So I posted a poll here and on Namepros to see what readers, users, domain investors think about auction marketplaces. The poll focused on the big 4, places like Sedo and Flippa don’t handle expiry auctions and don’t do the volume.
Rick Schwartz weighed in on our auction marketplace thread, safe to say Rick does not like any of them.
They ALL SUCK!
They don’t have an ounce of credibility combined.
They should all be ashamed of how they do business. How they screw domainers.
I have NOTHING GOOD to say about any of them!
They protect the WRONG PEOPLE!!
The post at Namepros had some very good posts, some really took the time to post their thoughts in depth.
The vote on Namepros is 62% no when it comes to trust.
Here at TheDomains the vote is 100 for no and 69 for yes or 69% vs 31%.
Seems like the auction sites have some work to do, or maybe they just ignore their users, guess we will see what happens.
The guys from Auctionity/Domraider should share their vision for future domain auctions here. They’re building a trustless auction platform powered by blockchain.
“or maybe they just ignore their users”
This, until users vote with their foot.
I’ve posted about this before, so here’s the summary:
1. Years ago, won domain at big famous auction site.
2. Was the only bidder. There were no other bidders. Not last minute, last second, not ever.
3. Took boatloads of screenshots before and after proving the above.
4. Surprise surprise – later notified there was another bidder and I would have to do an auction. Wasn’t having it.
5. Why would they have done this? This domain was ahead of it’s time then (though not now). Was drifting under the radar, but I was confident things would change and it would probably be a super catch even if it took years to fully blossom. And I was right, and that’s what it is now. So when “they” saw I won it with no bids, a light bulb would have gone off in anyone seeing it about how good the potential for this domain was and how desirable it would be. But back then it was also understandable that people would have missed this one.
6. Long story short, I objected to this FALSE nonsense about how there had been another bidder, yada yada, and got the domain. And now it’s a nice catch.
But this whole episode was not good, not good at all. What kind of sociopaths say there was another bidder when there wasn’t? Because that’s what you have to be to do something like that.
But wait, there’s more!
This I can’t prove because there is an element of speculation, but I have a history of being right so often you could almost call it a burden. 😉
Long story short – pretty sure one of the biggest and most famous auction houses of them all was trying to steal a domain it was supposedly helping me buy from someone, by intentionally messing up the deal and my wire payment so that it could then cause the deal to default and they could swoop in to obtain it from the (motivated) seller nonetheless and cut me out. If I gave the details I’m confident people would be inclined to say “ah, yes” and agree with me. I consider this to be my most valuable domain (in terms of dollar value, that is) and if anyone has ever seen my previous posts about that then it would certainly raise a few eyebrows. 🙂 In fact, I even saw people discussing this domain in not surprising super glowing terms at DNF while this seller still had it, which I suppose may still be up. 😉 Thankfully and fortunately the seller was rather motivated and principled, so we went around what appeared to be their little (big) case of obstructionism and completed the deal another way. Interestingly enough, in subsequent years the seller wound up becoming rather successful and has been on national TV, which I found on YouTube. Divine providence how this worked out, no question about it.
P.S. There was even some “intrigue” at the financial institution from which I sent payment which could have threatened to kill the deal too (long story short), and this guy was a “real world” seller, not what would have been considered a “domainer.” People were discussing this domain in glowing terms at DNF but as far as I know he was never there or in any domain forum. And once again, pure divine providence re how things where even discovered and then worked out with the financial institution too.
were* (typo)
And for good measure, change “pretty sure” above to “pretty confident.” 🙂
anyone think Reberry, Tennenbaum or the two weak links from GoDaddy nicks and styler have the balls to address Rick?
Part of the problem is that some of the people running domain auction marketplaces and other domain businesses, are or used to be, domainers.
No transparency.
I had criptobilia.com, Eurify.com taken out of a repossession file from a credit card dispute recently. I spent hours speaking with Godaddy reps about this. I was told, and it is also in the question and answer section of Godaddy site, that domains stay in repo file during the registration period, however, Godaddy plucked them out of the file and sold them…
Anyone have a clue as to right and wrong conduct here?
I would say the majority of the 37 people that said yes they trust auction houses in the domain industry are either working for one of those places or is a broker or friend. Only a mindless and foolish domainer would believe that they actually run ethically and do the right thing. I have seen NO evidence whatsoever that any of them can be trusted to do the right thing EVER and do it timely!
You participate KNOWING you may be scammed or wasting your time. I watch many of them continually protect shill bidders at the expense of legit bidders because it increases the overall prices and their bottom line.
I stand by what I said: They ALL suck!
No transparency!
So do many brokers, They have an ounce of credibility too.
It SEEMS pretty clear from even casual involvement that the auctions are rigged by insiders. If you decide to chase a name with no bids, you are basically highlighting it as potentially valuable. There SEEMS to be a good chance it will be taken out of auction (despite your bid) and either put up for sale (at $2100 or so) or “sold” somehow to HugeDomains (one example), who will list it for sale.
In the US, there should be an investigation into auction / marketplace rigging. It could make some prosecutor’s career.
Current domain name aftermarket sites adhere to a blatant, criminal, conflict of interest, self-serving
business model that further stagnates liquid, domain name, free trade.
Complicit, are a majority of the domain registrars, ICANN and IANA.