Texas.St and 27 Other State Domain Names Launched for Sale

By Derek Iwasiuk
DomainInformer.com
June 20, 2006

Texas.St and 27 other State domains have been put up for auction in what is to surely prove one of this year’s biggest internet domain sales. The portfolio of domain names is being auctioned at www.lovethename.com by the present owner Bill Roy, an English domainer specializing in logical domains.

"There is an old saying – ‘There is nothing new under the sun!’" says Rever Thabiti, VP Sales and Marketing at LoveTheName.com. "In 1664 New York was bought for $24 worth of beads and trinkets, in 1867 Alaska was bought for $7.2 million, and now in 2006 over half of the State domain names in the US are up for sale by auction with total opening bids valued at $7.25 million. The individual auctions for each State have a starting bid price of $250,000, with the exception of Texas, which due to its size and economic importance, has a starting bid price of $500,000."

Thabiti adds, "It is amazing that Roy was able to accumulate such a powerful portfolio which gains direct access to over 53% of the US population. The commercial, economic, political, and social impact which these domains offer when developed is phenomenal. An examination of the State domain names available shows why we expect this to be the pinnacle of the domain name sales year. This is already borne out by the huge level of interest in the auctions we have received from over 30 countries."

Roy first saw the importance of logical domain names when he realised nearly everyone uses abbreviations in everyday life, this coupled with the knowledge that most, if not all, relevant ‘dotcoms’ had been registered led him on a hunt for what he terms ‘the logical domain portfolio.’ "To be a logical domain is not enough though," says Roy, "a domain name has to be readily acceptable by the public it is aimed at. This is why the ‘.St’ suffix is so important, nearly all Americans recognise the abbreviation as that for ‘State,’ this gives the domains ready acceptability and memorability, and this in turn translates into immediate value for any branding or product recognition associated with the State domain name in question. In the case of the ‘State.St’ suffix these are therefore commercially more valuable than the corresponding State.com’s."

Beth Loehrke, Sr. Account Manager and media spokesperson for LoveTheName.com explains that the domain auctions for these novel State domain names is to be strictly controlled. "It has been agreed that each individual auction will have a 24 hour bid rule applied, this means that when a bid has been made if a higher counter bid is not received within 24 hours then the auction for that State has ended and the domain name is sold. The use of this 24 hour bid rule means that as soon as the first bid is received at the opening bid value the particular State domain name could be sold in just 24 hours."

"The most common enquiry to date is - how did we set the value of the opening bids? After prolonged discussion it was decided that the States should be allowed to find their own individual value but we took last weeks reported sale of Malta.com $250,000 as our starting point. Malta has a smaller population than the smallest US State (Wyoming) and by far a much smaller commercial and economic value than any US State."

The State domains being auctioned are: Arizona.St ; Colorado.St ; Georgia.St ; Hawaii.St ; Illinois.St; Iowa.St ; Kansas.St; Kentucky.St; Louisiana.St; Maryland.St ; Massachusetts.St; Michigan.St ; Minnesota.St ; Mississippi.St; Nevada.St; NewJersey.St ; NewMexico.St ; NorthCarolina.St ; Ohio.St ; Oklahoma.St ; Oregon.St ; Pennsylvania.St ; RhodeIsland.St ; SouthDakota.St ; Texas.St; Utah.St ; Vermont.St ; and Wyoming.St .

For more inforation call 720-987-5252 or go to www.lovethename.com.