In late October, the domain name Mineral.com was sold for $30,000 dollars, at a Flippa auction.
Whether you want to use it for mineral water, or a particular mineral rock or crystal, this is a true generic with a valuation in the six figure range.
The 20 year old domain was placed in auction with no reserve and a starting price of $1 dollar.
Despite a wide promotion and brokering by Domain Holdings, the six figure range that its owner wanted, wasn’t reached.
At a time when generic .com domains have appreciated into the six and seven figure territory, the auction result of Mineral.com was definitely disappointing.
Somehow though, this sale is currently being used as an example of how to quickly liquidate a domain.
That should be a reminder to anyone aiming for liquidity versus ROI maximization: you end up leaving a lot of money on the table.
Auctioning a premium domain without a reserve can never achieve the results of controlled brokering.
That Flippa.com and Domain Holdings are using the sale of Mineral.com as a success story is beyond dumb because:
a)Mineral.com is a 6-figure domain
b) It shows Domain Holdings brokers are not out to max the amount of money sellers get and patiently contacting end-users but they are also conflicted in that Flippa.com needs to have action to keep it as a top marketplace and it is easy to just list a domain and get the check.
c)Hobi Michalec got the current liquid value out of Mineral.com and into the sellers pockets but category defining domains should never be sold for the liquid value unless the owner is going broke otherwise the owner leaves a lot of money on the table.
d) Value add in this sale By the broker is questionable. Same price would have probably been gotten through simple Sedo or Godaddy auctions listing
e)The fact that Hobi Michalec “credits” Monte Cahn with the “strategy” used to sell Mineral.com is embarrassing for Monte and makes Hobi seem like an over-eager student at his first job.
f)Targeting potential end-users DURING the auction is completely braindead because companies are slowed By internal bureaucracy so 99% can’t make a decision that…
End users should be targeted for at least 6 months prior to the auction to give the companies internal bureaucracy time to consider, ask for counsel and decice on strategy and make a budget for the possible purchase.
Even if you reach a person inside the Company who could help you evangelise the decision makers on the value of acquiring the domain, usually management type who gets things and wants to get a promotion in the future By showing initiative, they will usually NOT stick their neck out unless they know that there is time to process the decision.
Probability of CEO getting the value of domains is low otherwise they would have bought them already so you need to target lower level management (and not the advertising side or the marketing side because they want to get money for their creativity and keep getting that money for their creativity and a great domain is sort of a competitor to their aims because it will many times lead to lower advertising and marketing costs thereby reducing the slice the marketing types and advertising types get) and lower level management will not take the initiative to make things happen if they know the decision can NOT be made on time.