Sold.Com.Au .... Sedo Auction

[DomainNames]

Probably going to be realestate or buy/ sell auction platform ( as it was before) I'm guessing

Further research shows Yahoo bought it to knock out competitors (Fairfax) years ago when Ebay was entering the market and their deal with Ebay required it to be wound down so not to compete etc.

They then sold out of the ebay deal and pulled out from Australia pretty much

What an awesome opportunity if you read all the background ( which I didnt when I first posted )as i just looked at sedo info auction page at that time.

I mentioned it to a few very large realestate and online players just now on the phone and gave them the background. Seems to be worth a lot more than it went for to many people... but no one knew it was going to auction or for sale. The whois also made it near impossible to track down Yahoo as the actual owner before. No one knew until sedo listed it as part of the "yahoo owned names auction" on sedo which most Aussies dont know about or follow. No one it seems also searched it in news to see the history of it. 180,000 users back in 2000 and profits of $11 Million is pretty impressive

 

[helloworld]

Helloworld, what statistics would you base that on?

I am basing it off my own experience, having read up on the subject matter and putting it into place.

But here's an article http://www.memorabledomains.co.uk/ppc-generic-domains.html

 

[snoopy]

We'll with all these people falling off chairs we can only hope for it to be sold at a big premium very soon.

I just told the people at my local cafe, not only did the fall offs chairs but the chair legs broke and they are still sitting on the floor. One guy is currently on the phone to his bank manager.

 

[snoopy]

I am basing it off my own experience, having read up on the subject matter and putting it into place.

But here's an article http://www.memorabledomains.co.uk/ppc-generic-domains.html

If you are basing it on that I suggest you read it properly. It is about exact match domains and the effect on ctr.

 

[helloworld]

Ugh. I cbf arguing the point, it was an example.

 

[snoopy]

Ugh. I cbf arguing the point, it was an example.

Actually no, you are out of bad arguments.

 

[DomainNames]

Some further research found this old document from Fairfax

Maybe Fairfax or someone else should do it again... build it up and sell it off for another $30 Million +

since 2000 theres more players now who could do it and make it work it does seem.

180,000 registered users in 2000 is a lot and just that would have had a lot of value to many.

"Our experience with SOLD.com.au, the online auction site, is instructive. We created SOLD both to build it into a profitable business in its own right and to help drive users to our other sites. When it became apparent that the local online auction industry needed to consolidate to be viable, and that there was added value by having overseas listings and buyers on the site, we explored the opportunity of either merging or selling the business. This culminated in our sale of the business to Yahoo, the leading global internet company, and the use of the sale as a catalyst to craft a broader relationship with Yahoo. The financial impact of these transactions will result in a gain of approximately $19 million in the current financial year. The economic value of the deal to Fairfax is in the order of $30 million, of which about 80% will be paid in cash. Importantly, the agreement with Yahoo contains provisions which we believe will further increase users of our f2 sites, in particular CitySearch and Domain, and pays us for directing traffic to SOLD."

 

[James]

What is his offer?

He said 15k seemed like a fair price,


I mean he just paid 100k+ for a new BMW...He deals in mainly waterfront property.

I just messaged another Real Estate agent I know by the name of Jhai, he works in west sydney and does quite well I will see what he has to say.

 

[snoopy]

He said 15k seemed like a fair price,


I mean he just paid 100k+ for a new BMW...He deals in mainly waterfront property.

So given he thinks it is a good domain that he'd use, but he won't actually pay anything, what does that tell you?

 

[Scott.L]

Yahoo would of got more than $15k on the local market - I'm shocked it went so cheap.

 

[DomainNames]

As with most domain names and many things valuations from 99.9 % of people are not useful

Ask your friends or people you know what they would pay for a Caravaggio, Hans Holbein the Younger, Diego Velázquez or Sandro Botticelli painting. They might say nothing or some low price unless they did some research knew the market and had the chance to bid. Most people could not or would not pay $20k for one of these yet they are worth over $100 Million each

http://www.theartwolf.com/articles/most-valuable-private-art.htm

 

[DomainNames]

Yahoo would of got more than $15k on the local market - I'm shocked it went so cheap.

Looks like Yahoo USA really stuffed up listing it overseas
at Sedo. They should have listed it in Australia as it's a .com.au, marketed it via an Australian Domain name broker or Australian aftermarket platform etc.

