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The Preliminary Top 200 List
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July 26th, 2007 by 
Jay Westerdal
We are still working hard on the list of domains that are going to auction but I wanted to give everyone a preview of what is on the top of the list right now. So without further ado here is a link to the Top 200 List:
http://www.domaintools.com/live-auction/browse-domains.html
The list is changing and names are coming and going from the list right now, so please don’t panic if your domain is on the list today and gone tomorrow. It may still be in the top 450. This is only the top 200 of 450. The list will grow over the next two weeks to show the full 450 domains. If you are in the top 200 or plan to be in the top 450, please add some quick notes to the domain’s Note Field to let people know more about your domain.
Please note, we have added a Phone Number field in the control panel where you add names to the auction. Please update your phone number and allow us to call you if we have questions about your domain(s).
The list will be frozen and locked August 6th. No further changes will take place on that date.
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Posted in Domain Auction, DomainTools Auction |
July 26th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Now we see the first list
Just waiting for more….
July 26th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Jay, when’s the cut off? Thanks.
July 26th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Sorry, Aug 6th, duh.
July 26th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Adding phone number field to the control panel is a great idea, Jay. It didn’t seem to be functioning yet so I provided my cell phone number in the user note field. Hope one of my names makes it into the next 250!
Tony K
July 26th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
What does the score mean? Originally I thought if it’s very low or very high it would correlate … but it doesn’t seem to. I guess the good thing is, none of my domains have been denied yet … but none have been accepted. I’m flying from Florida to Seattle .. sure hope I get to see one of my domains in the auction.
UPDATE BY JAY: I can safely say you will have a few in the auction.
July 26th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Wow. Love autobiography.com. What a fantastic name. (Blogged it on my lextext blog.) Less crazy about lawyersthatcare.com because (a) it should be lawyersWHOcare and (b) it’s a null set.
Seriously, you’ve got a great selection there, but if I were betting, I’d wager that autobiography.com closes in your Top 3.
— Bret
July 26th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
Nice list, but i think many quality names registered around/ between 2002-2005 seem to have have been overlooked? just for the cause of Domain Age.
UPDATE BY JAY: Age is not the only thing we are looking at. Reserve and Quality are very important too. The list is not final yet so unless it says Denied. Then it still has a chance.
July 26th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
In my view way too many low-priced marginal domains.
It is a waste of everyone’s time to gather hundreds of the top people in the industry to auction off a marginal name for $1,000.
You are doing a good job avoiding the mistake of including too many high value domains with unrealistic reserves. But it makes for an equally bad auction to make the opposite mistake of including too many low-quality domains just because the reserve is low.
From my perspective the ideal auction would have the highest quality domains at realistic reserves, with a nice variety of price points to keep it interesting for every level of bidder. Currently it seems skewed too heavily to the sub $10k domains.
I realize it is still early and am looking forward to seeing the final list.
UPDATE BY JAY: The mid-level names take longer to do due diligence on. There will be more names added soon.
July 26th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
We’ll so far, I’m thrilled to have 4 names on the initial list (LoveStories.com, Castillo.com, KeepTheFaith.com, ChurchBand.com). I have about 1,200 domains in my portfolio. Now that I know what you’re looking for, I’ll try to better what’s on the list! I would like to see Hot.TV make it. With .tv heating up due to Demand Media’s efforts, I think Hot.TV could be a hot auction item for those in streaming video. Thanks again for your continued hard work on this!
MrHit
July 26th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Interesting to see the first half of the list. I have checked the short list of domains I submitted and was very surprised to see 3 rejected due to “domain too new”. These domains were purchased earlier this year on the expired domain market. As you are aware some registrars seem to re-set the Whois from the date of the recent purchase. However, if these domains are checked against archive.org, the original registration dates back in 2001 and 2003 show up. I wonder how many more potentially good domains have been rejected because they have incorrectly been identified as being “too new”?
UPDATE BY JAY: I think we ran a script on all 2007 names and cut them out. I will check the top 100 2007 names manually though and see what I find.
July 26th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Jay,
You have been very clear in suggesting folks lower their reserves, is the opposite also true? Is your team making suggestions for raising low reserves?
Some of us are might not be confident in our skills to fairly set the reserve and might go to low as easily as going to high. I believe it would also be in your team’s interest to have the optimal number set as well. Thanks!
UPDATE BY JAY: The beauty of the auction is, if the reserve is too low, there will be a bidding war. Smart bidders will be watching, they will not let some other guy walk away with a premium name that they could have bought.
July 26th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Re: my earlier post about some of my domains being incorrectly identified as “too new”; I was trying to add some other domains tonight to take their place. The Submit button seemed to take but stayed in grey mode for a long time and wouldn’t accept anything.Is there an error with the submit or has it been disabled? I understood we had until August 6th which was the cut-off. Thanks for any clarification on this.
UPDATE BY JAY: I believe a website software update caused error last night. The submit button error should have been fixed this morning. If there is any problems, let us know.
July 26th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Wow, I got a name picked but it was one of the weakest of my list (curlyfries.com)! I should have upped my reserve
Although all the rest are still unconfirmed and pending review. Hmmm. I’m wondering if there is an overflow list. I totally forgot to submit the other 66 domains since I was traveling and it seems to be a dead submission form now. Bummer!
July 26th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
Hi, I want to sale my domain name ” galapagos-cruise.com ” I have it since 1999.
International and famous cruises are starting to sail to South America and cruising the islands.
Some few years ago a company from Peru wanted to pay a pretty good price but at that time I was using it.
Because personal issues I need to sale it. Can you please let me know who should I call or write to, so DOMAINTOOLS.COM can help me saling it???
Thank you.
UPDATE BY JAY: Charlie, I think it is a great name. Add it to the auction. The PPC market is really strong for those keywords!
July 27th, 2007 at 5:03 am
i agree w/ the stmt by “n-techexec” - any thought to raising reserves - i have two names in the top 200 - after reviewing reserves for other names, i have a feeling that my reserves are on the low side.
also, what is the reason for listing reserves - isn’t collusion possible - a group of high powered buyers could, in theory, bid for a name that is slightly above the reserve and win the name.
any thoughts?
thx
UPDATE BY JAY: Yes, there are a few low reserves. I suspect those names will generate a lot more interest and there will be a bidding war. This is why I encourage low reserves.
