Folks - let me clarify and correct a lot of the chatter above.
Commissions for live asset auctions range from 15% - 25% on average. Christies, Sotheby's and others make their money this way. It is usually the Buyer who pays.
Listing services such as Afternic and Sedo charge 10% just to have your domains listed on their website for buyers to come and make offers â no marketing, no market creation, nothing.
Moniker is a premium domain sales service. Our average domain sale is more than 7X of all others in the market. We charge 20% for domain sales due to our efforts and our results. 15% is right in the middle of these two available markets in our domain space currently.
It was Also Moniker's idea to put this live auction together...to take the risk, chance, float the expense on the first auction to validate that it can work. For the absolute success we achieved, we earned the franchise rights to conduct all the Live Auctions at TRAFFIC events going forward and will conduct other live auctions throughout the year. We generated more sales for sellers and buyers than all other companies combined when conducting this event.
Moniker does not get 15% if there is a sale. There is an auctioneer, there is a fee to TRAFFIC, there is PR, Marketing, Sponsorship, Hosting fees for the silent auction, labor, etc. The escrow, legal, transfer, renewal fees are also all included. The seller pays the fee not the buyer. And 5% is not going to determine if a domain sells or not for those of you that cannot believe the commission rate.
This is not Real-estate where there is a vibrant supply and demand market. Domain sales are few and far between compared to other asset sales. One day hopefully, we will be looking at a market that is more like physical real-estate and you will see commissions look more like those types of transactions. In the mean time, remember the risk, the time, the effort, the intellectual property, and the previous two auctions success that even made this vehicle of selling domains possible. Also remember all the failed sales and the expense and time companies like mine put in every day to help sellers sell their domains. To bring a TRUE market in a room to buy and sell domains, to determine values, to transact with peers in an open forum is a rare occurance and one that has taken quite a bit of effort to pull off. How many $100K transactions are there with domains in a year? How many at even $10K? NOT Many...especially compared to real-estate or any other true asset sale. To have domains sell like this in a 3 hour event is a huge accomplishment and great for our industry. It validates it...and whether you think it is easy or deserved or not, no one else has pulled it off successfully accept Moniker.
Remember what your margins are in sales like this. For those of you who attended the last auction or those of you that did not, the process of weeding down a list of 4K names to 200 is not an easy task. However, although there were some names that should not have made it to auction, there were plenty that did. Almost 1/3 of all the domains presented sold! â 58 in all out of 169. That is incredible given we are talking domains here. Most sold 2X+ over there reserve price and generally everyone was pretty damn happy with the results and the event â buyers and sellers included.
So if you do not want your domains considered, do not enter them. We have 5 ways now to sell domains at Moniker and you can decide whether to participate or not. My guess is it will be your loss not to consider the opportunity but that will be up to you.
We are launching a brand new marketplace to buy and sell names within the next two weeks. It will interface with the live auction events (4 of them next year). We will also be conducting live silent auctions at each of these events. Our new marketplace will interface with TrafficClub and our For Sale Landing Page Systems as well as our domain availability checks and whois look ups will also provide opportunities for buyers and sellers of domain names. The new system will have a dynamic taxonomy search results display like no other. Plus we market domains to buyers and corporate.
There is currently no one that does the above and no one that has combined the primary and secondary markets together in one place.
Having been the one that created the actual domain sale and escrow process back in 1996 along with the invention and distribution of the first domain appraisal system to help determine values of domains, I know first hand how hard and rewarding this industry can be. It takes transactions of all types to validate our marketâ¦to invite outside investment dollars into our market, and to prove that there is in fact a true market of buyers and sellers. These events and the current offerings you see from companies today or just in their infancy. In 10 years, we will all look back and thank ourselves for even participating in these types of events and domain sales. To have a traditional live auction for an asset that you cannot touch, that is truly just a 10 year subscription and not really owned, that you cannot stand on or see (accept for virtually of course), is quite a feet to think about.
If you are interested in participating in the new offering and/or the upcoming auctions - just email
[email protected]. Those of you who want to hold your cards close to your chest and see how it goes for yet a 3rd time, go ahead. There will be 4-6 events a year to change your mind... and I am sure we will be copied as well...which validates it again.
In each of the past 3 events, we surpassed our goals of total sales. This event we are hoping to hit $5M. Some of the domains being presented are killer names at fair or below market prices. Others are high end and high dollar and may not sell at all...the market will decide and determine what happens.
