Tag: domain auctions

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Octopus.com, one of the oldest registered .com domains, goes up for sale on Flippa for just $20,000

Octopus.com

Octopus.com, #46 in the top 100 list of oldest registered .com domains, has just been listed for sale at Flippa. 

According to The Next Web’s list of the hundred oldest domain names, Octopus.com was registered on November 17, 1986, the same day as Adobe.com, Amd.com, Das.com, Data-io.com, Portal.com, and Teltone.com.

The auction, which has an oddly low reserve price of only $20,000, ends March 5, 2011.

Flippa has placed a minor warning on the listing because the seller has provided estimates for the claimed financials.  Flippa says, “Estimates can hide many issues, such as fluctuating revenues and inconsistent profitability”.

According to Whois records, the registration is privacy marked.

Registrar: DOTSTER
Domain Name: OCTOPUS.COM
Created on: 17-NOV-86
Expires on: 15-OCT-11
Last Updated on: 30-JAN-11

Why is the owner selling?

According the description on Flippa, “We have purchased this site not so long ago for the value of its domain name alone to start major project. We haven’t been able to proceed with our project and so have recently decided to sell this site. The revenue was never of any concern to us since we bought this site for the value of the domain name. We haven’t actually changed anything since we bought it and we think that the previous owners have also not optimized it for revenue at all. However, it does make some little money in Adsense worth $1200 for the last 12 months”.

Readers, does the reserve price seem low to you?

Updated:  Octopus.com isn’t the only notable domain to go up for sale this week.  As one reader who goes by “Gnanes” pointed out in the comments, Registrar.com has also been put up for auction, with a reserve price of $3MM or buy-it-now of $14MM.

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Two-letter .com domain AY.com receives $100,000 bid on Flippa in no-reserve auction

AY.com

A couple weeks ago, domain blogger Mike Berkens over at The Domains wrote about the auction of the two-letter .com domain AY.com at Flippa, after the owner issued a press release announcing the sale. 

The auction followed the buzz created by news of Facebook purchasing the domain FB.com for $8.5 million. 

Today, the seller of AY.com has issued another slightly different press release, in which he notes that the domain has received 1 bid, for $100,000 in the no-reserve auction which ends 17 days from now, that is, unless the domain sells for the buy-it-now price of $2 million.

Here’s a look at the new press release.

(US NEWS SOURCE) January 31, 2011 – This month, an extremely rare LL.com domain name is up for auction on Flippa.com. The domain name, “AY.com” has a current bid of $100,000, and many domain appraisers feels it’s worth a lot more.

“It could be worth over $1 million if the right entities became interested,” said one domain name appraiser in an email reply. “The value on a domain name as rare as AY.com is based solely on what someone is willing to pay for it.”

So far, one bid has been placed on the LL.com (Letter – Letter .com) internet property for $100,000. The current owner, who purchased AY.com over 2 years ago has set no reserve on the auction.

The auction which can be seen at: https://flippa.com/auctions/120091/AY-com—Rare-Premium-2-Letter-Pronounceable-LL-com-Domain-Name is set to end on the night of February 17th, and will sell to the highest bidder, no matter what the price may be.

There are only 676 possible LL.com possible combinations on the internet for domain names, so this makes 2-letter domains like AY.com extremely rare. So far, according to the current owner, the auction has received over 2,400 views and has been added to 13 different users’ watch lists.

How much will the final sale price be?

“I have no idea,” said Eddie Krassenstein, the current owner. “I feel it is extremely valuable, so we will let the market decide.”

The owner of AY.com is heavily marketing the domain name, taking out a number of press releases and even changing the homepage of AY.com to plug the auction over at Flippa.

When AY.com sells at Flippa, it could be the company’s biggest sale in 2011.  And it could be the site’s all-time top sale to date.  While 2010 had a number of six-figure sales for the marketplace, S9.com at $400,000 was the biggest reported sale, confirmed by Flippa.

