When there is an announcement of domain auctions, many domain investors gets very excited.
Auctions can be great places place to sell quality domains at prices that are attractive to buyers.
When you submit your names for consideration at a domain auction, you'll be competing against tons of other submissions. In some cases, there are 100,000 submissions or more that have to be waded through and reduced to a more acceptable amount.
It goes without saying that lots of submissions would be rejected. Domain reps get lots of call from domain investors wondering why there domains were rejected.
Quality of course is one reason but it is not the only reason. Actually, you don't have to have a great name or a premium domain such as cars dotcom to get listed.
What many domain investors ignore - pricing. Domain account reps will tell you that many submissions have domains at unrealistic prices. If those names were accepted and listed at the domain auction - very few of them if any of them would be sold.
The fact is that the values most people place on their domains are much than the values put on their domains by potential buyers.
This is why so many names that were self-valued at $10000 or more eventually expire and never gets renewed.
At domain auctions - you must remember that those buyers are very knowledgeable in the domaining business. They don't like to pay retail.
The secret sauce for auctions is to submit decent names at low bargain-priced reserve. You'll find that you'll that you get a lot more bidding that way.
Undervaluing a good asset creates a feeding frenzy so to speak - pushing your domain price higher.
You could list a name you bought for $20 at a bargain-price reserve and end up selling that name for $500. But if you had listed that name for a $500 reserve - the name would less likely be sold.
If you are looking for a quality, affordable name for your business, you don't have to get into a bidding frenzy. There are places to get these names at low buy-it-now-prices.