In the same email, my salesperson was urging me to transfer my domain to Moniker prior to the auction. The idea is that this will allow them to Moniker any sale more quickly (I know from sad experience that it sometimes can take a week or so to transfer names from one registrar to another). That makes for a happy buyer (they get their domain more quickly) and a happy seller (who gets their money more quickly).
Moniker is willing to pay the transfer fees, and even if the domain doesn't sell, we'll get a free year of domain registration out of it. I like having all of my domains in one place, but I'm inclined to do it.
Thoughts? Has anyone had an unusually positive or negative experience doing something like this?
]]>Hope you enjoy,
Chris Crone
Round Table Group
Note: this post has teleported in from the future to get you on the right track.
]]>A few points very relevant to the situation of selling a domain like table.com:
Interesting to see that, while leatherfurniture.com didn't meet its reserve, it did get a bid of $175,000.
Perhaps the furniture market is good today! Knock on wood... :)
]]>I went out to pick up dinner when there were still about 30 items to go, there was a bit of a delay, and by the time I got back the table.com bit was done...
Luckily, they're showing the prices for the domains that were sold in near real time, so I'll know pretty soon whether it sold. Did anyone see the table.com bit of the auction, or happen to videotape it? (I am beholden to the time-shifting world of Tivo!) If so, let me know -- I'd love to hear about it. I feel like I may have left an important part of my life behind...
]]>
My domain sold for $260,000, the fifth highest amount, following computer.com ($2,200,000), investment.com ($900,000), sportinggoods.com ($450,000), cowboys.com ($275,000), though the latter didn't go through. Other domains selling for more than $100,000 included crosswordpuzzles.com ($210,000), criminallawyers.com ($195,000), promotion.com ($170,000), poker.mobi ($150,000), ringtones.mobi ($145,000), caribbeanvacations.com ($130,000), newlyweds.com ($130,000), singlesonline.com ($125,000), and news.mobi ($110,000). A very good bunch of domains.
I thought table.com might have been worth something like that, but didn't think I'd get more than about half that at an auction, so I'm quite happy.
]]>Here's a list of the domains and their sale prices, or the prices at which they were passed (as well as the reserve price) from The Big eDuh.com.
]]>The Conceptualist blog, in its article Moron of the Year Award on this topic, quotes T.R.A.F.F.I.C. co-founder Rick Schwartz confirming the breakdown. Says Schwartz, "You can't take your family to a football game for $275!!!"
Moniker then moved the domain into their ongoing silent auction where it was bought by an investment group for even more, $370,000.
]]>A quick summary of the process, in case you've never done this before...
In our case, Moniker is serving as escrow (included in their 15% fee). We transfer to the domain to Moniker. Moniker gets the money from the buyer. Moniker transfers the domain to the buyer, and the money to the seller (The choices include check, wire transfer, or even paypal!). Mostly, the process is very easy, but Moniker's Escrow & Transfer form is not well designed!
Most other auctions and agents offer escrow services, as well, though it's certainly possible to arrange a deal without an escrow agent, or to engage escrow services separately.
For our part, we needed to unlock the domain and get an EPP (authorization) code from the current registrar, and send that information to Moniker so they could request the transfer. I could not figure out how to unlock domains online at networksolutions.com (though there was lots of information about how to transfer a domain to NS!), but it only took a couple of minutes on the telephone. Remember that there are lot of protective checks built-in. You'll have to confirm the transfer by clicking on links in at least one email, and there will be a five day waiting period, as well. During this waiting period, as I once discovered while moving one of my domains between registrars earlier this year, you can't change DNS servers or anything, so make sure everything is good before you ok the transfer!
]]>The table.com domain has been successfully transferred to Moniker's escrow (it took about 5 days to transfer) for a couple of days, but doesn't seem to have moved on yet, nor have we been paid yet.
]]>Congratuations Xedoc on your new acquisition!