By: RH
There has been quite a bit of commenting about the live auction that wrapped up today at T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Many thought the names were bad and should have never been in the auction in the first place. Others felt that lack of online bidding really hurt the auction and some believe that the auction harmed the overall industry with some commenting that it makes domainers look amateurish or a joke.
I think you have to applaud effort and the people at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. put in the effort. The problem lies in the overall scheme of things.
First off end users are not going to a domain conference just to bid on a domain. I have pointed out domains at auction to clients I consult, and friends who work at companies where there should be interest. Some thought I was joking and others just felt it was not worth their time.
So the auctions become about domainer to domainer pricing, I don't think Rick was wrong in going that route. The whole idea was that it would be domains priced at wholesale level so that the domainer buying could make a profit down the road reselling it.
This was like the DNF or Namepros marketplace on steroids and live. That's ok but there is not enough people there to make the waves you want at an auction. For the most part its the same people at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. each event. Sure there are some new people but there are a lot of the same faces.
These people already buy names at NameJet and Snapnames almost everyday. If the name is not an absolute steal , why bother. They have been around a long time, they know that if the name is one of the reg fee to $100 names that does not sell in the live auction that the name will be for sale on DNF or Namepros or maybe Go Daddy Auctions.
The other names that were good names in the auction went against the theme. They were good but they were not the steal that domainers in the audience want.
No online bidding hurts too, people want to bid online and yes it requires a secure and authentic system to make sure there is not shill bidding. The time and effort needs to be put into that.
There is not a shortage of the type of names that were in the live auction. You can find names of equal or better quality on NameJet and Go Daddy Auctions everyday. If people can bid online there, why would they go out of their way for a live auction ?
I will be honest I shut the auction off as the audio was horrible and someone in my place was going to throw the laptop out the window if I did not shut it off. There needs to be better audio and video imo or why bother ?
The live auction format for many does not work, they will not put their good names up for sale at these events. You have many top domainers that you would think would jump to get their names into auction and they do not. Why not ? But I would love to hear an Elliot Silver, Frank Schilling, Adam Strong give their valuable insight. These guys know domain sales and are not selling at the premier live event.
I think you need to start every auction at $100, or the reserve price.
No fake bids, lower bids, nothing $100 do I hear $200 and so on, no more bids, going,going,gone.
Online bidding where the bidders verify their identity by paying to bid, the fee can be used against the purchase of a domain.
Quality video and audio so those watching can actually enjoy the auction.
Crowd Sourcing to pick the names from an available pool. Have people submit and stop with a reasonable number then give a month for people to vote on the names they think should be in. The people who are motivated and participate will benefit and those who choose not to participate cannot complain as it was a fair playing field.
Another stretch could be a $100 price guarantee, the event organizer could say we only picked names we were sure would get bids over $100, any name that doesn't we will give you $100 for. That would be ballsy but it would show you believe in your picking of the names.
Still some people did alright and good for them, and thank you Rick and Howard for putting in the effort, every swing is not a HomeRun but you still have to look for your pitch and try.
Dman says
love the $100 price guarantee but no one in this business has a set that big.
J S says
Great Points!
1) For an event of this size there should be online bidding hands down. C’mon, these are DOMAIN names, but you have to bid in person or by a telephone!? A lot of business was lost there.
2) Reach out to the brokers to attend, welcome them, offer them discounts too get them in attendance. They have great knowledge of what people want.
3) Hire real auctioneer’s, who were those mumbling clowns…NEXT..this one won’t sell…NEXT..NEXT.
4) The name quality, how bad was that and why? That part I really don’t understand. Most names were “the” definition of pigeon-****!
RH says
Thank you Dman and J S for your comments.
I wonder about the quality, I am not sure because crap names hurt the good names. If someone told you that a restaurant was the greatest and you drove down the street and saw dilapidated buildings next to it you would drive past and never even try the great restaurant.
Adam says
RH .
