DomainTools Blog

“Ironically-Priced” Superstar Heads ” Featured GEO’s”

Of course, we understand that standard Extended Protocol is to lock up anything even mildly good in our inventory, announce it ten weeks in advance and then let them rot in a bargain bin while domainers pick away.

No thanks – we’ll sling out Reserve.com at ‘No Reserve’ instead. And you thought Ad.com was a deal? Or how about owning the whole country for far less?

Truth is we decided to release our full inventory in three phases – giving us the ability to promote and market each name, in each phase accordingly. All names are given 100% due effort, each one gets its moment in the sun – from A to Twitter.

And during each phase, any and all remaining names are given fresh eyes, perhaps fresh interest from someone who missed the small, live window.

And so we are happy to break protocol (again) and announce that we have indeed saved or ‘reserved‘ the best names for last: one-of-a-kind Reserve.com

So first came the Catalog, then the Showcase, now our soon-to-be-famous or infamous Featured GEO-Domains (22) – including six new cities and a slew of other No Reserve generics:

The above generics are now available for bids along with other stellar inventory including SantaClarita.com, Mundo.com, Miss.com, Augsburg.com, Longhorn.com and more. Many have bids already and will sell.

Open lots will begin to close at 12pm PDT on May 5th in alphabetical order – get your proxy bids in now and then join us for the conclusion of our GEO-a-thon. Bid NOW at the GeoDomain Auction online!

Ten Large Cities, Almost All Under $15k, Remain in Inventory

Have you ever wanted to own your own city? You’ll need the domain name, of course, so what better place to start than these city domains? There are still 30 premium GEO-Domains available for extended bidding in the GEO-Domain Auction until May 5th – a few already have bids, which means they will sell to someone else unless you act quickly.

Anyone who attended the terrific GEO-Domain EXPO in San Diego understands a great city domain is a safe harbor – an excellent platform for growth and a reliable steward of resale value. Unlike technology names with terms like “MP3″, a city domain never goes out of style. The market for relevant traffic to the domain includes just about anyone in the city itself and those looking to travel to the city or do business there. When it’s time to resell the domain, the buyer pool is equally expansive.

There’s also some great bargins under $3500 including FranceHoliday.com ($3450), AmericanGuide.com ($1500), PortlandVacation.com ($2800), iSouthKorea.com ($1500), and Albuquerque.us ($3500).

Bid now and join us May 5 at 12pm PDT as we close each lot in alphabetical order. Additional domain information, including an interactive map, is available here.

Available City Domains Include:

Augsburg.com
$15,000
Population 270,000

Albuquerque.us
$3500
Population 500,000, Top 50 U.S. City
Bargain price .us

BeachHaven.com
$14,000
NJ/Long Island Shore.
Median home value over $600,000

BocaRatonFlorida.com
$9000
100,000 residents, $500,000 median home price

Elizabeth.net
$9950
City in New Jersey with over 200,000
Obviously a name, too.

KansasCity.us
$5000
Comparables includes Nashville.us $23,000, Miami.us $15,000
Population 500,000 in bigger or two K.S.

Ponce.com
$21,000
Huge city in Southern Puerto Rico

SantaClarita.com
$35,000
Population 200,000, $500,000 home median
Applies to the city and the valley – home to Six Flags. Cheap!

TempeArizona.com
$9000
Great domain for a city of 200,000
Home to Arizona State and just a few miles from Phoenix

Washington.biz
$4500
Population 6.5 million in the state
Name, city, state, brandable, SEO, resale = inexpensive

Ten Names Including Miss.com, Mundo.com, SantaClarita.com, Ticket.com Added
SAN DIEGO, CA – In honor of the new Miss USA, the gorgeous and talented Kristen Dalton of North Carolina, we are proud to announce the Showcase names for the GEO-Domain auction – yes, including Miss.com.

The auction is going on now until Saturday with live finale at 4pm PST from San Diego. We think this is an event you shouldn’t “miss” – could be the best auction in the “world” (pun intended) – en el “mundo”! Or at least Armonk, NY.

In the final tally, ten (10) premium names have been added to the other names released last Thursday via the GEO-Domain Map. The showcase includes No Reserve names like FrenchKissing.net and CannesBeach.com on up to Ticket.com for seven figures. There are a few additions/changes to the inventory as well.

GEO-Domain Auction Showcase:

• Ticket.com
• Miss.com
• Mundo.com (Spanish for “world”)
• FrenchKissing.net
• SantaClarita.com
• ChicagoTravel.com
• TexasPersonals.com
• AsiaMaps.com
• CaribbeanSea.com
• Armonk.com

Additions/Changes

• StPaulRealEstate.com (no reserve)
• eChart.com (no reserve)
• Pics.travel ($1500 reserve)
• SkiingLessons.net (no reserve)
• CannesBeach.com (no reserve)

GEO-Domain Map

All of the above domains, along with the other GEOs, are open now for bidding. Or, you can “explore” the auction inventory and location info and demographics by visiting and clicking on our updated GEO-Domain Map:
http://domainconsultant.com/geo-map.php

Live Auction Finale On Saturday

To start bidding or to verify your bidding eligibility, visit the Auction headquarters:
http://www.domaintools.com/domain-auctions/live/GeoExpo2009

Make sure to join us on Saturday at 4pm PST for what promises to be an entertaining event.

