DomainLore Blog.uk domain aftermarket and .uk drop catching plus anything that goes…

Wow.

I am looking at the almost finished Traffic auction @ Dublin and it feels very disappointing to see it’s turning out to be a complete fiasco!

Yes, I was very skeptical about reserve prices for pretty much everything in .co.uk inventory, but I never expected that *almost* *nothing* on the auction will *sell* *at all*.

Italian.net and ShortFilms.com, plus two 3-letter .com acronyms for around 3k and an incidental ccTLD are the only domains which were sold by now (at about 75% of the auction progress).

Unrealistic reserves have spoiled everything again.

Now let’s take a look on MeetDomainers inventory for 27th of August.
I will skip all names priced under £300, as with low priced domains it’s always hard to predict whether they could be worth a punt for someone.

LinkBuildingServices.co.uk – Opening Bid: £300.00
Will sell if end-user is present, which is quite likely as SEO and domaining so closely related.

PersonalisedGift.co.uk – Opening Bid: £350.00
Plural would be much better, but singular could be worth the money for someone building keyword-rich affiliate sites.

AsbestosTests.co.uk – Opening Bid: £500.00
Only for those who know what to do with it. As an investment for future re-sale might be too expensive.

BlackBoards.co.uk – Opening Bid: £500.00
ChalkBoards.co.uk – Opening Bid: £500.00
OK if you want to build affiliate site.

StudentCreditCard.co.uk – Opening Bid: £500.00
Price is good for developers.

VII.co.uk – Opening Bid: £550.00 (+ 17.5% VAT)
Limited appeal. Not likely to sell, esp. with VAT on top.

TRX.co.uk – Opening Bid: £550.00
Weak combination, would sell for £400, but unlikely for the asking price.

Holy.co.uk – Opening Bid: £750.00
Church members in the audience? Harder to justify without..

Shirts.org.uk – Opening Bid: £750.00
End-user price. SEO developers/affiliates might be interested.

Groom.co.uk – Opening Bid: £750.00
My domain, submitted to sell for the sake of the event. With a low reserve, as one would expect, if it would been offered on DomainLore auctions.

FashionDesigner.co.uk – Opening Bid: £1,000.00
Limited appeal. Too expensive, won’t sell.

Entry.co.uk – 1,000
My domain again. I believe it’s a very brandable generic word and I had an idea to develop it into ‘internet entry page’, sort of iGoogle, with user-customized news, widgets..etc. But, time goes by and there are more important domains taking precedence. I remember declining 3.5k for it in 2007 to someone from Acorn Domains; don’t know if he was interested as an end-user or perhaps he saw investment potential, but what happened in 2007 doesn’t really matter now, hence it’s priced at 1k to sell.

EuroPallets.co.uk – 1,150
Domain seems to have been developed into an affiliate website, I don’t know if it brings any revenue, likely not – as it’s being sold alone.
With ‘euro pallets’ having only 1,600 local broad searches, I think it’s priced too high.

Clothes.org.uk – 1,500
Sames as for Shirts.org.uk.

HomeCinemaSystems.co.uk – 1,750
Has a good number of searches, likely to sell.

PhoneContract.co.uk – 1,998
Limited appeal of SEO development.. Still, might be worth for mobile affiliates who have knowledge and experience to utilize it.

TopUps.co.uk – 2,998
Few years ago there were no online services which would offer mobile phone top-ups. I suppose, mostly because of the fraud involved. But it seems a few have emerged since the last time I looked and this domain presents a great opportunity to secure this market, if online top-ups business model has finally started to deliver.

BackLinks.co.uk – 3,000
Great for SEO people, likely to sell. But I would have started it with a lower reserve notwithstanding.

ComputerRepair.co.uk – 3,000
Great price for end-users, might be little too expensive for domain investors.

ProductFeeds.co.uk – 3,000
Limited appeal. Won’t sell.

Blades.co.uk – 4,000
I would expect this one to sell for 6-8k to the end-user. I think it’s should have been better price for domainers auction.

Snorkel.co.uk – 4,000
Again, too expensive for a domainer. Pass.

MediaSales.co.uk & Media-Sales.co.uk – 4,500
Too expensive, even for end-users.

HighChair & HighChairs.co.uk – 6,000
Judging by HighChairs.com, it’s a viable development domain name, the main question is whether it is worth 6k to start with?

QuadBikes.co.uk – 10,000
Has some development done by the current owner, which makes it hard to judge why it is sold as a domain name only.
10k doesn’t seem to be an achievable price during MeetDomainers event.

Invoicing.co.uk – 10,000
Expensive. Non-seller.

GymEquipment.co.uk – 10,000
I understand it appeals for businesses who sell equipment for gyms, but not that much for general public, searching for ‘fitness equipment’ instead. If so, ‘GymEquipmentSuppliers.co.uk’ isn’t much worse and is free to reg.

HotelBookings.co.uk – 11,000
Nice for an affiliate website and getting SE rankings, but lots of efforts required to build a new brand around it, with so much competition around. 50/50% chances to find a buyer at this event.

CoffeeMachine.co.uk + CoffeeMachines.co.uk – 20,000
Good product keyword domains, but priced too aggressively for domainers event.

What do you think on the above? Don’t be shy to comment :)

A Foreword

As many of you already apprehend, but less would prefer to voice out, domain industry is so much powered by hype.
No, fostering end-users is fine. In their absence, though, I am more concerned about hype towards fellow domain investors.

