Should I set up a new Auction Site?

[IPatlas]

I have been seriously thinking about setting up a new ebay-style domain name auction site.

I am not writing here to advartise it as I will not post any URLs so I believe this is the right place to post for feedback from members.

This site will be very similar to Ebay and it will even have seller/buyer feedback and rating just like ebay does.

IN addition, it will feature searches by seller (or buyer) plus all the usual serach features.

I go to several domain auction sites and none seem to have all these features together. IN fact, some are awkward to work with.

I plan no charging NO FEES for this service. There will be no commission or anything other than the private transaction exchanged between the parties. I will never sell members emails. I will respect everyones business whether they are selling one 34character domain or 2,000 high valued industry shockers.

Anyway, do you think there will be any use of such a service or are there tooooooo many out there anyway?

TIA!

 

[buddy]

Originally posted by IPatlas
I have been serously thinking about setting up a new ebay-style domain name auction site.

I am not writing here to advartise it as I will not post any URLs so I believe this is the right place to post for feedback from members.

This site will be very similar to Ebay and it will even have seller/buyer feedback and rating just like ebay does.

IN addition, it will feature searches by seller (or buyer) plus all the usual serach features.

I go to several domain auction sites and none seem to have all these features together. IN fact, some are awkward to work with.

I plan no charging NO FEES for this service. There will be no commission or anything other than the cost of transaction exchanged between the parties. I will never sell members emails. I will respect everyones business whether they are selling one 34character domain or 2,000 high valued industry shockers.

Anyway, do you think there will be any use of such a service or are there tooooooo many out there anyway?

TIA!

IPATLAS it sounds good. But unless you are sure of attracting some of us domain holders to post our names there, I would not waste the time, money, and energy to launch a site like that. There are tons out there. Also I think today, only a very small percentage of all domains sold are from site like these. Self promoting ones names is the best way to go about it.

This is just my opinion. Good luck if you decide to launch it!

 

[mole]

Yeah, don't waste your time.

 

[Duke]

Everyone who has tried to compete with Ebay has failed miserably - even Yahoo with their (at least at one time) deep pockets. It costs way too much money to advertise and auction site and pull in enough bidders to reach critical mass. Unless you have a spare $50 million laying around that you have absolutely no use for, I definitely would not even consider it.

 

[DomainSage]

I think it is a good idea and I was thinking about doing something like that myself, we need some more. GD and AN are old and used up, no life in them anymore. If you need a partner, let me know.

 

[IPatlas]

Hm.. I happen to have $49 million oh well, I guess not then... I am a million short boohooo

By the way, I have met Ebays development team and it is not as large as one would expect. The CEO pitches in (or at least used to) his programming as a regular Joe Grind.

IN any event, I was not going to compete with Ebay. I am not that ambitious and stupid. The exposure one gets at ebay is temendous and I would not want to limit the prospects by listing exclusively on a competing auction house.

So let me restate this, I think what I am going to do is self-promote a few of my domains and invite anyone who has no capacity of self promotion (I hear some of you park the domains that you buy with no real tool for exposure) to join for free.

There will be no obligation to complete a sale if the buyer so states (you can set your reserve as high as you want) so there will be no risk, just more exposure. Sell them on Ebay after.

I also invite anyone who has no space to promote their domains to email me so I can arrange for some free space for them.

I appreciate everyone's feedback before I spent real time on this!

 

[Whois-Search]

My friend Barry just set one up :

http://www.commerce.co.uk/browse.php?id=222

 

[IPatlas]

Wow, it's a cool site. It is very nice. Thanks for posting this.

 

[Nic]

too much work for nothing....
many have tried and failed...cannot compete with real established auction sites....(except maybe afternic

 

[Tippy]

I am working on one as well. Here is a screen Shot of the index/home page

I say build it. Its not that hard or costly. Like you said, list your Domains up for Auction. If you can get a few people using it great. Work on getting a good listing in the engines and you should see some traffic.

Mike

 

[RegNames.co.uk]

I think that www.Commerce.co.uk is a pretty good auction website. It's only been up and running for just over a week and already got over 380 members. The functionality is also like ebay, e.g, BuyItNow, Auction Watch, Featured Items etc


Well done that man ;-)


RegNames

Ps, People should go and add there stuff to the site, It's totally FREE of charge....

 

[Duke]

Originally posted by IPatlas
IN any event, I was not going to compete with Ebay. I am not that ambitious and stupid.

IPAtlas - my mistake - i misread your initial post and thought you were talking about a general interest auction site. A specialized site for domain names only is a different story. Still a tough nut to crack - but I would not discourage you from trying that.

 

Originally posted by IPatlas
I plan no charging NO FEES for this service. There will be no commission or anything other than the private transaction exchanged between the parties. I will never sell members emails.

Revenue model?

I worry about doing business with businesses without a clear revenue model.

Miles

 

[IPatlas]

Originally posted by Namethink


I worry about doing business with businesses without a clear revenue model.

Miles

You are making me think this over. It is geting harder to count on ad revenue these days.
I am almost convinced I should not go ahead with this.

 

[joe]

One travels alone travels faster......

 

[mole]

Originally posted by IPatlas
I am almost convinced I should not go ahead with this.

Maybe you could set up a site that features seller postings on eBay instead. A small fee to better highlight their listing.

 

[IPatlas]

Originally posted by mole

Maybe you could set up a site that features seller postings on eBay instead. A small fee to better highlight their listing.

Couple of questions:

By "feature" do you mean as a "best of Ebay" selection or a back-up listing, a supporting link to the Ebay listing page.

Would this listing as a featured site be left up to the seller -- I mean would they logisticallly have to list twice, once with Ebay and once with me?

Wouldn't updating this site be a nightmare? I had a 20 second branstorm, and I thought I would have to monitor the featured listings on Ebay (to see if they ended, sold, relisted, extended, cancelled, etc). I would hate to end up with a bunch of "broken" or "auction ended" links. To automate this, I would in fact be creating a systme almost as elaborate as an auction system. Note:I don't think I can devote more than 5% of full time to this.

This is a great suggestion, wow. Please keep up the feedback so we can develop ideas like this!

 

[mole]

There are ways around it if you put your mind to it, Atlas.

Do what you think is important to your time. It's pretty hard to achieve a competitive advantage in this world. Ideas cannot fruite without effort.

dang, I'm sounding like Confucious.:dead:

 

[IPatlas]

Thanks, everyone's points are well taken!

 

[dotsofdomains]

Good luck!