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June 22nd, 2007 by 
Jay Westerdal
A lot of people have been emailing me or telling me directly that they had a very deep fear that there was shill bidding going on at the Moniker New York Domain Auction. I asked them to explain why they thought this was the case. It is an extremely serious claim because not only would it be unethical it would be very illegal. I caution anyone from making that claim and would tell them to be careful. Why would someone want to shill bid all the big ticket domains in the auction? There really is not a good reason that I can think of to do that. Perhaps a joker that knew the reserves and thought it would be cute to bid below the reserve. However Monte Cahn is a smart man and I am sure he would spot that so it would be dangerous for a joker to do something illegal like that and be permanently banned from the conferences and auctions. That person would be treated extremely bad by domainers in this close knit industry. I know moniker video taped the entire thing, perhaps they can run the tapes and see who the high bidders were that never got domains. I know that if my reserve was $5 Million and someone bid $4.5 Million I might be convinced to meet them in the middle or lower my reserve on the spot. Everyone knows each other and people talk, something like this would not be a good idea to do infront of a room full of extremely smart people. So therefor I have to dismiss the theory as highly unlikely. But the data is very compelling just on its own. We can see that every $5 million dollar reserve domain got a $4.5MM bid. There was an astonishing $54,222,500 amount bid on domains that did not sell because the reserve price was too high.
| Domains | Last Bid | Average Bid | Median Bid | |
| Sold: | 115 | $10,858,200 | $94,419.13 | $25,000 |
| Not Sold: | 81 | $54,222,500 | $669,413.58 | $120,000 |
Monte, if you can look into all this data and respond in the comments that would be great.
Seniors.com
Paul Sloan of Business 2.0 read my earlier post about the high priced domains which I thought would not sell in the upcoming auction and chose one domain out of the list, Seniors.com. His post Seniors.com for $1 million? C’mon was about how that one domain looked over priced. Paul was shocked when it sold for $1.8MM and so was I. It is rare to see a retail buyer join the wholesale auctions and bid on a domain. The $1.8 Million dollar bid must have been from a retail bidder. I asked who bid on the domain because I wanted to interview the new owner and see what his plans were for it. I was told the bid was by a “left bid” or a phone order bidder and that it was not someone in the room. I guess I can wait until the whois updates and see the owner show up or I can check out the new website when it launches. It would make sense if it was Senior Exchange Inc. who is the owner of Senior.com. I will update you if I can interview the company that bought the domain.
Domains that did not sell:
| Domain | Highest Bid Received | Reserve |
| Auction.com | $4,500,000 | $5,000,000 and up |
| Slots.com | $4,500,000 | $5,000,000 and up |
| Horse Racing.com | $4,500,000 | $5,000,000 and up |
| Dermatology.com | $4,500,000 | |
| Puerto Rico.com | $3,500,000 | |
| Scotland.com | $3,000,000 | |
| Press Releases.com | $3,000,000 | |
| Student.com | $3,000,000 | |
| Cats.com | $2,000,000 | |
| Commodities.com | $1,750,000 | |
| Menopause.com | $1,500,000 | |
| Stuff.com | $1,500,000 | |
| Draw.com | $1,500,000 | |
| DSL.com | $1,500,000 | |
| OBGYN.com | $1,000,000 | |
| Six.com | $1,000,000 | |
| Tourist.com | $750,000 | |
| Artist.com | $750,000 | |
| Elections.com | $700,000 | $500,001 – $1mm |
| Dollars.com | $700,000 | |
| How.com | $600,000 | $500,001 – $1mm |
| Ethanol.com | $600,000 | $500,001 – $1mm |
| Martial Arts.com | $600,000 | $500,001 – $1mm |
| Whiskey.com | $400,000 | $250,001 – $500,000 |
| Planet.com | $350,000 | $500,001 – $1mm |
