Employment, Business, and Acronym domains on Bido today.

**Michelle** · 08-08-2009, 07:11 AM

Originally Posted by sankalpsingh

I put some names at Bido for Acceptance but did not verify them, the Names that were marked as Staff Favorites, I was asked to complete the verification on them and after verification they made it to the Auctions but I had many others that after I verified ownership got decent votes and were accepted to Auction.So if you are not willing to take the risk you can list them there and hope that they get marked as Staff Favorites.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/560553-bido-com-social-auction-platform-official.html
Also,I hear there is other way for your Domains to get verified by Changing Nameservers for the Domains that have Whois Privacy Enabled on them,You need to contact the Staff to know more about it.

Thanks rep added

cmason · 08-08-2009, 07:16 AM

Just wanted to share another experience with Bido. Before yesterday all of the domains I bought through Bido were "legacy" names that were 100% in Bido's possession - so they would push the domains themselves.

Now, the Bido staff acts as a middleman in communicating the push between the buyer and the seller. I have been lucky, but everything was absolutely flawless. As soon as the auction ended I made payment and in less than an hour received an email from Bido support asking for my push information. I provided the info and I would say that within a half hour the seller had already pushed the domain to my eNom account. Great stuff!

MediaHound · 08-08-2009, 08:28 AM

Mellow, the lock does not prevent you from selling your names, even if your names are not selected by the Bido members to go to auction, and you end up selling the name on your own, or on NP, etc.. you can still transfer it to the buyer by "pushing" the domain to their account. It's really nothing to worry about, it is a little aggravating that they do that but in the big picture it really should never hinder a transaction from finalizing.
Thanks cmason for the kind words, glad to hear.
Btw everyone, please continue to vote on the names you want to see go to NR auction on Bido. Your votes count

ThreeD · 08-08-2009, 04:38 PM

Originally Posted by mellowmasher

..but Im not going to lock these names to be told they are not accepted.

I'm totally with you on that one

***EG.domains*** · 08-08-2009, 09:25 PM

Originally Posted by cmason

Just wanted to share another experience with Bido. Before yesterday all of the domains I bought through Bido were "legacy" names that were 100% in Bido's possession - so they would push the domains themselves.

Now, the Bido staff acts as a middleman in communicating the push between the buyer and the seller. I have been lucky, but everything was absolutely flawless. As soon as the auction ended I made payment and in less than an hour received an email from Bido support asking for my push information. I provided the info and I would say that within a half hour the seller had already pushed the domain to my eNom account. Great stuff!

Is it p*****r.net ?

cmason · 08-08-2009, 09:26 PM

Originally Posted by EG.domains

Is it p*****r.net ?

Nope!

Radiator · 08-09-2009, 08:54 AM

Haven't got time to go trawl 25 pages right now, but I've read a few patches.

Damn good thing the 1 auction a day thing was dropped like a hot coal; how anyone thought that would ever be viable is beyond me, especially if the domain seen is forgotten in seconds. However, I do like the idea of something that:-

1) Competes with Sedo to some extent

2) Gives people a much better chance of a fair viewing than Sedo

3) Features open discussion of sales; though this is massively open to abuse - people need to take what they read with a rock of salt until the 'experts' have consistently proven themselves.

That said, I really dont like :-

1) No reserve for the majority of auctions - much too risky. Just look at dishwashers.net. Not an exciting prospect for most granted, but worth way more than the laughable 7 bucks it ended up with.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553

2) A stiflingly narrow window to bid - an HOUR!? Come on, most people are way too busy to be able to disrupt their schedule for 1 fixed hour in the day, especially when you take into account that normal people in some parts of the world are going to be in bed.

Hope it develops and thrives though. Sedo could do with a serious challenger snapping at their heels

MediaHound · 08-09-2009, 08:32 PM

Originally Posted by Radiator

Haven't got time to go trawl 25 pages right now, but I've read a few patches.

Damn good thing the 1 auction a day thing was dropped like a hot coal; how anyone thought that would ever be viable is beyond me, especially if the domain seen is forgotten in seconds. However, I do like the idea of something that:-

1) Competes with Sedo to some extent

2) Gives people a much better chance of a fair viewing than Sedo

3) Features open discussion of sales; though this is massively open to abuse - people need to take what they read with a rock of salt until the 'experts' have consistently proven themselves.