The bubble keeps growing and is kept bubbling by selling domain investors luring buying investors to pay non-investor prices.
Good for those sellers, bad for the industry.

Based on the number of latest Sedo ‘premium’ .uk auctions (where almost nothing was sold), the bubble might have started to shrink, as domain investors refuse to pay demanded, closer to end-user, prices.

Meanwhile, end-users are largely struggling with the economy to warrant high bids and competition. Or they are simply not aware of the time and place. It’s not a secret that neither Sedo, nor Traffic or any other auction house has a long way to go into locating and attracting end-users to their auctions.

.co.uk Inventory Review

So here is my predictions and a humble opinion on the quality and reserve prices of the Traffic Auction in Dublin, Ireland based on the cautionous domain investor’s point of view:

SeoulKorea.co.uk Reserve Range: 1 – 1,500 Euro
Hardly any value at all. Nobody is searching for ‘Seoul Korea’. It’s either ‘Seoul + term’ or ‘Korea + term’. TravelKorea.co.uk or SeoulCity.co.uk have the same potential for SEO development and are free to reg.
Non-seller.

MunichGermany.co.uk Reserve Range: 1 – 1,500 Euro
See above. Hardly worth 100 EUR.
Non-seller for more.

NPR.co.uk Reserve Range: 1 – 1,500 Euro
Three letter domains sell to domain investors for an average £500 at DomainLore auctions.
Will sell if reserve is not higher than £700.

4wd.co.uk Reserve Range: 5,001 – 20,000 Euro
What’s that? I am not aware of any good use of this acronym, yes it’s ‘forward’.. but .. wft? a questionably “brandable” domain for 5k – 20k EUR?
Non-seller.

Bankers.co.uk Reserve Range: 5,001 – 20,000 Euro
Can’t see much of a development potential. A place for bankers to discuss stuff? A list of banker’s Linked-in profiles? An affiliate directory of banks and account opening applications?
Non-seller.

Models.co.uk Reserve Range: 100,000+ Euro
A good domain but the developed website has failed to gain traction after a number of years. A new owner could try their luck, but with such reserve it’s a non-seller for me.

Career.co.uk Reserve Range: 20,001 – 100,000 Euro
Great domain for the right buyer. Will it be at Traffic Dublin? I think not. Might sell at 30-40k to a fellow investor if reserve isn’t higher than that.

BookShops.co.uk Reserve Range: 5,001 – 20,000 Euro
A catalogue of book shops in the UK? Non-seller for more than 1k.

74.co.uk Reserve Range: 1,501 – 5,000 Euro
Non-seller. Digit domains are popular in .com, thanks to China and Japan. But no value in the .uk, except it’s a short name. But based on DomainLore’s auction history, domain investors are not paying more than 1k for 2-chars domains.

Calculators.co.uk Reserve Range: 5,001 – 20,000 Euro
Calculator.co.uk has sold on DomainLore for £9,100 in June. The seller seems to be well aware. The plural here is, however, a weaker version and might sell for 5-6k at a max.

Inns.co.uk Reserve Range: 5,001 – 20,000 Euro
Non-seller.

Andre.co.uk Reserve Range: 1 – 1,500 Euro
A fairly priced first name domain name. To be sold.

Balding.co.uk Reserve Range: 1,501 – 5,000 Euro
Hair growth affiliates? If there are those with a good paying programs, it might sell at 3-5k.

Musician.co.uk Reserve Range: 5,001 – 20,000 Euro
Hmm.. mixed opinions. Might go for 5-7k for investment purposes. 10k+ to a proper end-user (like a new magazine).

PetShops.co.uk Reserve Range: 5,001 – 20,000 Euro
Again, a directory of pet shops? Non-seller.

TaxConsultants.co.uk Reserve Range: 5,001 – 20,000 Euro
Likely to sell for about 6-7k.

CBD.co.uk Reserve Range: 1 – 1,500 Euro
Not more than 500 quid.

Gold.co.uk Reserve Range: 100,000+ Euro
This one seems to be a gem of the whole .uk inventory. Though it might be fairly hard to push. I am sure UK business who was ever potentially interested in this name, have already tried to reach the seller with their offers. It might sell for 100k+ to someone from outside of the UK. I heard US boys pay silly money for a bit of popular ccTLD overseas investment.

Music.co.uk Reserve Range: 100,000+ Euro
Hey, Rob!

NRR.co.uk Reserve Range: 1 – 1,500 Euro
Not more than 500 quid.

iApartment.co.uk Reserve Range: 1 – 1,500 Euro
Non-seller.

Dublin.co.uk Reserve Range: 20,001 – 100,000 Euro
Dublin.ie or Dublin.com would be just great. With .co.uk it could only be oriented towards UK travellers to Dublin. It certainly has some potential in travel sector, but not at 20k. Non-seller at this reserve.

LAC.co.uk Reserve Range: 1 – 1,500 Euro
Good acronym. Up to 1k.

Affiliates.co.uk Reserve Range: 20,001 – 100,000 Euro
Has been long on the sellers books.. Not likely to sell this time again.

Congress.co.uk Reserve Range: 1,501 – 5,000 Euro
2k. at max.

AutoLoanCalculator.co.uk Reserve Range: 1 – 1,500 Euro
Less than 1k.

CMT.co.uk Reserve Range: 1 – 1,500 Euro
Not more than 700.

Your comments are welcome.

And stay tuned for the drill of Namedrive’s Meetdomainers auction listing coming soon…! ;)