Looks like Moniker has changed the contract recently, the one I signed last year for one of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. auctions had the 120-day (w/ 15 day window) exclusivity period, but didn't have the 2-year non-circumvent clause yet. If that was in the contract last year as well as the 20% fee structure, it would be a deal killer.
For the amount of marketing that Moniker puts into the auctions, you'd think that some of the million dollar domains would sell. I was watching the bidding on the those domains and it was interesting to see how some of them got a few million dollar bids, but conveniently stopped short of hitting the reserve. Very interesting.
Out of curiosity, how would Monker know from the thousands of domain names which they are brokering have been circumvented ?
__________________
Did We Know That There Aren't Really Thousands Of Bands Who Might Be Interesting, We Will Get To Deleting All Bands That Aren't In Flames, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Deicide
Recluse99 - tell ya what, just sit all the auctions out my friend. I don't think you want to get into a legal battle if you default on your agreement. That would not be good for you or the industry.
when we created this market, we did so with integrity and a very good understanding of the risk we were taking along with the market that had to be created on the fly. Now look at where we are....lots of live and silent auctions, market values tested when the supply and the demand curve are not where true markets are yet, of course we are going to protect our interests which in the long run protects all of your colleagues in this forum. If you don't like the agreement, the commission, the terms, do not participate. I certainly won't force you.
__________________
Monte Cahn
Founder/President - Moniker.com & SnapNames.com
Monte@Moniker.com
O - 954-984-8445
I knew you have been following this thread closely, I'm just amazed how seldom you respond. Your tongue must be awful swollen by now after all the times you have bitten it.
I have agreed with your statement right from the getgo...in fact you are essentially reiterating my own words.... "I dont like the contract, ergo I go somewhere else."
The thing that baffles me Monte, is: you profess this philosophy yet you come here to defend your practices. If you truly believed what you profess, you wouldnt even be following this thread. You are following this thread to defend your medieval approach to conducting buseiness, hoping that the peasants will see your reasoning.
It aint gonna happen your highness. Get with the program! This is strictly business, and if I had a business manager with an ego like yours, he would be pounding the pavement.
Did you hear that Sprintclick here announced a new program that would reward their customer service people with bonuses if they could RETAIN current customers who have bailed after a decade of abuse by the very same customer service people. Guess what? The cows have left the barn. The chickens have come home to roost and they are reaping what they have sewn. And farmer Jones isn't a happy camper.
The question now is: "Are your a man of vision or a man of damage control?"
__________________ Those who accept mediocrity will never be disappointed.
Last edited by pixelpadre : 04-15-2008 at 08:26 AM.
i am just responding and I care enough to do so....always have unlike most other CEO's. at least you all know where I stand. you may not agree but I have been on both sides probably more than anyone regarding these domain sales. no one likes legal agreements....especially exclusive ones. we try to make them as fair as we can.
BTW - those "peasants" as you call them, make the majority of the money on every sale we make....and I am glad they do.
go sell an item trough christies, jacksons, mecue's or sotheby's then come back to me and complain about our agreement, position, or what percentage we earn.
in any case, the agreement and the commissions will continue to change as the market does so this is you notice that it will change again real soon.
__________________
Monte Cahn
Founder/President - Moniker.com & SnapNames.com
Monte@Moniker.com
O - 954-984-8445
__________________
Did We Know That There Aren't Really Thousands Of Bands Who Might Be Interesting, We Will Get To Deleting All Bands That Aren't In Flames, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Deicide
You must have missed the post earlier where I investigated that one of them mostly charges 2% and never more than 10%. Christies I think...
Right...you mentioned commissions were moving up from 15-20 and probably higher.
This thread is hot and has a sticky.........3600 views in 20 days.....I dont know how many new customers you sign up every day.....but I am guessing its not quite 3600 in 20 days.
BTW.....your employees are watching this thread very closely......as you have already surmized.
I guess I am supposed to sign my name too.
steve Imhof
REALTOR, Sorrento Florida
352-406-7103
__________________ Those who accept mediocrity will never be disappointed.
Last edited by pixelpadre : 04-15-2008 at 07:00 AM.
Which doesn't matter anyway as long as Moniker is able to meet their own set
targets.
I guess the main complaint here is "why won't Moniker adjust their contract so
me and a couple other guys can do business with them?". They might or might
not depending on things, but only they will decide on their own despite others
telling them how to do their business.