That said, I really dont like :-

1) No reserve for the majority of auctions - much too risky. Just look at dishwashers.net. Not an exciting prospect for most granted, but worth way more than the laughable 7 bucks it ended up with.

2) A stiflingly narrow window to bid - an HOUR!? Come on, most people are way too busy to be able to disrupt their schedule for 1 fixed hour in the day, especially when you take into account that normal people in some parts of the world are going to be in bed.

Hope it develops and thrives though. Sedo could do with a serious challenger snapping at their heels

Thanks for the kind words. We appreciate your support and value the feedback, really..
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553
Regarding your two concerns:
1. We never auctioned dishwashers.net - but we did auction dishwashing.net and it sold for $7. There were five unique bidders involved in the bidding for that auction. The auction history is here: Bido.com - Social Auction Platform
2. There is more than an hour to bid. We actually give each auction at least a minimum of 1 week for preview time, and its during that preview time that bidders can bid, experts can leave the commentaries, and the seller can promote their auction to the world. To take it a step further, bids that are placed during the preview time are entitled to 2% Cashback bonus if its the Pre-Bid that wins the auction. So you can bid a little more than your budget allows because you'll get this cashback bonus anyway if it wins.
Auctions on Bido are treated as events, your auction is your event. So there is one hour where the clock counts down, this is the Live portion of the auction.
Hope the info helps and we are always working to clarify things on the site, its a work in progress and with valuable feedback such as yours we know where to put more focus.

MediaHound · 08-10-2009, 11:17 AM

paxton · 08-10-2009, 01:23 PM

I can see an improvement in the quality of names up for auction at BidO. And that looks like it is helping with better overall results. Better domain names bring more auction participants, and lesser names are benefiting from the presence of having more bidders.

There are still a few names that seem to be selling at a heavy discount, but then again there are names selling for what seems (to me) to be at premium prices.

MediaHound · 08-10-2009, 01:37 PM

Thanks Paxton. Our auction archive is at this link:
Bido.com - Social Auction Platform

Radiator · 08-10-2009, 02:45 PM

Originally Posted by MediaHound

Thanks for the kind words. We appreciate your support and value the feedback, really..

Regarding your two concerns:

1. We never auctioned dishwashers.net - but we did auction dishwashing.net and it sold for $7. There were five unique bidders involved in the bidding for that auction. The auction history is here: Bido.com - Social Auction Platform

Yup, there's a bit of difference between those 2 varieties - prolly about 14ks worth, lol. Still, dishwashing should've commanded much more than it did, esp with 5 unique bidders. Tightwads

Good to see that hour isn't all there is - I wouldn't sleep if some of my auctions were up against that kind of countdown

????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553

Bon voyage!

MediaHound · 08-10-2009, 03:22 PM

Thanks Radiator. You can always see the entire list of upcoming auctions from this link:
http://www.bido.com/Auctions
You can place bids where you feel comfortable buying the domains at, as you indicated, if that was a great buy in your view - spend some time and place bids wherever you feel comfortable buying at, you just might win some. It's free to bid, you only pay if you win.

MediaHound · 08-11-2009, 09:44 AM

Radiator · 08-11-2009, 11:02 AM

Originally Posted by MediaHound

Thanks Radiator. You can always see the entire list of upcoming auctions from this link:
Bido.com - Social Auction Platform
You can place bids where you feel comfortable buying the domains at, as you indicated, if that was a great buy in your view - spend some time and place bids wherever you feel comfortable buying at, you just might win some. It's free to bid, you only pay if you win.

Ok cheers, I'm in the door and in bid(o) mode

Maybe dishwashers will come up some time, and I'll bag it for $7, rofl

MediaHound · 08-12-2009, 10:59 AM

*Tribulatio* · 08-12-2009, 11:12 AM

I just discovered the numerous, new improvements at Bido - including the possibility to accelerate domain names toward auction (for sellers, but for buyers too, it seems), the new starting price of $ 28 for no reserve auctions, and a variety of other improvements. Congratulations to the Bido staff, really a good step forward!