July 27th, 2007 at 5:46 am
You are not interested in “are.us” ?? That’s not one domain, its 1000 domains in one!
UPDATE BY JAY: Are.us is clever. But we have to pass on it right now. Thank you for the submission.
July 27th, 2007 at 6:45 am
I’ve been told that lower reserves invite bids - and starts the procedure better. Once the frenzy starts it’s up up and away.
I agree - I don’t think the reserves should be posted though.
I certainly hope some of my domains don’t sell for $1000 (the reserve) - I thought the idea was to bring in domains WORTH at least 5000 to the auction list.
UPDATE BY JAY: I am selecting names that can easily be $5000 names. So if the reserve is $1000 that is fine.
July 27th, 2007 at 7:13 am
Gramma,
I would think if you were unhappy to sell your domain at the reserve you listed, you would have listed a higher reserve? I think everyone who had a domain accepted, should be thrilled. I look forward to seeing the auction results.
Justin
July 27th, 2007 at 7:26 am
oh i’m beyond thrilled and grateful!
July 27th, 2007 at 8:16 am
Hi - I’ve had the same “domain age” problem as mentioned above with most of mine been rejected even though they were all bought in drops and were originally registered 5 to 10 years ago.
Any way to get around this one Jay ?
Thanks
July 27th, 2007 at 8:28 am
@Gazzip and others: Sure that Jay will find a solution for the “too young” problem.
I am full of hope and I think this is the best, what I can do for the moment.
July 27th, 2007 at 8:36 am
Jay, at what point will your folks be calling domain owners with domains on the list to firm up/confirm auction details (I’m assuming that’s the reason you needed our phone numbers). I have 4 domains on the current list (LoveStories.com, Castillo.com, ChurchBand.com, KeepTheFaith.com). Thanks for your hard work. I’ll be submitting more names over the next few days (btw, what is the total # domains rec’d thus far?).
UPDATE BY JAY: Yes, we will be contacting all the sellers prior to the auction to finalize everything.
July 27th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Although Invention.com is a great domain, there is factually incorrect information about the purchase of Patents.com for over $2M. This domain sold for under $1M. I’d monitor the “comments” field for accurate info…someone could buy invention.com and come back later and say he was mislead…
July 27th, 2007 at 10:34 am
I added seven DucksInc TLDs to my DucksInc.com, vintage 2002, submission (still pending), but they are from 2007. Is this a problem? If so, I’ll remove the newbies. In any case, I’m okay with picking up the corresponding TLDs because I’ll use them to develop the .com should it not make the the 450 list.
A few days ago, I was able to add my phone number; please protect it, for it is my home phone.
Thanks,
jss
UPDATE BY JAY: Jennifer, DucksInc.com will not make the auction. But thank you for submitting it. As always any personal information that is submitted to us is kept confidential.
July 27th, 2007 at 10:49 am
austintexas wrote: “there is factually incorrect information about the purchase of Patents.com for over $2M. This domain sold for under $1M”
I thought the details of the patents.com sale were not disclosed? All that I’ve seen were speculations on what the sale price “would have been”
Is it possible that although my names are showing up in the control panel, they may still have slipped through the cracks.
They show up as unconfirmed and pending review, but I submitted them over 2 weeks ago.
No “denied” or “suggested reserve” or any other notes showing there.
Should I just be patient and wait for my turn for a review?
UPDATE BY JAY: Yes, please be patient. We are attempting to take some time with each domain. The list is long.
July 27th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
I’m rather baffled by some of these domains? For example, prepaidlabor.com and lawyersthatcare.com . But, I would like to know why they are in the list for there has to be a good reason.
UPDATE BY JAY: Yes, that is why it is preliminary list. The voting function is coming today. Then everyone can have a say in what names are good or bad.
July 27th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
overall, the prelim 200 list doesn’t look that great to me - an inch deep and a mile wide - i hope the final 450 doesn’t multiply the crap by a factor of 2.25x.
i’d rather not target specific names but there are some domains that obviously don’t belong (and that’s putting in mildly).
let’s tighten the list - if it has to be less than 450 names, then so be it.
UPDATE BY JAY: Yes, the list will get more tight.
July 27th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Jay - I accidentally removed CheapGadgets.com, which received a score in the 670s, and when I re-entered it this afternoon, the score was 0. Are you still accepting submissions?
UPDATE BY JAY: If you remove a name, it needs to go through the approval process again. The score will find the name. There are robots working in the background that score and grab data for new domains.
July 27th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Hi Jay,
Just wanted to make an aside that overall watching the results of the auction has been really entertaining.
I kind of get the feeling you guys over at Name Intelligence have been spending some 12+ hour days going through submissions.
If this is an annual thing I’d love to see you bring out all the bells and whistles for this. I’m really considering some of the names so far. There’s some really great ones that have me looking at my bank account wondering if I should plan on bidding come August…however, there are those that have me scratching my head.
I won’t mention which, but knowing that we’ll get a chance to cast our own votes is gonna be really cool. And I really think people that are regretting submitting a low reserve…wait for the voting (public poll) I don’t think you’ll be worrying too much then. Consider the votes a preliminary for bids…
Anyway, some great names everyone!
I hope you all come away happy!
UPDATE BY JAY: Thanks for the encouraging words. The voting is now live. You need to be logged in to see this feature (FYI).
July 27th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Thanks for letting me know, Jay. Now I can move forward with my alternate plans. I do look forward to seeing how the auction plays out.
Best
July 27th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
If the auction is only 4 hours long and there are 450 names, how will there be a reasonable amount of time to go through them all?
I’m not a math guy (not even close), but it sounds like about 30 seconds per domain name?
That doesn’t seem like enough time for serious bidding to happen on premium domains.
UPDATE BY JAY: We have the room reserves all day. So we have the time. We are planning to make this very efficient. If something doesn’t get any interest we will pass on it. We will spend enough time on every domain to make sure it gets the highest possible result. I expect a few names will take a few minutes.
July 27th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
“We have the room reserved all day…We will spend enough time on every domain to make sure it gets the highest possible result”
Good enough for me
Thanks for the update.
