120,000
creditcards.net $120,000
own.com $115,000
university.org $100,000
hb.com $100,000
fun.mobi $100,000
credits.com $95,000
hook.com $67,000
wo.com $65,000
fortress.com $60,000
bisexuals.com $60,000
canadamortgagerates.com $60,000
above.com $50,000 [...]

Popularity: 13% [?]

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No sale for HELL.com; Flowers.mobi sells for $200k

Posted on 28. Oct, 2006 by Carolyn Shelby.

I tuned in via WebmasterRadio.FM to the big domain auction that Moniker put on in Hollywood, Florida last Friday. While listening to the professional auctioneer have to say things like “Hot Sexy Babes Dot Com” and “Free Porn Dot U S” was quite entertaining, the real interesting thing to note was the number of domains that got no bids at all, or didn’t come close to meeting their reserve.

Most of the domains that didn’t sell had overly ambitious reserve prices. The owners of Puppet.com were looking for a million dollars. Shock… no bids.

I don’t know if you can say that the bottom is falling out on the market for .coms, but I think it’s safe to say that speculators are being much more choosey about which domains they buy. Just because it’s a single dictionary word domain, no longer means it will command a premium price, and that’s a good thing.

Newbie domainers believe every domain in their portfolio is worth a small fortune, and they price themselves out of some respectable sales by insisting on exorbitant rates. Yes, they might find that one buyer who is either rich and stupid, or rich and really desperate and stupid, but finding that special buyer is winning the lottery (with similar odds of success).

The real shock for me during the auction were the prices some of the new .mobi names were getting. Since .mobi *just* debuted, these guys picked up their domains for registration fees and then turned around and sold them for multiple thousands of dollars in like a months time. That is awesome for the successful speculators and I sincerely hope .mobi actually takes off.

Domainers and companies who can’t afford the .com version of their names have been praying for .net, .info and the other non-.com TLDs to “take off” for years, but it’s just not happening with the general public. The unwashed masses still automatically append “.com” to anything they hear start with “www”. Mobi has a shot if the mobile providers get together and have their devices default to the .mobi TLD instead of .com, like most desktop browsers currently do.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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WHOIS database mentioned on NBC’s Heroes

Posted on 24. Oct, 2006 by Carolyn Shelby.

In case you missed it last night, Hiro’s buddy tracked down his Internet Stripper “friend” and showed up at her house (while the entire Las Vegas police department was there, of course). When asked how he found her, he replied “WHOIS database. You should really get an unlisted registration.”

Dar.

Moral of the story: If you’re an Internet Stripper and you don’t want your johns showing up on your doorstep — spend the extra $10 to get a private domain registration.

Popularity: 12% [?]

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