iEstates.com

It’s official, Aftermarket.com’s Domain Roundtable 2009 auction is over. Grand total with 92 domain name sales is $580,974. Highlight of the auction was the sale of Contests.com for $380,000. The below results are directly from Aftermarket.com. Domain Name HolidayLoan.com SleepSafe.com Slices.org AdvisoryFund.com AffordableTrip.com AnyCash.com ArmyTraining.com AustrianTours.com BabyPrescriptions.com BasicStorage.com BigWallet.com CanadaBeer.com CanadianFlights.com CartoonLinks.com CashAllowance.com CashForAutos.com CasinoLocations.com ChildrenHotline.com ChocolateGirls.com Clears.com ClockRepairs.com Couplescam.com Datafiles.com DirtyTalker.com DreamCard.com EarringStore.com eQuestion.com FootPatrol.com Formulating.com GetawayFare.com HappyTV.com HealthAdvisory.com iComputing.com JackpotClub.com K2Expedition.com KidsSwimsuits.com Larger.com LED.org MarineWelding.com MotorcyclePolicy.com OnlineDollars.com Portabellos.com RoomPurifiers.com Soccerland.com SoySnacks.com SpamGuards.com SpringBreakJobs.com StreetLife.com TheSportsbook.com TopMortgage.com VeniceLawyer.com WeatherGPS.com WebsiteBrowser.com Whammer.com 3GPhones.com Adjusted.com AudioEditing.com Autotuners.com BabySwing.com BaseballJerseys.net Bicentennial.com Bullfighter.com Castaway.com CharmBracelet.com CommunityCollege.info Contests.com Covenants.com Cower.com CustomBoots.com Deployed.com DivorceDocuments.com eNew.com Exhaustion.com EyePencil.com FederalProjects.com FluSeason.org Gettingby.com LoanPayments.com Monetize.org MonthlyPlanner.com ParkingShare.com PayoffBills.com Pitches.com Pommade.com Schizophrenic.com SecureWeb.com TechTip.com TeenPhones.com UniversalPolicy.com WeddingTuxedo.com WeightLossCalculator.com WeightTraining.com Wordlists.com Sold Price $650 $300 $600 $150 $150 $150 $300 $300 $300 $100 $1000 $500 $150 $300 $450 $150 $150 $150 $600 $1500 $1200 $850 $150 $150 $700 $670 $850 $500 $150 $150 $662 $2245 $150 $5000 $100 $1200 $24800 $8000 $225 $150 $300 $650 $1500 $600 $500 $522 $300 $12200 $7500 $1250 $150 $150 $150 $150 $3500 $2000 $750 $750 $12000 $500 $3000 $5500 $9500 $12500 $1000 $380000 $3300 $1500 $1400 $1250 $1400 $3800 $4500 $1000 $750 $500 $750 $2500 $750 $1200 $300 $1500 $4900 $1000 $8000 $2250 $1850 $700 $500 $1100 $1500 $19000 $1000

Start date: Friday, July 3rd, 2009, start price: 1.00, description: Travel and Geo names are among the most sought after and developed categories of domains and RockyMountains.us is a giant of a name.
 
RockyMountains.us is one of the largest .US domains (by acreage) and could become one of the largest US tourism websites if developed to match its real potential.
 
Every year millions of tourists from all over the world come to the Rocky Mountains take in its scenic areas and enjoy numerous recreational opportunities. People visit the area to sightsee, hike, camp, and enjoy the many mountain sports, especially skiing. Tourism is big bucks in the Rockies and keen-eyed hunters will bag some of those too.
 
During the spring, summer and fall months, some of the most beautiful natural scenery in the USA is found within the Rocky Mountains region. Well-known tourist attractions are the Rocky Mountain National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Glacier National Park, and Pikes Peak, and a wide range of other entertainment nvenues venues such as the Sundance Film festival.
 
In the winter months skiers from around the world travel to the Rocky Mountains to over 80 different mountain resorts. When you really want to ski in the USA, you ski in the Rocky Mountains. A few of the most well known ski areas include Apsen, Vail, Breckenridge, Snowmass, Telluride, Alta, Jackson Hole, Steamboat and Sun Valley.
 
Whether you plan to build it out now or secure it for future development, grab RockyMountains.us today. This big piece of real estate may not be available again.
 