MediaHound · 08-12-2009, 11:34 AM

Thanks Tribulatio

enki · 08-12-2009, 02:30 PM

My two cents on the new Bido stuff:
First off let me preface this with the comment that I am not anything close to a 'domainer', or expert in the field. I'm really just starting out, and only own about a couple dozen or so domains. I also just started using Bido about a week ago, and while I was originally enthusiastic about them, my first experience and the new policies have me a bit reluctant to use them ever again.
As a domainer newbie, I am not anxious to drop hundreds->thousands of dollars on Sedo auctions. Honestly, most of the domains I own are either for personal use, or ones I like the...look of. I didn't like the fact that Sedo bids start at $70, so I was happy to see that the Bido auctions, with a starting price of $1 allow the market to truly dictate the end value. You could pick up a good domain for personal use or whatever, for less then the registration fee. While I can see people not liking the fact that the auctions are only one hour long, I thought it was kind of fun and exciting, as opposed to waiting a week for an auction to end. I pre-bid on a couple of auctions, and I received an email shortly after saying that the pre-bid policy is changing (retroactively), and whatever you choose to pre-bid will be the initial bid, as opposed to proxying anything above $1, or up to the next highest bid. Not a big deal, but not a great policy in my humble opinion. I did have an issue (site related) that someone at Bido took care of quite quickly, so I was impressed with the customer service. So yesterday I started actively bidding on a domain during an auction, and was a bit upset that while my top bid went to $248, and I knew the next highest bidder was capped at $250, I had to bid a minimum of $270 to overtake him. I can understand if you are dealing with thousands of dollars to not deal with $1 increments, but as the price of the auction went from $140->$250, the increments kept getting larger and larger. I find 10% bid increments quite high. I'll assume this is the norm (?), but personally, I didn't like it. In any case, I won the auction, and get to find out that Bido tacks on a 3% surcharge for any Paypal or Credit Card payments. I did not read this policy ANYWHERE before I won the auction, and was NOT happy at all. Especially since it is a complete violation of their merchant agreement to pass along credit card fee surcharges to customers. Yes, you can fund your account via check (and wait), but that's not the point. If someone reported this to Visa/Mastercard, they could quickly loose their merchant account and/or be subject to fines. And 3% is more then they are most likely paying in fees anyway, which also pissed me off.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553
But fine, I pay them their almost $9 in fees, and get my domain. Process completed quite quickly (seller was fast with the transfer), and while I was still upset about the, unless I am blind, unadvertised surcharge, I was overall happy with the transaction, and willing to use their site.
Now I get an email today with news of a jack in minimum bids, which have been implemented retroactively, and nullified previous bids I placed.
So in the course of only a week, and as a new user, I have seen three different ways they have changed or implemented policies that do nothing more then increase my cost, and improve their bottom line. I highly doubt I will be doing much business with Bido again. I doubt I am alone, but who knows, maybe I am just a foolish newb who doesn't understand how paying an auction house more money is a good thing...
Sure, it might cut out some domains that are....below par?...and bring in more high valued ones, but how is turning away sellers, buyers, and a profit stream, a good thing for anyone? Sure having higher valued domains is great, but I thought they were a great aftermarket for moderately priced domains. Even if a domain sells for $10, the seller gets money for a domain that obviously wasn't too valuable, the buyer get's a domain for a price they like, and Bido collects a small cut. Win-Win-Win.
Or am I missing something?

cmason · 08-12-2009, 02:53 PM

Enki, I can definitely see how all of those items would tick you off - especially as a newcomer to the industry. I agree with you that the 1-hour auction length makes it appealing and the Bido setup makes it a great place to hang out during that time.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553

The pre-bid policy change is a pretty fundamental shift in how pre-bidding is done. I generally shy away from pre-bidding as the 2% discount is not overly appealing to me. The most useful place I see the absolute pre-bidding is when there is competition between two or more individuals before the auction occurs.

As you stated, with regards to your support request, the best thing about Bido is the people that work there - the support and communication from Bido makes it a great place to contribute requests. You know what the best thing is regarding your post above? The Bido staff, most likely MediaHound, will address all of your concerns that you express.

The increments get to me at times too. It would be nice if it was a stock $2 increment from 0-50, then $5 from 50-150, then $10 to...well you get what I am saying. The percentage idea is nice, but it just seems a little odd to me. The PayPal/CC fee was a bit of a shock to me the first time - after that I calculated it into the purchase price. I really haven't questioned the legitimacy of the charge, but I was a little surprised that it existed.

