Yahoo’s sale of Contests.com was a win for everyone involved.

When Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) sold the domain name Contests.com on Tuesday, the mood was upbeat. It was a relatively big domain sale from a big company for a lot more money than the seller anticipated.

I was surprised to see some people questioning the sale. Larry Fischer made some fair points. TechCrunch went a little overboard, suggesting this was more than just a simple decision to sell an unused domain. (People who read the TC article took it a step further. Two commentors thought it was some sort of inside deal as a favor to the buyer. Gotta love conspiracy theorists.)

Here’s my take: it was a good domain sale. The seller got more than they required and the buyer probably would have paid more.

Yahoo set a reserve of $150,000 and was willing to take that much. The buyer was determined and probably would have gone higher had an internet bidder not pulled out at $360,000. But is $380,000 that bad for this domain?

It’s true that the domain was inserted into the auction relatively late. That may have to do with internal reviews at Yahoo. But the level of promotion inside the domain industry was better than for just about any domain sold at a live domain auction: a solo email blast to qualified buyers. Buyers knew about it and there were many qualified bidders at the auction who decided not to participate. It was very different from Toys.com, in which only a handful of bidders were aware and kept the secret to themselves.

This sale can only be good for the industry. So I’m just going to treat it as what it was: a good sale in which both the buyer and seller are happy.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Whois for Importers.com changes to whois privacy.

It appears that Live Current Media (OTCbb: LIVC.ob) may be in the process of closing a sale for Importers.com. The whois record for the domain name showed Communicate.com (Live Current’s former name) on June 16 but now shows Go Daddy’s whois privacy. Live Current hasn’t made similar changes on its other domain names except when they were sold.

In April I was able to determine that the company had sold Vietnam.com because its whois record changed. It briefly changed to a broker’s name before changing to Go Daddy whois privacy. In this case the record immediately changed to whois privacy, so it’s unclear if the domain has actually sold and who the buyer is.

Live Current Media has been liquidating its prized domain names to raise capital. In addition to Vietnam.com, it recently sold Body.com for $400,000 and likely sold Malaysia.com for a similar price.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Yahoo sells domain name during Domain Roundtable auction.

Search and media giant Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) has sold the domain name Contests.com for $380,000 during a live domain name auction in Washington, D.C. The domain started at a $150,000 price before receiving 15 bids from 3 different bidders. Two of the bidders were on site at the auction and one was online. The domain appears to have been picked up when Yahoo acquired Broadcast.com. Historical records show the domain was owned by AudioNet (the original name of Broadcast.com).

The Domain Roundtable auction hosted by Aftermarket.com featured over 70 domain names in the live auction, with over 100 more slated for an extended online auction. The auction started with 5 domain names auctioned to benefit Internet Commerce Association (ICA). The top sale benefiting ICA was Castaway.com, which received 27 bids and sold for $9,500.

Other domains sold benefiting ICA included SecureWeb.com ($2,250), ParkingShare.com ($300), PayoffBills.com ($1,500), and Deployed.com ($1,250).

After Contests.com, the highest sale was WeightLifting.com WeightTraining.com for $19,000. Other notable sales included CharmBracelet.com for $12,500 (sold by Houston, TX based Internet REIT) and BabySwing.com.

The extended online auction continues at Aftermarket.com.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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