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When
Heritage Auctions (HA.com)
became the first of the world's
three
biggest auction houses to offer aftermarket
domain names last
summer, people throughout the
industry were understandably elated.
In one fell swoop, HA placed domain names
and other intellectual |
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property
on the same top shelf occupied by
traditional investment quality
assets and collectibles like fine art,
sports memorabilia, rare coins, wine,
movie posters and more. |
HA's
first domain auction, held last month, wound up
generating more than $1.5 million in
sales, including proceeds coming from deals that
closed in the days immediately after the live
event was held in New York City on
November 21. HA put those domains that sold in
front of the kind of well heeled end users
that domain owners have always dreamed of
reaching. Even
those who did not have domains in the auction benefited
from the bright spotlight that accompanied HA's
debut in the business. When something goes up
for sale at Sotheby's, Christie's
or Heritage Auctions, the assumption in
mainstream media, is that things of high
value are being offered. Publications
ranging from general business giant Forbes
to specialty magazines like Coin World
wrote about the HA domain sale (though,
ironically, the more famous Forbes botched
the story while the lesser known Coin
World got it right!).
Shot
of Steve Roach's article about HA's
domain auction in Coin World
magazine.
Coin
World editor Steve
Roach wrote about the value of
category defining domains in an article he wrote
about coin related names like Numismatics.com
that sold in the HA auction for $17,250
(numismatics is "the study and collection
of coins and medals"). If that domain had
been sold somewhere other than at one of the
world's biggest mainstream auction houses - one
the routinely sells rare coins - it is highly
unlikely that it (and a lesson on domain
value) would never have come to the
attention of Roach or his readers. In
their pre-sale promotion HA spent a lot of time
and effort in educating clients who could
benefit from specific names about how those
domains could benefit their businesses,
making a purchase one that would pay for
itself in the long run. After the sale,
articles in publications that never wrote about
domains in the past, continue to educate people
about the value of assets that many in this
industry have been aware for close to two
decades now. It is something we've all been
waiting a long time to see and with HA now on
the playing field (which has to have caught
Sotheby's and Christie's attention as well) it
is a process that will likely accelerate
in the months and years ahead. That can only be
a good thing for domains.
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