Personally, I am a fan of the $28 minimum bid (although it is a strange amount) and the cost of accelerating a domain to auction - this will help alleviate a lot of the garbage that has come through the system, while giving confidence to those that are selling domains that would typically sell for mid $xx. As you are a beginner, you argument is very well founded and I would love to see Bido implement $1 starts occasionally.

Personally, I am quite satisfied with most of the changes that have been made, but I think that your arguments are well-founded and well-explained.

enki · 08-12-2009, 03:20 PM

Thanks for the feedback cmason.
And yes I can see your points and, while I personally don't like some changes, how they could possibly benefit the site overall. But I still think some of them are negative. Look at today's auctions. 6 out of 14 domains went without any bids. Almost half. Why? I imagine because no one wanted to pay $28 for them. If the minimum bid was still $1, I imagine most if not all of those would have sold for something. So not only did this new policy hurt the seller and prospective buyers, but Bido received no money for any of those six auctions. 11% of $1 is still better then 11% of $0.
It seems to me like they have the potential to be a great site, and are heading down the road of eBay. Back when eBay first came out, they were awesome. They didn't overcharge, or nickle and dime you to death, and the people who used it were real....people, who just wanted to get rid of some stuff and others who wanted to buy it. Now eBay is, well, crap. A complete joke of a company.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553
The CC surcharge (which is like I said completely against merchant agreements) cost me money, and really pissed me off. The other stuff didn't really directly affect me, but just put a real bad taste in my mouth that this site is taking a really cool idea, and trying to jack up rates to nickle and dime people. Hopefully I am wrong.

MediaHound · 08-12-2009, 04:45 PM

Enki - first of all, please allow me to express my gratitude to you for taking your time to write and put your thoughts up to the community here for an open discussion. We really like to hear feedback and take the opportunity to explain the Bido platform, how we built it, and reasoning behind some of the changes to the flow and formats. Where we see opportunity to improve, we will strive towards that. Hence the latest release from this morning. We may not always get everything exactly right but we do try to improve where we can.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553
As you mentioned, some domains closed today without any bids. Unfortunately, we have had that happen even when bidding was at just one dollar. Therefore, some from today may not have sold even for just one dollar (nobody knows). Worse, for the seller, is when a name sells for only one dollar. With no bids, the seller can keep their prized domain and hope for better luck next time, market better next time, etc. However if it sells for just a dollar, the seller is at a loss.
One dollar bidding was very effective when we auctioned just one domain per day. It encouraged vibrant bidding with many bidders showing up each day to bid and try and win the domains. But now that we are auctioning multiple domains per day, sellers are not getting a fine ellipsoidal spotlight on their domain like they used to be able to. And back then it was extremely competitive to even get your domain listed for auction because Bido could only pick the one best daily. So as our story unfolds, we ramped things up to a multiple format (Bido could not survive with auctioning one domain per day), and we allow the members to vote on what goes to No Reserve auction. However, this one dollar start was an artifact that remained from the legacy format. And it was discouraging sellers to list quality inventory in fear they would sell their domain for less than they desired, or worse, less than their out of pocket expenses, or even worse, the dreaded $1 sale. Yes, buyers enjoy obtaining domains for a dollar, but the long term effect is sellers scatter in fear, and the well of inventory dries up. So it was inevitable and a change was needed to give sellers a layer of protection, more of a cushion to earn returns, and reward their time for the process of listing and verifying ownership, writing a description, marketing the auction, transferring the domain, etc. Since nobody likes to do all that for next to nothing, while perhaps even loosing money (and of course time) in the process, it's what doomed the format.
So today we changed this, we start the auctions at $28 and set the path for a much more vibrant marketplace with better quality, more excitement, and overall a more satisfying experience for everyone involved. When it comes to these price points, it is a delicate balance between a good experience for the sellers as well as for the buyers to have a continuous stream of quality inventory and return day over day.

enki · 08-13-2009, 12:04 AM

MediaHound:
Thank you for your candid response addressing my concerns. I agree that there are benefits to your new system, though I still believe in some cases a no-minimum might be warranted.

