Economy Über-Bad? Domainers Speak With Their Wallets @ DOMAINfest Global 2009
Posted on | January 30, 2009 | 5 Comments
The live domain auction is over, and I made this post regarding the auction results. 62 domains out of 200 sold for a total of $665,000. A little disappointing? I figured that with some big names at the live auction, and Domain Name Wire reporting that there are over 600 people currently at DOMAINfest, a couple domains would probably be getting some juicy bids. It was a long day, but I still managed to watch about 85% of the auction on mute. Well worth it, since I was extremely interested in the question: Will the big time domainers walk-the-walk and buy domains or pass up on “possible bargains” during our economic turmoil?
Errors.com was one of the earliest domains to go. I remember sitting there and watching the sale and wondering: “How much is the keyword “errors” really worth?” A minute or so later? Sold @ $20,000. I had a friend sitting right next to me whom I casually discuss domaining with go “$20,000? That’s it?”. I thought that was a steal. How many people out there hate that damned blue-screen of death error on their PCs? Score 1 new-owner of Errors.com.
Alright, moving on…
For some reason I call major BS on the .travel domains that sold. I don’t want to offend a possibly legit bidder, but I’m just not sure. Great keywords, don’t get me wrong… but all we’ve heard is drama with .travel and the supposed corruption along with that tld.
Europe.travel – $5,000
Fly.travel – $2,500
Free.travel – $3,000
Information.travel – $3,000
City.travel – $2,500
Nevertheless, congrats to the buyer. There were even a report on Namepros that someone saw a .travel in the wild on a TV commercial.
The cheapest domains that sold (3-way tie):
FixedAPR.com – $500
IncredibleBargains.com – $500
CommercialModeling.com – $500
I really think FixedAPR and IncredibleBargains went for cheap. Great deals for the buyer, IMO.
Highest Prices? :: Drum Roll ::
Wife.com – $100,000
FreeWireless.com – $50,000
ConsumerElectronics.com – $45,000
FreeCreditReports.net – $30,000
Errors.com – $20,000
Husband.com – $25,000
DateFinder.com – $19,000
ArtClasses.com – $15,000
GolfBag.com – $13,000
Reserved.com – $12,500
Contact.me – $10,000
Save.me – $5,000
Well, there’s not really much more to say. I can’t really make out an exact opinion on the auction. Bad? Good? Meh? I’ll leave it: If the Superbowl isn’t recession proof, nothing is.
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5 Responses to “Economy Über-Bad? Domainers Speak With Their Wallets @ DOMAINfest Global 2009”
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"there's nothing like having a vision, imagining it, making it, then having it work, especially if your very being depends on it"
January 30th, 2009 @ 12:57 am
Guess IncredibleBargains.com was truly an incredible bargain.
Thanks for sharing this information.
January 30th, 2009 @ 1:43 am
Always a pleasure
January 30th, 2009 @ 1:51 am
The .travel domains had great hype like the .mobi and .me but still hasnt provided any big sales from the auction.
I still cant believe the interest in the ext I just dont see anyone searching .travel!
I was there but from what I hear there was names that were going for a steal, I think many domainers are scared and looking for some cash injection hence selling domains SO CHEAP!
Husband.com for $25K is CHEAP! really CHEAP!
Congrats to the new buyer smart move picking up this beauty but not good news if the industry!
Regards,
Robbie
January 31st, 2009 @ 9:55 am
Thanks for the great info. I’m still trying to figure out how to make money off of domails. I would greatly appreciate your honest permission. I own healthsurprise.com, 30minutepizza.com, 777deals.com, hugbomb.com, sillyparents.com, and several others like this. Do you think they have any value, and how long will I have to hold them to get, lets say, $5000 for one of them?
Thanks for the input.
Brandon
January 31st, 2009 @ 1:56 pm
Husband.com at $25,000… that was a definite steal. Lucky for the new owner?
As for .travel, I was going to post this up today:
“http://www.travel.travel/index.php/2009/01/30/13009-five-premium-travel-domain-names-sold-at-live-auction-at-domainfest-global/
I was just send this link to my e-mail and someone asking me if I thought .travel is worth it. I guess their “press release” is working/getting attention?”
but I decided against it. I just don’t know if I believe those were legit sales. Maybe they were… I don’t want to assume
@ Almost Millionaire
777deals.com – Poker Affiliate Site? –
Hug site? lol
HealthSurprise.com – Health resource site?
30minutepizza.com – Quickie Pizzas?
HugBomb.com – No clue
SillyParents.com – I think can be developed into a humor site for/about parents… 100%
I can’t see these going for more than low xxx in the reseller market. A brandable like HugBomb would NEED to be developed to get some interested, and receive steady traffic till its sold for a fair amount. The others hold their own weight a bit, but low xxx would probably be the peak. As for the future, it would REALLY depend on an end-user being motivated to snatch one of these for a development project till they get till $5000.
(I wrote this before the above) I’m not sure holding onto these for any amount of time would get you $5000 in the reseller market. You might be able to get an end-user offer if someone wants them, but with a lot of the sales I’ve been seeing, $5,000 is hard to get. The only way to get a better valuation on them is to actually park the domains. See if they get traffic. I see some are developed into blogs (but haven’t been updated!). If you’ve given up on them, they could be making you some extra cash parked… but you definitely risk de-indexing.