Domainers act fast and it didn’t take only but a couple days for somebody to jump in and fill the void Bido.com’s closing opened up. The owners of DomainingTips.com domain blog have launched a KISS (keep it simple stupid) approach to a 8 domain name a day auction service.
The first auction is currently live and will end on Monday (5-10-2010) to test the systems and make sure things are working correctly. From Monday on, each day will present 8 domain names a day and the auctions will last for 24 hours with domains starting to end at 2 PM EST. You can see the following listed domains for the auction ending Monday in the screen shot below. The screen shot is the home page of Auctionpus.com .
The design is simple and intended to make it very easy to see the 8 domain names (pointed out by the 8 arms of the octopus) currently at auction. Simply clicking the domain you wish to place a bid on and that is it. The auction clock shows the remaining time for the current auction.
The current auction are all $1 No Reserve domain names and the site plans on going that route as much as they can. Auctionpus does accept user submitted domain names and I would say with the commission structure in place should help to keep the junk out and the good domains coming to auction.
The sales commission rates are as follows according to Auctionpus.com:
1) If the domain is listed at no reserve and has a starting bid of $1 (an approach we encourage, as generating bidding wars is the name of the game), we charge an 8% commission with a minimum of $10 which needs to be pre-paid by the seller.
2) If the domain is listed at no reserve and has a starting bid of over $1 but under $100, we charge an 8% commission with a minimum of $25 which needs to be pre-paid by the seller.
3) If the domain name is listed with a reserve and/or has a starting bid of over $100, we charge an 8% commission with a minimum of $50 which needs to be pre-paid by the seller.
So if you submit a $1 No Reserve you will need to Pre-Pay $10 per domain and then pay an 8% commission after the closing of the auction. I know a lot of domainers will not like the Pre-Pay fees but keep in mind that running a site is Not Free, Advertising is not free, Technology is not free, Time etc. The site needs to perform for you as well, or it simply will not be worth the fees to list the domain. Clearly a fine line but one that I think is wise. May it need to be adjusted a little bit? Likely but it all depends on how the service performs.
I see the intent of the Pre-Pay fee to keep the junk out and I think it is a good idea.
It is new, so for now… it is a buyers market! Not that many people know about the service so bidding may stay light for many of the domain names listed at auction. Clearly it may be risky to submit domain names for a little while but use your best judgement. Since the site is new, keep in mind that a lot of the little things that really should be in place are not.
Mainly the lack of information like.. are bids placed Proxy or Fixed? Not sure currently. Are auctions extended on a last minute bid? Not sure currently. Do all 8 auction end at the same time? Not sure. Does Auctionpus.com handle the payment and transfer of the domain names? Not sure. Submitting domain names currently takes place via email, but this will likely change overtime.
So, a lot of things are unanswered right now and I put some blame on that to Auctionpus but they will likely clear up most questions quickly. So checkout Auctionpus.com as it is a neat service that will likely produce some nice deals for buyers and some nice sales for sellers. This is not a paid post and I have no connection to the site, I just wanted to make you aware of it but keep in mind that it is brand new so it will not be perfect out of the box.
Andrei
Thanks a lot for blogging about the auction Jamie, just one comment regarding the pre-payment: it represents our minimum commission and after the domain name has been sold, it will be subtracted from the 8% commission. In other words, we charge an 8% commission with a $10/$25/$50 minimum and not 8% + $10/$25/$50.
For example, let’s assume that domain 1 is being offered at no reserve and with a starting bid of $1. Let’s also assume that the seller pre-pays $10 and the domain sells for $100. In this case, the seller is covered by our minimum and does not have to make an additional $8 payment.
Now let’s assume that the domain sells for $200. 8% represents $16. Since the seller has already sent $10 as a pre-payment, he or she only needs to send an additional $6.
You’re definitely right, we’ve implemented the minimum commission in order to weed out the crap. If I list crappy-domain-name.ws, nobody will buy it and we’ll just be wasting space (which, at only 8 domains per day, is limited). If I list a good domain at a price nobody sane would be willing to pay, it won’t sell and, once again, we’re simply wasting space
As far as bidding is concerned, it’s a standard proxy bidding system: you specify your maximum bid and the system will bid the minimum amount necessary to make you the winner of an auction on your behalf. Most of your questions are answered on our terms and conditions page but I agree that we need to explain everything in detail and make the link to that page visible, so a FAQ section will be added as soon as my programmer comes online.
If there are any other questions, feel free to post them here or email me and I’ll get back to you asap
Andrei
Oh and one more thing: if someone bids when there are less than 5 minutes left then yes, the auction will be extended by 10 minutes. The programmer will add a FAQ section shortly, my bad
Jamie Zoch
@Andrei,
One question I know many would like to know is the Payment and Transfer process. Will Auctionpus have a roll in that and if so to what extent.
dnclips.com - More than domain feeds
They have the advantage.. The lessons learnt from Bido. While the site does not have the bells and whistles of bido, its a good start. Wish them all the best..