However, I would like you to address the credit card surcharge complaint.
Persuaint to your merchant agreement, and Visa & Mastercard regulations, you are prohibited from applying any direct surcharge to payments.
---
http://usa.visa.com/download/merchan..._merchants.pdf (see Page 10)
"-No Surcharging-
Always treat Visa transactions like any other transaction; that is, you may not
impose any surcharge on a Visa transaction. You may, however, offer a discount
for cash transactions, provided that the offer is clearly disclosed to customers
and the cash price is presented as a discount from the standard price charged for
all other forms of payment."
---

This was not the case. While it is basically a cheat, gas stations can get around this rule by discounting the ADVERTISED cost of gas if you pay in cash, but they cannot advertise the cash price and then jack up the cost if you pay with a credit card. In Bido's case, you don't even mention a surcharge until after an auction is won (I just re-read the FAQ to double check), and you clearly tack it on top of the advertised 'purchase price' as a percentage fee.

There is only one exception to the surcharge rule, which is the Convenience Fee:
"For merchants who offer an alternate payment channel for customers to pay for
goods or services, a convenience fee may be added to the transaction amount.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553
If the merchant chooses to assess a convenience fee to its customers, the merchant
must adhere to the following rules:
• The fee is being charged for a bona fide convenience of using an alternative
payment channel outside of the merchant’s normal business practice (see
example below).
• The fee:
– must be disclosed to the customer as a charge for the convenience of
using the alternate method to pay
– is applied only to non face-to-face transactions
– must be a flat or fixed amount, regardless of the amount of the
payment due
– is applied to all forms of payment products accepted in the
alternative payment channel
– is included as part of the total transaction amount
– cannot be added to a recurring transaction
– is assessed by the merchant that provides the goods or services to the
cardholder and not a third party
• The customer must be given the opportunity to cancel prior to the completion
of the transaction"
--
In your case, you do not qualify for this because taking a credit card is not your alternative method of payment. I imagine most customers pay with either a credit card or Paypal (which also has a surcharge, making this further exempt), and the check/wire method is the actual alternative method. Their example is a utility company who normally receives payments by check or cash, but gives people the convenience of paying online for a flat fee. Furthermore, this is only allowed if it is a flat fee, not a percentage based on purchase amount, as in your case.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553

Visa and Mastercard both have this policy in effect. American Express does not in and of itself, however they do have a policy that you can't treat taking Amex differently then any other card, and therefore if you take Amex and Visa/MC, you must treat Amex with the same rules as the latter, including the no-surcharge rule.
Like I mentioned before, violating these rules makes a merchant subject to both fines and loss of their merchant account, not to mention loss of customers for shady practices.
I assume and hope that you and Bido were unaware of these policies, but now that you are, will you be removing the surcharge?
Thanks.

MediaHound · 08-13-2009, 05:36 AM

Actually, as per the Terms of Service, Bido has a 3% management fee for all transactions, however there is a discount for wire or check payments. These terms are on our site at all times in our TOS (which is more thorough than our Frequently Asked Questions) and presented when members join. We simply discount the management fee from wire or check payments.

enki · 08-13-2009, 08:45 AM

I don't remember reading that, but I'll take your word for it.
But that doesn't matter because it is still a violation of your merchant agreement.
Like I quoted in my previous comment, you are NOT allowed to charge a percentage based management fee for credit card transactions. It is clearly stated in Visa's Merchant Agreement, which I quoted and provided the link for, that if you want to charge any type of "convenience fee", "management fee", "handling fee", whatever you want to call it, it must meet certain stringent criteria, two of which are:
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553

1) The fee is being charged for a bona fide convenience of using an alternative payment channel outside of the merchant’s normal business practice.
2) Must be a flat or fixed amount, regardless of the amount of the payment due

Now, #1 is debatable, because like I said, I would believe that a vast majority of your business is either through Paypal or Credit Cards, and only a small percentage of people would wire funds or send a check. But let's forget about this one.
The second guideline is clearly not being met here. You are not allowed to charge a fee dependant on your the purchase price. It must be a flat fee, regardless of the original price. Period. So you might be able to get away with charging $3 for the 'convenience' of using a credit card, but that would have to apply to a $28 auction, or a $2800 one.

Lastly, if Bido is trying to go the route of the 'cash discount' trick, it still doesn't qualify because while you technically are allowed to discount the check/wire transactions by 3%, this must be done after the advertised purchase price is accepted. The official price must be the pre-discounted one, not the post-discounted one. Ie: if someone buys a domain for $103, you can discount the cash price to $100, but not the other way around.

