TRAFFIC Auction Results Update

I received a number of comments on my blog yesterday regarding the fact that the TRAFFIC auction results weren’t livestreamed or blogged by anyone, and I want to post a brief follow up on that.

As I mentioned yesterday, I wasn’t going to be a bidder in the auction and I had no names listed for sale. I decided to take some time to enjoy my trip to Las Vegas (blackjack and the pool) instead of sitting an a domain auction. Sorry, that this upset some, but that’s life.

I reached out to Rick and Howard, and I was able to get some information about the auction, which I posted below. Over 50% of the listed names sold during the auction.

A couple of the auctions have offers close to reserve, so they are labeled as contingent pending owner approval (I assume). If the name doesn’t have a number next to it, I believe it means the name did not sell. It looks like there were some good deals to be had.

TRAFFIC auction results:

Domain AMOUNT
3DChannel.com
3DMovie.com w/email list and 10-May new each day
3Dtraveller.com
777.me 3000
AAAratings.com 500
AffiliateAdNetwork.com 200
AFQ.com 8500 CONTINGENT
Artist.us and Artists.us 1200
Bereaved.com 6000
Bouquet.com 30000
Breaching.com 900
BreastImplantRemoval.com 400
BulletProofVest.com
CardioMD.com 300
CashBusiness.com 7000
CellularWallets.com
ChampWrestling.com
CheapClicks.com 500
CheckBuy.com
Coater.com 700
ConsolidateDebt.org 100
CustomNamePlates.com 300
CycleClassifieds.com
DataScanners.com 400
DelinquentAccounts.com 100
DelinquentTaxProperties.com
DivorceRate.com 500
EuropeanAutos.com
FantasyDomain.com 200
FreeCityGuide.com 300
FreeVehicleRecord.com AND FreeVinHistory.com (As one lot) 100
Friending.com 2200
GamblingMadeEasy.com 200
GameSnaps.com
Gays.us 3000
Hindering.com 200
illegals.com 2500
iloveCali.com and iloveNevada.com and iloveUtah.com (one lot) 200
ImportRugs.com 300
Jax.net 1000
JesusChrist.es 300
Klaxons.com 300
LasVegasReservations.net
LasVegasSigns.com, PureSlots.com, VirtualSlotMachines.com (lot) 500
LawnMowing.com
MenSupplements.com 200
MovieTheatre.com AND MovieTheater.com 28000 CONTINGENT
MylarTape.com 300
NevadaRooms.com 500
NewHomePlans.com AND NewHousePlans.com (As one lot) 500
NudeGallery.com 900
NYCCam.com
OfficeDating.com
OnlineClassrooms.com
PetTshirts.com 200
ProBoatRace.com and ProBoatRacing.com (1 lot)
PuppetMaster.com 1400
ReunionPlanning.com 200
RomeRestaurants.com 500
Silly.tv 350
Slurpy.com 1000
StrategicWorkforce.com 200
Therapeutic.com
Thriller.com
Time.travel
Topbrokers.com
TransmissionRepairShops.com 500
VCguys.com
VehicleRecord.com 200
VisualVoicemails.com
WhatTheF.com 200
WorkingOvertime.com 200

CLEANEST.COM 5000
MESSIEST.COM 500

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

61 COMMENTS

  1. “I decided to take some time to enjoy my trip to Las Vegas (blackjack and the pool) instead of sitting an a domain auction. Sorry, that this upset some, but that’s life.”

    You touched on what is quite common.. The biggest negative about holding conventions in cities like Vegas is the city itself, Talk to most vendors at Trade conventions and they’ll tell you attendees spend a lot less time and focus at the convention compared to if it were held elsewhere.

    I go to about 3 conventions a year in Vegas and hear it all the time, I’ll be attending one in July is a matter a fact.

  2. “Over 50% of the listed names sold during the auction”
    and Rick said before the auction “70% of the list is NO RESERVE”

    So even no reserve names didn’t sell . . . ugh

  3. @ Elliot

    At the Hard Rock Hotel-Casino pool you can actually play Blackjack while sitting on a stool in the pool.

  4. movietheater.com and movietheatre.com didn’t sell in the 2011 traffic auction with a high bid of $45,000. High bid today of $28,000 and possibly a sale at this price. Is this a gauge of domain values?

    • I don’t think that was the issue. This list was heavily marketed more than any other traffic auction list. So there was plenty of time for bidders to register for these names.

    • Oh please, this list was posted all over the net. Every major domain blog posted this list and then reposted it again as the final list and then reposted it again as the final list with reserves and then reposted it again as what estibot thinks its worth and then reposted again and again and again. This list was passed around more than the office hooker at a christmas party.

