discuss NamesCon 2020 - A good place to list premium names?

Crypto King said:

would provide great exposure

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Hardly any greater than listing here, the same crowd.

Crypto King said:

If turnout and bidding activity is low, leading to low high bids, could this portray a premium domain in a negative light?

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If you plan to list at the wholesale level, it of course can. What kind of buyer is going to take XXXXXXX price seriously if with little research they find you were ready to let it go for 1/10 of that?

Not that I ever owned any AAA-domains, but if someday I manage to get my hands on one, I'll wait patiently for the right end-user buyer. No resellers parties.

Don Gondon said:

Hardly any greater than listing here, the same crowd.

If you plan to list at the wholesale level, it of course can. What kind of buyer is going to take XXXXXXX price seriously if with little research they find you were ready to let it go for 1/10 of that?

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Thanks Don, this is why I am reluctant to list. However, there have been some big sales as per this auctions report https://www.namepros.com/blog/the-n...results-including-ol-com-for-900-000.1121055/

I think it really depends on the names. To be honest I think some of the biggest sales you've mentioned actually aren't that spectacular. Super.com for 1.2M and OL.com of 900K were just about liquid wholesale value if you ask me. Particularly after you subtract the 25% commission.

The other factor to consider is the relocation to Austin instead of Vegas. I was looking forward to a NamesCon/Vegas combination .. but now I'm not so sure. There is the online portion of the auction .. but that has been hit and miss.

There definitely are buyers ... and if it's a good domain it should at least get on the higher range of wholesale.

They do do end-user outbound leading up to the auction .. but .. again .. depends on the domain. And there is no guaranteed outbound and no guaranteed results.

If you are going to do it .. then do it early to take advantage of getting as much publicity as possible.

Also note that there isn't even a guarantee your domain will be featured in the main auction. In prevous years they removed names to the online portion only because they only have X amount of time for the auction.

After the auction is over they still have rights to the 25% commission on your name for X months (3 I think, but not 100% on that).

I pointed out the pitfalls and might have given a negative impression overall .. but there definitely have been good sales .. if you are going to list a very good domain, then I most definitely would not take general feedback here, because you really should look back at previous auctions to focus on domains most like the ones you want to list. See if they go for well above wholesale/liquid value or not. The answer will not be the same for all types of domains .. so don't listen to broad advice here at NamePros based on the overall auction.


NOTE: My comments are based on my memories of the terms from previous years .. which might not be 100% accurate .. and also might have been changed for this year's NamesCon.

Hey Ategy,

You say don't listen to the advice of those on Namepros but I think made you some great points there so I will definitely be taking those into consideration.

After the auction is over they still have rights to the 25% commission on your name for X months (3 I think, but not 100% on that).

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If that is true there I am definitely NOT listing. My intention would be to list only for the auction and not to go into a brokerage agreement for 3 months - there are much better options for brokerage! If they tie you in for 3 months afterwards then that is very cheeky and most probably hidden in the small print - will be checking for that clause.

The other factor to consider is the relocation to Austin instead of Vegas. I was looking forward to a NamesCon/Vegas combination .. but now I'm not so sure. There is the online portion of the auction .. but that has been hit and miss.

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Yes I agree, Vegas feels like a better location and bring more excitement to the overall event and the auction itself. However, maybe it is cheaper to stay in Austin so who knows, it may actually attract more attendees. In regards to the online auction, I remember joining the last NamesCon Global auction through the AuctionEar app (I think that's what it was called) and the service was terrible and often cut out. Did you notice the same with NamesCon Europe?

Thanks!

If someone is worried about spending a little money in Vegas, they're probably not the best buyer for high end domains.


My experience was a few years ago, so they may have improved since then.

The interface was horrible. When they selected names for their Live Auction, it wasn't clear that they had been selected. I had people tell me they thought the auction had ended.

It was mostly investors. All the domains I sold, basically sold at investor pricing. My fault for not having reserves on everything. Thankfully I did on the better names. I checked them after the sale and there were mostly for sale pages. The only one I remember that had an actual website was an end user I told about the auction.

They wanted your leads / people that contacted you about the domains. I had already emailed them about the auctions, so I didn't feel the need to have them contacted again. Monte REALLY didn't like that. But because of a mistake in the language of the contract at the time, it was optional. So there was nothing he could do when I said no.

Wholesalers markets it is better to post upcoming technology niches that can't wait out. It would be beneficial to find particular niche resellers that have had success with industries for wholesale not so much brokerage. Or for sellers to thin out their herds or names. Good for the quick flippers.

I'm chime in just to say that I typically buy domains at the live auction that I would not buy other times. Participating in the live auction creates a sense of urgency for me as a buyer.

As far as listing, I've submitted a few domains, but they've never been selected. I likely wouldn't bring a marquee domain to that auction at 25%.

You say "premium" - in domain terms that has multiple possible meanings, if you mean a premium-paid-to-registry type domain, AFAICR in previous years they've been specifically excluded (i.e. it must renew/transer at normal pricing)

Having sent domains to be listed, those selected go online, and from those a small subset are available at the live auction (which didn't include any of mine), with bids online for those picked-for-live taken before, online and at the event, and for those just accepted but not in the live event (and those which dont make reserve) online for some time afterwards, with a fair number selling at min-bid levels

Yes, the agreement is to pay the commission for 3 months, and includes selling it outside of the platform as well.

The auctioneer is great - I found his book hard to agree with, but I did like the guy

draco said:

It was mostly investors.

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draco said:

All the domains I sold, basically sold at investor pricing. My fault for not having reserves on everything.

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^ exactly that

Especially with the in-room sales, essentially NC is really for domainers - and so it's investors buying at investor pricing.

If you don't decide to list at the auction, would you be open to using a broker and escrow? I know a really great broker.