Moniker’s live auction at DomainFest New York concluded today with an official tally of $537K in Domain names sold.
There was a lot of confusion concerning the number and amount of domain names sold at the auction, due to multiple domain sales being reported on the Live SnapNames.com feed which they erroneous showed as sold.
Apparently many of those domain did not sell.
I have confirmed with Moniker and the official tally of the domains sold today are below.
However, including the sale of TShirts.com and the associated names (which were removed from the live auction, and sold for $1.265 million) the sales tally is $1,801,900.
Moniker.com also reports that we may still see some sales of some of the domain in the auction in the coming week(s).
Domain
disco.com $255,000.00
bigapple.com $ 70,000.00
newyorkapartments.com $ 65,000.00
companion.com $45,000.00
exterminating.com $35,000.00
grocerystore.com $32,500.00
bridalsets.com $7,000.00
cabletelevision.net $6,000.00
cigarbars.com $5,100.00
chiantiwine.com $3,000.00
opticians.net $2,800.00
stromboli.com $2,250.00
coneyisland.net $1,750.00
discountjeans.com $1,700.00
freecreditreports.us $1,500.00
hoarders.com $1,500.00
learningdisorders.com $1,500.00
jerseyshores.org $300.00
I had a pretty good feeling that Exterminating.com would sell – that’s a great category killer name for 35K! But what really surprises me is that out of over 200 votes from all the talented domainers that visit here – nobody else thought it would sell for at least 25K? ! Go figure…..
Cheers, I thought some of the prior sales sounded very unlikely, even many of the ones that were supposedly above reserve.
It seems like they make the validity of bids and sales confusing on purpose, auction after auction. In this auction, they definitely posted SOLD by many names online that were in fact passed on. Was this an accident or was it done on purpose (to make the auction look more successful than it really was, encouraging bids on other names later in the auction)?
No doubt that the items were post as SOLD. It’s confusing enough (for newbies) to mistake “closed at $xx,xxx” for a sale at $xx,xxx. These that were tagged as sold and later removed all had offers below the reserve.
There are zillions blogs covering the domain sales but I always trust thedomains.com blog.
Thanks
what a terrible performance. If you take out Disco then total sales were only $282k during a LIVE auction.
After all the exposure and extra promoting time, most would have thought there would be a much higher sales total.
Some great sales including one of my favorites, congratulations to Moniker.
Steven – I quickly sent Mike a notice that the new internet clerk made several mistakes on what she recorded as sales. Where and why on earth would we purposely have sales recorded wrong when the auction results are published on our very own websites??? Where are all these vindictive accusations coming from?
We use an internet clerk that is not on site and when the auctioneer closed the auctions, she interpreted those as sales when they were passed. This has been corrected. We have several big names that are going to sell in the extended auction or in private as a result of today’s activities…..so either way, it will be good for the industry, buyers, and sellers. Extended auction started and we have interest in several of the domains.
I am curious as to why tshirt.com was pulled from the auction.
I would think the auctioneer has a responsibility to the audience to sell the domain at auction.
Was it listed in the auction catalog then sold before anyone could bid?
Rob – we had several interested parties in tshirts and bidding actually began offline about a week before the auction. They just starting sending bids and offers to us in an effort to snag it prior to auction. The Seller agreed to pull the name if an offer was significant enough to do so…..and that bid was more than double the reserve price so that is what happened. It worked out for all parties.
That sale was a nice benchmark prior to the auction and I think we will have a few others like it during the extended auction and before and after the Live auction in Prague where we already have another blockbuster list of names going up.
Many of our sales are happening after auction as a result of the awareness of the auction itself. That is what will happen from this auction. We were in the NY press and CNN today so I expect to see some positive results from the stories that come out regardless of how the spin the story.
Thanks for the reply and congratulations on the sales and press.
Great to hear that more post-auction sales might be coming.
I just don’t understand why an auctioneer or owner would pull a domain from an auction especially if there is active bidding. Great that the price was over the reserve but the audience is expecting to see the full catalog of domains go to auction.