To start out with some disclosures. I bought 1 from this event and was frustrated I missed the phone-in deadline, which seemed arbitrary, since I could call my friend on the floor to bid for me. I also was frustrated by not being able to bid online but that was fine. The audio was horrible to follow along and I thought these auctioneers were very hard to follow/understand regardless of the audio quality. Keep in mind I was trying to live blog this as well. Several times the auctioneers said “we’re running right on time” as if they had somewhere else to be or time was more important than getting bids. If I were a seller I wouldn’t want my names rushed. The auction I bid on, my friend at the event actually missed. I believe because they didn’t see him the first go, but it was at the end of the group and was definitely being rushed. Fortunately they bring names back.
Would I have put a name in this auction? Sure. If I really needed the cash and was trying to sell something aggressively to this market, but I am not in that position currently. I would also cater to what these buyers are after with my choice of names to put in the auction. I’ve sold names at many live auctions. I think all of them except DomainFest actually.
It’s a buyers market right now and buyers are choosy. You have to have good deals and good inventory. Some of the tentativeness of buyers may relate to new gtlds on the horizon.
I’ve run a few auctions myself and can say it’s not easy picking the inventory and gauging the market is tough. The online format can be difficult and riddled with technical issues as well.
To your other comments
“I think you need to start every auction at $100, or the reserve price. No fake bids, lower bids, nothing $100 do I hear $200 and so on, no more bids, going,going,gone.”
The “chandelier bidding” bothers me and leaves a bad taste for me as a buyer. Slow closing auctioneers are a bother to me as a buyer as well but sellers like that (as does the venue provider) if more bids come in that way.
The auctioneers try to build up some in-room excitement by starting lower and working up to the reserve. It doesn’t seem to work well
“Online bidding where the bidders verify their identity by paying to bid, the fee can be used against the purchase of a domain.”
I think Latona’s did this and it seemed to do ok. They still had tech difficulties with proxybid. Also, what about people who come in last minute to bid and haven’t ‘registered’. Do I get my money back if I don’t end up buying something ?
“Quality video and audio so those watching can actually enjoy the auction.”
Definitely need to test and spend a little here but it’s not terribly difficult. I saw an auction with a webcam and a hotel in-room T1 connection that had a good enough feed to sell more than TRAFFIC. Goes back to market timing and inventory I believe.
“Crowd Sourcing to pick the names from an available pool. Have people submit and stop with a reasonable number then give a month for people to vote on the names they think should be in. The people who are motivated and participate will benefit and those who choose not to participate cannot complain as it was a fair playing field.”
Crowdsourcing has it’s problems with people voting for their own names to be included. It was the original format of TRAFFIC auctions though. At the very first auction, they printed names on poster boards and gave people stickers to put next to the names they wanted to see put on auction. Quite innovative đ
“Another stretch could be a $100 price guarantee, the event organizer could say we only picked names we were sure would get bids over $100, any name that doesn’t we will give you $100 for. That would be ballsy but it would show you believe in your picking of the names.”
It’s a difficult task to pick names but putting your money on the line would be interesting. When I’ve assisted in picking names, I tried to pick with the idea of “would I buy that one for this reserve”. As a frequent buyer, I think I’ve got a handle on that. I think to know the market you have to participate in it regularly.
As for, “is it time to skip them ?” Maybe. If you are looking for millions to be sold today at a live event, itâs not like going to happen.
I think this event catered to the wholesale market and was not well received by that buyer group because of the inventory and prices. The handful of people that were bidding (or watching) yesterday are savvy domain buyers who know the market. Several bought multiple deals but mostly the low hanging fruit. That particular group has spoken pretty clearly. Were there âend-usersâ to bid? Most likely not, but maybe 1 for a name here and there ? Letâs just say that it was a wholesalersâ auction and call it that.
So events that decide to sell to domainers/investors need to cater to that buyer. I don’t think that happened here. The live auction can be done better if you cater to that market. Every day Namejet and SnapNames host âlive auctionsâ. They may not have a caller but theyâre live and some of these sell more in a day than this auction.
DomainFest will likely have an event in ~3 months. They may be able to stoke the market of end-users or learn from this auction and cater to the wholesale market by bringing names that are better and more aggressively priced. They can and have done both. They have more resources available to do the necessary end-user marketing and the pool of customers to ping for better inventory.