July 27th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Good to see all the updates and your reactions Jay
Thanks for doing your work and keep us informed.
I am hoping the best now for the (I think good scored) names
guys.eu
wellness. (still pending)
filter.biz
See also support ticket 3336 please.
All domains have the “too new” problem, but I see chances to get good auction results for this names. And as you wrote you will check the best “new” domains manually too
Best regards and have a good time….
July 27th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
To circler
It can be done. Once the list is final, the bidders can make a list of their target domains with the proxy bidding set up to their ceiling. When the auction starts, let the auto-proxy bidding roll … it may take a few minutes for all of them to end, then the live bidding can proceed further. This is a possible scenario, I don’t know how Jay wants to do it.
July 27th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Vote now
UPDATE BY JAY: Only people that are logged in and view that page will see the voting feature.
July 27th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
“I kind of get the feeling you guys over at Name Intelligence have been spending some 12+ hour days going through submissions.”
I think it’s been closer to 24/7 this past week! I don’t envy you being inundated with thousands of names and having to narrow the list down with the rest of us watching. And now we even get to vote …
Whatever happens, Jay, I have enjoyed the opportunity to interact with you and the others on your blog. I’ve already learned a lot and the conference is still 3 weeks away. I think in my next career I may become a ‘domainwright’ (like a playwright or shipwright) and build out some of my sites for SEO!
“I’ve had the same ‘domain age’ problem as mentioned above with most of mine been rejected even though they were all bought in drops and were originally registered 5 to 10 years ago.”
Some of the names I submitted were also denied because they were too new. I was sure they had been dropped, but I removed them yesterday. Then I checked them on the WayBack Machine. Guess what?
greenorganics.net was registered in Jan 2002 or earlier
cellphonz.net was registered in Mar 2004 or earlier
As these names should both qualify, I re-submitted them today. I added cellphonz.mobi to the .net primary lot.
TK
July 28th, 2007 at 1:03 am
Hi Jay,
I think the 200 premium listing should also have a possibility to click on to the headers of each table title and see which are the names having the highest score, overture score, price, etc. Now when you are using the wonderful Ajax in the account page, why not apply it also on the 200 premium listings?
What a wonderful job you guys have done and are continously doing, and it now has become noticeable as compared auctions at Sedo!!!
Further, I suggest to bring some high quality domains which are NOT dot coms that adds an important contribution to uplift the aftermarket of NON-dotcom domains like .info, eu, etc. Such a turbulance and uplift is in the interest of all. And such an initiative MUST begin at places like yours…
My sincere congratulations to you for your extreme superior high quality work to the industry…
July 28th, 2007 at 1:25 am
Any ideas where/how I should try to sell “are.us”? I think for the right person it can be worth millions.
UPDATE BY JAY: Hmmm, I am sure it is worth Millions to someone. Finding that person might be a challenge. The best place to advertise is on the domain itself. I hope you find a buyer. Sorry it was not included in the auction.
July 28th, 2007 at 1:53 am
In lots I have included additional extensions that do not meet the age requirement to the “root” .com that does. If this is not allowed please advise so I may remove non-qualifying versions of the basic name.
July 28th, 2007 at 3:00 am
I’m looking forward to this auction, I submitted a .co.uk that scores very high but its not showing up on the list, can you check that? It is gin.co.uk which is a very high profile name that I was hoping to sell for mid xxx,xxx.
July 28th, 2007 at 4:13 am
Jay. I know you have many .eu domain names (nice “sting”) so are you allowing .eu domains into this auction ??.
July 28th, 2007 at 4:14 am
By the way, I accidentally deleted “Snog.eu” and lost the 650 off score it had. I have re submitted but its on 0.Can you put the 650 back ?.
UPDATE BY JAY: Yes, the score will find the name automatically. There is a little delay. However, the reserve is very high on Snog.eu. $10,000 is a huge reserve on an .EU name.
July 28th, 2007 at 4:47 am
Hi!
With .eu names we have this “too new” problem here, but I think to expand the range of different TLDs there will be also the top eu names rechecked.
Keep on checking
If you delete a name, the score will be deleted also, but it will be rechecked.
Best regards
July 28th, 2007 at 5:54 am
Great site and I allways believed that domain names would sell for lots, whats your thoughts on .TV names ?
Best regards
UPDATE BY JAY: I am a firm believer in the traffic behind .COM. We see big companies know this. For example MySpace rather launch MySpaceTV.com rather then MySpace.TV. DotTV has a lot of confused consumers that think it should end in dotcom. So if you are looking for Traffic, get the DotCom. If you want a brand, TV is cool. But make sure you own BRANDtv.COM if you own BRAND.TV.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:05 am
After a name has been confirmed can I change the price? A couple of my confirmed names have reserves which I had left at the $1,000 default. One I am OK there, but another I would like to increase. Whe I try it reverts back to the $1,000
UPDATE BY JAY: Changing prices up after it has been confirmed is not allowed. However lowering prices is allowed. I will contact you offline and see if I can fix the domain you are talking about.
July 28th, 2007 at 8:01 am
I’m not seeing my submissions listed in my account. Please let me know if they are in my account or if they need to be resubmitted. Thanks.
UPDATE BY JAY: I am not seeing anything submitted in your account either. Go ahead and try again.
July 28th, 2007 at 8:01 am
It appears to me that we have a good mix of accomplished and aspiring domainers involved in this auction. I think we all share a lot of interest in buying/selling of domains and monetization. Is there a forum on this site that we can use or a suggested one for us to share ideas and learn from each other on how to build our domain business?
Chris
July 28th, 2007 at 8:12 am
Hey Jay.
I submitted OrlandoTravel.com and added a few comments today. I hope you can take a look at them and reconsider adding to the auction. Based on your top 200 list this domain has the 3rd best overture of all your dot coms (and it would be nice to see this industry represented in your auction).
I look forward to hearing your decision.
Cheers, Jay. And best of luck with your auction.
-Mike
UPDATE BY JAY: It is confirmed and in the auction. Go luck Mike.
July 28th, 2007 at 11:16 am
Chris,
I recommend NamePros.com
July 28th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
How are the “highest” and “lowest” scores?