You could have had a higher bidder in the audience.
Now potential bidders see that they have to do a deal before the auction in order to be guaranteed the opportunity to get the domain they want.
Then it’s not an auction anymore.
Sorry but a pet peeve of mine being involved with auctions since I was young.
Imagine if Sotheby’s pulled a Picasso because they sold it before the auction.
Not cool. Sorry.
What maybe should have been done is to have a pre-auction auction.
Send out notices to all registered bidders and let them know what is happening, that way you still have an auction.
If I had my heart set on TShirts.com and it sold before the auction I would have been very upset indeed, and possibly not use the service again.
That said, I can see why Moniker did it. It’s a commission in the bank, good for the industry, pumped up other bidders, etc…..
Hard call, but don’t make a habit of it if you want to maintain your bidder base.
Any brokerage’s first commitmemt is to their seller. If a high level bidder comes into the picture prior to an auction, then it is really incumbent on the brokerage to not jeopardize that potential deal by forcing the buyer to auction.
Sounds as if a solid deal was in the making before the auction, so Moniker did what was best for their client.
Monte, thank you for the explanation, but I have no reason to be vindictive. One of the confusing practices that often occurs at domain auctions is “bidding on behalf of the seller” at amounts lower than the reserve price. I understand this is not a practice limited to the domain industry, but it makes for confusing auctions when names get marked as sold after those bids, even though it was just a temporary mark. Perhaps doing away with bids on behalf of the seller would make everything more clear.
One other note: perhaps your audio guy can get the auctioneer’s voice transmitted over the internet more clearly.
You did have a great lineup of names – one of the best I’ve ever seen; and I understand it’s difficult to get domain owners to set reasonable reserves. I’m sure you’ll be able to make some additional sales after the auction to improve the numbers. Tshirts was a great sale.
There was a pre-auction on all the names in the live auction – it was in our pre-bidding system however they submitted their bids via email.
Bidding off the wall or on behalf of the seller is used in every professional auction. This does not occur over reserve but does occur below reserve at times. It’s perfectly legal and ethical and a common practice by every champion auctioneer that I have seen. It is also part of their training.
This however, had nothing to do with the errors in recorded sales – which were made by a non moniker employee. they work externally as part of the auction process and this new clerk definitely had trouble following our auctioneer on what was closed/passed and what was sold. This was discussed with the clerk group and should not happen again.
The challenge is two fold – getting good names at reasonable reserves and finding the end users who understand the value of virtual real-estate and their online brand. We have made great strides on both fronts and the reason we are selling more big names than ever this first half of the year.
I think when its all done, both this auction and DF Moniker Prague auction will turn out to be two of the best in terms of results in years if not ever.
Monte (Moniker) again congratulations. While some that sold at auction may be benefiting financially from the auction, we are ALL benefiting from the exposure and credibility this lends to the industry. From everything I have studied your auction platform, seems to be the most transparent and most focused on delivering quality names.
Can you post a link to the CNN article.
People (like myself) were reporting the numbers from the online participation results.
I now have to make an embarrassing retraction on twitter to a tweet I’d done to hype the auction for my peeps at Oversee when it looked like it was rocking >2-4M yesterday.
Owtch.
@Monte I know a reliable clerk who has the auctioneer’s rhythm down to a science for the next high profile, tier 1+ set of names you get like this.
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I agree with Rob Sequin all the way. If you have a pre-bid, then bidding should start with an increment over the pre-bid.
You do the seller no favors by pulling the goods. Someone in that room (or online) might have bid higher.
Also, you do the bidders no favors, many of whom paid good money to attend the conference. Some of them might have attended specifically for that domain.
Don’t fuel the bad rep that this industry already has!
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There are many auctions where the seller/owner/creditor sold the property
before the auction began. It happens with property, manufacturing plants,
inventory or the company itself.
If the auctioneer gets paid, he is happy.
