Bond.com was pushed to Sedo auction last Thursday with an initial bid of $100. The auction has seen coverage from the likes of Sky News and various other websites around the net.
An article on vnunet.com reads:
“It is thought that bidding will easily exceed the reserve, setting up the web address to reach a record price.”
I’ve been keeping an eye on proceedings and I have to say so far, I’m pretty dissappointed. It seems the interest that was initially shown in the domain has dried up and there have been very few bids. The auction ends in just under three hours and although many auctions see a flurry of activity in the dying minutes I don’t see this one breaking any records.
You have to ask yourself just how this domain could be monetised? The majority of people expect that it will be used for a James Bond related site but Sony Pictures own the rights to ’Bond’ and any infraction could result in hefty fines. I doubt Sony Pictures would be interested - they already own jamesbond.com which diverts to 007.com so they’ve got everything pretty much covered.
It seems to me that Sedo have set a very optimistic reserve, $1m? I can’t see it reaching anywhere near that value. Many people are comparing it to the likes of porn.com which is ridiculous… Both domains have four letters, that’s where the similarities end. The adult entertainment industry is incredibly diverse and worth billions… A fictional character to which Sony Pictures has the rights, a financial security debt system or even a brand of glue will never top that in terms of ROI.
My guess is that it won’t even meet the reserve… we will find out soon enough!
April 24th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Sold to the proper buyer, settig it as the financial security debt instrument that it is would have given this the proper uptick it deserves.
SkyNews et al coverage is really only for the masses. Free advice for them would have been to go to the business markets, business press/media, and sell there instead, since that is the market with far deeper pockets than the consumers who are the target of all the hoopla surrounding the domain thus far.
April 24th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
That’s exactly right Nicolas, all of the promotion advertising this as ‘James Bond’s’ domain is ridiculous and merely promotes it as a collectable… It won’t reach the correct clientele, will alienate them more and damage the names potential.
April 26th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Yeah, at just 75K this ended way too low.
Jay even put his email there to answer the questions.
Another thing is similar high value domains that sold were reasonably suspected of putting shill bids to help encourage the natural buyers to hit the reserve..
fund.com got $10M, so I think bond could that $1M if they find an interested buyer.
April 27th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Thanks for the comment Michael… I’ve been trying to find someone who knows how much the auction ran to!
I think this domain would sell well if it was marketed correctly… sadly this wasn’t the case and it will be very difficult to alter peoples perception as to what this domain should be used for in the future.
Rich