Gold Domain Names

[BG]

Gold.co.uk - 25th August 2010 Dublin Auction

It's probably a significant enough name to warrant a press release on its own. Some of the UK media might well pick it up. The expense is negligible (or none apart from writing if you use a free service to distribute it) and you never know who might see it. Need to get it out in the next day or so though...

Good Idea Edwin, hopefully their is still time for a last minute PR push (can only help).

The Gold.co.uk auction doesn't actually take place until Wednesday 25th August so i feel we still have time to get it in front of the right people... There is a buyer out there 100%, its just a case of connecting them both together in this short period of time. The guys who do Press Releases for me wont be getting back in the office until Monday whereas I'm thinking this needs to be circulated over the weekend, latest Monday morning (can you recommend someone you've used in the past that work on weekends, pls PM if so).

Due to the short time frame not everyone will be able to get out to Dublin, yet they will be able to place bids via: http://www.proxibid.com/asp/LotDetail.asp?ahid=2705&aid=31262&lid=8561316#topoflot - or alternatively they can contact Rick direct and he will place bids on their behalf.

This is the first time ever that I've placed any of my names into a live auction so I'm looking forward to the whole experience. If Gold.co.uk sells i'll obviously be over the moon, and if it doesn't I've lost nothing and still own what i deem to be a great name.

The domain world can be a funny old place when buying or selling... its hard to know exactly what will happen at such an event as you have no idea who's on the end of a telephone line or what bidders are in the room? The only thing i do know is that some large players have expressed an interest so we can only watch and see. I've set a realistic reserve price so hopefully we will have some great news to report for the .co.uk industry.

Thanks Acorners,
Barry

 

[julian]

I think a domainer will by this name - I would be very interested to know if a gold related company purchased.

Good luck with dale.

 

[dashu1]

I have a bit of an insight into the scrap gold market since one of my customers is one of the better respected dealers, and unfortunately while the price of gold might be high, the margins that dealers work on are not.

Obviously this has to be the case - gold has an intrinsic value set by the London gold fix, so an ounce of gold has a set price, and the margin that a dealer can make has been whittled away to not much - the more you give the seller the less margin is left for the dealer, and there are so many dealers trying to win that business.

It's clearly the same for gold dealers in any niche of the gold markets, you can't manufacture some cheap gold, it has a fixed market price.

Add to that the fact that it's a circular market - the scrap gold ends up at the refinery, who sells it to the jewellers, who sells it to the public - but gold is very expensive, so jewellery sales are through the floor.

Consequently the refiners don't want to keep buying, since they have plenty already, so they offer the dealers less further eroding their margins.

It might surprise you to know that reputable dealers (ie not the ones who rip off the public) make only around 1% to 2% - so for every £1000 they shell out they'll make about £20, it's totally a volume driven business.

You can do some maths based on the prices good dealers are quoting if you don't believe it.

The only ones who are awash with cash are the rip off merchants, and since they've spent millions marketing their brands on TV, in the papers, etc, I don't think they'd have any reason to shell out on a domain name no matter how good it is - the market is very brand aware, not domain name aware.

Anyway, I hope that you do very well with it, but I suspect that it will probably be a domainer that buys it, not a scrap gold dealer or other gold dealer.

 

[Edwin]

The only ones who are awash with cash are the rip off merchants, and since they've spent millions marketing their brands on TV, in the papers, etc, I don't think they'd have any reason to shell out on a domain name no matter how good it is - the market is very brand aware, not domain name aware.

Ah, but can you imagine the ROI boost they'd get from advertising Gold.co.uk on TV? The credibility of that URL is so high that they'd probably hook a lot more people who would turn up their noses at anything like "webuyanygold.com" (or whatever their URLs are - remember, I don't see British TV much!)

Plus you only need to tell people ONCE and they will remember your brand FOREVER.

 

[retired_member12]

There's got to be some truth to what you say dashu1. About 3 months ago, the missus took a handful of old gold bits to cash them in at a jewellers in Liverpool. The jeweller carefully picked through every piece, and wouldn't take any without a UK assay. Some were bigger pieces than the UK ones, so I asked why, given that the various content tests are fairly easy to conduct. She confirmed that the margins were so tight on scrap, that unless the non-UK stuff is massive, there's no incentive whatsoever. From all accounts, it's only worth their while sending back one package a week to the refinery, and the boss shits himself at the thought that it goes missing via the carrier.

 

[dashu1]

Ah, but can you imagine the ROI boost they'd get from advertising Gold.co.uk on TV? The credibility of that URL is so high that they'd probably hook a lot more people who would turn up their noses at anything like "webuyanygold.com" (or whatever their URLs are - remember, I don't see British TV much!)

Plus you only need to tell people ONCE and they will remember your brand FOREVER.

Yes thats true, but the ones who can afford that kind of advertising are already doing it and wouldn't want to change their brand for the sake of a domain name - most have come over from the States and are already very well established and well known names over there.

I suppose someone might want to do the soap powder trick and create a competing brand so that they have more boxes on the metaphorical shelf.

 

[BG]

GOLD.CO.UK - Instant Credibility & A Brand You'd Never Forget

Ah, but can you imagine the ROI boost they'd get from advertising Gold.co.uk on TV? The credibility of that URL is so high that they'd probably hook a lot more people who would turn up their noses at anything like "webuyanygold.com" (or whatever their URLs are - remember, I don't see British TV much!)

Plus you only need to tell people ONCE and they will remember your brand FOREVER.

My thoughts exactly...

If i saw this name being advertised alongside other companies promoting gold buying services etc, I would most likely think GOLD.CO.UK has been around for many years and put my trust in that company first, as you said Edwin it creates instant credibility and most definitely a name you would never forget.

I hope Rick and his guys do the UK market proud and bag us a few top .co.uk sales to help boost the market.

Barry

 

[rob]

It seems that you are all caught up with a market which the bottom fallen out some time ago. Gold.co.uk is probably worth around £20,000 at best, same as any other generic domains. The new domain system is coming in to place in around a year making co.uk's a think of the past.

Will you sell me Sex.co.uk for £20k? If so , done deal.

If its not yours perhaps change username as I wouldnt want someone pretending to be one of my names around the web.