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
