Right after the DomainFest auction came to a close, Moniker.com sold the domain name DayTrading.com for $200,000.
While the domain did not officially sell in the auction (it was passed) a deal was struck immediately after the close of the auction.
With the rest of the domains that sold at the Live auction I get an UNOFFICIAL total of $458,200
Interesting that 3 top Wall Street financial type domains have now sold in the last few weeks, Daytrading.com and ETFs.com today and IPO.com two weeks ago.
Here are the full UNOFFICIAL results:
| DayTrading.com | 200,000 |
| ETFs.com | 90,000 |
| OfficeRentals.com | 35,000 |
| EmailServices.com | 35,000 |
| PillowCases.com | 25,000 |
| GoodMorning.com | 25,000 |
| Pregnancies.com | 12,000 |
| Bali.org | 7,500 |
| Augsburg.com | 7,000 |
| CoatStands.com | 5,000 |
| Bravo.org | 4,500 |
| MakeupSets.com | 4,000 |
| BedPrices.com | 4,000 |
| SatinRobes.com | 2,750 |
| WoolSuits.co.uk | 500 |
| OralSurgeons.co.uk | 400 |
| DietCookbooks.net | 300 |
| MiniBikes.co.uk | 300 |
| DiscountStockBrokers.net | 250 |
| 458,500 | |
What was the high bid on restaurant.com
“What was the high bid on restaurant.com”
I would like to know as well. I thought the reserve was 5 million and it seemed like there were people that were interested in it at that price.
The domain name “restaurants.com” was for sale…not restaurant.com …There was no actual bids. The auctioneer lowered the price to $4M to get the bidding war started, but someone must have raised their paddle at $4M just to get the auction started… but knowing he is not going to buy it.
At the beginning of the auction, they even encouraged fake bidding to get the bidding war started on all names under the reserve price so people in the room would just raise their paddles up knowing when the reserve price is not met and they dont have to buy it…just encouraging the online bidders to bid…but come on..we are not stupid people who just want to piss our money away…anyways…
If it were’nt for the daytrading.com sale at the end of the auction, terrible results with such prime domains.
Domainfest had much better domains for sale than the upcoming traffic auction…still no good results.
Traffic auction has much much worse domains for sale…good luck to them!
What is funny is that if these domains that did sell for under $10k were up for auction on Namejet they probably would have went for double what they went for here. I don’t know what it is, but Namejet auctions net higher prices then anywhere else could for domains. Unfortunately it is not domainers banking these profits but the registrars.
Auunt is correct.
The domain at auction was the plural, Restaurants.com
The domain had a bid of $4M but everyone knew the reserve was higher (I stated in my post yesterday the reserve was north of $6M)
However many of the larger sales have come after an auction, slots.com was in an auction didn’t sell and then sold a week or two later.
Porn.com for $9M also failed to sell in the auction but sold shortly thereafter.
I wouldn’t be surprised in the least two see restaurants.com sell in the next month.
A good deal is a good deal.
I personally hadn’t seen the facts and figures on that domain until yesterday.
I certainly won’t make a 6 million dollar purchase in a 24 hour time frame.
I would need to see actual verifiable figures and revenue and that takes time.
Generally speaking I would say that once again those looking to sell domains need to price the domains for the market they are trying to reach.
If they want end user pricing they need to sell to an end user.
I think I heard a $70K bid for rewind.com.
The reserve was appearently higher.
That’s pretty much an end user price.
A domainer price, is $25K-$30K.
I heard several domains reach a price that was a fair number for a domainer auction yet the domain failed to sell, which means one of two things:
There wasn’t an actual bid just the auctioneer bidding on behalf of the seller or
The seller priced the domain for an end user and expected a wholesaler to pay that price.
No Bueno
of these, only OfficeRentals.com and EmailServices.com sounds good for a real site
What a great price for goodmorning.com
Also as a side note “direct traffic”from google anlaytics does not equal “type-in traffic”, this is completely false. In fact if you look at analytics it reads “direct/(none)” that “none” is very important.
I’m willing to buy restaurants.com for $2M, if they can show me last 3 yrs stats proving that it has been making $50k+ per month for the last 3 yrs.
Off Topic: I don’t know if you guys have heard of internet sweepstakes cafes…you goto an internet cafe and they have gambling software downloaded on these computers where you sit there and legally gamble…they are calling it internet sweepstakes…they are opening up everywhere especially in FL, TX, OH, KY, etc…
Anyways, alot of my friends have invested in these cafes and are making tons and tons of money…a $300k investment makes the owner $30k per month…you can get your initial investment money back within a year or so.
Domain investments are good…but keep your eyes open and look around in your town for these internet sweepstakes cafes…they are popping up everywhere…and people making millions from these legal gambling outlets!
Quote –
“I’m willing to buy restaurants.com for $2M, if they can show me last 3 yrs stats proving that it has been making $50k+ per month ”
You are willing to buy a category killer, prime domain with
a solid revenue stream for a 3 times multiple. I guess you would.
Furthermore, it is obvious that the website/business could produce
more if taken to the next level.
Maybe, expanding its reach to global cities.
I wonder if an operation like Hotels,com or IAC would be
a potential buyer?
Meyer, domain investments are not the only investments out there. Right now, there are much better investment opportunities else where that produce a much higher and better return on your money…much better than 3 times multiple that i would get on restaurants.com deal… just like the example i was giving in my previous post about internet sweepstakes cafes.
In the end, it’s all about the $$$$$$$
Furthermore, it is obvious that the website/business could produce
more if taken to the next level.
————-
Do you understand what would take to ground-up develop a name like this so it generated anything resembling a meaningful return?
