Comments on: Yahoo Selling Off Domain Names : Unloads Contests.com for $380K

By: Domain Company

Domain Company — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:05:51 +0000

The sale would be nice for any small business. Considering that Yahoo has many experienced programmers and a marketing department I am surprised they did not first offer the domain name for sale at a set price. Would not take many resources to throw a few hours at trying to market their domain portfolio.

By: Indu Priya

Indu Priya — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:35:07 +0000

What I dont understand is why now? and for a very lower price?

I would use contests.com like a website directory site. So this would be a place for contest holders and participators.

Anyone who holds a contest (on any category like internet marketing, web design etc) can submit their contest details in this site. Anyone who wants to take the contest can visit this site.

I will make money with advertising.

By: dragonball

dragonball — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:54:22 +0000

Contests.com is NO Toys.com or Candy.com . Most contests that I see are Free, so it’s a bit harder to make money on then selling toys or candy.

Was the sale “cheap” for National A-1 (the buyer)? I think it was a pretty fair price for the market conditions at this point. The reserve was set at $150,000 and brought 15 bids in, so it could of sold cheaper.

By: muslim

muslim — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:51:41 +0000

Decent price for the buyer and seller from an outsiders perspective right now. Just a bad move to sell premium domains and not utilize them. I guess it’s just not the ‘direction’ they were heading. Decent price for the buyer and seller from an outsiders perspective right now. Just a bad move to sell premium domains and not utilize them. I guess it’s just not the ‘direction’ they were heading. free ebook islami

By: Brian Hancock

Brian Hancock — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:17:46 +0000

Agree with most of the sentiment here, they were lucky to get that much money for the domain. The estibot value is 170k so they got more than twice that appraisal. Also, like many said, most contests are not money makers – it’s not a clear product for sale like Toys.com.

By: art jewelry

art jewelry — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:45:48 +0000

A product is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. Period.

In a year or two, developed or not, the buyer may be able to sell it for more. Maybe.

I liked the comment from Mikeok regarding holding a contest – that is original thinking that could have really developed the property into something of greater value.

By: James

James — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:59:48 +0000

What’s the bet the new owner sells it on for a profit a short while down the line?!

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:19:28 +0000

I think that it is a fair price for such a domain name. I don’t think that contests.com is comparable to toys.com. Market value is market value. The market determines the price. If it represented a higher commercial price, I think it would have fetched it.

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:00:02 +0000

It’s very easy to say that it was cheap after the auction is over. It’s much easier to spend other peoples money (or criticize someone when they sell) then it is to put your money where your comments are :)

If you are paying this sort of money for good domains lmk too because I’ll put you on an email list with some premiums for sale. There’s never been a better time than right now. ;)

If this were “joe cybersquatter” the story would be about how some “jerk cybersquatter raped someone for $380k for a domain name”. Because it’s yahoo everyone is linkbating up their sites with this story. Pretty lame.

By: Alan Bleiweiss

Alan Bleiweiss — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:26:41 +0000

I think it’s perspective. My first take was – I could use an extra $380k right about now and that surely would be less than the $80 million I am visualizing, it’s more than my entire company’s annual revenue this year…

Once I got past that particular perspective though, and actually stepped (very briefly mind you) into the very uncomfortable shoes of Yahoo’s by now exhausted team of “OMG our 20th century belief that we have to continually drive new revenue models or we’re a miserable failure” managers, I think what they must have thought was it was a good idea at the time.

Except they should have had a minimum bid – probably at least seven figures yes?

Just look at some of the potential for about a better approach here in this one blog article and comments. It seems anyone EXCEPT Yahoo Management has the vision to see that potential. Then again, that speaks volumes about the flawed thinking over there doesn’t it?

Kind of like AOL, MySpace, and so many others. Here’s the issue though – Yahoo, (AOL, MySpace and all those others as well) isn’t run by entrepreneurs is it? Nope. It’s run by stuck-in-a-box corporate MBAs who are vastly incapable of thinking so creatively, or who, upon hearing drastically creative and visionary concepts, slap those suckers down faster than you can say “too risky” or “we didn’t think of that so it’s not an option”.