Halvarez Stimulus Check From Snapnames

Many of us including Acro and myself have been discussing Halvarez for years – look at this thread on DNF. This isn’t anything new. Having experienced this first hand, you can see the date and time stamps I posted in the thread!

Unfortunately we may never REALLY know what went on. What is good, is that Snapnames had the guts (some could call it a moral obligation or duty of care) to admit they had a problem and are in the process of addressing it.

Can I suggest a few questions to be added to their FAQ:

Q1. Given all the noise (some could call it evidence) in the industry, why has it taken us 4 years and 8 months to identify this?

Q2. Given due diligence, accounting standards, segregation of duties etc.. how come we failed to identify this in the first place?

————-

• Bidding affected approximately five percent of total SnapNames auctions since 2005, most of which occurred between 2005 and 2007.
• The incremental revenue from the bidding represented approximately one percent of SnapNames’ auction revenue since 2005.

• Enhanced monitoring of bidding activity for suspect behavior
• Additional controls over financial transactions
• Specific domain name registration policies for employees

SnapNames, and all in the Oversee family of companies, are deeply disappointed with this incident.  Since its founding in 2000, SnapNames has been committed to the principles of fairness and trust; the company wants to assure customers—through both words and actions—that it remains committed to those principles.

Auctions Crack Down On Shill Bidding

Domain name auctions are now starting to give the appearance of cracking down on non paying bidders.

Last week, Dynadot send me an email regarding users that were shill bidding in their expired auctions. Here is a picture of one such user:

Dynadot stated: “Effective immediately, if an auction order is not paid, our system will automatically ban the user from participating in any future auctions.”

Following hot on their heals, I received two email from Snapnames about an hour ago saying that the auctions for domainster.com and fullsize.com will be run again. Yes, I was in both auctions and was amazed by the sudden price increase towards the end.

Lets see how this one goes.

Should They Really Auction Off Wealth.com?

I was reading this article around TheInternetCompany, selling the domain name ‘wealth.com’ at a private auction run by Sedo. They want 2.9M and the VP was quoted as saying “we believe that now is the right time to monetize this asset and that an auction, rather than a traditional sale, is the best strategy“.

For the record, I disagree that “now is the right time”. Of course, I don’t know if there are financial issues/reasons behind the sale. However, if there were no issues, I’d hold onto it given the environment.

For those people who are “strapped for cash” and need to sell, feel free to get in contact and I’ll take those little gems off your hands. In a strange coincidence…. while typing this post I was sent a portfolio of 400+ domains looking for a new home.

What do you think about wealth.com? Should they auction it off?

For Sale: Facebook Vanity Names – Welcome To Socialsquatting?

Just 24 hours after the launch of the facebook vanity URL, we are seeing people starting to sell.

• biggestlooser – $8,000
  rebate – $60,000
  tonightshow – $15,000
  sexvideo – $17,000

All these names are available at assetize.com, a site for buying and selling accounts including Facebook, Twitter, GMail and WordPress. People seem to be buying accounts; one recent sale for a Twitter account called m*r with 7,851 followers apparently sold for US$1,250.00.

What do you think about this practice? Is it “socialsquatting”, the result of a free and open market? Is there really any value to having that niche keyword on a social media site?

Facebook Vanity URL = Domainer

Mashable is reporting that 500,000 usernames were registered in 15 mins. Well I happened to be watching the clock tick down, and acquired the keyword “domainer”. Feel free to get in contact.

To be honest, I really didn’t think this would be as big as it was. Within minutes I had people sending me friend invites…. some were people I’d known on forums and others were fellow bloggers.

I’d be interested to know your views on this. Did you register a name? Are you even on facebook?

J.P. King Auction – No Show For 2,600 Domains

An auction at the Fairmont on Nob Hill in San Francisco of over 2,600 Internet domain names almost took place on Thursday!

The names that were up for sale Thursday belong to Craig Harrison, an entrepreneur from Fort Collins, Colorado.  Many end in realestatelistings.com, representing states, cities and suburbs in the United States and overseas. Harrison thought the auction would attract upscale buyers, picking San Francisco for its proximity to Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Seattle. Unfortunately, the event at Fairmont did not go to plan.

“I had to have the courage to keep spending the money,” said Harrison, who remembers sitting at his computer for four days and using three or four credit cards. He spent about $35,000.