Some here ( our very successful broker forum members) would have got them far more.

Apparently the case of a junior staff member at yahoo based in the USA also not knowing the background on it and .com.au's, what they paid and why 13 years ago...over their pay grade and an obvious stuff up error on their behalf where they listed it and the reserve. They may have thought just their .com names they where selling had value. The .com's they had for sale where pretty crappy . For Australia obviously this was the Diamond in the rough

Very few in Australia where the market for it was would have even known it was going for auction exact for a handful on this forum

Oh Yahoo... what a stuff up you sold it via the wrong platform overseas if you wanted more for it!

 

[Horshack]

Looks like Yahoo USA really stuffed up listing it overseas
at Sedo. They should have listed it in Australia as it's a .com.au, marketed it via an Australian Domain name broker or Australian aftermarket platform etc.

Some here ( our very successful broker forum members) would have got them far more.

Apparently the case of a junior staff member at yahoo based in the USA also not knowing the background on it and .com.au's, what they paid and why 13 years ago...over their pay grade and an obvious stuff up error on their behalf where they listed it and the reserve. They may have thought just their .com names they where selling had value. The .com's they had for sale where pretty crappy . For Australia obviously this was the Diamond in the rough... most with an untrained eye would have missed it even listed.

No one in Australia where the market for it was would have even known it was going for auction

If everyone thinks it was so good why didn't anyone bid on it?

 

[Horshack]

If I hadn't bid on it the final price would have been US $10856 and not $15600

 

[DomainNames]

If everyone thinks it was so good why didn't anyone bid on it?

Maybe no else ( besides a few) on the forum had time to do Premium registration required to bid above $10,000 usd

maybe no one has any spare money

maybe people where asleep

maybe some thought it would go higher so didnt bother

probably no one did any research what was paid for it years ago and why. ( No one would have read the Yahoo and Fairfax financial reports etc and info on it).

 

[DomainNames]

If I hadn't bid on it the final price would have been US $10856 and not $15600

Bid increments where $500 so there must have been more bidders between your bid of $10856 and the winning bid.

Maybe the Highest Bidder's proxy was a lot more.

Looks like only a few bidders ( probably from this very limited forum) so obviously noone really knew about it and it was sold in on the wrong overseas aftermarket platform if they wanted to get the best price possible... which they obviously didnt

99.9%+ of overseas people really could not have bid even if they wanted to. ( due to auda's "still current" policy restrictions on .com.au ownership)

99.9%+ of Australians would not have even known about it being up for auction

 

[Horshack]

Maybe no else ( besides a few) on the forum had time to do Premium registration required to bid above $10,000 usd

maybe no one has any spare money

maybe people where asleep

maybe some thought it would go higher so didnt bother

probably no one did any research what was paid for it years ago and why. ( No one would have read the Yahoo and Fairfax financial reports etc and info on it).

Fair enough! At the end it was just me against the computer with a maximum bid and for all I know that bid went to $50k but I felt it was almost fully valued at that price as an end user so I didn't bid anymore. I'll probably live to rue that decision but such is life.

 

[Horshack]

Bid increments where $500 so there must have been more bidders between your bid of $10856 and the winning bid.

Maybe the Highest Bidder's proxy was a lot more.

Looks like only a few bidders ( probably from this very limited forum) so obviously noone really knew about it and it was sold in on the wrong overseas aftermarket platform if they wanted to get the best price possible... which they obviously didnt

99.9%+ of overseas people really could not have bid even if they wanted to. ( due to auda's "still current" policy restrictions on .com.au ownership)

99.9%+ of Australians would not have even known about it being up for auction

These were the final bids:

Nov/21/13 11:53 AM EST

15,600 USD

Winning Bid!

Bid automatically placed by Sedo.


Nov/21/13 11:53 AM EST

15,100 USD

 

[Horshack]

These were the final bids:

Nov/21/13 11:53 AM EST

15,600 USD

Winning Bid!

Bid automatically placed by Sedo.


Nov/21/13 11:53 AM EST

15,100 USD

I've edited that bidding history just in case it was copyright!

 

[DomainNames]

I've edited that bidding history just in case it was copyright!

yes $500 bid increments. so there must have been more bidders ( besides winner) after you stopped around $10856? Wouldnt your final bid have been $15100?