widgetBeat…

“widgets.com” auction ends in a whimper

March 26th, 2008

by Al Merkrebs, March 26, 2008 @ 12:01 a.m. PDT

At the close of the seven-day auction listing on eBay, the domain name “widgets.com” garnered $175,100 as a final bid, which was not enough to meet the unpublished reserve amount set for the sale.

In the end, 66 bids were placed by 28 bidders. During the last three hours of bidding time, the bids moved up less than $15,000, and any anticipated whirl of bidding activity did not materialize. The auction received a bunch of page views; the counter for the listing reached nearly 2900.

Whether “widgets.com” remains in the possession of its reported seller, Rick Schwartz, the self-named “Domain King,” who registered the domain in 1995 as one of thousands he owns, or behind-the-scenes dealings will mean the change of ownership, remains to be announced.

It is unclear whether the auction was about a businessman looking to seize the moment with a piece of hot Internet real estate as the digital world welcomes the burgeoning potential of widgets, or the efforts of a vocal pioneer domainer determined to call attention to his concerns about certain provisions of proposed legislation that will target and restrict commerce by the domain name industry.

So, for today, “widgets.com” remains a piece of Internet property subject to a higher bid and, we think, certain to make a news splash whenever it debuts in its next form.

Entry Filed under: widget news