I have just arrived in Las Vegas, NV. If there is anyone in town that would like to meet up and perhaps play some poker, hit me up at Justin (@) namebio.com

Ive noticed a lot lately that Afternic tends to have some nice deals going. I check it every few days there new listings (which can be done via advanced search. Ive also had a few decent sales so far this year with Afternic’s expanded promotion service. I recommend giving Afternic a try if you Havnt already.

Checkout the latest domains for sale on Afternic here

MKC.com, sold for $11,000 on 5/24 on the NameJet platform. The bidder defaulted on the payment and the domain was again re-auctioned for $11,000 on 6/3. Once more, the bidder has defaulted and this domain has ended up back on NameJet. Currently MKC.com is at $8,100. What does this mean? Well two issues, clearly NameJet’s bidder certification system is clearly not adequate. Secondly, their auction-reruns aren’t done properly.

NameJet re-auctions defaulted domain names by simply starting the auction weeks later, at the losing bidders highest bid. Is this right? Not at all.

Justin

The lucky owner who managed to take advantage of iREIT’s pricing blunders on Afternic earlier this year has opted to post his prizes for sale on Sedo. RLU.com sold for $900 earlier this year on Afternic when iREIT made errors posting their portfolio for sale. RLU.com is now up for auction on Sedo and has already hit $7,000 dollars with nearly 7 days left.

You can revisit the original story here: http://namebio.com/NameBioBlog/2008/04/04/the-rape-of-ireit/ 

I recognize that domain squatting (specifically TM squatting) is a bad thing. Making cash off of someone else’s work really does give our industry a bad stigma. Despite that, I dont really have any ill-will towards squatters, I figure they’re playing a dangerous game, one of which I don’t really want a part of. I do however take exception to the domainer who buys typos of other domainers sites.

For example, we have a partenership with Estibot, where every few months we provide them with sales data. I happened to want to run a domain name through their system but typed in the wrong address. I accidentally directed my browser to Estibo.com (missed the T). This domain, owned by Barney Pedrino (if thats a real name) is parked with Fabulous and even has the title “Estibot.”

Two things made me laugh. The first is, only Domainers are really going to Estibot and we are less likely then anyone else to click on advertisements as we are all too familiar with parked pages. Secondly, I expected the domain to have privacy, as who would really want their name and address publicly accessable when squatting on a domain like this. Nope. His information is clear as day.

I admire the new service Bido.com. I even was happy to offer up my appraisals on a few of their recent domain names. I must comment about something that gave me major distress. I was reviewing my online banking today, to notice a charge on my card for $0.10. Although the amount is not frightening, it was the fact that I didnt recognize the company charging me and that It may very well be a small charge to check if my account is valid, and then hit me up for some major bucks.

It turns out, the company charging me is FuneralHomes.com. I had never heard of the company before and have never spent money with them. I attempted to call my Bank to reach the fraud department. I intended to get my card shut off so now further charges could occur. Unfortunately getting through to my bank proved to me much more complicated on a Sunday then i had expected.

I did one more search online to see if I could find out if this was a known fraud. As it turns out, FuneralHomes.com is owned by Sahar Sarid (One of the creators of Bido). I had signed up for Bido and in order to bid they needed to check my card. Apparently they used their FuneralHomes.com merchant account to charge me. Wouldnt it be a smart idea to tell your bidders thats where the charge would be coming from? Guess not.

Justin

AirplaneModels.com just closed on NameJet for a whopping $15,200 dollars. This fantastic name represents a huge hobby, that even I as a kid participated in. There are tons of advertisers for these keywords and I think the buyer will make out well with this domain name.

Gluttony.com is currently at NameJet auction with less than 4 hours remaining. Currently bidded up to  $4,544. This is one of those domain names that I feel will hit a pretty high sales price, going up another few thousand dollars but has very limited development potential. Out of the seven deadly Sins, this is probably the weakest in regards to domain names.

Lust.com could be used obviously as an adult natured domain name and is great to brand and easy to remember and spell. Greed.com could be turned into either a work at home business site or even a blog/news site about unethical business. Sloth.com could be used as a gaming or “bored” site. Games, Videos, ect on it. Wrath.com could be used for an anger management site or even posting stories about people you hate. Envy.com could be a shopping site for the worlds finest things. Pride.com could be a sports gear site, for you to show pride in your team.

The only thing I could see Gluttony.com being used for is for a weight loss site. Even as a developed site for that, spelling and brand ability may be a bit tough. Although Gluttony is a reasonably familiar word, it is also a word that is ugly and in my opinion difficult to say compared to the other sins. I wish the winner good luck, but I have a feeling this will go too high.

Justin

Yesterday the new domain auction service Bido was launched. The site itself and interface are nice and simple, but the auction line up was a bit less than impressive. The first auction was for DiscountImages.com which even the experts weren’t in love with. The domain pulled in just under $1,000 netting Bido a very small profit. I thought the choice for their first auction was a mistake. It didnt have the “ewwww ahhhh” factor, and didnt create the buzz needed for a new auction platform like this.

Today they are set to auction off a par geo domain name, GolfIowa.com. Whats so special about this domain name? Not much. If you were looking for the most premium version of these keywords, you’d be looking at IowaGolf  in my opinion. It has twice as many search results and almost all TLDs are taken. Currently GolfIowa.org is available.

Justin

For any of you paying attention to this blog. We reported that WindowsXP.com had expired and was in the middle of an auction at NameJet. The domain was pulled today from the auction (despite being having only one day remaining). Although I’m not entirely surprised due to the Blatant TM infringement, I did request clarification on why. I recieved this response:

” The Domain was removed from auction Per the NameJet Agreement, Section 3.4, listed below.

NameJet Agreement, Section 3.4 in part:

You also agree that NameJet shall have the right in its sole discretion to suspend or cancel any auction (Public or Private) prior to commencement of, during, or after completion of, the auction.

While this seldom happens, a rare set of circumstances may necessitate a domain auction to close early or be removed from your account. This could be for a copyright violation, trademark infringement or other legal situation for example. If a domain is removed from your account, you will receive full credit for all auction fees paid for the domain. NameJet management takes this action very seriously and does not exercise this option lightly.”

Although I have no problem with this policy, what frustrates me is when its chosen to be enforced. Just yesterday the domain name Caddyshack.com was allowed to complete at auction without any kind of reprisal from NameJet. That domain itself has Trademarks all over it. Is it because Microsoft has the ability, know-how, and tenacity to fight back?

You tell me.

Justin