Your opinions on domain auction system at dnforum

[DNForum]

Someone just reminded me today in a post, about something I was going to do earlier, but then didn't get any support with the idea with someone I asked so I never continued with it. The idea was to start a small little domain auction area here at dnforum, using PHP Auction (I think it's at www.phpauction.org ). It should be a nice place for everyone to list thier names for sale. I would love to hear your opinions on this idea, so your comments are appreciated.

Thanks.

 

It's a good idea, but unless buyers come over it will always be like preaching to the priest

 

[David G]

Good idea Dan, lets try it, though most domain auction sites rarely sell names it just may work here since it's so well targeted.

Problem is since so may here are sellers themselves (vs retail buyers) bid prices will not be very high. But that's OK for members here who are not after the big bucks on some of their names.

 

[AMERICAR]

I think that an auction is waste of effort, what are you going to get from here, bids of $1, $10, or turn it into anotherafternic.com.

Shill bids have to follow any auction, no way to avoid it.

The public are not going to come in here and bid on domain names.

Set up a members show case of some kind, listing 5 to 10 names with the asking price, and if the vendor chooses a make an offer option thats his / her choice.

Even the above is a hard thing to do, as we could do it ourselves in each members profile as it is now.

I can just see the forum theads going out of control, with spam and or ridicule following every suspected shill, who needs that.

So i dont have an answer, .... almost a waste of space to type this, but i cant see an auction being a good idea.

But comments were asked for so thats my comment.

 

I agree with americar. Also I'm not sure that there would be any benefit over somewhere like ebay.

 

[krisblade]

I agree with AMERICAR too...

 

[MattyP]

I think having some type of auction area is full of merit.
Anything that helps the site grow and give others a reason to visit and become members needs to be investigated.

As for worrying about shill bids etc, that is bound to happen no matter what site an auction area is on. I don't think it is reason enough to stop expanding this site.

Matt

 

[Omni]

I agree with Americar. Perhaps an auction system would work better in the future when the site grows further

 

[AMERICAR]

I like the Flag ... Marttyp.

 

You don't want to be bringing end users to a site like this, so an auction would be pure reseller to reseller.

People seem to be happy enough to set absolute prices, so I really can't see what benefit their would be. All it would do is provide yet another forum for promoting the same names to the same people (appraisals/for sale/auction).

 

[David G]

Originally posted by snoopy I agree with americar. Also I'm not sure that there would be any benefit over somewhere like ebay.

Are you thinking Dan will be charging an advance fee for auctions? Assuming Dan does not charge fees it seems there would be a benefit as eBay does charge fees to list domains, a major reason many of us do not use eBay. If you have information Dan will charge a fee then you may be right about no benefit over eBay.

Also, Safesys said "You don't want to be bringing end users to a site like this, so an auction would be pure reseller to reseller. "

Why in the world do we NOT want to bring buyers here Safesys? That is an odd thing to say and contrary to the majority view I am sure. I bet if we took a poll the vast majority of members wish buyers would in fact arrive here.

One reason domain people and internet firms are members and participate here is the hope a retail buyer will see their names or a vendor here may sell their products here, is that not so?

 

Just read the kind of posts being made in this forum, do you REALLY think that bringing end users here would help make sales?

 

Originally posted by RealNames


Are you thinking Dan will be charging an advance fee for auctions? Assuming Dan does not charge fees it seems there would be a benefit as eBay does charge fees to list domains, a major reason many of us do not use eBay. If you have information Dan will charge a fee then you may be right about no benefit over eBay.

No I wasn't refferring to fees at all, just that other sites already provide a service which would be hard to better.

Regarding advance fees, in my opinion site who don't charge listing fees are cluttered with millions of junk auctions - as a buyer its a waste of time even trying to find anything. If people really think their name is sellable then they would be far more likely to list names (on listing fee charging sites), so the ebay system works fairly well in my opinion in the way it filters out a big % of the junk listings and unmotivated sellers.

 

[AMERICAR]

This is a more interesting subject than Tc's girly pic's, we can still see the girls from here

 

Girls and cars, excellent combo

 

[AMERICAR]

Auction is out ... yes/no ?

Post a poll ... huh

 

[David G]

Originally posted by snoopy


No I wasn't refferring to fees at all, just that other sites already provide a service which would be hard to better.

Regarding advance fees, in my opinion site who don't charge listing fees are cluttered with millions of junk auctions - as a buyer its a waste of time even trying to find anything. If people really think their name is sellable then they would be far more likely to list names (on listing fee charging sites), so the ebay system works fairly well in my opinion in the way it filters out a big % of the junk listings and unmotivated sellers.

The problem with eBay is the limited time the auctions run. It's too short a time to get much traffic to your auction. Domains and Websites are very difficult to sell unless you get considerable traffic.

If they lasted longer (say 30 to 60 days) many more of us would use them.

 

ebay is good for visibility amongst other domain resellers (or savvy webmasters) - but if you're going to take the time to *drive* traffic to an auction, I wouldn't recommend ebay.

When you drive corporate buyers there, they see a mass of bidless auctions, trademark infringements and truly useless domains listed - its bad association when you are expecting the buyer to part with a large chunk of change. Of course, if you're asking for <$100 then it won't matter either way - but if you're aiming for higher value sales (which you really should be if you are driving end users) then its not the best environment.

If you want to sell something as prestigious (with a price tag to match), it helps to portray it as such.

 

[Nic]

there are no good auction sites anywhere.
they all claim to have had many domains sold. but you and i both know thats a bunch of "digested food".

AMERICAR said it best.

"I think that an auction is waste of effort, what are you going to get from here, bids of $1, $10, or turn it into anotherafternic.com. "

 

[dmyre]

I'm all for it...I'm tired of Ebay.

Maybe you should consider placing an official poll so you can get a definate answer. I would participate.