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The Associated Press is reporting that the former chief of U.S. cyber security is the leading candidate to become the next CEO of ICANN, replacing Dr. Paul Twomey. Meanwhile, an ICANN VP confirms they want to change the UDRP rules in favor of a URS that would drastically reduce your rights.

Start date: Monday, July 6th, 2009, start price: 1.00, description: Terms like "foreclosure" and "bankruptcy" are commonly used in this era of financial instability.  There is definitely a market for services assisting homeowners with avoiding losing their homes and trying to regain firm financial footing.  A site such as foreclosurealculator.com could be used to provide advice to homeowners who are at risk of foreclosure.  By providing tips on how to refinance a mortgage or showing the lowest current mortgage rates, such a site could be an invaluable tool for the troubled homeowner. 

Please see media tab for video content related to this domain name.

This is a no reserve auction and bidding starts at $1. If your pre-bid wins the auction, you will get a 2% cashback bonus. You may place your pre-bid now to instantly get in on the action.

Good luck, and happy bidding!.

Back on June 1 we told you about a new proposal by the IRT a group of trademark holders who have committee status with ICANN and their proposal for a Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) for all new gTLD’s.  In that post we told you that this was going to be a problem for all domains holders, including existing extensions like .com, .net and .org.

Today, in a very negative article on domaining,  entitled “Domain Name Wars:Rise of the Cybersqatters,  VP of ICANN Paul Levins made it clear that trademark holders and ICANN want the proposed rapid take down rules to apply to all existing extensions as well as the new gTLD’s which they have been proposed for :

“ICANN may be able to apply the new rules as existing registrar contracts expire, Levins says. “We may be able to retrofit the features that are in the new GTLD agreements to address abuse.”

The computerworld.com article goes on to say:

“the GTLD issue has intensified the focus on trademark abuse in domain names, and the matter now has ICANN’s full attention. So the GTLD proposals could be a catalyst for change.”"

Domainers need to understand that your entire business model is under attack.  The article goes on to quote a rep of Verizon who says: “Even domain-parking sites that don’t include advertising are a problem”

Bottom line read the 9 page article for yourself and then join the ICA.

Just to warn everyone, there is a phishing attacked underway, aimed at Godaddy.com account holders.

I received over 100 e-mail overnight purporting to be from Godaddy.com seeking you to log in to your account, however the link in the e-mail goes the domain cyber-edge.com which is unrelated to Godaddy.com.  I consider this a a brazen attack, because the domain used in the phishing e-mail is actually registered with Godaddy.com, which may trick some into thinking it is a legit e-mail, which is certainly is not

I have notified Godaddy.com about the situation.

If you get one of these e-mails do NOT click on the link and give out your account info.

Here is how the e-mail reads:

“”"”Dear Customer,

This notification is generated automatically as a service to you.

Because of unusual number of invalid login attempts on you account, we had to believe that, their might be some security problem on you account. So we have decided to put an extra verification process to ensure your identity and your account security.
Please click on sign in to domain servers to continue to the verification process and ensure your account security. It is all about your security. Thank you. and visit the customer service section.

please contact us within 1 days.

If you need to address this matter, or in any way need further assistance or technical support, call us any time at (480) 505-8877 or email us at support@godaddy.com. We appreciate your business!

Sincerely,
GoDaddy.com DomainAlert team”"”"

Back In March we posted a blog, about the problem that NameJet.com was having with  non-paying bidders.

Today NameJet.com announced, a tougher new policy towards deadbeat bidders (my term, not NameJet’s; Namejet calls them non-paying or defaulting bidders)

NameJet.com amended its TOS, regarding payment, as follows:

“”"2.   Payment For Domains.

2.1. Creating an account with us and bidding on domain names at NameJet is free. If you are the winning bidder at auction, NameJet may, at its sole discretion, require you to tender payment for the domain name in the manner of its choosing, including but not limited to credit card, debit account, or wire transfer. All payments charged and collected by NameJet are non-refundable. We may choose to change our credits policy and such changes are effective when we post the changes on the Site. We may, in our sole discretion, change some or all of our services at any time. In the event we introduce a new service, any fees for that service are effective at the launch of the service. Unless otherwise stated, all payment must be made in U.S. Dollars. By using our services, you agree that you are responsible for making all payment associated with using our service and the Site and all applicable taxes and those payments are due immediately upon demand or may be charged to your credit card number or debited to your account which you have provided to us and are non-refundable. In the event of a charge reversal or chargeback by a credit card company or other payment provider, or if we determine in our sole discretion that we are unable or unlikely to collect payment, any associated domain registration will immediately terminate and/or the domain name will be transferred to NameJet as the paying entity for the registration.

