- They have way too many domains. They've chosen quantity over quality and that's never a good sign. If Thought Convergence runs this anything like the last couple of auctions, be prepared to be in for a very long evening of amateur auctioneering. They are good guys, but they don't keep a very quick pace to their auctions. I'm just saying.
- They have some really outrageous reserves for many of the good names. They'll not even receive an opening big on names like Conservationist.com ($45k) and HomePrices ($300k) which is a shame, because they are good domain names. There are several "so so" domain names that also have high reserves like Precocious.com ($11.5k) and QueenBee ($18k). Not bad names, but they aren't going to move at those prices. Maybe if they ramped them up for $5K they would get into 5 digits, but those are "buy it now" prices, not reserves. There's a difference people.
- Very little marketing - it's almost like they are embarrassed about the names or something. I haven't seen nearly as much publicity about this event as it should have gotten with some of the names that are in there
- Good names are diluted by bad. When you put a name like Contests.com in an auction beside BabyPrescriptions.com, it dilutes the auction. It would almost make sense to split the auction into "Bargain Bin" and "Premium" or something because the way it's done now is just not enticing to buyers.
There are some bright spots though, that might save the day. It's hard to have a domain auction today and not have something positive to say, right? Contests.com is a great name and the reserve isn't outrageous at $150k (I would have preferred to see it at $100k or so but that's just being picky :) ). Some of the sub $1k reserve names should do well - Monetize.org, WordLists.com, Ames.us, EarringStore.com, and JobFairs.info jump out at me personally, but not 5 figure well. And I may be wrong. It happens. Maybe they'll get some big ticket sales out of this auction and it makes the whole thing worthwhile, but if the whole auction nets more than $300k in sales, I'll be very surprised. When you're auctioning off over 200 names, $300k in sales ain't much to write home about.
If you are looking to bid, be patient. If the Train Wreck scenario plays out, there may be one or two deals to be had. Good luck to all involved.
