DomainTools Blog

Wednesday, September 25, marked a new chapter in our history with the live auction held at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. 2008 Conference in New York. Everyone here was extremely excited about the results and it showed in the success of the completely new Auction Bidding Interface. As many of you already know we had to address several issues to make this a more worthwhile experience and feel that we were truly successful with Wednesday’s auction.

We offered 50 domain names. Although the actual dollars sold was not grand, the fact is more than 50% of the inventory was sold and of those over 75% sold for above their starting reserve. I believe in the methodology used in selecting these names and setting the reserves. There are improvements to be made in the actual process, I recognize. We will continue to make those remaining names available on the site until October 1, 2008. If you were unable to bid on one of these remaining domain names, please visit Aftermarket.com and place your bids. You can bid using the flyout bid box (clicking on the domain name) or adding to your personal watch list and bid. The lots close on October 1, 2008, 12:00noon PST. Great deals are still available! Don’t miss this opportunity.

We monitored online feedback during the auction as many were following the action closely on various sites with real time, live chats and we found that most of the comments were positive and clearly showed we have made great strides with the format and listened to our users feedback. One of our bidders who purchased one of the more prominent domain names let us know that he was,”very impressed with online auction interface. Well done.“

The recently improved auction format allowed those with a stake in the domain market to easily bid and monitor lots specifically interested in. Other than an issue with a specific computer dropping its network connection on the stage, the system tracked well with the in-house and online activity. This new platform was extensively tested to ensure a stable environment for the live auction. A few features we wanted to roll out were put on hold for the next version. After the success of this launch, we are very excited about putting the other features back in and making improvements on existing system.

Hopefully many of you were able to watch the streaming live auction featuring the award winning auctioneer Jill Doherty, while following the actual ‘lot’ being bid on in the Auctioneer Pane. As a licensed and practicing NYC auctioneer, the auction teams style is influenced by the big auction houses here, Sotheby’s and Christies, which was a nice change of pace.

Results of the auction can be found on:

http://www.domaintools.com/domain-auctions/live/Aftermarket?auctionResults

All in all, the auction was a great success and we look forward to working to improve the experience and provide additional tools and services. We value your feedback and if we missed any helpful issues that you may have experienced please fee free to let us know.