Domain Name News

Targeted T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Florida to Hold its own Domain Auction as of 2011

By Frank Michlick

October 6, 2010

[Ed. Updated/corrected as per the comments]

As per an emailed announcement by Rick “DomainKing” Schwartz, future Targeted T.R.A.F.F.I.C. domain live auctions in 2011 will not be using a specific auction provider, instead Schwartz and his partner Howard Neu will be selecting the domain names to be sold in the live auction and provide the auctioneer. However auction houses are invited to submit names from their inventories to the auction. As Schwartz told DNN, the auction will continue to be open to remote online bidders.

This year’s next event will take place October 17-20 in South Beach, Florida Tuesday, October 19th at 4pm ET. Auctions for this event will still be provided by Latonas.com.

Find the full email from Rick Schwartz after the jump.

In 2004/2005 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. held the first “Live” domain auctions and in 2007 we had the largest Live Domain Auction ever and that record still stands! Some of those auctions were momentous, far more were just boring. As much as I tried to influence the direction, we were not happy at the way that things were going.

So we opened up the auction process to everyone. We quickly found out that that was overkill. But now we have found a formula for a happy medium and a formula that will INSURE all future T.R.A.F.F.I.C. auctions will be exciting and important.

For the FIRST TIME, Howard and I will be controlling the auction from start to finish. In doing so, we will provide the venue and the auctioneer All auction houses may submit domains for the live auction. But WE will select the domains that make it into the auction.

Submissions will be limited to quality domains only.

Submissions must all have domainer reserves and not end user reserves.

If a domain has an end user reserve then the auction house must bring 3 end users to the auction.

Auctions will be much faster moving and will start with a reasonable opening bid.

No fake bids of any type whatsoever will be allowed. The live auction will be reserved for premium domain names only.

We invite all of the auction companies to speak with us at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. in Miami to ensure that you become part of our team. Give the domains the visibility they deserve and let the marketplace show their real value. Let TRAFFIC show you what we mean when we say “TRAFFIC Means Business”.

If a domain does not sell, the bids will help to establish “Current Market Value.” We will do this by changing how reserves are listed and it will eliminate “Show boat bidding”.

If you are not familiar with the meaning of “Show boating” it is when, for example, you have a $5M reserve on a domain name and you bid $4M to show everyone that you can make a $4M bid, while all the time knowing that you are protected because the owner won’t take anything less than $5M. AKA, Faker!

So, this is just some of the things that T.R.A.F.F.I.C. will be doing differently in 2011. We will be opening the auctions in the right manner and cleaning up the nonsense that we never before had any control over.

Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz