Some .CM Prices In Free Fall, As Bidders Pass On NameJet Auctions

2009 September 24
by MHB

We told you about the earlier results of the .cm auctions at NameJet.com at the beginning of the month.

However, the prices of  many of the .cm domains selling at NameJet.com, have been in a free fall, as bidders are passing on their chance to grab the domains.

.cm auctions have been operating differently than normal NameJet.com auctions.

Normally when a bidder defaults at NameJet.com auction, the domain is re-auctioned.

However, with .cm domain auctions, NameJet.com has not  been re-auctioning domains, but rather simply offering them to the next highest bidder.

Many times,  the next highest bidder didn’t want the domain either, resulting in an actually selling price well off the initial price.

Here are just a few examples:

Sex.cm sold on 9.1 for $51,300, rejected by the 2nd high bidder on 9.15 at $51,100 and sold on 9.16 for $21,700.

Tv.cm sold on 9.1 for $5,200, rejected by the 2nd high bidder on 9.15 at $5,100 and sold on 9.16 for $2K.

Home.cm sold on 9.1 for $2,013, rejected by the 2nd bidder on 9.15 at $933 and sold on 9.16 for $60.

CreditCard.cm sold on 9.1 for $7,300, rejected by the 2nd bidder on 9.15 at $6,999, rejected by the 3rd high bidder on 9.16 at $6,300, sold to the 4th high bidder on 9.17 for $1,580.

The worst price drop of a .cm domain name, I have on my sheet, is Free.cm

Free.cm sold on 9.1 for $17,800, rejected by the 2nd bidder on 9.15 at $7,800, rejected by the 3rd bidder on 9.16 at $3,300, and sold to the 4th bidder on 9.20 for $310.

So free.cm went from selling for $17,800 all the way down to $310.

And you thought the stock market was bad.

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21 Responses leave one →
  1. 2009 September 24

    Nice to see some of these bidders come back to reality. Although they should have a different system. If you are going to bid you should have a credit line at these auction places.

  2. 2009 September 24

    Damn. That stinks.

    If I’m watching a name then I don’t bid if it goes above my price, and yet I would’ve easily paid more than $2k for tv.cm.

    They should’ve reauctioned, imo.

  3. 2009 September 24
    jblack permalink

    Market collapse is likely a reflection of investor lack of confidence in the registry.

  4. 2009 September 24
    Domain Investor permalink

    It only takes 2 bidders to make a bidding price go thru the roof.
    And, if the 2 bidders have a reality check, the prices will tumble when re-auctioned (as you pointed out).

  5. 2009 September 24
    MHB permalink

    Domain

    Just to be cleared these domains were not re-auction but just offered to the next bidders in line

  6. 2009 September 24

    Do you think these bidders got wind of your .cm DNS issues post? http://www.thedomains.com/2009/07/18/your-may-not-to-get-to-use-your-cm-domains-until-2010/

  7. 2009 September 24
    MHB permalink

    Jamie

    No

    I think there were several factors at work.

    For one, a very liberal policy by Enom and NameJet.com on .cm domains, which is basically if you didn’t want the domain, you just tell them and they take it off your account.

    Number 2, people realized that Yahoo and Google were not going to let you park these like a regular domain. You are going to have to monetize these through affiliate programs or through existing sites.

    Finally, its the psychology of auctions.

    In a auction the more bidders there are the more excitement there is, the higher the auction goes, the more interest there is.

    This worked in reverse.

    Once people saw others pulling out, they were unwilling to step up in 2nd, 3rd or even 4th position to take the domain on.

  8. 2009 September 24

    Michael .cm cannot be parked ?

  9. 2009 September 24
    MHB permalink

    Everthing

    My understanding is neither Yahoo or Google will allow a parked .cm domain as such.

  10. 2009 September 24

    .CM can be parked, but it seems some parking companies have them blocked, others work fine.

    @Jamie Zoch: Nameserver can now be updated!

  11. 2009 September 24

    porn.cm is parked at sedo. i dont know where you got the info from on goog not allowing these. is that for sure? or just select partners can do it.

  12. 2009 September 24

    There’s only entity that can’t lose- NameJet. Oh how I wish I could be them.

  13. 2009 September 24
    Matt permalink

    I am testing with Google and Yahoo domain feeds – both allow.

    I think it would be silly for them not to allow.

  14. 2009 September 24

    I think the big question is if these names would show up in google search results in the American space. I doubt they will. I suspect if you only went to google cameroon version would they be considered relevant and pop up in the search results.

  15. 2009 September 24

    There is no Google Cameroon version yet. I spoke to some SEO guys and they have ordered a few keyword domains to see if they can bring them into a high listing.

  16. 2010 February 24
    Peter permalink

    So what’s up with sex.cm? Whoever paid $21,700 is doing nothing with it. It doesn’t resolve as of Feb 24, 2010 via my ffox browser here in Canada.

    No sex and definitely no clicks for them tonight :)

    Btw what would be the best strategy to monetize that domain?

  17. 2010 February 24
    MHB permalink

    Peter

    Sex.cm didn’t sell for $51K or $21K as far as I tracked it, it went all the way back to $350 and not sure anyone ever bought it from that point

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  4. 2009 Domain Dunce Award: .CM Launch | Domaining Manual

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