Are there any news for the “new” names of 2007?
Thanks for the moment….
Rosacom
July 28th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
orlandotravel.com is an awesome domain! reasonable reserve
You should do very well on that one Mike.. kudos!!
July 28th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
I like orlandotravel too.
Possibly I will use it next year for booking
July 28th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
I resubmitted and the domains are in my account now. Thanks!
July 28th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Thanks Jay for the call, I appreciate your efforts. Sorry I was gruff in answering, I get alot of “Your prescription needs refilling” calls form your area code!!! They never seem to stop.
Again, thanks for your suggestions and help!
Bob
July 28th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Hey Jay, thanks for the call. I think you are doin an amazing job with this conference.
I was wondering if anyone knew of a good tool that could estimate how much type-in traffic a domain gets. I’m not looking for domain value as that’s dependent on how well you market and merchandise.
UPDATE BY JAY: We use Compete, Alexa, and Quantcast for traffic on a domain.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
What weight is the voting going to hold on the decisions to keep or toss the names? There are a few in there that look to be getting very few good votes.
Just wondering. Overall, you are doing a great job.
James
UPDATE BY JAY: Votes are important. One of the domains got put on the list by accident. But you can see that the wisdom of the crowd is voting NO like crazy on it. Votes don’t ultimately move anything but it is good feedback for us and we do watch how certain people are voting. If some of the serious buyers are voting “no” on something then that counts a lot move then a bunch of people that we don’t know who are voting. We know certain people vote no one names so that their own names will rise. We see that. So gaming is not going to help. Please just vote honestly about each name. Voting No on every domain except your own will not help your domain(s). I am not talking to James, I am talking to everyone, just to be clear.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Jay, If my domain “TheBestCompanies.com” has a higher ’score’ than some of the 200 selected domains, does that mean it has a good shot at making the auction? Right now its rated higher than several of the domains in that list of 200.
Thanks,
dc
UPDATE BY JAY: The automated score you see is only our DomainRank system score. We are then sorting using a modified DomainRank + Votes + Human Appraisal. We use a Google score and a Overture score along with Traffic stats to sort names. The reserves are also considered. It is rather complex. But yes, the better the rank the better the chance.
July 28th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
I noticed the mention to LeapFish.com on the Top 200. Are their numbers considered to be reliable? NewsNow.com’s posting in the Top 200 says they valued the domain at 95k, but when I type in that name it only values it at $65.00. Are there any other similar free automated services like this?
UPDATE BY JAY: We don’t give any weight to LeapFish. We appraise the domains ourselves.
July 28th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
The thing with Are.us is that someone can start his own domain selling service, selling just the subdomains for a high price and at a high yearly “name server maintenance fee” .
Domains.Are.us
Servers.Are.us
Auctions.Are.us
Iphones.Are.us
Computers.Are.us
Insurances.Are.us
etc etc. I don’t have time for this and I thought that your auction is exactly the place to try and sell it because you will have there many resellers who would be interested in such a business model and can add these domain to their portfolio. This is something someone who is already in the domain name industry would be interested in, no anyone. There are so many… how to say… not so attractive domains on your list so I am very surprised.
July 29th, 2007 at 12:04 am
You will respond to people in this thread, but you won’t respond to a pm. Not very considerate!
Don’t worry Jay, your answer to my pm came when you took the domain in question off of the top 200 list. I am withdrawing all my names from this auction and waiting for Traffic. A little courtesy goes a long way, and so is the opposite true….
UPDATE BY JAY: We are not showing the full 450 right now. But if there was a domain in the top 200 and you don’t see it now, it is most likely in the top 450. We don’t have a PM function on the blog. But I will email you.
July 29th, 2007 at 1:02 am
Hey Jay,
How about a .net? I would like to add Guides.net ? Please let me know.
Thanks
UPDATE BY JAY: Feel free to add it, I will take a look at the reserve.
July 29th, 2007 at 5:45 am
Note to iphones:
Don’t know whether or not you’re aware, but the application approach you’re suggesting for “are.us,” while creative and potentially useful/valuable, could present serious trademark risks for anyone using it/them in such a way; as least here in the US (and in whatever other countries they operate).
Toys R Us regularly goes after companies using “R Us” in their names; some years ago they even sued and beat or settled (don’t recall which now) with Lamps R Us; which changed their name to the company we know today as Lamps Plus.
Jay–thanks and appreciation to you and your DomainTools team for working so hard to bring this innovative new approach to domain auctions to fruition. It’s instructive–and actually enjoyable–to watch as it nears its “launch”…regardless of who’s (and which) domains end up in the top 450.
And–thankfully–it looks like the large majority of buyers and sellers are being fair in giving it a chance to play itself out with minimal grumbling.
Demonstrates once again just how amazing the Internet truly is…
July 29th, 2007 at 5:56 am
Jay,
Couple of questions:
1)One of the domain even though no Overture Score claims a high unique and high revenues in their comments. Will you be able to validate their claims?
2)Is this Auction purely for domains? If so, will there be a clear indication on the domains which claims Search Engine traffic.
UPDATE BY JAY: Yes, we are requesting documentation and will be sharing that soon. We will do our best to indicate domains with websites.
July 29th, 2007 at 7:59 am
The voting is extremely good idea. However, it would be nice to have an option to describe as to why the voting is good or bad. I would suggest allowing user comments for each domain. This way you will learn as to why some domains that were “put on the list by accident” :o) are facing so strong opposition. In addition, I expect that many domains would trigger bulletin board style discussions. I am sure having such input will be beneficial for both owners and buyers.
UPDATE BY JAY: Comments would be nice. I think we might do that in the future.
July 29th, 2007 at 8:15 am
Jay, I see that the preliminary list has quietly incresed to 250 names. Excellent! I expect that the remaining 200 names will be filled in over the next few days. After all, the August 6 cutoff date is just over a week away.
I’m also pleased to see that there are more names with mid-level reserves, i.e. $10K - $100K. I think these are very realistic.
Of course, I’m hoping that some of my names – e.g. canadabeer.com, canadabrew.com, greenorganics.net, spiritbear.net – will still be considered for the remaining spots in the auction.