You cant see the forest for the trees my friend. I dont want him to change his contract for me............ I just want everyone out there to be aware of the fine print in the Moniker contract before they click away their money and their rights.
I sold my last domain for $30,000 in a private sale. No fuss no muss. Had my money in three days.....full asking price. Of course someone like Monte would force me to set my reserve at a low low price around 500 dollars and pay them 15% and I would have to wait a long time to be paid.
I defer to my earlier post about SPRINT...please read it again.
__________________ Those who accept mediocrity will never be disappointed.
Last edited by pixelpadre : 04-15-2008 at 07:52 AM.
The point I was making - I was jokingly making a reference to the point where if I put a domain up for auction at Moniker and then a month later decide I want to keep it-fast forward a year later and the domain is doing well and I run into financial problems, and I sell it in a private sale. -AM I SUPPOSED TO TRACK DOWN MONIKER AND SAY HERE'S 20% OF THE SALE THAT I DID ALL BY MYSELF?
__________________
Unfortunately, strangers have the best candy.
I don't have many domains you would actually care about, that you would remotely consider top tier. But if I did, I would be the one writing the contract, and reviewing which vendors wished to service me. Monte would certainly receive a copy of the contract and have an opportunity to apply for the business. If he does not need the business, he will pass. If the domain is top notch, though, maybe he will bite.
I guess it's all in an individual's perception of their lot in life. Either they let others dictate options to them, even when they hold the cards, or they do not. Monte does not own the top tier domain, you do. If he wants that top tier domain to appear in one of his auctions, well.....what do you think he is going to do?
Monte, I'm really surprised at how you have handled the remarks that have been made in this thread. Yes, I DO recognize Moniker paved the way for domain auctions. However, at the same time if Moniker hadn't done it, someone else would have.
At the same time, I think it would be more appropriate to start to pay attention to what complaints are and see the legitimacy of them. You have admitted it yourself - there are now competitors. You are an exceptionally smart business man but I really think you are missing the boat here where instead of taking your founding position in this arena and improving upon it for everyone else, you are firming up your own advantage without providing anything additional to those that do business with you.
Look, I posted before 2 problems I had - ones I think are serious. I've forwarded actual BUYERS to Moniker for domains I've had in auction and there was NO follow-through. Do you not see this as at least a slight issue? Especially since the domain went unsold in the auction because of the lack of follow-through? The other was from a buyers side where it takes literally WEEKS after payment has been received by Moniker to have a domain pushed from Moniker's escrow account. I think it took 3 weeks after the last Traffic auction to have domains pushed after payment+agreement were received (and the domains were in Moniker's escrow account). It shouldn't take this long for a simple push to happen.
I'm sure that many of us - myself included -would have fewer problems with the commissions and the terms of the agreement if they were fair all around. However, they truly are not.
As others have pointed out, an agreement would consider to be flawed and otherwise unenforceable if the terms are seen to be mutually one way. Is it that hard on the seller's side to include at least SOME responsibility on Moniker's part to follow up with potential buyers? On the sellers side, is it that hard to put in that domain transfers will be done within a reasonable period of time once they are in Moniker's possession? Here's another case - my business partner bought a domain @ CAC last spring and it took half a year to get the money back from the purchase and several emails. The seller had sold the domain to someone else. Why no responsibilities on the part of Moniker to return funds on uncompleted transaction or that pushes happen within a reasonable period of time?
__________________
Did We Know That There Aren't Really Thousands Of Bands Who Might Be Interesting, We Will Get To Deleting All Bands That Aren't In Flames, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Deicide
When a copmpany raises its fees i m re-evaluating their services and see if they worth it.
Monike's example is about domain registration, handlng, selling and brokering.
The raise is about domain brokering if i m correct so i need to find some good services Moniker provides me to justify the raise.
Until now i never bothered even though i had problems for one domains that made into auction. That domain was a premium tv domain which i stated on the docs i ve sent prior the auction. The last few hours of the auction i was contacted by my "rep"(such a funny word) asking me by email the renewal price because a potential buyer was ready to bid. I saw that email hours after he sent it because of the time difference between Moniker land(its a joke) and Greece and didnt reply on time since auction was already closed. That made me loose a potential sale of mid $$$$(my reserve) for that domain even though i ve stated the premium price in the docs i ve sent before the auction. The same domain got sold for $1000 at sedo when it would have sold a lot more at Moniker auction.
Conclusion is that Moniker auction stills holds a great place for us domainers but the services u provide to us regarding auction cannot justify the fee raise.
Geez Andy.. 
