Sedo Sale: cider.co.uk (2,679 GBP)

[Acorn Newsbot]

Price: 2,679 GBP

see Sedo latest sales

 

[PaulOckenden]

I auctioned this domain as a little test to see whether I'll ever use a Sedo .co.uk auction again.

You can probably guess the answer.

 

[archibel]

At first I thought this was a fair price...great 'brandability' potential but most people buy alcohol at the supermarket, plus the hassle of shipping bottles through post etc.

With hindsight I wish I'd joined in the bidding for this one.

(1) I think it would be very easy to build a successful drop-shipment or retail business on it. This is a industry with plenty of small manufacturers who I believe will be happy to engage/promote/supply their wares on a well developed Cider.UK shop. I didn't realize most of them ship their products in boxes rather than bottles which also makes the logistics side simpler.

(2) In my opinion, the most effective generic domains relate to products with regular, repeat customers. The best example for me is contactlenses/uk...but this domain also fits the bill nicely for attracting cider aficionados.

I would be interested to know if you sent a letter to (say) 30 x cider manufacturers/online retailers before the auction to let them know. If you did...the sale price is probably a decent market price for this moment in time.

 

[PanzerWagon]

A specialist / local brewery cider ecommerce site that ships crates from UK small breweries could do quite well I guess.

Although the market might be pretty small? Cider is popular in UK but bulk of that's 16 years old on White Lightening and everyone else knocking back Magners or Kopparberg on a sunny day I think. Cider making kits, you could prob shift a few a month.

Mixed selections might do ok as whenever I've bought beer online it's been as a gift focused on country specific to german, belgian etc. You'd have to be able to hold stock to package them together from multiple locations and send them out though. Or strike a deal with another online beer outlet who offers mixed cases to ship them for you.

 

[PaulOckenden]

I would be interested to know if you sent a letter to (say) 30 x cider manufacturers/online retailers before the auction to let them know.

I contacted the big firms, albeit the lazy option (Twitter!). And I suspect it might be one of them that won it (via a 3rd party), but we'll have to wait and see...

P.

 

[ian]

Great price, but sadly another domain that has now fallen into the hands of a domainer; so most likely will never see an active site, just a landing page as now until the domain can be flipped!!!

 

[noonoo1]

Great name!!
Great bargain for someone!

 

[ian]

Absolutely nothing stopping anyone (including multiple entities) active in the cider industry bidding on whatever keyword (presume "cider") cider.co.uk is displaying result links for. A great way for the registrant to earn from use of the domain name and another great way for multiple interested parties to gain traffic from the domain name without any one entity sequestering its use entirely for themselves. Targetted landing pages are useful.

Personally don't see it that way, though understand why many on here would. Find it to be one of the most disappointing things about this industry, so many wasted domains! I'm after two owned domains, have offered fair money, but unfortunately the owners are notorious for expecting too much so won't let go; such a shame, I could make decent sites from them.

 

[PaulOckenden]

I'm after two owned domains, have offered fair money, but unfortunately the owners are notorious for expecting too much so won't let go; such a shame, I could make decent sites from them.

I'm sure that's true. I'm in the same boat as those owners though. I have coupons.co.uk and coupon.co.uk. I've been offered quite a lot of money for them, but have always held out because I've (perhaps naively) felt that as a pair they are worth more.

Yet I've never done much with them, other than collect parking income via Sedo (although I suppose that's not to be sniffed at).

I'm just glad I didn't put them into the Sedo .co.uk auction! They might have gone for a fiver each!

P.

 

[Retired_Member38]

I auctioned this domain as a little test to see whether I'll ever use a Sedo .co.uk auction again.

You can probably guess the answer.

So why bother completing on it? Sedo obviously wouldn't have done anything about it if you didn't.

I don't think they were fair to sellers by refusing to properly clarify the .uk situation even when several potential bidders asked them to. So I certainly wouldn't feel obliged to go through with a sale if you weren't happy with the price.

 

[DaveP]

So why bother completing on it? Sedo obviously wouldn't have done anything about it if you didn't.

Except he would have his account closed? Sure there'd be no legal consequences though.

 

[PaulOckenden]

So why bother completing on it?

Is "because I have some personal integrity" an acceptable answer?

I wouldn't dream of entering into a contract and then not honouring it.

Sorry.

P.

 

[ian]

Is "because I have some personal integrity" an acceptable answer?

I wouldn't dream of entering into a contract and then not honouring it.

Sorry.

P.

I would regard that answer acceptable, and admirable, plus let's face it, you had a reserve which was met, so ultimately got what you wanted, though appreciate what you mean.

Coupon and coupons, nice, I'd be interested

 

[PaulOckenden]

plus let's face it, you had a reserve which was met, so ultimately got what you wanted

I deliberately set the reserves low. Well, low-ish. This was an experiment, and I wanted to see how the auction would go.

I mentally split my domains into four categories. Junk, not-bad, good, and brilliant. Didn't want to risk a brilliant, but I submitted one each from the first three categories to the auction.

The 'junk' domain (withvalue.co.uk) was rejected by Sedo for 'quality requirements'. Fair enough, although some that made it through were probably worse. They accepted the not-bad (effective.co.uk) and the good (cider.co.uk).

If it hadn't been an experiment for me I'd have probably put a reserve of £1k on effective.co.uk and £5k on cider.co.uk - and they probably wouldn't have sold, which would have been OK.

Interestingly, people have mentioned .uk eligibility. As far as I'm aware, as long as the domain is in the new person's hand by the required date then they get this automatically, so I didn't feel the need to mention it. A few people did contact me though, both via email and on Twitter, to double check, and I was happy to put them straight.

 

[Edwin]

I'm sure that's true. I'm in the same boat as those owners though. I have coupons.co.uk and coupon.co.uk. I've been offered quite a lot of money for them, but have always held out because I've (perhaps naively) felt that as a pair they are worth more.

That's a fabulous pair - the coupon/voucher market is a very lucrative one. Perhaps have a chat to DougS if you've not already done so?

 

[Edwin]

Is "because I have some personal integrity" an acceptable answer?

It's a great answer - pity some people wouldn't say the same. The whole industry would be better if they did.

 

[Edwin]

Interestingly, people have mentioned .uk eligibility. As far as I'm aware, as long as the domain is in the new person's hand by the required date then they get this automatically, so I didn't feel the need to mention it. A few people did contact me though, both via email and on Twitter, to double check, and I was happy to put them straight.

It's because of "integrity" that it probably never even occurred to you the need to point out the .uk eligibility - it sounds like you're the kind of person who wouldn't dream of dragging out the transaction past 10 June just so that they could reg the .uk before transferring the .co.uk! It's because not everyone is that scrupulous that people were worried about what rights the names in the Sedo auction would come with.

 

[Brassneck]

Is "because I have some personal integrity" an acceptable answer?

I wouldn't dream of entering into a contract and then not honouring it.

Sorry.

P.

Good for you. Really is depressing to read some of the stuff about business practices on here.

Stephen

 

[Darren]

is "because i have some personal integrity" an acceptable answer?

I wouldn't dream of entering into a contract and then not honouring it.

Sorry.

P.

+1

 

[PanzerWagon]

I agree with the personal integrity part but surely that applies more to private sales.

If you are using an intermediary like Sedo who are doing a crap job on your behalf, basically unresponsive and all very mirky with regards to .uk then it's not really poor business practice to withdraw from a deal I don't think.

You posted the auction under the assumption they were going to use their clout to bring in serious bidders and clarify things to buyers. They failed to deliver IMO.