    • I said Marketed not Marketing. There is a clear difference. Marketed is offering something up to be sold and Marketing is a combination of advertising, packaging etc……. but regardless you know exactly what I was talking about but hey remember I’m just part of the peanut gallery Adam Strong.

    • Was there end user outreach, or are you referring to promotion on domain focused websites?

      Do you think domain owners should do the marketing or the auction house? My feeling is both are responsible.

      Did it happen? I have no idea because I wasn’t an end user target for any of those names.

    • Heavily marketed . . . so it was offered to be sold heavily ?
      Regardless of your semantical meaning, I don’t find that there is a whole lot of effort put forward in any auction. The final list was released a day before the auction. I’m sure the promoters can argue with that method you build up anticipation or whatever. All said and done, we both agree that the auction sucked, the domains sucked and I think the “marketed” sucked. Par for course.

    • The Traffic auction never has targeted the end user. They have always been Domainer focused so if my target market is a Domainer and the list is seen multiple times on TheDomains.com, Elliotsblog.com, other domain blogs and the forums than I believe you have succeeded in hitting your target market 100%. If someone doesn’t read one of the above than they clearly are not a domainer and have no clue what a traffic auction is anyway. This list was released weeks before the auction and talked about in small snippets all over every single domain blog in tons of different posts. Yes they released the “Final” list a day before but thats just a promotional stunt even thought the list was no different from the one weeks earlier. We agree the auction could have been better and maybe using the word “heavily” was a bit much but at least it sparked a good conversation.
      Rick receives lots of names for the auction so maybe he should compile a complete list for the upcoming auction in Florida and pass that list around to some of you broker guys and bloggers and possibly put the list on his own site and have us give our own opinions and possibly vote. I bet if he does that he will have a much better list and make some decent sales.

    • When I had a name in auction at TRAFFIC (sold for $20,000), I email end user buyers to let them know about the auction. Whether that was suppose to be my job or not, I wasn’t going to rely on someone else to market my domain name. A $10,000 lower price would have been a $1.5k (or something like that) impact on them, but a $8-10k impact on me.

      Aside from that, there are plenty of people in this business who don’t read my blog daily. I was busting my friend Lonnie’s chops when I mentioned the Boston domain investor meetup to him, and he didn’t have a clue what I was talking about.

      Yeah, I do think blogs have considerable reach within the domain business, but there are way more active buyers than only those who read blogs.

    • One other thing to keep in mind is that Mike and Andrew have 3-5+ posts per day, and one post may get lost if it’s not seen immediately. I have 1-2 posts per day, and the same thing applies. If one or all of us post an auction list at an inopportune time, it might get missed by many.

    • I do agree not to leave the sale in the hands of the auction house. More bidders the better. Without online bidding I seriously doubt any end user will pick up the phone and call to bid on a name. Do you know if the buyer was an end user or domainer?
      I agree there are more active buyers than you are reaching but as a whole between all the blogs and forums combined that you are reaching a considerable amount. Maybe 100% is extreme but everyone who has ever been a part of the domaining world knows about the TRAFFIC auctions from the past and I am sure follow up to see what the list is for every auction even if they have to go to Ricks blog to find the list themselves. So I am sure the majority do see the list in one way or the other.
      Since Lonnie is your buddy he probably doesn’t read your blog because he thinks your full of shit. LOL Just messing with you Elliot.

    • I buy names every day, and if it wasn’t for my blog, I wouldn’t follow auctions closely unless someone emailed me about a specific domain name. I hate buying at live auctions, and I’d rather read about them in the sales report considering their current state.

      IMO, there’s little confidence in live auctions these days for many reasons, and this bring lower quality domain names (or good names with high reserves) to the auctions.

  5. The ultimate paradox —

    Rick, the preeminent salesman, but a pigeon $hit peddler at his well-respected TRAFFIC conference.

    Monte, where are you?

    Mr. Cahn, the Silent King….

  6. The problem is that Rick does not want to take into account that his auctions one by one are disasters. I have seen a few recent (the last one I have not seen because I expected that..).
    The guy really should retire and thanks God for luck with registering a few decent .com`s decades ago when he did not have almost any competition.

    • Disagree. I might not always agree with Rick’s approach to things, but he didn’t just register “a few decent .com`s decades ago.” Not only are many of his acquisitions aftermarket purchases in the last decade, but he’s had to say no to many $xx,xxx and $xxx,xxx offers to achieve maximum value. There were plenty of others who acquired domain names at the same time as Rick, but Rick was one of the few to realize how much domain names would be worth in the future.

