I wanted to provide a little review of Bido.com as I had just used them selling 9U.net recently. I will take you from start to finish and I think you will be impressed!

Bido.com is a 1 a day, domain name auction service that offers a couple different "pricing" options for selling. It is free to sign up for an account and only 8% commission on sales. (again, check pricing and commission rates for "how" you list a domain). 8% commission is on a No Reserve auction.

I submitted 4 domains for auction and 9U.net was the only one selected. All domains were submitted as $1 No Reserve. The 3 that were not picked were, Xegg.com, Literate.org and RBPA.com .

Once 9U was selected, I was contacted via email that it was accepted. At this point, you have to print out a set of papers for you to sign and fill out some info and fax it back to Bido. Later that day after I sent in the fax, another email came to "push" the domain into Bido’s Escrow account which I did.

At this point, you can submit your "write up" that will display in the auction window under the domain.

It took approx. 2 weeks from when the domain was accepted for it to hit auction. I used DotWeekly.com, Facebook.com and Twitter.com to promote the domain auction.

Auction day was a Tuesday and bidding jumped up right away in the $1,xxx range. By around mid auction (1 hour auction) 9U.net was bid up to $1,807, which it ended for that price as well.

Auction ended on Tuesday and I was paid on Thursday Morning!!! Talk about Quick!

Could of the auction ended for more? I thoght it would of hit the $2K mark, but I do not put any blame on Bido. With any auction, it takes TWO interested parties to bid, to make the domain go up in price.

One little thing that I am and have not been a big fan of is the 1 hour auction length. At the start of the auction, pre-bids kick in so the price starts going up pretty quickly. Then other bidders start dropping in bids until it levels off.. no reason to rush, as the auction is an hour long. This is the problem. There is no need to rush, but it also kills the mood of the bidder.

I would make the auction 10 Minutes long. Any bids within 3 minutes of the auctions ending would reset the clock to 5 minutes (which it does now). This keeps bidder Frenzy active!!!

I would expect Bido to be going to "shorter auction times" similar to 10 minutes when they go with the format of more then one domain auction a day. We will all have to wait and see when they roll out new features coming soon.

Overview of "other" auction services you can sell with

SnapNames.com charges a 20% sales commission which is pretty steep. Your domain names have to be with Moniker.com in order to list them on SnapNames.

Although SnapNames offers a seller a couple options, like Buy It Now, all member listed domain names go into the "In Auction" mode from the start. If you submit a domain for $79 to intice bidding, with each bidder entering, the price goes up on the domain. This can and will push away bidders as the price keeps climbing with each new bidder joining the auction.

"Partner" domain auctions start at prices ranging from $59-$119 and allow as many bidders to join at that static price Until the "auction starts". Members currently do not have this option to list a domain like this.

I see this as a big downfall and have express to SnapNames, so we will see if any changes are made.

Godaddy.com Auction. I know it’s available, but I do not use it, so I am not aware of the prices etc. I do know if you sell a domain, the transfer process is "iffy" and you do not get paid for 30 Days! Just silly if you ask me and it clearly needs some improving! Likely the reason why I do not use it.

Bido.com, SnapNames.com and Godaddy.com Auctions are the only three auction service you can submit your domain to go into auction with no "other" action needed.

Sedo.com does offer an auction service, but the seller must get an "offer" first, in order to send the domain to auction. Sedo charges a 10% commission. I have had little luck sending a domain to auction and having it go up in price very much. I question how many people really visit the auction section that are "bidders" other then lookers.

Afternic.com allows you to send a domain to auction, but similar to Sedo as an "offer" needs to come in to do so. Depending on how the seller has the domain set up (Basic, Expanded or Premium) will depend on commission. It will be 10% or 20%.

I would give the upper hand to Bido.com at the moment, but would really love to see the "auction time" shortened to keep the Bidding Frenzy high. 1 hour of open bidding pretty much kills any bidding frenzy. The live chat can be a big plus, as long as the special guest doesn’t knock the domain running (which kind of happened to me when 9U.net was running, but what can you do).

Pool.com offers a "newer" system for people to list domains, but as with Godaddy, I have not used it.

SnapNames.com has most likely the most bidders, but the 20% commission is a kick in the gut and the "In Auction" format, I’m not a fan of. Some what slower payouts as well.

With any auction service, payout is a big deal for any seller. Like I said, I got paid in 1.25 days from bido, but it also lays heavily on when the winning bidder pays. SnapNames payout takes about a good week or more but after the buyer pays, you can use the funds to bid at SnapNames at that point.

I hope this overview helps and if you have any questions, please feel free to post a comment.