After the last TRAFFIC there was plenty of criticism of the auction. Some said there were crap names in with premium names. Others said the reserve prices on some of the top names were unrealistic. Some asked why they had to bring their own end users to bid.
For all those who complained, are they willing to put their best names up for auction with no reserve price ? It seems it is what everyone wants their fellow domainer to do.
So should a conference try an auction where every domain has no reserve ? Some say that would let the market decide. But would it ? The market is more than 300 domainers at one conference.
I understand where Rick is coming from saying that sellers should do some pr work, and get those interested in their domains to come to TRAFFIC. I understand the thinking but in reality not many if any are going to do that. They think by getting their name into the live auction that they hit the jackpot. Those days of big bids and selling millions in domains at one of the conferences seems to have past. The economy, the wholesale domainer market and lack of true end users are the most prominent reasons.
A no reserve auction would be an interesting auction, the auction would have 100 % sell through rate. The attendees would know that every name they are interested in, will sell. It leaves the door open to a lot of disappointment and would be a big risk. But maybe that's what this industry needs.
What is your opinion ?
Risky and exciting
Not worth it for premium domain. Traffic and DomainFest don’t attract end users, its just the good old boys club.
Not many people would trust Traffic to get them a good price, they may not even achieve market value without online bidding. So whilst the problem is overpriced inventory people are not going to solve that problem for auction organizers by selling at no reserve.
Regarding PR work why would domainers do that to try an get endusers to an auction? An auction is all about clearing stock. They’d be better of getting the buyer into a private sale situation and saving 15% without the embassament of of names being sold at “domainer” pricing all around them. Rick would never try to sell domains like that, why would anyone else do it?