.xxx Does anyone know about the auction process for names they term Premium?

[michaelp]

I have several names that I reserved .xxx for when they first came out. I thought I'd be in an auction if others wanted them. But, IMCRegistry now says the names are being held by the registry as they are Premium and will be sold at a later date. Why? Why are they not in the sunrise auction process?

 

[Ulysses]

That's interesting, I've been waiting to register mine until next month, I'll give it a try later. It's a bit naughty if true.

 

[michaelp]

Well, the registry period is available and from both Network Solutions and GoDaddy, you can get in line for the names. I have about 200 I was going to purchase that I own the .com for. But, when I went to check the 2 I wanted the most, I was told by my reps at both companies that they were being help by the registry for Premium Sales. This pissed me off and I am not going to pay for the other 200 (crazy prices anyway) unless I get the main ones that I wanted and have a .com registered for over 10 years!

 

[DomainsInc]

the ICM people are total scammers. they sold a bunch of the premium domains to shilling and are holding a bunch back hoping that there will be more buzz about the extention in the future and will sell for more. and at 200 bucks a pop (100 of which is an 'applicaton fee' which you won't get back should you be unsuccessful). yeah right.

 

[silentg]

How are they scammers if they had sold few domains to Frank? Frank had the money and he bought the domain before even .xxx was approved. .co has domains reserved as well. Are they scammers as well?

 

[A D]

I personally think it's bullshit, they say if you have the .com you can get the .xxx,. then they hold back some, that stinks to me and someone should file a lawsuit.

-=DCG=-

 

[DomainsInc]

How are they scammers if they had sold few domains to Frank? Frank had the money and he bought the domain before even .xxx was approved. .co has domains reserved as well. Are they scammers as well?

All the new tld's are more or less 'scammers' to varying degrees. they are banking mostly off people violating trademarks and scaring tradmark holders into feeling they have to purchase these domains to protect their brand. .xxx seems to take the cake though. their high prices with no real justification, their scare tactics of .xxx being mandatory in the future, selling domains to people before the extention is even approved (how is that legal?!?), making promises such as people with the .com, .net will have first crack at the domains and then selling them to people like frank or holding them back. they also seem to be making up these 'regulations' that .xxx sites have to follow as they go along.

 

[DaddyHalbucks]

How are they scammers if they had sold few domains to Frank? Frank had the money and he bought the domain before even .xxx was approved. .co has domains reserved as well. Are they scammers as well?

I don't understand the logic in the above post.

Frank is a great guy, but he isn't God.

 

[silentg]

Sunrise A period isn't even over yet and they just sold 3 domains to Mike Berkens.

 

[grcorp]

Well, every registry that I know of "reserves" names to some extent. For example, the .ca registry holds back all city names, in addition to a series of "protected" keywords.

I don't consider doing it for a commercial purpose to be any different. Verisign is holding back all one-letter .com's and will auction them off when the time is right. Dropping two-letter .com's will not be made publicly available and will be held by the registry (though nobody is dropping any LL.com's anytime soon). And even last year, all the one-letter .biz domains were sold off (with the exceptions of i.biz and e.biz).

I do think it was somewhat unfair that Frank Schilling got an early crack at it. He missed several of the best keywords, IMO, to include lesbian.

When I was on DNCruise, I met someone from .xxx, and he showed me a list of premium .xxx domains that the registry was selling off. Most of it was overpriced, IMO. I can't comment on any particular names or quote particular prices, but you can't expect to come away with any keyword even close to good for less than $xx,xxx.

There's only one .xxx name that I actually want, and it is one that I think will be headline worthy, as an application which would compete with mine has already made mainstream news.

Otherwise, I would consider this TLD to be one of the better new ones to come out, especially given the security features with the built-in McAffee protection.

 

[katherine]

Verisign is holding back all one-letter .com's and will auction them off when the time is right.

To clarify, Verisign has no say in that particular matter, the unregistered one-letter .com were blocked by IANA in 1993. It would probably take an ICANN resolution or amendment to the contract to allow the release of these domains.

All the new tld's are more or less 'scammers' to varying degrees. they are banking mostly off people violating trademarks and scaring tradmark holders into feeling they have to purchase these domains to protect their brand.
...

Sad but true.

I think those so-called premium sales get the best results when they take place at an early stage (when interest in the new extension is at a peak). Because it doesn't take long for reality to settle in, and people soon realize it's yet another pointless extension that doesn't even get worthy traffic, and even regfee is a waste of money...

Some registries like .mobi have been greedy and have been hoarding names like sex.mobi. Names like that would have fetched good money in 2006. But today hardly anybody would want them. They even awarded domains for free as part of a RFP process.
I don't see any reason why things would be different in another extension.
To me, as a TM holder, the best that could happen is that the registry gets to keep the name unsold and blocked for registration forever so I don't have to waste money on another defensive registration
Wait and see.

 

[grcorp]

To clarify, Verisign has no say in that particular matter, the unregistered one-letter .com were blocked by IANA in 1993. It would probably take an ICANN resolution or amendment to the contract to allow the release of these domains.

You'd better believe that they're all going to make a sizeable amount once those one-letters get released.

 

[DomainsInc]

the whole premium name thing stinks. they should at least make the list public so people don't try and reserve these domains as there are no refunds for any of it.