Today kicked off another weekend of auctioning for a well-known auction gallery here in Austin.
Although their specialty is antiques and fine art, the Austin Auction Gallery opens for auction today and tomorrow at 10AM for an estates auction.
Little did I realize, I’ve passed this family owned and operated business a number of times to and from going to get a haircut.
It wasn’t until a few days ago that their bulletin caught my eye due to their domain name: AustinAuction.com.
Discovering the business has been in existence since 1983 — per their website, I was thrilled to discover a premier Antique and Fine Art auction house making good use of a geo domain or geo service domain.
It’s not often that one discovers a business, especially an auction house, using a geo service domain to brand their company.
Prior to the Internet, I would have guess most auction houses would have been local or region focused.
Post Internet, I would imagine most auctions houses opt to brand themselves using a brandable domain instead of a geo service domain — but this is likely determined based on customer reach and auctioned items.
Impressed with the use of AustinAuction.com, I attempted to research whether or not other geo service domains were available.
To my surprise, I discovered another Austin-based auction house — actually based in Pflugerville, Texas — using ATXAuctions.com. The singular, ATXAuction.com, is registered and resolves to a parked page with paid links on it.
In addition, AustinAuctions.com is registered but doesn’t resolve to a website of any kind.
Although I’m glad that Austin Auction Gallery secured and actively uses AustinAuction.com, their example serves as a warning for others to ensure that the singular/plural, abbreviations, and other domain variations are registered to protect from brand dilution and confusion.
Again, AustinAuction.com is the best of the all, but it never hurts to lock the door on competition defensively registering domains.
In closing, if you live in the Austin area and estate auctions are your thing, then don’t miss your opportunity tomorrow at 10AM. Visit AustinAuction.com for more information.
Thanks all for now! Have a great weekend… 😉
As a domain investor and business consultant, Alvin actively participates in daily domain auctions. Outside of auctions, he passionately shares his views, opinions, and vision for how businesses should and should not use domain names to generate greater customer growth and revenue.