Perhaps the names weren’t as valuable as they seemed. “Had we had premium names, like toys.com, there would have been an auction,” J.P. King said as waiters in the Fairmont cleared trays piled with sandwiches from the empty room.

Source: SFGate.

ICANN Allows 1 and 2 Character Biz Domain Names

ICANN has allowed .biz domain registry NeuStar to grant 1 and 2 character second-level .biz domain names. The domains will be available via an RFP process, with any ungranted domains available via auction.

For more details, check out this article in Kikabink News.

GreatDomains (Really?) – May 2009 Auction

I just received this email about the May auction and I have to say, I was not impressed. If you want domainers to buy at auction, are you really going to open up your email with this sentence:

“With a new wave of college graduates entering the workforce, now is the perfect time to acquire a quality domain name to drive traffic to your online business.”

Does that make you want to buy domains at their auction? No – it makes me stop and think “What logic is behind this?”. Now call me harsh (and maybe it was because I haven’t had my morning coffee yet, but get real. Its May, and depending on where you live on this planet, you probably don’t call it college and their graduation might not happen mid-year. But what the hell does this have to do with getting me to buy your domains anyway?

Purely out of frustration (and a little bit of domainer OCD) I went over to their website anyway and checked out what they had to offer. My take is… if you like 3 letter domains, dive right in. I don’t (can’t fathom paying £3,150 for mje.com) but that’s just my preference.

The auction is run by Sedo, so you can buy at Sedo directly or on the GreatDomains site (same thing). Here are a few good ones.

• shirts.net – Sedo or GreatDomains
• bellyring.com – Sedo or GreatDomains
• babyclothing.com – Sedo or GreatDomains
• permit.net – Sedo or GreatDomains
• end.net – Sedo or GreatDomains

Let me know how you go.

I’m Not Participating In The Recession

Hi, I’m Simon and I have a problem. Its been 10 days since my last blog post and I’ve got a confession. I have relapsed and went back to reading Domaining blogs!

I know what you are thinking…. how could he do this? It’s betrayal of the highest order! But you know what? I’ve discovered something…. the usual people are continuing to post drivel (some think its “ohhhh so controversial”) many others appear to actually believe the world is coming to an end.

Its the GFC! No, its not KFC, its got a G in it… no its not the Georgia Football Club either… its the Global Financial Crisis. Global, being stuff outside America? Think of it as all the ccTLD’s, but not .us! Got it now? Good.

This week I went on a bit of an auction binge and purchased a few great names including roses.us. Why? Because people are selling them!

That’s right, its time for the rest of the world to sweep up some quality domain names. With €1 Euro being worth more than US$1.35 – now is the time (although so was mid 2008 when €1 was worth US$1.59).

Here at the Domainer Income Corporate World HQ, I’m sitting by this lake pondering all those opportunities that arise in a recession.

For example, people buy more lottery tickets, they actively seek out cheaper goods. Its not that people arent buying, its just that how some people make those purchases has changed. They might buy less expensive items and expect a greater, faster  ROI. All of this creates opportunity.

Crisis? Recession? Meltdown? Not in my part of the world.

Traffic Extended Online Auction – Last 5 Hrs To Bid!

For those that missed the live auction at Traffic ( like me ), the Extended Auction is a great opportunity to bid on a few names.

I’ve been closely watching a few of them and its coming down to the wire. Here are a few interesting names across multiple price ranges, that I’ve hand picked.

zeel.com – $775.00
saskatoon.net – $660.00
prot.com – $525.00
superhero.net – $485.00
joystick.net – $550.00
orlandohotelrooms.com – $485.00
helicoptersforsale.com – $450.00
imply.com – $1,380.00
entrepreneurs.info – $375.00
epick.com – $375.00
flowerstands.com – $375.00
n81.com – $535.00
adulttelevision.com – $665.00
assaulted.com – $640.00
bar.biz – $375.00
born.info – $375.00
clicknews.com – $2,460.00
contactlenscleaner.com – $375.00
cutlery.info – $350.00
deliveryboy.com – $1,280.00
duty.net – $640.00
forecast.info – $350.00
franchiseopportunity.net – $350.00
inaugurations.com – $350.00
internetbroadbandphone.com – $350.00
gotrich.com – $1,950.00
investigations.info – $325.00
laptopbatteries.info – $325.00
millionaire.org – $6,140.00
squatter.com – $3,400.00
terrorist.org – $1,230.00

With names as low as $325 there are definitely a few bargains. Let me know how you go.