Suggestion For Sedo - New Auction Section

[YourIdealDomain]

I noticed in this section of DNForum that there are sedo members who would like sedo to start a no-reserve auction section where anybody can list any of their domains for free. I have another suggestion that I think would be more beneficial to buyers, sellers and Sedo. I know that there are Sedo reps who visit this section, so Sedo members should leave comments below.

If Sedo started an auction section where anybody could list as many domains as they wanted for free, the section would be cluttered with horrible domains. According to Sedo's homepage, there are 11.5 million domains listed at Sedo. Only a very small percentage of them have any real value. The people with the worthless domains will want to get rid of them and will list all of their horrible domains in the auction section. When potential buyers look at the domain section, they will see that the domains are worthless and probably won't bother to look at the section again. The decent domains will be lost in the clutter. The main reason Sedo auctions get so many views/bids is because a large portion of the domains in the section are valuable. The people who originally made offers on these domains would not have made the offers if they didn't think that they were valuable. Also, there are usually only a few hundred domains in the Sedo auction section at any given time, so it makes it easy to look through the list. With such a short list and a high percentage of good domains, serious buyers will obviously pay close attention to this section. If you want to see the quality and quantity of domains that a free, unrestricted auction section would attract, check Ebay. Several hundred domains are listed on Ebay each day and the vast majority are completely worthless. I know that Ebay isn't free, but it is very cheap to start listings with low starting bids. This Sedo section would probably have even more domains than Ebay and I doubt that the quality would be any better. Most professional domain buyers avoid looking at Ebay because it would be a waste of their time.

I have a suggestion for another type of auction section that I think would be more effective for all parties involved. I think that there should be a paid auction section. Sedo could charge $25-$30 per auction listing. This way, sellers wont easily be able to just dump their portfolios of worthless domains in the section ruining the chances of other sellers who are trying to sell decent domains. I think that the cost of the listing should be a non-refundable deposit on the commission. For example, if a domain didn't sell at all, Sedo would get to keep the fee. If the domain sold for $100, Sedo would get to keep the fee and the seller wouldn't owe any commission, but would only net $75 after the fee. If the domain Sold for $500, the initial $25 fee would be deducted from Sedo's commission so that there is only a commission fee of $25. Sedo's total earnings would still be $50. This would encourage people to only list valuable domains in the auction section. Sellers should be limited to listing a small number(maybe 3 or 4) of domains per day. If you want to sell a domain in this section, you would have to be reasonably sure that it would sell or you would lose your $25 fee. By filtering out most of the worthless domains and limiting the number of listings per seller each day, I think that more serious buyers would look more closely at this section. I think that all auctions should start at Sedo's minimum offer amount of $60. Sometimes on Forums and Ebay, people ask 6-7 figures for worthless domains. Nonsense prices like these would make the section look unprofessional. It still may not get the same amount of attention as the current auction section, but I think that it would be viable.

I also have a completely unrelated suggestion. Sellers should be able to more effectively cross-promote their domain listings. I'm referring to domains that are already at auction being used to promote domains that are not at auction yet. Listing domains in the description section is not very effective. I doubt that many of the buyers who look at auctions even look at the description. I would suggest a text field at the top of the auction listing. This text field Could be edited by the seller at any time and could be used to promote some domains and draw attention to the description section for a longer list of domains and other details. Or maybe random domains that are owned by the seller could be rotated so that buyers would see them. The most important aspect of this would be that whatever is used for cross-promotion, be at the top of the page where buyers can actually see without going out of their way.


Thanks for reading my suggestions and feel free to leave a comment below.

[SedoCoUk]

Hello YourIdealDomain,

Thank you so much for the suggestion and the well thought out explanation. I sent this over to our MarketPlace Product Management Team. We appreciate all feedback that our members provide and welcome suggestions like this.

I look forward to seeing comments from the other posters as well.

Thanks again!

Lisa

[Gerry]

I would be more impressed if sedo implemented a real Certified buyers program that did more than see if someone had a pulse.

Implement a credit card on file/verification process. Make new sign-ups aware of this.

Having hundreds or thousands of auctions running and ending means nothing if the buyer is not going to pay.

And if sedo does nothing to curb this activity, then having that many more auctions running means that many more non-paying bidders.

[H2FC]

Some good points have been made and hopefully will be seriously considered by sedo. I believe the sedo auction system is such that the company is leaving much profit untouched by not developing an additional auction platform that many domain sellers and buyers would use and benefit from.

I'm sure there are many difference ways for Sedo along with the sellers and buyers to benefit from a new auction but here are a few things I would like to see included.

The owner/seller would pay a minimum fee of $10 for each domain they wish to list. This would not be refunded if the domain is not sold but would be used toward a 10% selling fee if it is sold.

The owner/seller could start the auction at any price they wish with the minimum starting price being $100. However, the nonrefundable listing fee would be 10% of the domain auction starting price. If the domain is sold for more than the starting price Sedo would deduct the addition amount from the selling price to cover their 10% fee.

The auction would run for 7 days. The same as it is now.

No more than 1000 total domains would be listed on the Sedo auction at any one time. This would keep the list small enough to be scanned rather easily. The domains would be listed chronological as they are now.

An auction platform such as this would provide Sedo with at least $10,000 additional income every seven days providing of course the 1000 domain list is maintained. As some names will be sold for more than $100 Sedo's income could be much more.

As new domains are submitted for auction they would be queued in the order received for posting when space becomes available.

[fatter]

I would like to see more themed auctions maybe green names this week, insurance one week, animals one week, pets one week and on and on. Buyers dont mind sifting through a ton of domains if they are related to there search for a name, i also think this would bring in more interested end users. I think charging a fee is probably the best way to limit the names.

[Area52]

I would be more impressed if sedo implemented a real Certified buyers program that did more than see if someone had a pulse.

Implement a credit card on file/verification process. Make new sign-ups aware of this.

Having hundreds or thousands of auctions running and ending means nothing if the buyer is not going to pay.

And if sedo does nothing to curb this activity, then having that many more auctions running means that many more non-paying bidders.

My opinion about the future of Sedo. It's your business and some of the blame can be placed on the state of the economy, but if Sedo doesn't do something more to weed out deadbeat buyers, your competition will eventually exploit this weakness.