In any case, I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to observe and participate in the Roundtable Auction to this stage!
Ciao,
Tony
July 29th, 2007 at 8:20 am
Hi!
Yes! Good to see the list increasing.
The range of prices is now much better, but I have thought that this will come so.
I sometimes realize changes.
Are the names on the list for very sure in the auction?
Thanks for your work
UPDATE BY JAY: I can think of a few names I am going to pull out. But I am not at the clean up stage yet.
July 29th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Hi Jay!!
I’m a newbie and I first want to commend your efforts here - well done!
I do have some basic questions please …
the most pressing concerning the “list of names that did not sell” at the last auction
If the highest Bid shows w/in the Range of the Reserve..
why did it not sell?
And if the true Reserve is met - does the owner have to sell?
Thanks!
Sb ~
July 29th, 2007 at 10:23 am
Thanks for your clarification about the time allotted per auction sale.
Quick question about your ’score’. What does it mean, or count-for
in your selection process ?
July 29th, 2007 at 10:26 am
I cannot believe that SkiSeattle.com made the list among some other not-so-good domain names on the auction list. Wonder who made the call on that one. First of all, there is no skiing in Seattle! As a resident of Seattle/Bellevue, Jay you should know that! SkiWashington.com makes sense! ClimbRainier.com makes sense! SkiSeattle.com does not make sense!
July 29th, 2007 at 10:33 am
axolotl, see message number 57 to read Jay’s answer to the “score” question.
July 29th, 2007 at 10:58 am
Can someone point me in the right direction on how to see the Overture score on my domains?
July 29th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Use this link: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
I think they are doing it by breaking up your domain into keywords. So skiseattle.com would be typed in as: ski seattle (without the dot com)
Some domains that have a lot of type ins will actually show up in overture with the .com extension
July 29th, 2007 at 11:08 am
I signed up and paid for the conference hoping at least one of my domains would make it … and perhaps one will … since the proposed list is being made public, I’ll pre-emptively list the 4 domains I’ve submitted along with their reserves …
Baked.com: $75K
DrugIndex.com: $5K
Fingerprinting.com: $50K
Profilers.com: $10K
Looking at the proposed list so far, it would appear at least one or more of my domains would be a good fit for the auction.
Ron
July 29th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Hi Jay, when are the details on how you actually bid online going to come out? I would like to try to generate some additional interest in a couple of my names which look like they will make the cut… i.e. sending notices to a company that a domain they may be interested in will be auctioned off. I want to start doing that now, what can I send out?
Bob
July 29th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Hey again Jay,
I have a few questions about the auction process itself if you don’t mind sharing with us here:
1) Will the reserves be shown on auction day (most auctions do not do so as to entice more overall bidding activity)? If so, will the opening bid be the reserve and how do you think that could effect the overall process, if at all?
2) Do the position of the domains on their “row”, i.e. #20 for SafteyFilm, indicate that that this domain is considered more valuable in your auction then the domains that proceed it?
3) Does the “row” number represent an order in which the domains will be auctioned off - i.e. #1 will be last to be auctioned?
4) Who will be leading the auction?
Again, no need to respond if you’re not comfortable or if you have greater mediums to announce these details.
Hope all is well.
Best
-Mike S.
July 29th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
ChinaDaddy.com, UnderTheRadar.com, Null.eu, PrisonGuard.com !!!!
At 250 names and the quality is worse than a slow-day drop. I sure hope you are still sitting on the “good” names otherwise this will be very hard to watch…
July 29th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Thanks for the link circler, I actually use that Overture tool quite a bit but did not put the score and that together.
July 29th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Hi Guru!
Quality of names depends also on personal feelings.
For each name there must be minimum 1 interested buyer, better for an auction are 2 or more of course
As I have add “null.eu” for the auction I could only say that there is definetely interest (also from different american investors) in the whole eu thing.
I could only say that there have been requests for buying “null.eu” also.
I wish all good luck for all auctions and names.
Rosacom
July 29th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Hi Jay,
I think this format is the best I have seen to date. One thought for perhaps this time or at least in the future; as long as people have gone through the process of submitting domains to you with a reserve price, wouldn’t it be a good opportunity to take those names that are not chosen in the top 450 and place them into an extended online auction. Because of the large quantity of domains perhaps you could include a keyword search tool to parse out the names certain people might be looking for, but it would mean extra funds for DomainTools, your customers, and that unique domain name for your buyers.
Please give it some thought.
Thanks,
Randy
July 29th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Domaindevguru … I’m happy to say none of my domains are those that you mentioned, but I would have to say null.eu and prisonguard.com are decent domains. Also, just as rosacom says, you only need 1 person who finds the domain valuable. One of my domains is Waxpack.com. While many people may find the domain worthless, someone that understands the baseball card market, or the sportscard market in general, would find that domain very valuable. Remember … one person’s trash is another person’s treature. This is especially true with domain names, as people everyday pick up domains on snapnames, pool, namewinner, etc. and these were all domains that people didn’t think enough about, and didn’t spend the $10 to renew them.
July 29th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
@jlandress
Thanks for your response:
I have seen that I have voted GOOD for waxpack hours before.
I have done my best to build me an own opinion for the offered domain names, and I liked the name
Good luck again for all auction participants….
July 29th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
I accidentally cleared vaccinated.com, which had made it to the current round. Now, “pending review” is displayed instead. I wrote a comment a few minutes ago, but not sure if it was sent. Thank you.
UPDATE BY JAY: It has been added.
July 29th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Hi Jay,
What a lot of work, but this is really exciting! Thanks for doing this.
Still see unconfirmed in my control panel. I sure hope that at least one of my two humble domains makes the auction. I submitted mine on Friday, July 20th, so I hope to see my “unconfirmed” change to “confirmed” for this great event!
Hope you get some sleep during all of this!!!
Best regards,
Bob
bobditmar1
CamperLinks.com
ConservativeCamp.com
July 29th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Jay,
When I realized that you were accepting names that may be under three years old, I added those in addition to CamperLinks.com and ConservativeCamp.com, a range of about 30-some names in all. All are .coms with exception to 3 .org names that I think may have some potential. I will leave it in your capable hands as to whether you believe any of the names on the list have a chance of making it to the auction! I hope these last-minute submissions will at least produce a few for the auction.
