|> -----Original Message-----
|> From: Mark Hughes [mailto:effectivebusiness§pplications.com.au] 
|> Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2002 3:44 PM
|> To: dns§lists.auda.org.au
|> Subject: RE: [DNS] Au Domain up for Auction?
|> 
|> 
|> > The generic name specials.com.au is for sale.
|> 
|> > At a starting price of $20,000
|> 
|> The domain name bb.com was recently auctioned on ebay.  It was well
|> advertised - i.e. spam emails were sent to domain name owners (.com,
.net,
|> .org. and some ccTLD domain name owners including .com.au) who had
existing
|> domain names including the letters 'b' twice.  I've attached a copy
of the
|> advertising email for bb.com below.
|> 
|> The name received 53 bids and sold for US$41,000. 

You can not really compare general generic domain names under .com.au
with two letter domain names under .com.  Two and three letter domains
under the big three gTLDs are scarce.  

Personally I see short domain names as still being highly in demand,
much higher than longer more specialised domains.  There is also the
fact the bb.com domain was already well known and getting substantial
hits.  That is perhaps the biggest factor.  You can have a good domain
name but until it has become known on the Internet, it is really not
worth squat.

But then, price was not the reason I posted the link to the auction.  

Do we really want to see the .com.au name space being sold off to the
highest bidder like this?  Shouldn't the policy regarding such resales
be refined?

Darryl (Dassa) Lynch.