Company confirms what we already thought.

It was fairly clear that Eagle, LLC was connected to Toys ‘R’ Us during the eToys bankruptcy auctions. Toys ‘R’ Us confirmed the suspicion today in an Associated Press article.

The article says the purchase price was not disclosed. Domain Name Wire already reported the purchase price of $2.15 M. This included a number of domain names and customer lists.

The acquisition is a big boost for Toys “R” Us, which will receive all of the traffic currently meant for eToys. eToys.com’s Compete.com rank is 14,059, suggesting the site receives hundreds of thousands of page views each month.

Sources tell us that the judge and debtors have not yet signed off on the deals at the domain auction, but that this should happen soon. [Update 4:58 PM CST: Domain Name Wire has reviewed court documents showing that the judge has approved the purchase. Interestingly, the document claims "The Sales Procedures obtained the highest and best value for the Purchased Assets". If they give this same line in the other sales, I'd argue it's not true. Here's the final asset purchase document including $2.15M amount.] The transcript of the auction should be made public in March, and I’ll post any interesting details in the auction transcript at that time.

One thing’s for sure: the companies that knew about this auction got good deals and didn’t want anyone else to know about it before it took place.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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These three companies are still buying domain names in the down market.

Domain buyers are fewer and further between in this down economy. But that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Here are three companies that still want to buy your domain names.

Oversee.net – parent company of Moniker , Snapnames , and DomainSponsor . Oversee.net is still buying domains and portfolios of domains. You shouldn’t expect to sell for what you would have two years ago, but the company still allocates a significant amount of cash to buying. The company will consider any non-trademarked, non-adult names. Although the company doesn’t divulge how it values domains, its seller inquiry form focuses on traffic and revenue.

NameMedia – parent company of BuyDomains , Afternic , and three domain parking companies. NameMedia sells domain names to end users, so domains need not have traffic as much as end user appeal. The company typically sells domains for $500-$5,000. It also understands it may hold onto the domains it buys for many years before selling them. So don’t expect to sell domains to NameMedia for what you could sell them to one-off investors. They buy in bulk and buy quickly. It’s called liquidity. You can submit your domains online at BuyDomains.

National A-1 – don’t try to sell your entire portfolio of decent domains to National A-1. They’re only looking for the Crème de la Crème. Category Killers. Here are some examples of domains they’ve purchased: free.com, fun.com, cash.com, divorce.com. National A-1 is looking for premium generics, especially ones that make sense for ecommerce web sites. It doesn’t hurt to have the singular and plural version of the domain, too. You can learn more about and contact National A-1 at here.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Results from DOMAINfest beg the question.

The advent of the live domain name auction has given the domain name industry a huge boost in both high dollar investor purchases and media attention. Two years ago in New York, Moniker ’s live domain name auction topped $10 million in sales.

Last month in Los Angeles, the live domain auction brought in only $800,000 over two nights selling 110 domain names. It wasn’t a big surprise given the economy and what’s going on in the industry.

Live auctions cost a lot of money to organize. In fact, when Moniker sold $10 million in one day a couple years ago, I wrote that Moniker wasn’t in the game to earn $1.5M in commissions. It wasn’t worth the effort. Moniker was in the game for the day it brought in $50 million in sales.

Unfortunately we’ve gone in the opposite direction.

But the bright spot from the auction was the silent online auction. It sold close to $500,000 in domain names. And it didn’t require an expensive auctioneer, spotters, and full bar to make it happen.

Do live auction domain names sell for more than they would in a silent auction? I would have answered yes a couple years ago. They get more attention. The auction fever and egos in the room push prices up. But I question this premise in today’s environment.

I don’t think Moniker should exit the live domain auction business. It should keep in the game, if nothing else for when the market returns. But I question holding auctions at all but the biggest events. And perhaps even those should be scaled back in favor or regular online auctions, similar to Sedo ’s Great Domains auctions.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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