2.2. In the event that you default on making payment to NameJet after being named the winning bidder, NameJet reserves the right to charge, and you agree to pay, a fee for defaulting on payment, the amount of which shall be determined by NameJet. You will be considered in default if you fail to pay within seven (7) calendar days from the date that the auction closes.  After seven days, your account will be placed in “past due” status and you will be unable to bid for, or place any backorder on, any domain name on the NameJet Platform until you make payment.  If you fail to make your payment within fourteen (14) days from the date the auction closes, your account will be closed permanently. Verified Bidders shall have an additional seven (7) days to make payment before their accounts are closed.”"”

In discussing this matter with Mr. Steve Brown, General Manager of NameJet.com, he  further described the policy as:

“”"You now must pay for the domain you won or have your account closed.

Once their account is in a past due status bidders will not be able to move forward with any current auctions or backorders.  When they are in a past due status they will not be awarded any domain for an auction that they are currently winning and they will not be added to auctions that are starting while they are in a past due status.

New accounts will not be permitted for individuals or companies that have their accounts closed by this process, we will proactively seek out related accounts”"”"

While we welcome this tougher policy we wonder if its going to be tough enough to stop some of the big time, big money domains from going on paid for an having to be re-auctioned.

Take the case of Toxic.com.

The domain, Toxic.com  sold for $56,566 on May 4th.  The high bidder defaulted and the domain was re-auctioned on  May 17 for $40,500 .

However, the second auction winner has not paid for the domain and Toxic.com, is starting to live up to its billing, and maybe making a third appearance in a NameJet  auction shortly.

Like you we are frustrated seeing domains go unpaid for, and as bidders we hate bidding against people who have opened unpaid auction items.

There are domainers who track bidders and there payment history.  I know this for a fact because I get e-mails from people on this issue every week.

Hopefully by enforcing this tougher policy and watching all new accounts to make sure they are not related to any deadbeat bidders,  there will be fewer non-paying winners at NameJet.com, especially for big money domains.

The second issue that bothered me about non-paying bidders, is that the domain, subject to the defaulting high bidder, was placed into a public auction.

My opinion is that a re-auction should be opened only to those originally in the auction.  By placing a domain that was in a closed auction, into a public auction, upon the default of high bidder, only served to punish those who were in the original auction and was bidding against someone who either had no intention or ability to pay.

NameJet.com is announcing today that in the future any re-auction will be opened only to those who were in the original auction.

I think this is a fairer policy for all involved.

People who were bidding against a deadbeat bidder were  victims in the scenario and should not be punished by having the auction opened up to the whole world.

We applaud NameJet.com for taking action to attempt to correct this problem and hope it is enough to stop the nonsense.

For the second day in a row, a major entity in the geodomain space has announced a major development partnership deal involving a generic keyword domain. This time it is the Castello Brothers (PalmSprings.com, Nashville.com, etc.) who are joining forces with LZ Domains to build out Suntan.com.

Just following up on our story yesterday, the domain eHelp.com sold for $42,801 and is a nice sale if its get’s paid for and sticks (Toxic.com still looks like its unpaid for the 2nd time).

Yesterday, a couple of other nice domains sold at NameJet.com including santabarbarajobs.com for $1,550, InformationAge.com for $2,665, moneyplanning.com for $3,412, GameMall.com for $3,780 and NewZealand.org for $13,101.

Personally I grabbed manalapanhomes.com for $69, guess I was the only one who back ordered this domain, which is surprising since it is a very wealthy area of high priced homes in both NJ and FL.
Congrats to all buyers.

After a quartet of six-figure sales last week, the aftermarket downshifted a gear this week with the mid-level drawing the biggest crowd. We saw a larger group of five-figure sales than usual and also witnessed the continuing strength of ccTLDs as country codes took 6 of the first 10 spots on our weekly Top 20 chart.