It’s a buyers market right now, so these events need to bring out the good names at low reserves. That’s what the buyers want at this moment in time. The event producers and auctioneers need to work harder to get good inventory and do better at promoting and bringing in the buyers if they want these mysterious âend-userâ sales. Buyers are out there. Give ’em what they want and give âem and easy way to bid. If you want to move inventory, you have to be aggressive TODAY. Otherwise, keep holding.
I may be all wrong here and Iâm sure someone will let me know. Iâm very curious to hear what others think.
Good post. Sorry for the ramble, but you called me out. Maybe I should have posted this on DNN.com đ
RH says
Thanks a lot for the great answer Adam and I was certainly not calling you out, I was saying it would be great to get your insight not that you owed that to anyone. You are one of the top people in this business so its great to get your opinion. Thank you
Rochelle says
thank you Adam this is what comments should be…informative. big fan
Torika says
This was an excellent post and an even more excellent comment.
Adam how do you pick wholesale domains ? its so subjective most of the names that were no reserve were reg fee, why did Rick include them ?
The Auction sucked says
The auction sucked, how can Rick ever be taken seriously. LGBTClips.com – Ch9.tv -one lot of 100 names ?
Domain fest better do better.
Is Adam thee Adam Strong ?
Domain Shane says
It was. THE Adam Strong. You have been chosen. Enjoyed this conversation. Actually civilized.
Jay says
Excellent post.
Richard says
Agree with Jay, this blog has become one of the best.
No matter who picks names people will be upset. You need standards and let those who don’t have the quality get upset at least like Adam says play to your market.
Michael Berkens and others in that crowd buy domains daily, they are not buying names like these no reserve names. The Kinks had a song “Give the people what they want” Mr. Schwartz did not do that. He tried to give the people a high sell through rate.
Adam says
“Adam how do you pick wholesale domains ?”
I believe most domainers can pick out good names out of a list. There’s some subjectivity but I bet we can all pick the top 10 (without looking at price) from the TRAFFIC auction. Couple it with the pricing and you run in to some arguments and it gets trickier.
I’m a wholesale buyer too. I watch a lot of auctions as well. If I’m going to run an auction to help someone sell to that market, I try to pick names I think would be a deal for me or others like me. imho, it’s much much tougher to run an auction targeted to what some would call an end-user buyer. You have to be a lot more aggressive in marketing. With a domainer/wholesale auction, you need aggressive pricing. That aggressive pricing just may bring out an end-user too.
I don’t believe in pay for placement in auctions and I don’t believe a name or batch should be put in just because it’s no reserve. Nobody can perfectly line up the stars and make an auction a guaranteed success. Sell-through-rate was always the objective in any auction I helped organize and we were pretty good at that. We didn’t hit the $m numbers but we got names sold.
Adam says
@shane give it time. it’s still earlyish
todd says
I watched the auction from beginning to end and it was horrible. The audio, auctioneers, video was just plain ridiculous. The guy playing the piano at 10 times volume in the beginning was a sign of things to come.
As a businessman Rick should have been up in the front orchestrating this whole event as it progressed especially after a few names got mixed up like ch9, rude, pals all dot coms, No, wait, what are they, sorry dot TVs, whatever same thing right. Whats on the video screen, oh, that doesn’t match what I have, OK disregard the screen and only listen to me. LOL Amateurish at best. My kids school PTA has better auctions auctioning off donuts. LOL
This was an embarrassment to this whole industry and everyone knows it. Obviously Rick knows it also if not he would have been boasting what a great success it was on his blog already but obviously nothing. Time to regroup and possibly create some type of panel or board that speaks for this industry as a whole and can voice their opinion to everyone involved to somewhat keep everyone else in check so to speak. Such as Berkens, Schilling, Schwartz, Jackson, Dicker, Alleman, Silver, etc….there are a whole group that would be great to bounce ideas off about this industry and how to improve it and how to create a good auction and choose good names. Yes, it is Ricks business and he can do as he chooses but I think for the betterment of everyone involved in domaining maybe he should listen to others around him. If this auction was not televised live what do you think people would be saying? I wonder.
EmergingDomains says
The conference seems to be a success, but maybe not the auction. Thanx for posting some recap of it, because you’re the only blogger on Domaining.com which posted a recap so far!