Auction Results and Final Thoughts - NYC 2008
September 26, 2008 by Rick Latona
It’s time to leave New York and go home. Overall, I think it was a very successful show. I cut a lot of deals, developed and strengthened strategic relationships and had a good time. Before I go on I’d like to say, thank you to everyone who voted for me as Domainer of the Year. That’s an incredible honor to be voted for by your peers and I’m grateful.
On the auction front, while we didn’t put up huge numbers, we put up bigger numbers than two of the other auctions. And at $700,100 in sales, we averaged the same amount per lot as Moniker’s premium auction, more or less. I’ve spent the last few days analyzing what we did right and what we did wrong and below are my thoughts.
Those that I do a lot of business know that most of the names that I own I am willing to sell at small margins. That’s my business model. I do a lot of sales because I’m not greedy. Anyway, back to the point. I think the first thing I did right was I brought inventory priced low enough that we got sales on a day the sky was falling in New York.
I think we picked the right auctioneer and spotters. Most people were entertained by them. I did make one major mistake with them. I didn’t stress to them that the buyers were internet professionals and needed clarity. When they first started they would say “sold” when it wasn’t really sold to keep momentum going. I put a stop to that right away. The thought of correcting blogs and confusing sellers and buyers was horrible. Don’t blame them though. That was just habit for them. Our next auction will start at exact reserve prices and it’ll be obvious what sells and doesn’t. I pledge to you transparency. After the first 10 lots or so, the auctioneer was straight up, by the way. Matt Lowery is great and will stay with us and we both apologize for any confusion.
Another mistake I made was I wasn’t myself on the stage. I didn’t know if I should smile or frown or talk or what so I sat there doing nothing. I like to think I have a dynamic personality when I want to and I should have just relaxed and done my thing. I know selling domains as good as anyone so what was there to doubt? I guess I was afraid to smile because I was worried the audience would not bid if I looked like I was happy about making money. On hindsight, that’s ludicrous. They know if they want the name or not and most of them are learning or will learn that I don’t need to make a lot of money on the name. My goal is to sell the most names. I just need to prove that.
We tested our online software and we loaded the data but we never tested it with the data. Shame on us. This isn’t my first rodeo. I’m not sure how that slipped through the cracks. You could see the html tags in the lot descriptions. That was embarrassing. Other than that, the software worked great and their onsite staff handled the situation.
Thank you to everyone involved. I had an awesome team! The official auction results are below:
Domain Name Price
MCC.com $195,000
CountryClubs.com $85,000
EFS.com $55,000
NAP.com $47,500
Lisbon.net $32,000
Spreadsheets.com $25,000
423.com $25,000
PER.com $20,000
LotteryNumbers.com $20,000
SecurityAlarms.com $18,000
PublicAuctions.com $17,000
TruckRims.com $16,000
ComputerBatteries.com $14,000
Wines.net $13,000
BabyAnnouncements.com $13,000
PreOwnedJets.com/PreOwnedJet.com $12,500
Sugarless.com $12,000
RentalCondos.com $11,500
11.net $10,000
OneHourPhoto.com $7,000
GolfClubRepair.com $6,500
BreastExamination.com $6,000
Microbrewers.com $6,000
PrinceEdward.com $4,100
Monopolies.com $4,000
ModelSchools.com $4,000
FrenchPerfumes.com $4,000
HighFidelity.com $4,000
Coeds.net $3,000
PostOfficeBox.com $2,500
StockBuying.com $2,300
StockOrders.com $1,500
ForexTickers.com $1,100
SecondaryLending.com $800
ForexTicker.com $800
StockShare.com $400
StockShares.com $300
StockOrder.com $300
MufflerRepairs.com
ResearchLab.com & ResearchLabs.com
Atriums.com
CustomBoots.com
TheBronx.net
GolfClothing.com
GolfJackets.com
DayTraders.com
GayLawyers.com
Cyberspace.com
OilandLube.com
Cognacs.com
CatFood.com
Rhodes.com
Schnapps.com
DefenseAttorneys.com
BrooklynLawyers.com
Chew.com
CR.com
BlackEntrepreneurs.com
Audit.com & Audits.com
Drugs.net
Autos.net
ND.net
GD.net
French.net
PaintContractors.com
Tasks.com
RugCleaning.com
GolfSweaters.com
Gas.info
ER.com
FinancialBrokers.com
BroadwayShows.com
SanJuan.com
Vino.com
GolfClubs.com
BlackEntrepreneur.com
CountryLakes.com
Total Sales: $700,100
Now it’s time to shut this laptop down and board a plan, go home and start preparing for the Australia show and many more exciting things to come.
P.S. Thank you Ron Jackson of dnjournal.com for use of the photo.
Did you think the sell prices matched your expectations? Which domains exceeded and which ones were lower. Would love to know your thoughts here
Rick,
“AWESOME” is the word that comes to my mind
CONGRATULATIONS !!
Is there any cutoff date for submissions to the upcoming Australia Show.
Rick, will you try to acquire RL.com to match your new company logo?
Rick - I enjoyed being at your auction. One suggestion: both of the other auction groups had software that displayed the bid status on those large screens at the front of the room. With Matt’s high-speed auctioneer patter, it wasn’t always clear how much had been bid and was being asked for, so I’d recommend that you have those figures clearly displayed in future auctions. Looking forward to bidding on more of your names then.
Instead of decide during auction to sell bellow reserve you should simply make reserves lower and you might end up with more money in the end. Because for example I make research long before auctions and if the reserve is too high after 1st round of research I do not include it in second serious research and into my head for thinking.
Rick…..I think you were right the first time. Don’t get up there and smile…… if I was bidding I would find that distracting and confusing a little as to why you are smiling so much.
Maybe most folks would not care, but it would interfere with my thought processes.
Congrats Rick!!
Great Auction!!
Sounds like it was a lot of fun. I have been buying domains on and off since the late 1990’s. I look forward to attending one of these upcoming domain auctions.
J.R.
Rick, you are a man, not much people are willing to say “I made a mistake” in this world, you are the one…………………
wow, i could afford some of those names.
hmm…
Great show Rick,
Congrats… it was the first time you were doing this and held your own among stalwarts of the industry, great job.
Cheers
[...] It was Rick Latona’s first live auction and he did quite well, although there were a few problems at the beginning of the auction. He has posted his thoughts on what went well and what didn’t work out along with the auction r… [...]
I’d be interested in rhodes.com. Pls. contact me.