  7. TRAFFIC auctions just aren’t what they were 10 years ago, Premium domain holders have gotten smarter and buyers have gotten stingier, and the end result is a lot of crappy domains and low priced sales.

    The unfortunate part about it all is, those who didn’t sell their names, now have them plastered all over the internet on forums and blogs, what do you think that’s going to do to the value? or when a potential end user Googles it and sees the price?, good luck negotiating when that happens.

  8. Does somebody have some explanation on what is happening to the domaining industry ? Is it because of new gTlds coming ? Because of domain replacement by Apps ? Because of something else ? What can we expect for the future ? Recovery ? Stability ? Collapse ?

  9. lackluster results because domain investors have not been buying domains for MANY years now.

    Mostly end users buying that ONE domain they want and that’s it.

    Get used to it.

    SELL when an end user (or buyer broker) makes you an offer.

    Domain owners cannot be greedy. They (we) will die with our domains if they are not sold when an opportunity presents itself.

  10. “SELL when an end user (or buyer broker) makes you an offer”
    says the buyers broker 🙂 I can’t blame you. A for effort Rob

    • Most domains in a portfolio lie dormat with little traffic, revenue or inquiries.

      We know they have value to the right person and sometimes to the right people but I’ve seen it many times, domains expire after I have made good offers or they still sit MANY years after making a good offer.

  11. I do not think Traffic results like that helps anyone. It only puts domainers in worse situation. The auction only showed horrible prices. You can expect guys who will want to buy a domain from you for pennies basing their offers on TRAFFIC results.

  12. I do not think Traffic results like that helps anyone. It only puts domainers in worse situation. The auction only showed horrible prices. You can expect guys who will want to buy a domain from you for pennies basing their offers on TRAFFIC results. And this is not the first Traffic auction with results like that, check any recent ones.

  13. I had more success at selling in DRT’s live auctions than Moniker and some were the same domains… Sold 4 domains in one auction alone, But to be fair, DRT accepted a lot more of my names, where as Moniker accepted far less because I refused to lower my reserves to ridiculously low amounts… Were talking fire sale prices.

  14. I’m not knocking the conference itself or the list of names or the sales or whatever, but aside from the auctions (which may or may not be successful), what is the real value of attending the conferences anyway?

    Considering this is an on-line, 24/7 business does one really have to attend a conference to “network”? Seems like there’s a conference every other month, but I don’t see a lot coming out of them.

    Or is this just an excuse for a bunch of people to get together for a tax deductible vacation? Not that there’s anything wrong with that, if that’s the case then I’m jealous 🙂

    • I am working on a post with some info about that.

      In short, it’s a good chance to speak directly with account reps to discuss issues and opportunities. It’s also nice to speak 1 on 1 with other domain investors I respect that I don’t speak with on any type of regular basis. As a blogger, it’s also a good chance to say “thanks” in person to sponsors and meet potential advertisers.

      I finished one deal with Domain Holdings (a purchase) and have generated some new leads on other domain names. Just awaiting the final legal review on a contract right now.

      You don’t have to go to a domain conference if you’re a domain investor, but I recommend going if you can afford it.

    • Thanks Elliot, can’t wait to read your post.

      I see someone in your position (blogger, big name player) getting value out of it, but I’m just wondering about the small to mid range investors.

  15. @AB

    “does one really have to attend a conference to “network”?”

    Not really, but it helps tremendously when you meet face to face at ANY conference, Buying the right person a drink can go a long way, Patronize a player and he’ll let you park your names for below the minimum, or if you kiss his ass good enough he’ll give you your own subforum to peddle your blog, Connecting with the right person is the pay off, and it’s Ricks strongest selling point for attending.

    The auctions are just window dressing, I myself like going to conferences where I can LEARN and maybe get better pricing on services in the process, otherwise it’s just a trip to mingle with a bunch of arrogant domainers and party.

  16. @Elliot.. Yes, the arrogance is clearly in the minority, not the majority, but all it takes is a handful to give you the feeling your in the wrong room or on another planet.. And Yes again, I attended a conference long ago and met Rick and many others, took plenty of notes too, A lot of what Rick, Monte and others said had value, and a lot turned me off… And that’s what usually ruins it for me.. I get more out of the trade conventions, where you meet a lot of down to earth people who are really into what their doing, and doesn’t cost a arm and a leg.

    Besides, I have a couple friends who I network with locally and were both making money through development, SEO and domain sales, and I didn’t have to attend a conference to find them.

    • Fair enough, and I respect your opinion. I also agree that arrogance can be a turn off, and I’d rather do business with people I like when all else is equa.

      Often I see people posting things based on third party information, and I don’t think that’s fair.

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