| 401k Plans.com | $350,000 | $250,001 – $500,000 |
| Bourbon.com | $300,000 | $250,001 – $500,000 |
| Comic Books.com | $300,000 | $500,001 – $1mm |
| Gin.com | $250,000 | $250,001 – $500,000 |
| TGP.com | $250,000 | $250,001 – $500,000 |
| Internet Radio.com | $225,000 | $250,001 – $500,000 |
| Supplies.com | $200,000 | $250,001 – $500,000 |
| EC.com | $200,000 | $250,001 – $500,000 |
| Union.com | $185,000 | $100,001 – $250,000 |
| Naked.com | $150,000 | |
| Auto Classifieds.com | $135,000 | $100,001 – $250,000 |
| Fitness Center.com | $125,000 | $100,001 – $250,000 |
| Insurance Rates.com | $125,000 | $100,001 – $250,000 |
| Scores.mobi | $120,000 | $100,001 – $250,000 |
| New York Realty.com | $120,000 | $100,001 – $250,000 |
| $110,000 | $100,001 – $250,000 | |
| Roller Coaster.com | $100,000 | $100,001 – $250,000 |
| HY.com | $100,000 | $100,001 – $250,000 |
| QR.com | $85,000 | $100,001 – $250,000 |
| Flights.net | $85,000 | $50,001 – $100,000 |
| 62.com | $80,000 | $50,001 – $100,000 |
| 82.com | $75,000 | $50,001 – $100,000 |
| Manufacture.com | $75,000 | $50,001 – $100,000 |
| Breathalyzer.com | $70,000 | $50,001 – $100,000 |
| 46.com | $70,000 | $50,001 – $100,000 |
| Polling.com | $70,000 | $50,001 – $100,000 |
| Bhutan.com | $70,000 | $100,001 – $250,000 |
| Sale.mobi | $65,000 | $50,001 – $100,000 |
| Passover.com | $60,000 | $50,001 – $100,000 |
| High Definition.com | $60,000 | $50,001 – $100,000 |
| Masters Degree.com | $60,000 | $50,001 – $100,000 |
| 06.com | $60,000 | $50,001 – $100,000 |
| Custom Motorcycles.com | $55,000 | $50,001 – $100,000 |
| Invest.net | $50,000 | $50,001 – $100,000 |
| Pay.mobi | $45,000 | $100,001 – $250,000 |
| Talent Agent.com | $45,000 | $50,001 – $100,000 |
| Prescription Medication.com | $35,000 | $25,001 – $50,000 |
| Phones.mobi | $30,000 | $25,001 – $50,000 |
| Vacations.mobi | $30,000 | $25,001 – $50,000 |
| Tattoo Parlor.com | $28,000 | $25,001 – $50,000 |
| Chocolate Candy.com | $27,500 | $25,001 – $50,000 |
| PDA.net | $25,000 | $25,001 – $50,000 |
| Forbidden City.com | $25,000 | $25,001 – $50,000 |
| Security Equipment.com | $25,000 | $25,001 – $50,000 |
| Carburetors.com | $25,000 | $25,001 – $50,000 |
| CD.net | $22,500 | $25,001 – $50,000 |
| Text.mobi | $21,000 | $10,001 – $25,000 |
| Property Management.net | $20,000 | $25,001 – $50,000 |
| $20,000 | $25,001 – $50,000 | |
| Catering Service.com | $17,500 | $10,001 – $25,000 |
| Europe.mobi | $14,500 | $10,001 – $25,000 |
| 555.mobi | $10,000 | $10,001 – $25,000 |
| Pesos.com | $7,500 | $50,001 – $100,000 |
| 300.mobi | $4,000 | $1,000 – $5,000 |
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Posted in Domain Auction, Moniker |
6 Comments »
June 22nd, 2007 at 9:41 pm
true, these numbers look wayy too suspicious
how does every single 5 million reserve name have a 4.5 million bid… why wouldn’t the buyer go down $500,000?
When you bid 4.5 million for a domain what is $500,000 more?
When you buy real estate – the bidding goes up in the $xxx,xxx range when you buy big buildings in manhattan. These guys have big warchests like some of the high brass domainers and I see no difference.
June 22nd, 2007 at 9:55 pm
As always the Moniker auction was professionally done.. I should have mentioned above IF that person is right and something did happen it would have probably been done by a thrill seeker wanting to garner attention to the name. I disagree that any staff would have anything to do with it. They have a quality team.
btw I’m really surprised insurancesrates.com
didn’t sell – thats a wicked name 
June 23rd, 2007 at 6:47 pm
http://www.domainblog.co.uk/news/targeted-traffic-auction-in-new-york/ listed a similar pattern the day after and it got me thinking.
it is a very close knit industry and thats how rumours fly, but usually they have grains of truth. I just hope that is not the case in this instance.
Well done for posting what a fair few are thinking.
June 29th, 2007 at 11:55 pm
Looks like friendfinder got seniors.com
.