Andrei
For the time being, I’m moving my own inventory until I am 100% sure that absolutely everything is running smoothly, so buyers will be contacted by yours truly as soon as the auction ends.
I’ll probably start auctioning domains submitted by others as of mid next week or so. Escrow services will be provided at an additional 2.5% fee (more on that a bit later). Otherwise, we will simply connect buyers with sellers and they can either handle the transaction themselves or choose a 3rd party escrow company (basically what Flippa.com is doing).
James
This site is a far cry from Bido… At first I thought it was a joke, however based on this review it must be the real deal.. If users think this is a replacement for bido, they are mistaken. Bido had six figures worth of technology behind it. Auctionpus seems to run on an open source low budget script. I am sorry, I just can’t take an auction site seriously when I am greeted by a giant octopus. I wish it the best and I give it 60 days if that.
Andrei
@James: do I win anything if it lasts 61 days?
Jamie Zoch
@James,
Well, clearly “six figures” worth of technology didn’t cut it for Bido. The way I look at it is Bido went too far away from the purpose of the site, which ended up hurting them. It got overly confusing really. As for the octopus, it is simply a branding thing that is different than most of us domainers are use to seeing, but it keeps the layout about as simple, yet effective as you can get. Yes the technology running Auctionpus appears to be minimal but I would rather see something simple that simply works than a super complicated system.
Andrei
I almost forgot to mention this, figured it wasn’t important but since James asked I might as well do it: the script is custom made. It’s an octopus that points at 8 auctions, that’s it and that’s how things will stay.
I come from the development world and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that keeping it simple ALWAYS ends up working in your favor. But we’ll just see which one of us was right after 60 days, won’t we?
James
I wish the site all the best – If you continue to feed your own inventory you may live a few months. Although bido failed, they had a solid and trusted platform. We all know the key to any successful auction is solid domains which bido lacked. Bido engaged the community. I agree simple may work, however your site looks like it was coded by my ten year old. If you can engage some of the larger domain portfolio holders I will help fund your next round of programming!
Andrei
@James: thanks and no hard feeling. Simplicity taken to the extreme is my #1 selling point and eliminating the octopus from a site called “auctionpus” would kind of go against the theme
The comment I’ve made on my blog pretty much sums it all up – “this site won’t wash your dirty laundry, it won’t take out the garbage and it won’t give you a Thai massage either: it’s just an octopus which will point at 8 auctions each and every day.”
Michael
I see two issues that concern me. First, Andrei is offering an escrow service, but I find it hard to believe he is licensed in any state, much less all of them. Scary…
Second, it takes more than a platform to have an auction site. You need to throw a lot of money into marketing, which I doubt will happen. Don’t promote the site enough, and you won’t have buyers. You don’t have buyers, and you won’t have sellers with good inventory.
I wish Andrei the best of luck, but I think this has less than a 1% chance of actually being a success (or still live in a year).
Michael
Oh, and having to refresh the page to see the time left or current bids is pretty weak
Jamie Zoch
@Michael,
I don’t think Andrei is offering the escrow service himself. He simply stated a 2.5% escrow fee would be charged or the user can choose a 3rd party escrow service. To me, this tells me he likely is partnering with one of the major escrow services. As for advertising, I agree that is very important. Andrei states the following for advertising:
~
Auctionpus.com is running permanent advertising campaigns on 5 of the most well-known domaining resources: Domaining.com (through daily sponsored headlines), DNForum.com (through our paid sticky thread at the top of the “News” section), DomainingTips.com/DomainDiscussions.com (in both cases through a sitewide 160×600 banner which fetches the details of each auction: domain name, current bid and reserve status) and ClosingAuctions.com in order to make sure that none of our auctions go by unnoticed. WickedFire.com 160×600 to focus on webmasters.
~
I would think social connection via Twitter, Facebook, Forums etc will take place as well.
Andrei
@Michael: Jamie did a great job explaining everything and as far as the escrow issue is concerned, the announcement I will make early next week will clarify everything
For the time being, I am moving my own inventory. Once I start selling the domains which have been submitted by others, there will be two options:
1) an 8% fee and we will basically simply connect the seller with the buyer (again, the system Flippa uses)
2) an 8% + 2.5% fee if you are interested in escrow services as well.
Again, I will explain everything in detail early next week and for the time being, I’m simply auctioning my own inventory until I am certain that everything is running smoothly.
tricolorro
“Domainers act fast and it didn’t take only but a couple days for somebody to jump in and fill the void Bido.com’s closing opened up.”
Jamie,
i believe Auctionpus was already in the works.
Bido’s closing was was coincidental although certainly timely.
Jamie Zoch
Andrei,
Your comments are going into my Akismet spam folder, so if there are any delays it is because I hadn’t had time to switch it back to OK to post. It will be interesting to hear the news for next week.. I could go on a limb as I know of a escrow service that was for sale… That would be PERFECT and a huge plus for Auctionpus!