So regardless of where this 3% surcharge was hidden in the ToS (yes I did find it), it's not allowed persuaint to your merchant agreement. Not to mention in my opinion these surcharges are a deceptive tactic for any business to do. It's like when I sign up for a $49/month cell phone plan and get hit with $25 more a month in taxes, fees, and non-mandatory regulatory fees. If only the federal government was as strict as Visa. Anyway, I digress.

One last sidenote, while I was typing this, I did a quick search and I believe it is in fact against Paypal's ToS for you to surcharge their transactions as well. I could be wrong about this, as I didn't spend too much time verifying it, but a quick Google search returned this is true. So if you continue these practices, you could in theory lose not only your merchant account, but your Paypal account could be suspended. Then the idea of check/wire transactions being the normal payment method (required by Visa for the convenience fee) would truly be tested, no?

I'm not going to debate this anymore. I've made my point, and I've backed it up with factual data. Regardless of the ethical nature of this hidden (yes, burying something deep in a ToS still is hidden in my book) fee, it is clearly against your ToS with Visa. No matter how Bido wants to categorize it is irrelevant. All Visa (as well as MasterCard, and by relation Amex (only Discover doesn't care about surcharges)) cares about is what the final cost to the consumer is. Your current auction format doesn't support the discount method, and your percentage fee is contrary to the rules governing the convenience fee method. So one of them has to change, or you have to do away with this 3% surcharge to buyers altogether. Or not.

08-08-2009, 08:28 AM	#603 (permalink)
MediaHound NamePros Regular Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Florida Posts: 556	Mellow, the lock does not prevent you from selling your names, even if your names are not selected by the Bido members to go to auction, and you end up selling the name on your own, or on NP, etc.. you can still transfer it to the buyer by "pushing" the domain to their account. It's really nothing to worry about, it is a little aggravating that they do that but in the big picture it really should never hinder a transaction from finalizing. Thanks cmason for the kind words, glad to hear. Btw everyone, please continue to vote on the names you want to see go to NR auction on Bido. Your votes count __________________ http://www.bido.com http://www.bido.com/VoteForProfits http://www.bido.com/SubmitDomains

08-09-2009, 08:54 AM	#607 (permalink)
Radiator NamePros Regular Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: The Outer Limits Posts: 672	Haven't got time to go trawl 25 pages right now, but I've read a few patches. Damn good thing the 1 auction a day thing was dropped like a hot coal; how anyone thought that would ever be viable is beyond me, especially if the domain seen is forgotten in seconds. However, I do like the idea of something that:- 1) Competes with Sedo to some extent 2) Gives people a much better chance of a fair viewing than Sedo 3) Features open discussion of sales; though this is massively open to abuse - people need to take what they read with a rock of salt until the 'experts' have consistently proven themselves. That said, I really dont like :- 1) No reserve for the majority of auctions - much too risky. Just look at dishwashers.net. Not an exciting prospect for most granted, but worth way more than the laughable 7 bucks it ended up with. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553 2) A stiflingly narrow window to bid - an HOUR!? Come on, most people are way too busy to be able to disrupt their schedule for 1 fixed hour in the day, especially when you take into account that normal people in some parts of the world are going to be in bed. Hope it develops and thrives though. Sedo could do with a serious challenger snapping at their heels __________________ Run bath for 5 minutes. Click link. Press play. Get in bath. And relax.

08-10-2009, 01:37 PM	#611 (permalink)
MediaHound NamePros Regular Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Florida Posts: 556	Thanks Paxton. Our auction archive is at this link: Bido.com - Social Auction Platform __________________ http://www.bido.com http://www.bido.com/VoteForProfits http://www.bido.com/SubmitDomains

08-10-2009, 03:22 PM	#613 (permalink)
MediaHound NamePros Regular Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Florida Posts: 556	Thanks Radiator. You can always see the entire list of upcoming auctions from this link: http://www.bido.com/Auctions You can place bids where you feel comfortable buying the domains at, as you indicated, if that was a great buy in your view - spend some time and place bids wherever you feel comfortable buying at, you just might win some. It's free to bid, you only pay if you win. __________________ http://www.bido.com http://www.bido.com/VoteForProfits http://www.bido.com/SubmitDomains

Employment, Business, and Acronym domains on Bido today.

Acronym, Health, Real Estate, and other domains on Bido today.

