Sedo.com and other auction site: rules

Gerrit · Feb 24, 2008

I have several domains that I am planning to sell in the near future. Most are geographic/tourism related .com's.

I first plan on emailing local tourism offices and see if they want to make an offer. Just in case they won't, I thought of auctioning them.

But imagine the situation they make an offer which is however lower than I expected. Is there an auction site (I only know sedo.com but I am sure there are others) where you can have an auction up without being obliged to sell if the highest bid doesn't please you? Because if the highest bid is still lower than the bid I got from the tourism association, then it would be a pity having to sell to the auction guy...

Vinternatt · Feb 24, 2008

Then you should start your auction with a minimum price. Otherwise if you got a low-bid and if auction ends you have to sell that domain. Specify a minimum price that you can sell your domains and start your auctions with that price. So you can banish low-ballers from your auction, too.

Gerrit · Feb 24, 2008

So sites like Sedo do have a rule that you MUST sell to the highest bid? You cannot refuse if the bid is too low for you?

Also, how long does the auction usually take? Because in case I would get a bid from the organisations I would be writing to and they make an offer with a deadline to accept, I may not have the time anymore to auction unless you can do an auction lasting only 2 or 3 days?

Vinternatt · Feb 25, 2008

Gerrit said:
So sites like Sedo do have a rule that you MUST sell to the highest bid? You cannot refuse if the bid is too low for you?

Also, how long does the auction usually take? Because in case I would get a bid from the organisations I would be writing to and they make an offer with a deadline to accept, I may not have the time anymore to auction unless you can do an auction lasting only 2 or 3 days?

Auctions are lasting more than 2-3 days in Sedo.

Also if you expect a reply from these organisations then wait 1 or 2 months and if you won't receive any replies then start an auction for your domains.

As I told above you can set a minimum price or a reserve price in Sedo. Otherwise you have to sell the domain to the high bidder. It is in their rules but this doesn't have to be in rules because that's an ethical thing that every domainer should do. If you don't sell the domain, probably they'll ban your account, credit card, name etc...