Hell.com, Idea.com, Hi.net In Domain Name Land Grab

Cost.com, DigitalCameras.com, DownloadGames.com, and Hell.com, are all heading for the auction block.

So are Hi.net, Idea.com, Iran.com, MonaLisa.com, Mortgage.net, People.net, SexEducation.com, TravelForLess.com, University.org, and USCitizen.com.

That's only the beginning. Along with the traditional sites, .mobi mobile domain names, and some other commonly used words and phrases are also available for sale.

It all goes down when Moniker Online Services LLC starts auctioning off those domain names and several hundred premium names at an Internet marketing conference on Oct. 27.

Moniker CEO Monte Cahn said about 40,000 domain names have been submitted, but only between 200 and 250 premium will go up for sales at the live event, which is slated for the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. EAST conference, at the Westin Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood, Fla.

The conference is by invitation only. Attendees must apply for the industry event. Between 500 and 700 should attend the live auction, and more than 1,000 are expected to participate in a separate silent auction online, where many more domain names will become available.

A live auction typically sells between 10 percent and 25 percent of the available names during the event, but Cahn expects at this event between 50 percent and 60 percent will sell.

The live event will likely garner between $5 million and $10 million, up from $2 million from an event held in May, where many of the names sold for an average price of $40,000 a piece. Cahn said many of the domain names up for auction originally had been registered for between $10 and $25 annually.