GeoDomain Expo 2009 Auction – Inventory Announced via Map, Bidding Now Open

Breaking with standard protocol, and our own schedule, we decided why not announce the inventory catalog – and open it up for bidding at the same time. We also thought it might be more fun to ‘explore’ the inventory rather than scan as usual – so check out our GEO-Domain Map for full lot and details. Click on any ‘marker’ to see location information and demographics on the interactive map.

And so it is, you can bid right now on any of fifty (50) premium GEO-domains selected for their rarity and unique pricing in the space. Start bidding NOW for the GeoDomain Expo 2009 Auction!

Catalog highlights include:

…. and many more!

Tired of scanning lists? Then explore the inventory and the details behind each name and location via our innovative GEO-Domain Map.

And remember that all the names are now open for bidding and will be until the LIVE finale on April 25th at 3pm PST – make sure to join us for what promises to be an entertaining conclusion to the GeoDomain EXPO 2009 in San Diego.

Starting bidding RIGHT NOW!

Thanks to all who took part in the event and the contest and the auction. We had a blast!

In the final tally, Domain Madness auction sold 25 of 48 names offered in the catalog for a total just below $150,000. And this after only initially selling 16 in the live event. But we put forth a new strategy and believe it paid off.

For this auction, we decided to take things in another direction, largely because of a comment someone made about a premium name, “we’ll wait and get it cheaper later.”

Not only was this not true (owner was talked way down for auction and price is up again) but it made me realize that the best option for sellers would be to increase prices with each stage, instead of decreasing or keeping stable.

And so we did. After the auction we raised the prices on the remaining names and would do so at least two more times before it was all said and done. The idea is to de-motivate the cherry-picker, force them into earlier decisions or pay more later.

The result is that several names were sold above the reserve in the post auction phase – a first for us and perhaps for the sellers as well. We now intend to make this ‘rising’ scale standard procedure in all upcoming auctions – including the GEO auction to be held at the end of April in San Diego.

Tally Your Domain Madness Contest Score

A perfect score is 74 points – means you guessed correctly which names would and would not sell. Correct answers are given points – based on the bracket they are in. For example, if you guessed that Lawclass.com would not sell, you get ONE point. If you guessed it would sell, you get no points but no deduction either. Please contact DomainConsultant if you tally up a perfect score or anything above 69. Download the Official Bracket Sheet.

We will be publishing the overall vote totals for each name in the coming weeks as an interesting case study. For the moment, here are the final, official sales figures.

Domain Madness Sales
Antidepressant.net $1650
Antiseptic.com $6000
Autloan.ca $4500
Birdproof.com $2500
Blockads.com $1100
Calfskin.com $3500
Cutout.com $3320
Doodling.com $4700
ePills.com $9000
Financialgrowth.com $1400
Groomed.com $3000
HomeCleaners.com $3500
IceSkating.net $7000
ITemployment.com $3300
Learntogolf.com $1600
Loco.com $55,500
Partytoys.com $2600
Popuptrailers.com $3800
Staythin.com $3000
Stenography.com $15000
Studentoffers.com $2500
Toyfest.com $850
TrickorTreating.com $2400
UVdamage.com $600
VeryFast.com $5200

DomainConsultant.com will be in San Diego from April 23rd to the 25th for the 2009 GeoDomain Expo where we will announce the winner live! We hope everyone comes out to join us for some fun and sun, bidding and beach babes! Thanks again!

We would really like to thank those that took time and money and effort to come out and support Domain Madness auciton in the King Pin Suite at the Palms. A great time was had by all we hope. It was an experiment that became a conference!

We are still working on the final and official results (announced April 7th) with several potential sales pending but we wanted to take a moment (after the craziness died down) to say thank you for some special support.

• Domaining.com
• Estibot.com
• Dot Weekly
• Domain Name Wire
• Domain Name News
• DN Journal
• Elliot’s Blog
• Dot Sauce
• Chef Patrick
• TrafficZ

A special DomainConsultant thanks goes out to Sevan, Ammar (as tired as he was, he made the effort!) and Mr. Lau, Tihan, Slavik and Merlin for the masseuse that saved my back, Carl for making us feel ’safe’ at Pure. Cheers to Francois, Jamie, Elliot, Esa, Andrew & Ron J.

And one final thank you to all who came and joined and hopefully had a good time, there or online. Next time might be better, we learn from each one.

But it ain’t over yet! Official and final results will be announced on April 7th so contest entrants can tally their scores. Stay tuned….!