CYBERSPACE—There were plenty of winners at the recent DomainFest New York, but there were also plenty of unsold domains, including XXX.com, which failed to meet its reserve of $5 million.
After sales from the main auction and the extended auction were tallied, a total of 36 domains were sold for a total of $3 million and change. That left approximately 85 domains out of the original batch that failed to sell.
In addition to the most expensive domain on the block—XXX.com—some other seemingly excellent domains remain available, including Koran.com (with a reserve range of $250,001-$500,00), Night.com (same range), LocalNews.com ($100,001-$25,000), Voters.com ($50,001-$100,00), Alcohol.com ($1M-$5M) and Lawsuits.com ($250,001-$500,00), to name a few. Actually, XXX.com shared the top asking price of $5 million with Patents.com, which also failed to find a taker.
The mixed results led the N.Y. Daily News to label the auction a “Dot com bust” in its headline, with the lede, “You know the economy is on unsteady ground when sex doesn't sell,” but also noted the fantastic deals that some of the buyers walked away with.
“At $3,000, ChiantiWine.com is a fraction of what an anonymous bidder paid in 1997 for a 1945 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild jeroboam: $114,614,” wrote Lindsay Goldwert for the Daily News, adding, “One buyer, hoping to cash in on the MTV reality show phenomenon, scored a deal with JerseyShores.com.
“The price: $300.
“Another big winner was Disco.com, which sold for $250,000. The sale seems proof that trends, both on and offline may come and go but the much-maligned genre will never die.”
It’s hard to know whether XXX.com is in a much-maligned category—porn seems to be so “in” these days—but at 20 times the asking price of Disco.com, its owners have thus far failed to find a well-heeled lover.
