Auctionpus hit the scene last year and I talked to founder Andrei Polgar back in May. I thought it would be interesting to check back with Andrei and see what’s new, what’s changed, and what he has learned in the short time he’s spent in the auction space so far.
Mike: It’s been a few month since our last discussion. What have you learned about domain auctions in that time that has passed?
Andrei: I’ve learned the most important lesson after adding the marketplace and noticing that we’ve been moving a lot of inventory as of that point. Most people would rather simply drop by every once in a while and analyze a large-ish list like the one we have at our marketplace than visit the site each day. All of our domains are priced to sell and I’m glad to see that I’ve managed to generate quite a few win-win situations through Auctionpus, especially after adding the marketplace.
Mike: Who do you feel is your competition in the auction arena today?
Andrei: The thing is, each auction site pretty much has its own niche and Auctionpus makes no exception. In my opinion, the existing platforms complement each other and that’s great for the industry IMO.
Mike: Are you seeing any consistencies in the types of domains that are being submitted? How about the types of domains being sold?
Andrei: To be perfectly honest, most of the domains that are being submitted wouldn’t sell and since I don’t want people to lose money by listing domains which probably won’t receive bids, I prefer to simply not list them and focus on my own portfolio instead. My company owns a lot of great domains, mostly two and three-word exact match dot coms and I price them to sell, so focusing on my own portfolio makes sense at this point. Relying on third party submissions is tricky because most people either submit domains with no inherent value or decent domains priced unrealistically.
Mike: Has there been any change in the average sale price you are seeing?I noticed that today’s bidding reserves were all set at $45. Have you found that to be the most effective reserve or are you still experimenting?
Andrei: the average price of the domains we auction daily is $45 and as far as the marketplace is concerned, you can either buy domains directly at $65 or send them to auction at $55. Most of the domains are bought directly through our marketplace and as a result, $65 can be considered our average sales price. Back when starting out, I was aiming for an average sales price that was about 8 times higher than the current one but you know what, if “investment grade domains at wholesale prices” ended up being our niche, so be it. Investors get to buy great domains which they can easily flip and we move inventory, so as long as win-win situations are being generated, it’s all good.
Mike: What has been your best sale to date?
Andrei: We’re not even listing high priced domains anymore and while we might experiment with some 4 or 5 figure domains in the future, I’ve decided to brand Auctionpus as the place where you can buy investment grade domains on the cheap even though that wasn’t my initial plan. At the end of the day, we’re here to keep buyers happy and if it’s wholesale they want, so be it 🙂
Mike: What are your plans for running and promoting AuctionPus.com for the rest in 2011?
Andrei: Branding Auctionpus.com as the #1 place where you can buy domains at wholesale prices is the name of the game. Some platforms focus on keeping both buyers and sellers happy, we focus exclusively on keeping buyers happy by pricing our domains to sell. As long as we’re moving inventory and generating win-win situations while we’re at it, the business model will definitely not change.
6 comments
Thanks for following up Mike and if anyone would like to ask me a question, feel free to either post it here or contact me via email 🙂
While buyers love bargains, sellers loathe them. I am not sure whether branding an auction site as the place to go to get the worst selling price for a domain is going to attract many sellers with good domain names.
First of all, my humble advice, please change the Website Name , and dont brand as AuctionPus, Pus kind does not look good, its medical term, it does not fit well.
Brand it better and with better name. You should also exculsively not focus on making buyers happy, sellers also deserved the same focus and happiness.
One without another wont work. (seller without buyers, buyers without sellers)
Anyhow good luck, although I admire you to stick to your plan, but something you need to change what you do and follow up with market wants not what you want.
Lot of people had advised you to change the name and change your gameplan, if you will not listen, it will not succeed. Domain industry is very small, if you will listen to these people, you will get what you deserve, if you dont, no one will pay attention. Look at bido.com, lot of people told them to change it, but they did not, they failer THREE TIMES!
The only advantage you have over bido.com is that you did not spend too much money , the advantage bido.com has over you is that they can spend money to change according to what people want.
Rest assured, Good Luck To you! and Thanks for the post.
I hate to be mean, but I agree with the above post. You really need to change the name of the site if you are to be taken seriously in the domain space. I thought it was a typo on the ad I saw on one site, I thought they had made a mistake in typing auctionpus.com instead of auctionplus.com
Knowing what pus is, I wouldnt think anybody would brand a site with that name, and most people would not get the connection with octopus until they visit the site.
When it was started, I visited there a few times but now just skip the thread if I see it at Dnforum. Advices given to him but it seems most of them being ignored.
Thanks for the feedback guys, I always appreciate constructive criticism, oh and having thick skin doesn’t hurt either 🙂
@Rich: at this point, we are not interested in attracting sellers, as we are focusing on moving our own inventory (which is why we’re able to focus exclusively on keeping buyers happy, “investment grade domains at wholesale prices” is simply the niche we ended up growing into, so to speak).