Again, my very best regards and thank you for doing this auction!
Bob
bobditmar1
July 29th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Jay,
For your convenience, here is my entire list, most of what I submitted. Any opinions on any of the names. Have a few PPC types in here also!
<CLIP>
Thanks again.
Bob
bobditmar1
UPDATE BY JAY: Bob, Thanks for the list. We can review all your domains in your control panel. Please don’t submit your entire list on the comments.
July 30th, 2007 at 12:40 am
Hi Jay,
1) I could not send you or create a support ticket, even though I have an account.
2) Looking at some of the reserves of some two word domains, not forgeting the negative votes on them, I see that you or your team have wrongly turned down or deneid many of my single word generic domains in dot coms and dot nets from my account. How can it be that a non-impressive low, overture valued dot com domain have $50,000 approved reserve and my dot net domain having excellent dot net single word domains were turned due to high reserve?
3) Therefore I have deleted those deneid domains from my account. If you think that I should submit all of them again, I am willing to. I am very sure that the reserve prices I had setup for the generic single high quality terms should be actual, very accurate and real. So if you do not wanna make a business, then its your choice. I still do have some remaining single word generic domains in the account. Mind you, you may see the reserve prices are high. However, by approving on high reserve price for instance a good dot net for 75,000 USD, you are saving your auction time by 10 - 15 min. earning the same profit on your side, if it gets sold!
4) Auctionhauses setup the price politics. Now if you keep on pressuring the submitters or sellers and pressurise them to put the prices of their domains, then it simply send singals that a dot net is available for a low price. Now if you approve the reserves of dot nets higher, then you are actually signalling that dot nets are not that cheap, thereby also raising the dot com prics.
5) There should be somehow a clear theory setup: Good quality single word dot coms do not sell less than 100K and dot nets not less than 50K. They are just not available anymore!!! In your entire auction listings, how many single words do you have of a very good quality, generic, meaningful word, etc? Make a statistical analysis of them and atleast approve the remaining dot doms and nets reserve prices!!!
6) Approved reserve prices send signals to the industry, regardless of if they gets sold or not. So if you block the dot net reserve prices, they do not have the chance to make a record or a sale. Please realise that the volume of dot nets that are registered today in 2007 is equivalent to the volume of total dot coms in 2003! Please realise that the prices of dot nets MUST go high and give some record signals to the industry.
7) A good quality dot net or dot com MUST have a position in your auctions. Simply by denying the domain claiming that the reserves are too high, you are penalising the sellers, the attendees and domainers, the domain industry and at the end your business profits. I think a sensible domain name should not be turned down and the seller needs to be contacted to agree on a new reserve prices.
You not only have the responsibility to approve the sensible reserves but also to educate the seller. By using the mechanism you devised, does not free your responsibility as a broker and help the seller in many aspects including the reserve prices. It is a wrong notion to simply offer a software plattform for a game of applying and turning down!!! There needs to be something more, which indeed belonged to the older days of brokerage.
July 30th, 2007 at 1:22 am
Hi Jim.
I submitted several names and was hoping InternetsTopTen.com would at least make the list. Has your position on names younger than three years changed? If so, do you think I should submit any of these?
JustAruba.com
JustTheIslands.com
JustTampaBay.com
JustNYC.net
Thanks
July 30th, 2007 at 2:52 am
Good morning Jay, and be prepared for a harsh week.
Several months ago I happened to post a want-to-buy request on a famous dn forum. I was looking for good 2 word dot coms and I was fishing for a dozen domains in low $xxxx range. I know I am too picky - just common sense grammatically correct 2 word domains an average Joe-consumer can easily attribute to certain product or service without consulting Webster’s Dictionary (coupled with realistic pricing this “simple minded” strategy yields 15% annual inventory turnover rate). Nevertheless, I did not expect that among the several thousand names I received only 2 or 3 domains were good enough to consider registering if they were available. And what I got in excess were not-so-kind messages about turning down “valuable proposals” and even accusations in playing some dirty tricks.
I believe your position is even more complicated as you openly publish the names you selected. Be prepared to be a target for intensifying criticism this week. I wish you to avoid reacting and taking any messages too personally.
Keep your good work. Looking forward to participate in the auction. Also I am eager to learn what will be the correlation between voting values and closing price. I hope you will keep the final good/bad numbers available.
July 30th, 2007 at 3:37 am
hi greetings ,
could i up-load u[you] our dn-list.xls the excel file anyway ??
??
ThANKye
2w
July 30th, 2007 at 4:21 am
Hi Jay,
As seen from above in my message, I question on your choice of your reserve prices. Now I have analysed all the first 250 prices and have following:
1000 - 5,000 100 Domains
5001 - 10,000 68 Domains
10,001 - 25,000 32 Domains
25,001 - 50,000 19 Domains
50,000 - 75,000 09 Domains
75,001 - 99,000 07 Domains
100,00 - 150,000 07 Domains
150,000 - 999,000 07 Domains
As you can see, there are 40% domains below reserves of 5,000, 27% of the domains between 5,000 unto 10,000 and that means 66% domains chosen which has a reserve prices BELOW 10,000.
Now if you had carefully ommited atleast 25 of this list and allowed the sellers who have reserves above 50,000, which according to your taste the reserves were higher, then following would happen:
Price strategy A:
You take the risk of not listing and earning domains worth 25,000 (considering 1,000 reserve for each domain) - upto 100,000 USD in total.
Price strategy B:
those 25 domains having a minimum reserve of 50,000 amounts to be in the area of ONE MILLION USD!
UPDATE BY JAY: We are not going to just put names in the auction with 50,000 reserves if we don’t think they are worth it. We are more likely to allow domains that are $10,000 domains if the reserve is $1000. But if the reserves is $9000 then we will think twice about it. Setting the reserve too close to the retail level may mean no one bids.
July 30th, 2007 at 4:32 am
re: quality of domain names
that fact that all you need is one person to like your domain is irrelevant - bad names reflect poorly on the credibility of the auction.
the list is now 250 and i could argue for the deletion of at least 20-25.
UPDATE BY JAY: We are going to do our best to delete names if we find better domains with reasonable reserves. This will be happening until August 6th.
