Article from DomainConsultant.com

An Insider’s Look at the DRT Auction That Was

Imagine my sheer excitement when, after years of trying, we finally got a conference holder to agree to domainer analysis and counseling in regards to their live auction offerings.

Now imagine our dismay when we were sent only 8,000 of the submissions - cherry-picked to within an inch of its sad-sack life.

In fact, we were later told they had an ALTERNATE list that numbered fifteen thousand. Alternate. We were given 8,000 very subpar names to choose from – out of 35,000 submissions.

But we soldiered on, convinced that simple involvement in the process had to produce something good, a better offering for domainers perhaps? We also got involved for the learning experience, allowing us to be extra “flexible” for the sake of our own education.

DRT told us to pick 25 names from the list for the auction and funny how domainers think alike – each individual involved was given the submission list and told to submit fifty choices from the list. All the submitted lists were almost identical. From 8,000, we all picked pretty much the same domain names.

From the top 50, we voted on the top 25 and submitted it to DRT for the auction. To their sincere credit, they were smart enough to get involved with us in the first place but perhaps too proud and stubborn to really adhere to our advice and suggestions. It is easy to second guess in this difficult process and even easier to criticize from the armchair.

They accepted the first 25 and sent us the full auction list they were considering. We instantly spotted issues like too many low, low priced names. Too much crap no one would buy or would because it was cheap enough. The opposite problem was with the high end, too many premium names priced for end-user buyers or just plain overpriced.

So you had two big pieces of bread and no meat between them. So we set out to put the auction on the Atkins Diet - remove the bread, add the protein.

Our opportunity came on Saturday afternoon in San Francisco at the Palace Hotel with a DRT exec - going down the list of 391 names and giving our recommendation on each one. We rated them “yes”, “no” or “maybe” – which meant it might be a ‘yes’ if the reserve was lowered by the seller.

The exec informed us that the purpose of our ‘tribunal’ was to shorten the auction list by removing 50-75 names with a goal of 325-350.

Hours of discussion and many cigs later, we had Ginsu’d 200 names from the list, bringing it to a lean 190 or so. We were excited and tired and somewhat content with the list. We had successfully dumped the day-old Ciabatta and put a conference-quality chuck-round in its place. Not a filet mignon mind you, yet far better than that stale white bread.

We went to the TrafficZ party and all was marginally well with the world up until roughly 11:00am Monday morning, when I awoke to find the ORIGINAL list ready to be auctioned.

To say the least, we were stupified. What had we done all day? And worse, some of our Top 25 had been pulled and others from our second top 25 had been sprinkled in.

The rest, as they say, is DRT history. The resulting event was cumbersome and awful, biblical in scale and scope. There are few words that apply without due censorship. Needless to say, we left and spent the afternoon mingling around the park - even though it was freezing.

In the end, they selected forty-one from our top 50 list for the auction – oddly removing four high-quality names from our top 25. Of those 41, fifteen have sold as of the date of this printing – or 37%.

At first glance, that may not be something to be proud of - but we are.

We selected those forty-one names from a raked over, pruned list of 8,000 crappy-ass domains. We think thirty-seven percent is pretty damn good considering what we were given and put through. And some of them may still sell as there are some deals we chose waiting to be snatched up.

So many missteps indeed (yes, on our part too) but at the same time you have to consider the effects of other variables such as lack of bidders, promotion and quality inventory – the supply is finite in this regard and can manifest itself in any time or cycle or season.

From those 8,000 names, I can tell you first-hand that the submissions are not generally high-quality, low priced fare to say the least. It’s all ‘crap’ – in the eyes of the domainer but not necessarily the end-user.

The ultimate lesson gleaned from the DRT auction may be that those looking for bona fide ‘deals’ should look elsewhere or pony-up for quality, as every auction is slave to the quality pool and pricing of the submissions. This may be the current impasse separating buyers from sellers, affecting and deflecting liquidity from the market.

Fortunately for us, it was not a complete loss of time and energy and expense for if you are even mildly astute you can extrapolate the entire formula for failure from the above account. Yes, many times ‘failure’ is the prerequisite for ‘success.’

Indeed, for us, the benefit lies in having and documenting the experience, in creating and working on our own ‘alternate’ formula along the way - the formula for a successful auction that lies just up ahead.

COMMENTARY
We apologize to domainers and peers and hope you understand we made every effort but it was an Everest climb almost from day one and we lost consciousness near the summit, in the death zone. We believe we can produce far better offerings and results if given the proper chance.