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Next Navigation putting several category-killing domain names up for auction at GreatDomains

feline

Feline.com for $1,000 USD?  Some very highly valued, category-killing domain names are being put up for auction at the next Sedo/GreatDomains auction starting January 20, 2011.  And it looks like Sedo, has one company in particular to thank for making the auction so great – Next Navigation Pty Ltd, the Australian web development and online advertising company.

Among the domain names being offered by Next Navigation include GasStation.com, Pathology.com, Feline.com, InternetBrowser.com, Rivalry.com, Trillion.com, and Neonlight.com.

Just how much money will Next Navigation make?

The shortlist of names mentioned previously, is valued at over $1 million by Valuate.com, but the auction listings combined have a significantly lower reserve price.  

GasStation.com, which appraises at $840,000 is currently listed with a reserve range  of 5,000 – 9,999 USD. 

Feline.com, which appraises for $117,000 is only listed with a reserve price range of 1,000 – 4,999 USD, as are names like InternetBrowser.com and Rivalry.com.

While Feline.com has a low reserve price, it’s final auction price will be much higher with the bidding action it’s likely to draw.  In 2005, Feline.com sold for $15,000 at GreatDomains and Pathology.com sold for $22,000, so you know Next Navigation is looking to make a deal.

The company owns hundreds of category-killing domain names, not included in the auction as well.  Names like Salaries.com, Jail.com and VOIPphones.com. 

It’s unknown why the company is putting up so many names at once, but these kind of reserve prices will certainly attract bidders early, and create some bidding wars right up until the very last minute.

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Dirt.com owner who put domain up for sale for $3MM on Flippa, unveils web site

Dirt.com

In a previous blog post, I reported about the auction of Dirt.com on Flippa for $3MM.   The listing seemed to be fueled by the owner’s desire to travel and focus on charity work, after reportedly selling his company. 

According to the listing description by the seller Yessman: “I recently sold my Company and have decided to take a hiatus for thirty-six months to travel and focus on Foundation and Charity Work. The recent interest in Dirt.com from buyers throughout the world has peaked my interest in selling the domain versus building the business I had planned for it.”

Dirt.com site unveiled

The Dirt.com site was recently a “Coming Soon” page that hinted at a celebrity gossip web site, similar to TheDirty.com (a popular celebrity gossip blog with visitors in the hundreds of thousands).  

In the last few days though since the listing on Flippa and my story here, the owner has unveiled a web site on Dirt.com (screen shot above).  The site looks, and sounds somewhat similar to CelebrityGossip.com (a property owned by domain development company: First Beat Media).  Only instead of dirt being dished every 5 minutes as it is on CelebrityGossip.com, it’ll be served up every 15 minutes on the Dirt site.

Unrealistic Sales Expectations?

The domain Dirt.com was purchased for $100,000 at GoDaddy auctions in September, and the owner is trying to flip it with a buy-it-now price of $5,000,000.

I’m not sure if the owner has unrealistic expectations with the multi million dollar price tag, but according to the discussion thread on Flippa, he even argues that Dirt.com is more valuable than Loans.com (a domain name that sold in 2000 for $3 million). 

Whether the owner is creating buzz for the pre-launch of Dirt.com or whether he truly is headed off to do charity and fundraising, from the angle of a domain investor, it would definitely be amazing to see the name sell for anything in the high six figure or low 7-figure range.

The auction for Dirt.com ends in three months.

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.ME Personal Name Auction Starts Apr. 5, Hundreds of First Names and Surnames (James.me, Paul.me, MORE)

social networking

The Personal Name auction starts April 5th and ends between April 12th and April 16th exclusively at NameJet.  The minimun bid price is $150 and all the domains are previously unreleased.

Potential buyers have already been placing their bids.  There are some great first names up for sale like Paul.me, Brian.me, Jason.me, James,.me, Amy.me and hundreds more.  Depending on your interest in .me domains, your wallet and your involvement in social networking, this could be your chance to own your first name in a  top level domain. 

You can participate here and get a glimpse of the personal names being auctioned.