Category killer domains are perfect tools for existing businesses- ones that can take them on board and integrate them with their existing operation, leveraging whatever advantages they offer. Aside from that, to lay out seven figures on a domain name based on it’s keyword gravity alone, I hope you have a gigantic marketing warchest behind that to build it into something meaningful because a name alone doesn’t mean shit, in the year 2010. 15 years of commercial internet has taught us that.
A lot (perhaps, most) domainers don’t begin to understand this. See: Sex.com as an example of a colossus name and what results when it’s left to languish. It becomes like a run-down, abandoned property as other people in the keyword niche steal all the relevance out from under it. It’s like a person born a great athlete with tremendous generic gifts who sits around all day eating HoHos and watching TV, then thinking they can just get up and go win a race.
In the year 2010 and beyond, owning a category killing domain is maybe 1% of what goes into actually killing that category.
@ Anunt
Excluding your internet sweepsstakes (illegal gambling, no doubt) thing which i’ll give you benefit of the doubt
Core business of Internet cafes don’t make shit.
It’s a 1 man & his dog business.
invest $300,000 in an internet cafe?
WTF?! For what?
Bunch of used compuers, furniture, cables etc…lease premium payment and er…that’s it.
Core business – Do the math:
# of computers x hrs open x $ hourly rate x hrs per day open = maximum profit per day = peanuts
I doubt most break-even cover the property rental.
That’s why all of them have to have some peripheral business eg fixing compuetrs, coffee bar etc
@ asdf
Doncha know…many domainers who talk as if they have a yacht in the backyard (in actuality, pikers) have a lot of fantasy wealth lying around…and a hard on for “category killers”
If they actually had $6M liquid lying around they’d think twice & shit their pants when they came to it.
Tons of better investments lying around.
Should, woulda, coulda…if Restaurants.com coulda, woulda, shoulda “take it to the next level”…bwahaha.
Nice to see daytrading.com sale for big money, I might just have to put Stockportfolio.com in the next auction, maybe…maybe Im not asking enough lol
StockPortfolio.com is a beautiful name, but it isn’t in the same universe as DayTrading.com. Once you stop thinking ‘domainer’ and start thinking ‘affiliate’, the prism through which you view domain names and their potential shifts dramatically.
DayTrading.com has inherent affiliate gravitas. It’s a ‘thing’ unto itself.
I do think it (DayTrading) was a bargain, though. It would’ve sold for a lot more during the days of Domainia. These auctions should serve as a huge wakeup call to a lot of domain speculators as to the current state of the market. As Theo articulated above, so many are operating with this concept of imaginary wealth and totally unrealized value that doesn’t jive with market reality. When it comes time to seek out a liquidity event, the ultimate price never seems to line up with the ‘big dreams’ they had going in, and hasn’t for a couple years now. There are domain speculators who bought aftermarket names in 06, 07, 08 who had better be prepared to punt and take a (potential significant) loss, or keep that money tied up for a long, long time awaiting an end-user that very well may never come.
Given what one pays for premium keyword names these days, domains were an epic investment if you got in early, a great investment if you got in late but a lousy investment if you got in recently. Obviously, bargains arise, but there are a lot of domainers out there holding the bag.
Oops! Not Theo. Saw aggro, thought Acro. Sorry.
There is a difference in market value (and potential future value) for
a domain sitting on a ppc page and a domain on a developed site
generating continous revenue.
That was the point I was making above.
@asdf, agree, daytrading.com is the better name over all. Then again I don’t want $200k 🙂
Smart and well put reply too, very nice to see. I sold many fair 5 figure names ( $15k-$25k) in the years 05-07 to see a few of them now get $50k+ ( capture.com for example) but over all it is generally a longer wait for returns like this. The prices of fair generics in 08 reached a point one may never see a good return unfortunately. Remember when moniker was getting good 5+ figures for ANY decent two word combo, crazy times for sure… wish they were back lol To a degree they are still on drops, Frank makes sure of that.
Aggro…internet cafes that you are talking about do suck big time and do not make any money.
I am talking about the new internet sweepstake cafes that are opening up everywhere….where they have legalized gambling going on inside these cafes…it’s like playing slot machines on a touch screen computer…it’s all legal right now because the government or the city is saying that it’s a type of internet sweepstakes type of gambling which is completely legal gambling.
Anyways, if you get a chance, go check one out for your self…you will see alot of customers throwing their money away..and the owners are making a killing in this business….
best thing is…its so profitable that…its all run thru employees and the owner never has to be there except to collect the profits end of the month.
Came to Mike’s blog as usual for some little midnight reading 😀
Yep, Aggro is not Acro 😉
On the subject of selling generics for big bucks at conferences, how many “outsiders” are being contacted and invited to participate prior to a big auction? I would say none to two per name. So there’s your answer: to maximize interest you have to jump the security ropes of domaining and establish relationships with the media and the industrialists that are as far away from domainers as possible.
Acro
The lack of attendance by non-domainers have been a point of discussion and an issue for years now.
This brings me back to my comment above, which is knowing that this is not the forum for end users, you can’t price your domain at end user prices.
You have to price them for the buyers you have which are basically domainers
Nice to see daytrading.com sale for big money, I might just have to put Stockportfolio.com in the next auction, maybe…maybe Im not asking enough lol
IT DID NOT SELL….OFFER WAS PULLED.
“IT DID NOT SELL….OFFER WAS PULLED.”
Holy crap… Can anyone else verify this? If so the overall acution results were only $248,000. Less than 1/4 million. Wow. Can’t wait to see th TRAFFIC results.
(Does anyone else find it ironic that TRAFFIC does not own Traffic.com. You would figure if they really believed in the whole category killer thing… oh well.)
You can trust the person that made the offer.
Sad to hear, for me lol and the industry if the case. So who was the bidder?