Read the follow-up piece to this article, In The Final Analysis posted 04.29.08

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Recently Rated & Appraised LosAngeles.com SanFrancisco.com Seattle.com Houston.com Philadelphia.com Denver.com Recent News 04.29.08 In The Final Analysis... Closing the Book on DRT 2008 Follow-up piece to our popular story about DomainConsultant's involvement in the DRT Auction. 04.23.08 Formula for Failure An Insider's Look at the DRT Auction Get the full details on how DRT brought in domainers to review and make recommendations for the live auction and the tragic events that followed.	Formula for Failure An Insider’s Look at the DRT Auction That Was Imagine my sheer excitement when, after years of trying, we finally got a conference holder to agree to domainer analysis and counseling in regards to their live auction offerings. Now imagine our dismay when we were sent only 8,000 of the submissions - cherry-picked to within an inch of its sad-sack life. In fact, we were later told they had an ALTERNATE list that numbered fifteen thousand. Alternate. We were given 8,000 very subpar names to choose from – out of 35,000 submissions. But we soldiered on, convinced that simple involvement in the process had to produce something good, a better offering for domainers perhaps? We also got involved for the learning experience, allowing us to be extra “flexible” for the sake of our own education. DRT told us to pick 25 names from the list for the auction and funny how domainers think alike – each individual involved was given the submission list and told to submit fifty choices from the list. All the submitted lists were almost identical. From 8,000, we all picked pretty much the same domain names. From the top 50, we voted on the top 25 and submitted it to DRT for the auction. To their sincere credit, they were smart enough to get involved with us in the first place but perhaps too proud and stubborn to really adhere to our advice and suggestions. It is easy to second guess in this difficult process and even easier to criticize from the armchair. They accepted the first 25 and sent us the full auction list they were considering. We instantly spotted issues like too many low, low priced names. Too much crap no one would buy or would because it was cheap enough. The opposite problem was with the high end, too many premium names priced for end-user buyers or just plain overpriced. So you had two big pieces of bread and no meat between them. So we set out to put the auction on the Atkins Diet - remove the bread, add the protein. Our opportunity came on Saturday afternoon in San Francisco at the Palace Hotel with a DRT exec - going down the list of 391 names and giving our recommendation on each one. We rated them “yes”, “no” or “maybe” – which meant it might be a ‘yes’ if the reserve was lowered by the seller. The exec informed us that the purpose of our ‘tribunal’ was to shorten the auction list by removing 50-75 names with a goal of 325-350. Hours of discussion and many cigs later, we had Ginsu’d 200 names from the list, bringing it to a lean 190 or so. We were excited and tired and somewhat content with the list. We had successfully dumped the day-old Ciabatta and put a conference-quality chuck-round in its place. Not a filet mignon mind you, yet far better than that stale white bread. We went to the TrafficZ party and all was marginally well with the world up until roughly 11:00am Monday morning, when I awoke to find the ORIGINAL list ready to be auctioned. To say the least, we were stupified. What had we done all day? And worse, some of our Top 25 had been pulled and others from our second top 25 had been sprinkled in. The rest, as they say, is DRT history. The resulting event was cumbersome and awful, biblical in scale and scope. There are few words that apply without due censorship. Needless to say, we left and spent the afternoon mingling around the park - even though it was freezing. In the end, they selected forty-one from our top 50 list for the auction – oddly removing four high-quality names from our top 25. Of those 41, fifteen have sold as of the date of this printing – or 37%. At first glance, that may not be something to be proud of - but we are. We selected those forty-one names from a raked over, pruned list of 8,000 crappy-ass domains. We think thirty-seven percent is pretty damn good considering what we were given and put through. And some of them may still sell as there are some deals we chose waiting to be snatched up. So many missteps indeed (yes, on our part too) but at the same time you have to consider the effects of other variables such as lack of bidders, promotion and quality inventory – the supply is finite in this regard and can manifest itself in any time or cycle or season. From those 8,000 names, I can tell you first-hand that the submissions are not generally high-quality, low priced fare to say the least. It’s all ‘crap’ – in the eyes of the domainer but not necessarily the end-user. The ultimate lesson gleaned from the DRT auction may be that those looking for bona fide ‘deals’ should look elsewhere or pony-up for quality, as every auction is slave to the quality pool and pricing of the submissions. This may be the current impasse separating buyers from sellers, affecting and deflecting liquidity from the market. Fortunately for us, it was not a complete loss of time and energy and expense for if you are even mildly astute you can extrapolate the entire formula for failure from the above account. Yes, many times ‘failure’ is the prerequisite for ‘success.’ Indeed, for us, the benefit lies in having and documenting the experience, in creating and working on our own ‘alternate’ formula along the way - the formula for a successful auction that lies just up ahead. COMMENTARY We apologize to domainers and peers and hope you understand we made every effort but it was an Everest climb almost from day one and we lost consciousness near the summit, in the death zone. We believe we can produce far better offerings and results if given the proper chance. Read the follow-up piece to this article, In The Final Analysis posted 04.29.08 # # # #
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