phones.co.uk - £175k

[James]

I can see why Jee said the cigars are on James now

Just think when you offered to pay for the meal at Covent Garden you can now

Paul, you mean at domain focus? I did in fact pay for that meal you forgetful bugger along with paying for the event itself to be staged/saved at the last minute...

Thanks everyone for the congrats!

 

[paulleahy]

What happen to the money I paid for meal and the event

 

[mat]

What happen to the money I paid for meal and the event

You spent it on hookers and drugs, dont you remember?

 

[paulleahy]

I dont do either Mat were you there ?

 

[paul]

I was there and James definitely paid for us all.

 

[jwm]

I remember the auction on Sedo, nice profit and turn around.

I may be wrong but I don't think the domain sold at the auction, James picked it up a bit later.

Congratulations on the sale.

 

[foz]

James, did you go looking for a buyer or were you approached to sell?

 

[James]

foz, after failing to enter the domain into the auction at the Paris Domainermeeting (at the last minute), I came back to London and started looking for other partnership opportunities and/or buyers. After posting a note on a4uforum I was approached by a1comms, and we negotiated the sale price.

 

[James]

I may be wrong but I don't think the domain sold at the auction, James picked it up a bit later.

Yes that's right. I remember shaking my head in disbelief that noone would even hit the reserve of £50k. I thought perhaps I was missing something - or maybe suffering impaired judgement due to the bizarre goings-on at Domain Focus in general - so I also declined to bid.

The domain reached £41k in the auction, so I used the networking in the pubs afterwards to gauge opinions. Most people were also surprised it didn't hit reserve, and everyone felt it was better than the other similar domain, mobile.co.uk, so I put the cash together and picked it up a couple of weeks later. I felt sure I'd get beaten to the post but thankfully I didn't.

I think the UK auctions we've seen, both at Domain Channel and Domain Focus, failed to attract the big money buyers. This is great for people with a keen eye on a bargain, but not so good for sellers, and not so good for raising the perceived value of .uk in general.

I have recently been toying with the idea of staging a UK domain event, with a .uk auction element, free invites to relevant companies, ad agencies etc. Maybe I'll have time to put something together in early 2009.

 

[Edwin]

I have recently been toying with the idea of staging a UK domain event, with a .uk auction element, free invites to relevant companies, ad agencies etc. Maybe I'll have time to put something together in early 2009.

Hopefully there will be another get-together in parallel with Internet World 2009, something like the one in London that was held on April 30th. Perhaps that could be expanded into a larger event?

 

[paulleahy]

I was there and James definitely paid for us all.

Paul

Im sure Mark,Micheal,Tommy the girls and finally myself because James was on our table would Disagree

 

[foz]

foz, after failing to enter the domain into the auction at the Paris Domainermeeting (at the last minute), I came back to London and started looking for other partnership opportunities and/or buyers. After posting a note on a4uforum I was approached by a1comms, and we negotiated the sale price.

Thanks James. Do you think a1comms view through the deal was them focusing on the weight of the keyword "phones" plus the .co.uk extension or do you believe they purchased the name purely on the traffic it received? BTW, what level of traffic did it get?

 

[James]

The domain was purchased purely on its generic brand value. The buyer was not concerned about traffic at all, although it did receive around 60 uniques daily.

 

[foz]

The domain was purchased purely on its generic brand value. The buyer was not concerned about traffic at all, although it did receive around 60 uniques daily.

Thats brilliant. Goes to show not to place to much emphasis on PPC revenue or traffic a domain gets.

 

[rob]

Thats brilliant. Goes to show not to place to much emphasis on PPC revenue or traffic a domain gets.

It does depend what you see in a domain, there are domainers that purely play the 'numbers' game and have strict spreadsheets full of what makes a name 'great'. Others go on gut instinct, some just like nice looking names

Regarding Phones.co.uk , it is a no brainer that it is a top name, but what *value* does it hold?

£175k / new contracts & upgrades over the next 5-10 years it seems very reasonable even more so for someone in 'the trade'. That is not touching the kudos value...

 

[maverick123]

very nice sale...........Congrats and enjoy the Money

 

[retired_member17]

Well done, James. One word.co.uk's rule!

 

[mally]

Out of interest how do people normally fund expensive purchases like this as an individual?

I can't imagine going into a bank and trying to persuade an accounts manager why you want a particular name..

My mortgage is far less than what you've sold that domain for!

 

[accelerator]

175,000/49,500 = 3.53.

3.53 x 100 = 353.53%

That's what I get.

... but the return is not 175,000 it's 175,000 - 49,500 so should be:

(175,000 - 49,500) / 49,500 = 2.53

2.53 x 100% = 253%

... still a very good return by traditional investment standards.

EDIT - oops, sorry, I see someone already answered this long ago!!

Rgds

 

[OwnThisDomain.co.uk]

Bravo!
A truly fantastic sale!

BW, Richard