My picks for the Aftermarket.com auction were right 82% of the time.

I used a stunningly complex methodology to pick the winners in yesterday’s Aftermarket.com auction at Domainer Mardi Gras: I made a gut call on whether or not someone would bid on the name. Yep, that’s it. No complex algorithms. No looking up advertiser or traffic counts. Just making a call.

I was right 82% of the time. I underestimated the number of domains that would sell. I predicted 57%; I calculate a 69% sell-through rate. Aftermarket.com is clearly setting the bar for sell-through rates in auctions. This feeds on itself; if a domain is in an Aftermarket.com auction then you can be fairly sure it’s a worthy domain at the price.

Here are the domains that sold that I missed:

CandyCane.com – $10,000 – I’m still shaking my head on this one. The plural makes absolute sense, but the singular doesn’t mean much to me. Oh well.

Jobless.com – $14,000 – not only did it sell, but it had 4 bids. I’ve always thought of it as unemployed, not jobless, but clearly this domain is counter cyclical

AirlineRewards.com – I’ve very happy this one sold. I bought it at auction a couple years ago, sold it to Craig Rowe of WhyPark last year, and then he turned around and sold it. Both of us sold it for more than we bought it, which just goes to show the market is still strong for lower priced domains.

Voodoo.com – OK, I just didn’t think someone would pull out 300 Gs at the auction. Well done. Kudos to DomainConsultant for having the guts to put this one in the auction.

ExerciseGuide.com
Suntanning.com
Dreamy.com

Here are the domains I thought would sell that didn’t:

RentalVillas.com
CashforSites.com

I’m sure Aftermarket.com is patting itself on the back for this auction. Between another solid sell-through rate and the Voodoo.com sale, it surely met expectations. Keep in mind that this auction had only 51 domains, compared to 200 or more at most domain auctions.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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