July 30th, 2007 at 4:44 am
jay -
i just added the following - pls take a look.
thx.
ambergriscaye.net/ambergriscay.net
clade.org
hdfm.net/hdam.net
pymt.net
septicity.com
UPDATE BY JAY: Thanks, we will evaluate.
July 30th, 2007 at 5:27 am
I had six domain names in a lot. I tried to change some information in the lot, made a mistake, and deleted the lot. I entered a new lot using the same primary domain name. I successfully added a second domain name to the lot, but now I get an error message saying that the other four names are “already up for auction”. They’re not because the lot they were in was deleted. Help!
UPDATE BY JAY: If it doesn’t work today, please try again tomorrow. We have identified the problem and should have a patch working soon for restoring lots after a user deletes them. It seems resources are tied up even after the domain has been deleted.
July 30th, 2007 at 6:24 am
Ouch … Please accept my apology, I called you Jim rather than Jay in my earlier posting.
Have A Great Day!
UPDATE BY JAY: It started with J, that is fine.
July 30th, 2007 at 6:33 am
Jay,
All I want to say is that most of us really do appreciate the hard work you have chosen to undertake to further advance the domaining industry with this auction. Seeing that some here have decided that since they either do not like the reserves of some of their domains being rejected, or have decided that since they do not like names they see on the list and so decide to criticize you directly in this forum, I would like you to know that probably 95% or higher of us writing in this forum support you and really do believe you deserve high praise and support for doing this! All of us want to believe our domains are “one of the best” out there (including me), however, whether we all get our names in this auction or not, we are all winners because this just further advances opportunities for all of us to eventually turn our Internet real estate into profit while it helps grow and legitimize this industry further!
Thank you again for doing this auction and for taking it upon yourself to do all this hard work! Remember, most of us will be supportive and will understand that you know what you are doing!
Hope you can catch a few breaks this week.
Best Regards,
Bob
UPDATE BY JAY: Yes I understand. We are up to 34,000 submitted domains. So that means that only one percent of domains will make it to the auction.
July 30th, 2007 at 6:50 am
Jay,
I commend you for trying to do the impossible.
Given that there is only 1 week left and you have another self-imposed deadline that does not look like it is going to be met, here are some suggestions for making hard decisions.
1) Please give all those of us who STILL have not had their domain names reviewed or confirmed this late in the cycle the courtesy of reviewing said domain names. DO THIS FIRST. Give yourself a deadline by say midweek.
2) Once you finish reviewing all names, get the list up to 450 ASAP.
3) On the CURRENT list of 250, it can be argued that potentially 30 can be removed from the list. An example is 7 yes and 45 no or worse could get removed for lack of solid interest. The people voted and your hands are clean. You can always have a future supplemental auction for these lacking in positive bid votes or refer them to another auction house that does this on a regular basis. Certainly 12 can be removed from the list with 5 or less yes votes.
4) Communicate NOW what you are going to do from here out and be firm in your decision making. No exceptions.
5) Delegate some other member of your staff to handle all comments from here out.
Good luck and MOST ALL OF US are all rooting for your acution process to succeed.
UPDATE BY JAY: As of right now (4pm on July 31st) we have 450 domains showing on the public list. We still scanning the submitted domains and will be combing the lists for more names to replace the domains we are pulling off. Everyone that is on the list will receive an email soon asking them to confirm their participation and take care of the legal paperwork. If you are not on the list, then you will not need the paperwork and we will not be bugging you.
July 30th, 2007 at 6:58 am
Hi everyone!!
Can someone direct me to where the detailed instructions are or the FAQ or the contract for “Sellers” concerning the top level names to be auctioned at the conference please.
Thanks!
Sb ~
UPDATE BY JAY: See my note above. We will be contacting Sellers if they qualify. The rules page can be located here: http://blog.domaintools.com/2007/07/domain-roundtable-auction-process/
July 30th, 2007 at 7:34 am
Hi Jay,
Wow…you have your hand fulls. Reading thisblog only shows how difficult it is to weed through the crap.
Seriously….what is this CRAP?
iCanadaMeds.com
justtampabay.com
On a different note…I think you need to consider why some good names might be receiving bad votes. There are some great names in there but if I felt the reserve was too high for the name, i voted it BAD. Moniker always has nothing but good names but the reserves are too high. I feel that some of the names that are good names are getting bad viotes because the reserves are too high.
Good luck with it all but just wanted to say I, as an investor, am looking for good deals that provide updide.
July 30th, 2007 at 7:55 am
Hi Jay - I have had 11 names denied for being “too young”, all were bought in drops and have records in archieves from 2001.
You mentioned earlier in this blog that if they were bought in a drop, you would know and it would be ok to list them.
Will the age issues be addressed in the next few days before the submissions are frozen and locked on August 6th ?
Many thanks and good luck with the auction being a huge success.
.
July 30th, 2007 at 9:51 am
Hi Jay,
Thanks for organizing all this. I added some notes on my domains but wasn’t sure if I had to hit the submit button. I tried, and it just got hung up. Did my notes go through? I hope some of my domains make it in there, I have some with higher number rankings than those already on the list and they are very OLD!!!
Tom
July 30th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Perhaps it’s time to let Jay do his job; I take that this is the first time he and his company have done this kind of auction at a domain conference. It must be a bit of a learning curve.
Also, it’s his auction, and, in the end, it will be his decision what goes in and what doesn’t. The names that look bad to us might have great numbers behind them.
One thing I would suggest for next year: set up a throwaway email addy just for the conference auction. Most of the problems listed in this comment section could be solved easily with one word or even a form response.
Anyway, good luck with the auction; I look forward to seeing what those premium names fetch.
;=)
Best, jss
July 30th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Jay, I lowered my reserve on funeralarrangements.com. Hoping a $12B industry exact match would get into an auction that featured pizzahats.com
UPDATE BY JAY: Great name. Good reserve. It was added.