Also, there are companies that just don’t want to bid for something
at an auction. Maybe, they need final approval from the CEO, finance
committee or the corporate board.
Didn’t we see this with the cowboys where the bidder backed out after
the football owner probably said “no”? (speculation)
Plus, if the pre-auction bidders had second thoughts (possible buyer’s remorse)
and not bid at the auction, would the domain(s) had reached the eventual
selling price?
If the pre-auction bidders waited til the auction and noticed no interest
by others, maybe he would be better off offering a lower price after
the auction.
I believe the seller made the right decision. Sell while there is a
matter of urgency.
I don’t “get it” when Auction houses do a press release or slowly leak items (domains) as a teaser to the public and the handful you get a preview of seem stellar and top notch, only to heighten the anticipation of the full release of their auction inventory. When the day finally arrives and the auction house finally unveils their inventory after much hype and anticipation, you see maybe a handful of top notch items (domains) mixed in with about 50-100 really awful to mediocre items (domains.)
I have been around the Antique business and auctions and I believe the technical term for this is called “salting”. Usually it’s a diversionary tactic where the auction sponsor tries to dazzle you with some fine or quality items, while trying to sell you worthless junk on the side which by merit or association with the quality items, seem to give those inferior products some luster or value because they are lumped together. Usually (as has been my experience in the antique world) the high quality items are on loan from some individual, while the inferior products are those that the auction sponsor own’s himself and is trying to pass of to some unsuspecting individual.
Bottom line, I was always taught as a photographer, that if you make a presentation to a client, that it is always best to present 5 of your most outstanding photos than 15- 20 0f your mediocre one’s or in this case 5 of your best mixed in with 15-20 mediocre one’s.
This is becoming more and more apparent in the domain auction/conference circuit, we are seeing the cream rise to the top while the unscrupulous and those who try to get over are starting to flounder by the wayside.
So what about HakunaMatata2010.tel ? No worries!
P.S. this is where Moniker will succeed over the competition as quality will always triumph over “mediocrity.”
I like GroceryStore.com as the best deal. 450,000 exact searches and should be a fantastic brand name (like DrugStore.com).
Complete steal.
bet rick and traffic will miss moniker in the future imo
“bet rick and traffic will miss moniker in the future imo”
Give me a break.
Did Moniker create the domains? NO.
Did they own the domains? NO.
All they did was connect motivated sellers and buyers just like any
other professional domain broker does.
(Rob S., Kevin L., Rick L., Sedo, etc.)
What percentage of the domains did they sell?
Only a handful of sellers benefited from yesterday’s auction.
Moniker did a great job of selling some domains. However, all
sales people know, they are only as good as their last sale.
I bet the same people raving about Moniker today will be the same
people patting Latona on the back after the Traffic Miami auction
in October.
In defense of Monte and his team – While tweeting or reporting an auction real time – seems like a cool thing and a service to your clients or audience – There is a component to the auction process that is not perfect … When you take bids 4 different ways to please the bidders – it’s not always easy to pull off a real time sale. That being said – It raises the awareness of prime internet properties for discussion and eventual sale afterwards…So in conclusion – I don’t think any results should be reported until after the extended auction. That is the true TALLY of the auction as a whole.
I realize you have a dog in this fight and I respect that.
But, news needs to be reported when it happens.
For example –
A tornado is moving through our state. We will report further on this tomorrow once it is confirmed that it was a tornado.
Ford’s share price is soaring this morning. We will supply the price quote after the market closes.
TShirts .com sold today. We will supply more information after the extended auction closes next week.
My comments only pertain to people that reported numbers…that are not complete as to the efforts of an auction process. News is news – Number are numbers. So I agree with you – but want to be crystal clear that an auction is a process with numbers attached to it that doesn’t necessarily end at 7pm on the day of the live auction.
and now we see that the total of this auction is correctly over $3m
Kevin
You are correct:
http://www.thedomains.com/2010/08/25/quotes-com-sells-for-1150000/