http://www.ricklatona.com/2008/07/17/go-big-or-go-home-ricklatonacom-is-now-in-the-live-auction-business/

Domain reseller Rick Latona today broke the news about him doing a live domain auction at the upcoming T.R.A.F.F.I.C. domain conference in New York in September. This makes him the third auctioneer to be privileged to sell domains at the prestigious domain event.

The two other domain auction houses known to date are Moniker and Thought Convergence (TrafficZ). I think it’s likely that Sedo/GreatDomains will be another broker having a live auction there, but this hasn’t been confirmed yet. As I wrote earlier this week, Rick Schwartz has announced that there will be a total of five live domain auctions held by different companies.

Rick Latona has been a very active buyer and seller of domain names for years and he sends out a successful domain sales newsletter to interested buyers. He has been the seller of some valuable domains, including EdistoBeach.com ($115,000), Jake.com ($100,000), FollyBeach.com ($98,000), Trusts.com ($75,000), HTTPS.com ($50,000), RaceTracks.com ($49,000), ChristChurch.com ($45,000), JP.net ($25,000) and many others.

Rick Schwartz, co-founder and organizer of the popular T.R.A.F.F.I.C. domain conferences, has recently made an announcement that there will be multiple live domain name auctions held at the upcoming TRAFFIC conference in New York City in September.

In the past, it has only been Moniker providing its auction services, but for the first time there will be some other auction houses selling domains in New York, too.

This is indeed, as Rick calls it, a “game changer”. Many domain sellers have complained about Moniker having unfavorable broker agreements, exclusivity periods that were too long (often longer than 100 days) and commissions that were too high. All this might be about to change, as other auction houses getting access to the exclusive TRAFFIC events will cause competition to go up, which in turn should be an incentive for Moniker to reconsider the terms of its aftermarket services.

From Rick’s blog:

As is stands now we believe there will be up to 5 different auction companies holding live domain auctions in New York City in September. Moniker will continue to be the “Premiere” auction at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. as they have been. As you might imagine, this was not an easy decision. Monte and his crew have done a great service to us all over the years. Just sometimes what is good for one company may not be in the best interest of an entire industry. So kudos to Moniker for doing what others would not do when none of us knew the outcome.

Last year the New York TRAFFIC show produced a record breaking $15M in auction sales. I believe that is more than all other live domain auctions at other shows combined for both 2007 and 2008!! We have the right location at the right time with the best domain audience. Including other auction houses will be effective, good for the growth of the industry, make things very exciting and open things up that will create lots of energy. Like I said, this is a game changer and we are all big winners. More info will be released soon.

Most of the domain auctions held this year haven’t been as much of a success as the auctions of 2007. I think that is in part because of the slowdown in the overall economy and because of the increase in energy prices and living expenses. Buyers have become more careful about spending their money in the right places.

The decision to feature more than one domain auction could keep buyers excited at the conference by offering higher diversity and more domains to choose from. Although this doesn’t guarantee successful domain auctions, innovation is always good and I hope this change will ultimately help the TRAFFIC conferences and the domain aftermarket to grow.

There are still lots of opportunities in the domain space. I’ve said this more than once before. A few days ago I received an email from the guys at HappyBirthdayDomains.com, asking for my opinion on their new project.

On their website, they list hundreds of branded domain names that users can lease to put happy birthday greetings on. Each of the domains includes a first name, so that you can, for example, create a special greeting page for your friend Brad on HappyBirthdayBrad.com.

This certainly is an interesting idea for making money off domain names. Lots of promotion has to be done to get the word out, but once more people know about this service it might eventually take off. In any case, this is a good example showing that by being creative you can find different ways of monetizing your domain portfolio in times of falling PPC revenues.

I posted this on a private domain board today, but I thought I should make a short post about it on my blog, too. Since ICANN has decided to open up the TLD space, I’ve been asking myself this question:

If a company (e.g. Nike) is offered Shoes.com and .SHOES, which will it choose?

It is the answer to that question that could determine the aftermarket value of generic .com domains in the future.

Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K., he knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning, he was arrested. - The Trial, Franz Kafka

George Kirikos has always done an excellent job spotting potential dangers for the domain community. Now he has found a new request by Afilias for a registry service relating to the “abusive” use of .info domain names. DotInfo has been a popular top-level domain with spammers, because the .info annual registration fee has usually been lower than the renewal fee of other TLDs.

Although the policy request has been made with good intentions, it might also embody a danger for upright domain registrants, as George points out:

… While most folks (including myself) probably care very little about the .info TLD, my concern is that any bad implementation in .info might be copied or used as a precedent in other more important TLDs, in particular .com run by VeriSign.

In particular:

Pursuant to Section 3.6.5 of the RRA, Afilias reserves the right to deny, cancel or transfer any registration or transaction, or place any domain name(s) on registry lock, hold or similar status, that it deems necessary, in its discretion;…

I would be against giving VeriSign (if the model was copied to .com) that discretionary power over my company’s domains, especially the “right to cancel.” What exactly is “illegal”? In China, I’m sure there are many things that are illegal that are perfectly legal in Canada, the USA or the EU. …

This is, in fact, a very dangerous clause, because it would give the registry the uncontrolled right to take domains away from their owners. If the policy is accepted by ICANN, it will dramatically curtail the rights of domain holders. The domain registries already have too much power and a monopoly that allows them to virtually set prices as they wish, but the policy proposed by Afilias would only make things worse, and it would make investing in the domain industry a very risky undertaking many outside investors would shrink away from.

Click here to find out how to submit public comments on this issue to ICANN.

(via CircleID)