July 30th, 2007 at 11:21 am
Hi WillyNilly,
Re: “iCanadaMeds.com,” I will conced that maybe it is not the greatest name on my list. In fact, most of the Canada pharmacy names I own are not my favorites either! Got ‘em when it appeared there was going to be an opportunity for online meds from Canada as I am located in Michigan and it was a big thing here, before it was put on hold by Congress! At any rate, were any names in my list that not “crap?,” to use your own words? I guess your choice of words seemed a little harsh to me for public forum critism. I still stand by several of my domains submitted as being very good domain names, and yes, maybe a few are not as good.
<SNIP… please don’t post contact details.>
Also, I want to wish everyone in this forum and working on this auction, good luck and success throughout this entire process, as it is a huge undertaking! Just trying to make this auction is success by participating in the process is a great boost for all of us!
Best regards,
Bob
UPDATE BY JAY: Bob, thank you for your submissions. I think your best name is CamperLinks.com but the reserve of $30,000 is too high.
July 30th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
I agree with many here that the list contains numerous bad names. Several I would never reg. However, we also have to realize that this list is Preliminary. I am sure the culling is going on hour by hour.
I think suggestions at this stage are fine, but I also think criticism should wait for the final list…the finished product.
Good luck to those processing thousands of names.
db
startupnames.com
July 30th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Firt off - THANKS JAY & DOMAIN ROUNDTABLE
A couple of my domains are getting less than stellar votes -3 out of 5 are doing ok - You can tell there are some bad votes just because of sour grapes maybe. But as Jay says - they know who is voting and how etc - so they’ll take that all in consideration. I vote based on initial impression - then whether i think it can be monetized - if ideas for sites come to my mind - and then by reserves. Also if I haven’t a clue just by looking at the name what it means - to me that’s not so good.
I’m thinking maybe the pizzahats one is the one that got in there by mistake.
I still have a few domains that are unconfirmed that may be good enough for top 450!
Sorry for obsessively reloading the pages jay
July 30th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
>Jay Said, “UPDATE BY JAY: Bob, Thanks for the list. We can review all your domains in your control panel. Please don’t submit your entire list on the comments.”
July 30th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Whoops. On my post 106, I also said “Thanks Jay. Sorry about the list. Did not mean for anything but convenience, but did not want to appear to spam.” I accidently deleted the second part of my post!
Thanks again for everything and have a good day.
Best regards,
Bob
July 30th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Jay, I submitted greatbearrainforest.com yesterday. The Great Bear Rainforest on the north and central coast of BC has huge ecological significance in the Pacific Northwest! I registered this name in Feb 2006. According to the DomainTools Whois this name was previously registered and dropped but I don’t know when it was first registered. Can you confirm if it is eligible for the auction? If so I would also appreciate your advice on the reserve (when you get a moment). Thanks!
UPDATE BY JAY: Yes it is eligible. However it will not make the auction. This name is too localized and four words. I am not sure how many PPC ads you could put on that domain.
July 30th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Although pizzahats.com isn’t my domain, I actually see it as a good website name. Definately not type-in traffic, but I could picture a good logo out of it, and having worked many years in the retail & catalog industry, as well as the chef apparel industry, for $1000 it isn’t a bad name to brand yourself around.
All that being said, I’m interested to hear people’s thoughts on BibleDude.com. The domain has good search traffic, someone owns and actively uses BibleDude.net, and it’s a catchy name. Obviously the reserve isn’t too low, so I was wondering if people truly thought it was a bad name, or if religious beliefs are playing a part in voting it as bad?
UPDATE BY JAY: I just find those domains amusing. Sadly I think those domains will not make the final cut.
July 30th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Hi Jay,
I respect the amount of abuse you are willingly submitting to — in a public forum — in order to give us a degree of transparency one shouldn’t reasonably be expect to be given, no matter what one thinks of the particular selections or procedural variations you’ve decided to go with.
Alas, none of mine have made it yet either but I’m not actually writing to complain about that itself — and I won’t list here what my top five are either, or which on my list is so obviously superior to such and so on yours.
I have a procedural question - I’ve actually enjoyed inputting several hundred names by hand because you’ve given me the opportunity to check-in and reintroduce myself to my portfolio - so thanks for that! BUT, I had opted to do this by hand rather than upload a list because I thought that the process might have taken note of the ease of a bulk upload and the relatively high subjective value I would be expected to have on the names I’ve been typing in by hand over this long portfolion grooming process. Since I’ve struck out so far (so my sytem has put me in no better position than had I uploaded up to this point), I’m wondering if its an efficient use of time to continue hand selecting my names to enter or if, in this frenzied dash to the conference, I might have in fact a better chance if I just upload 15,000 or so names and let the computer sort it out for me?
Thanks - and thanks again for the glimpse inside the machine.
UPDATE BY JAY: The computer is good at sorting, but it is easier for us to sort through smaller lists manually. If someone submits thousands of names we tend to use the computer as a first line of attack at their list. BTW, Of the 381 domains you have submitted only 8 are older then 2005. So you are submitting a lot of new stuff.
July 30th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Jay, I’m thrilled to have 4 domains in the top 250. Question, I own hundreds of fantastic .cc domains. According to dnjournal, 2 .cc domains have sold for 70k each over the past month. eMail.cc also just sold for nearly 7k this week. With Demand Media now behind .cc, seems like things are heating up.
I submitted several great .cc domains, most were scored in the 700’s and phone.cc was rated over 800. Here are some of the .cc domains that I currently own:
<SNIP>
Is it possible to see some .cc and .tv domains (I own several great .tv domains like HOT.TV and Hawaii.TV) in the auction?
Keep up the great, I mean FANTASTIC work!
MrHit
UPDATE BY JAY: MrHit, I think a few .CC and .TV names will make the top 450.
July 30th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
You know, we’re all wasting a lot of time and energy criticizing each others domains and jockeying for position on the domain list. I’m surprised that there has been no discussion about the most important question of all — is anyone going to buy them? In other words, are there going be a large number of qualified buyers who will agressively bid on our domains?
Moniker.com has a proven track record of selling domains for top dollar. They obviously know how to attract the top domain buyers in the world. I am not involved with them, in fact, this is my first domain auction (I currently have 4 domains on the list). But let’s be honest, Domaintools.com is designing this auction and software by the “seat of their pants” as they say. It’s not even clear to me how they’re going to properly evaluate thousands of names in the next 5 days (mine are all still