I received this email from NetFleet yesterday:

So what does everyone think?

I think this is great news for all us domain owners who are looking to offload a few domains to generate some cashflow to reinvest into development.

Though I must admit this leaves me wondering how far away is drop from offering something similar, given that I assume drop has more bidding members which is generally going to mean higher bid prices?

At the moment i think static sales are a better method , i think it's a buyers market more than a sellers market unless a real primo name, i just think only 'so many buyers' out there at the moment

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The problem with listing style sales or direct contact is that it's an exhausting process.

From my perspective, say I have a domain that I think "fair value" is around $1000 that I don't envisage I'll get time to develop in the near future. Listing it for sale, contact prospective buyers, then negotiating with different potential buyers, often needing to explain the value of a domain to different buyers etc etc can literally take up dozens of hours, and often you're left still unable to find a buyer.

(LOL ironically the difficultly of selling quality domain names just makes developing them more attractive)

So when all this is considered I'd happily list a domain up for sale via auction with a reasonable reserve for something in the mid $XXX price range rather than the $1000 you might get selling it privately.

Plus you can still go out and email people you think would/should be interested and then just let good old fashioned supply and demand economics take care of the rest.

Also auctions have the added benefit of speed. Private sales can take months.

G'day mate
Drop have been doing aftermarket auctions from time to time for about a year
Quick links history on their site, shows what they sold
Don't know why there are no current aftermarket auctions at the moment
Why you think drop would acheive higher prices?
It is very difficult to sell any domain, at any price, on any platform, using any method, so don't worry too much about acheiving high prices
Contacting small businesses appears to be the only consistent method of selling names for a good price
Nevertheless , I am a seller and a bidder on netfleet's auctions and encourage everyone to buy and sell at the netfleet auctions
It sure beats registering bulk dud names

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Joes.com.au

But can private sellers list there domains for sale or are they domains from fabulous's portfolio?


The same reason they do better in the expired market. There system seems a bit more refined, plus they seem to have a lot more members these days (of course this is just me speculating).

I'd actually really love to know exactly how many paying members both drop and netfleet have.

I was actually hoping that with organised and regular domain auctions rather than negotiate with businesses all you'd have to do is alert them that the domain is going up for sale. You'd only need 2 or 3 businesses to rock up and willing to bid to get a good price I'd imagine.

CNCVenture - I tend to agree with you. I get poo poo-ed a bit in here for a combination of dumb comments and naevity (which is an explosive combination let me tell you) however I persist in being good at doing just that. Auctions provide a good platform for exposing names as well as selling them, and hence when exposed it increases the potential for them to be seen and then to sell them. I am purposely spelling this out because I alluded to this some months ago and was derided however I figure the proof is now in the pudding....... read on my good man.
With the thousands of names listed on netfleet it would be fair to say that there are a bunch of names that are well camouflaged and rarely see the light of day - and when they do it is by other domainers full stop. The spotlight section helps expose domains, I look there every time I log in as I figure most would, however it costs money to be in that window (one way or the other, cash or points earned and generously provided by Netfleet after you have spent cash) so there is a limit to how many domains you will put in the spotlight and how often.
Yes there is a cost involved in listing in an auction however an auction attracts attention merely because it is an auction - everyone of us will have a peek at an auction almost daily, sometimes just to be a sticky beak, which means there are hundreds (thousands ??) seeing a domain that otherwise may not be seen for ages after the initial inquisitive period shortly after being listed. Categorisation of names helps to a degree to look for a suitable name but as most would agree it has its limitations (on every site). Some categories have many, many, many listings and very few searchers will look at every page.
Auctions will attract viewers other than members, and/or members who do not visit regularly but will have a look because of the email alert promotions about the auction.
And a critical aspect you raised - if you have some "potential" end users you can email them / phone them about certain a domain(s) that may be of interest.

To my mind it is positive action and can only be beneficial - to what extent it will assist in selling a given domain is in the laps of the domain gods but at least it will be in their laps and not under their chair out of sight.

Another bonus can be the clean out factor ......... if setting a low reserve still does not attract a buyer then it helps in the decision to allow the name to drop I suppose or to let it go at a fire sale price so you can register a better name ??

I am all for auctions, my time is very valuable so I figure I can list 20 names in an auction for $100 - that equals about 2-3 hours of time (ROI) - I will not be able to effectively do a sell job on one domain in 3 hours chasing prospects let alone 20. What I could do in 3 hours is find a bunch of prospects across 20 name categories and obtain email addresses and email them prior to and during the course of the auction. I agree with your comment that you only need 2 or 3 potentials and the bidding will be productive. If they don't show up then it has cost $5 and who knows, another domainer may want it and didn't know it existed (or situations have changed since last seen)

I think auctions have a lot of merit - in the last auction I listed 6 names ($30) and sold one for $590 ......... I can almost guarantee that the name that sold would have gathered dust until re-reg time (other than maybe me eventually finding a potential buyer after hours of dedicated time (which I can better spend doing other more profitable things) and effort.

I hope we do see auctions regularly, I will support them as I am sure most will.

cheers,
Mike

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Thanks Mike for your response.

Can I ask where you listed it those 6 domains for sale?

Regards
Joe
BTW Did you spend your money buying names or registering?

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Joes.com.au

Thanks.


My understanding was that listing your domain for sale at netfleet is free, but bidding via their domain snapper facility isn't.


I don't expect a simple email will do the trick - but I'm hoping at some point in the not to distant future (hopefully within 6 months) to streamline a sales message, hopefully in video format, that in 10 - 15 minutes can at least get businesses to the point where they realise they do stand to gain something from owning and developing domains.

That's the dream anyway.



Registering mainly. Though I have since bought a couple at drop.

Why?

Hi Guys,

At this point in time we are taking the opportunity to redevelop our Secondary Market Auction platform based on our previous performance and user feedback.

I’ll be sure to keep everyone up to date with developments.

Cheers

Andrew

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