Who here remembers the 2002 auDA auctions? I know I do!
At the time, auDA auctioned off some 3,000 generic domain names that were previously quarantined. They were quarantined because it was feared granting any one of them to any one business would give that business an unfair market advantage.
The auction took place via the auction site Stuff.com.au, with many domain names that have now sold for 5 figures or 6 figures going for as little as $1,000 at the time.
Flowers.com.au sold for $153,000 and Cars.com.au sold for $141,000. Both have since sold to Interflora and CarSales respectively. However, the most popular domain names (by number of bidders) were:
1. computers.com.au
2. design.com.au
3. computer.com.au
4. software.com.au
5. finance.com.au
6. health.com.au
7. web.com.au
8. marketing.com.au
9. internet.com.au
10. security.com.au
Finance.com.au would have to be the top domain name here in my view. Health.com.au these days is a NIB brand. Software.com.au belongs to Software.com.
Security.com.au is listed for sale, $100,000 on Netfleet. I am not in the industry, but $100,000 is a very good price. It is only a matter of time before someone snaps it up.
Sport.com.au was another one auctioned, but the registrant subsequently offered it for sale on eBay, which was against auDA policy at the time. Unfortunately for that registrant, they lost the domain licence.
It’s amazing what you can find with a bit of ferreting. Everything from reports on a $286,000 offer for Groupon.com.au to articles on CarSales’ acquisition of UsedCars.com.au to old lists of generic domains held by major corporations to historical forum archives detailing some of the generic domain names held by old school domain investors and others.
Looking for a ferreting project of your own? Why not find out how much Foxtel recently paid for Binge.com.au, I’m sure many would love to know!
By Steve
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