Broker Wanted for Premium Domain Sale

[DutchBoyd]

Not sure about the best place to post this thread, so I figured here would work.

The domain is UniversityPokerTour.com. I have two somewhat smaller end-users engaged in a bidding war for this seemingly unattractive domain name. I threw out a highball BIN price of $15k to both of them and offered to push it to sedo for a fraction of it. They both have already offered mid $x,xxx for the name, but I decided to take my chances and push it to sedo with a $2k bid. It's a category killer of a niche business model that several companies are already in and could appeal to large companies outside of poker. My hope is that two of the 800 lb gorillas will get in a fight over it and pay off my mortgage in an un-precedented sale (anyone check out all-in.com this week on sedo? craziness.).

I'd like to hire someone who is capable of putting together email lists and contacting potential end-users for the domain. Ideally, you'd be able to extract whois email data from a very large list of similar domain names... I have a list of every .com containing the word "poker" an can easily get lists of all domain names containing a certain keyword. But my tools aren't as good at automatically picking out the whois information. And I have no clue about actually mass-emailing people. Everytime I've done this process myself, it's taken ages and ages sending out ten or so emails at a time.

Additionally, it would be cool if you had a list of domain buyers and marketing people in some of the bigger 500-type companies. I could definitely see some marketing guy in a company like Michelob Ultra or PizzaHut or Apple getting excited about the idea of sponsoring a university poker tour...

I'd be willing to pay either by the hour or give you a percentage fee of the final sale price provided the winner of the auction doesn't end up being one of the two end-users I have already lined up. I've got a long port of 4,000 names that I'm trimming, so any help with this deal will definitely lead to more brokering opportunites.


Cheers,
Dutch Boyd

 

[Jeff]

Link: http://universitypokertour.net :gl:

-Jeff

 

[theparamount]

By the look of that site it doesn't look like they would be willing to pay more than X,XXX for the .com extension.

 

[Compassion]

By the look of that site it doesn't look like they would be willing to pay more than X,XXX for the .com extension.

Agreed - this is a free poker tour...


Dutch - I'd say sell for high x,xxx and if possible more, but it may not be possible to squeeze much beyond that unless one of the interested people has a massive budget and this is the exact name they want.


Your two interested "somewhat smaller end users" - have they revealed to you their intentions?


It could be a national campaign of free tournaments that give away prizes, but I of course don't know what is being planned for this .com

 

[DutchBoyd]

Link: http://universitypokertour.net :gl:

-Jeff

Yeah, I saw that one... it's taken in a number of other extensions as well... .co.uk, .cn and italianupt.com is starting to get legs in europe. There are a ton of potential end-users for this one.

-Dutch

 

[Compassion]

Yeah, I saw that one... it's taken in a number of other extensions as well... .co.uk, .cn and italianupt.com is starting to get legs in europe. There are a ton of potential end-users for this one.

-Dutch

Agreed, but the issue I see coming up is how could there be a "University Poker Tour" with substantial buyins/coverage?

Seems that most tournaments of this sort or free or very close to it as to avoid any hassle ...

maybe I'm missing some piece of info, but $5k to $10k seems wonderful.

Of course if there is fabulous revenue and decent traffic -that may also increase the value..

 

[DutchBoyd]

I'm definitely with you, tight-aggressive... UniversityPokerTour.net isn't making any money. It's a free league run in two bars in Tennessee. And the obvious business model for the site would be a FREE poker league.

However... a free poker league COULD be a big money generator if done properly. Television, ads/sponsorship, vertical sales like t-shirts, etc. But more likely, a company who already has a cash-cow like PokerStars.com or an unrelated product they want to market, like Michelob Ultra, could easily already be working on a project like this... using it as a marketing effort and not to directly make money from the university poker tour.

"Play for free. Win a $50,000 scholarship and other big prizes at UniversityPokerTour.com, brought to you by CoEd Magazine and Trojan Condoms."

Also, for what it's worth... if it weren't for the fact that TWO hot buyers approached me on the same day, I wouldn't have ever put the value of this domain name anywhere close to mid $x,xxx. It doesn't get traffic or parking revenue. But those variables aren't important to an end-user who has already spent countless hours of thought time on a project with a certain name in their head, and has maybe already pitched it to a few people...

 

[Compassion]

I'm definitely with you, tight-aggressive... UniversityPokerTour.net isn't making any money. It's a free league run in two bars in Tennessee. And the obvious business model for the site would be a FREE poker league.

However... a free poker league COULD be a big money generator if done properly. Television, ads/sponsorship, vertical sales like t-shirts, etc. But more likely, a company who already has a cash-cow like PokerStars.com or an unrelated product they want to market, like Michelob Ultra, could easily already be working on a project like this... using it as a marketing effort and not to directly make money from the university poker tour.

"Play for free. Win a $50,000 scholarship and other big prizes at UniversityPokerTour.com, brought to you by CoEd Magazine and Trojan Condoms."



Also, for what it's worth... if it weren't for the fact that TWO hot buyers approached me on the same day, I wouldn't have ever put the value of this domain name anywhere close to mid $x,xxx. It doesn't get traffic or parking revenue. But those variables aren't important to an end-user who has already spent countless hours of thought time on a project with a certain name in their head, and has maybe already pitched it to a few people...

Wow, something is up if two people came to you in the same day.

For what it's worth I had that happen with a name I ended up selling for 5k, likely I could have held it for longer but one of the interested parties did not want to beat the 5k offer.


There is potential with massive coordination and funding for a project like what you describe above...

Still 5 to 10k right now to the highest bidder seems like a great deal and I am assuming you hand registered this name..



Domain names are potential in one of its purest forms...seems like someone or some group has a plan for a "University Poker Tour"

The scholarship idea is provocative to consider..

 

[Name Trader]

You say you've already pushed it to auction at Sedo. Are you going to renege on that?

 

[DutchBoyd]

Yes. It's reneged. It's not pushed to auction yet. They are both foreign and have to go through a longer process to certify and bid... which has brought up a real kink in my plan. My new plan is to push it to eBay I'm already talking with Rob/DomainBroker to do some brokering work and he's willing to dedicate some time this week to lining up some other potential end-users. I could still use help, though...

Specifically, I would like someone who can automatically gather emails out of a large domain list I give you and efficiently send mass amounts of customized emails that look like individually tailored proposals. Second, I would like someone to someone who has a large working email list at their disposal of decision makers at the big generic companies like Toyota, PepsiCo, FritoLay, NBA, WWE, etc. and possibly some personal connections with potential end-users at that high a buying level.

Dutch

 

[Dotplanners]

UniversityPokerTour.com

Yes. It's reneged. It's not pushed to auction yet. They are both foreign and have to go through a longer process to certify and bid... which has brought up a real kink in my plan. My new plan is to push it to eBay I'm already talking with Rob/DomainBroker to do some brokering work and he's willing to dedicate some time this week to lining up some other potential end-users. I could still use help, though...

Specifically, I would like someone who can automatically gather emails out of a large domain list I give you and efficiently send mass amounts of customized emails that look like individually tailored proposals. Second, I would like someone to someone who has a large working email list at their disposal of decision makers at the big generic companies like Toyota, PepsiCo, FritoLay, NBA, WWE, etc. and possibly some personal connections with potential end-users at that high a buying level.

Dutch

Hi Dutch,

Professional guidance for free, here. You have mid range X,xxx offers on this domain? Take it. Then buy a domain name with a more simple promotional schedule, because the UPT idea will be a long hard road to travel, on top of trying to sell it, on top of trying to recoup your labor and costs from just a slight uptick on your domain's overall value. $5,000 is a great domain price. You can use that money to buy a domain with easier "rebuild and market approach" potential. The UPT idea sounds like a long involved process. You're even asking for the broker to have inside connections with Godzilla corporate firms like beer and soda companies. Yipes.

This domain you have, to make it happen where your time, money and labor is given back fairly for your ROI, needs another $50k to promote and follow through. I was in this very same position in 2001, and spent $300,000 to try and build out and promote a college oriented portal. You don't want to get caught up in this. You want to sell the domain, use the money to get a great domain like "AutoGuitarTuner.com" for $750, and build out a simple website that will capture the online market for this popular product. Heck, buy the domain, spend $2000 in building out the site, set up some CPA's on it, park it with WhyPark.com to get original content and SEO work, and then control this product sales online. Keep the other $2000 to renew your other domains.

Don't try to build out an idea and spend money convincing them your idea is king, unless you have a lot of money to waste. Sell smart, buy smart, build smart.

Hope this helps, and good luck to you!

 

[DutchBoyd]

Hey Stephen,

Your post made me decide to just sell it rather than risk losing the sale and alienating the buyers by starting an auction. $5k. Couldn't be happier. Thanks for the advice, man.

Dutch

 

[Compassion]

Hey Stephen,

Your post made me decide to just sell it rather than risk losing the sale and alienating the buyers by starting an auction. $5k. Couldn't be happier. Thanks for the advice, man.

Dutch

good choice :tu:

 

[Jeff]

Dotplanners

^ Good stuff! :gl: :tu: :imho:

Congrats!
-Jeff

 

[cogger]

This post reminds me to get off my a$$ and to develop Poker On Tour.com, I have been tossing and turning ideas for a while and trying to hook up with that 800lb gorilla also. What a good name going to waste. In the end I may do a only a portal with some ideas brewing.

Any thoughts?

 

[DutchBoyd]

PokerOnTour.com seems like a great name to develop to get ranked for the term "Poker Tour", which is a great term to have a little hold on.

Dutch

 

[Robbie]

PM sent

 

[cogger]

PokerOnTour.com seems like a great name to develop to get ranked for the term "Poker Tour", which is a great term to have a little hold on.

Dutch

Ya, next step is just time and planning. Also sitting in my dark closet is "High Stakes Poker Tour.com"