Recreation, Poker, Geo, and other domains on Bido today.

08-08-2009, 07:16 AM	#602 (permalink)
cmason Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Canada Posts: 1,282 Follow @ColeMason	Just wanted to share another experience with Bido. Before yesterday all of the domains I bought through Bido were "legacy" names that were 100% in Bido's possession - so they would push the domains themselves. Now, the Bido staff acts as a middleman in communicating the push between the buyer and the seller. I have been lucky, but everything was absolutely flawless. As soon as the auction ended I made payment and in less than an hour received an email from Bido support asking for my push information. I provided the info and I would say that within a half hour the seller had already pushed the domain to my eNom account. Great stuff!

08-10-2009, 01:23 PM	#610 (permalink)
paxton Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 1,059	I can see an improvement in the quality of names up for auction at BidO. And that looks like it is helping with better overall results. Better domain names bring more auction participants, and lesser names are benefiting from the presence of having more bidders. There are still a few names that seem to be selling at a heavy discount, but then again there are names selling for what seems (to me) to be at premium prices.

08-12-2009, 11:12 AM	#617 (permalink)
Tribulatio NamePros Supporter Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Switzerland Posts: 868 Follow @NameTactic	I just discovered the numerous, new improvements at Bido - including the possibility to accelerate domain names toward auction (for sellers, but for buyers too, it seems), the new starting price of $ 28 for no reserve auctions, and a variety of other improvements. Congratulations to the Bido staff, really a good step forward! __________________ Name Tactic - Selling Quality Domain Names Name Tactic on Twitter Religio.name - Religious and Religion Related Domain Names

08-12-2009, 11:34 AM	#618 (permalink)
MediaHound NamePros Regular Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Florida Posts: 556	Thanks Tribulatio __________________ http://www.bido.com http://www.bido.com/VoteForProfits http://www.bido.com/SubmitDomains

08-12-2009, 02:30 PM	#619 (permalink)
enki NamePros Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Florida Posts: 58	My two cents on the new Bido stuff: First off let me preface this with the comment that I am not anything close to a 'domainer', or expert in the field. I'm really just starting out, and only own about a couple dozen or so domains. I also just started using Bido about a week ago, and while I was originally enthusiastic about them, my first experience and the new policies have me a bit reluctant to use them ever again. As a domainer newbie, I am not anxious to drop hundreds->thousands of dollars on Sedo auctions. Honestly, most of the domains I own are either for personal use, or ones I like the...look of. I didn't like the fact that Sedo bids start at $70, so I was happy to see that the Bido auctions, with a starting price of $1 allow the market to truly dictate the end value. You could pick up a good domain for personal use or whatever, for less then the registration fee. While I can see people not liking the fact that the auctions are only one hour long, I thought it was kind of fun and exciting, as opposed to waiting a week for an auction to end. I pre-bid on a couple of auctions, and I received an email shortly after saying that the pre-bid policy is changing (retroactively), and whatever you choose to pre-bid will be the initial bid, as opposed to proxying anything above $1, or up to the next highest bid. Not a big deal, but not a great policy in my humble opinion. I did have an issue (site related) that someone at Bido took care of quite quickly, so I was impressed with the customer service. So yesterday I started actively bidding on a domain during an auction, and was a bit upset that while my top bid went to $248, and I knew the next highest bidder was capped at $250, I had to bid a minimum of $270 to overtake him. I can understand if you are dealing with thousands of dollars to not deal with $1 increments, but as the price of the auction went from $140->$250, the increments kept getting larger and larger. I find 10% bid increments quite high. I'll assume this is the norm (?), but personally, I didn't like it. In any case, I won the auction, and get to find out that Bido tacks on a 3% surcharge for any Paypal or Credit Card payments. I did not read this policy ANYWHERE before I won the auction, and was NOT happy at all. Especially since it is a complete violation of their merchant agreement to pass along credit card fee surcharges to customers. Yes, you can fund your account via check (and wait), but that's not the point. If someone reported this to Visa/Mastercard, they could quickly loose their merchant account and/or be subject to fines. And 3% is more then they are most likely paying in fees anyway, which also pissed me off. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553 ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553 But fine, I pay them their almost $9 in fees, and get my domain. Process completed quite quickly (seller was fast with the transfer), and while I was still upset about the, unless I am blind, unadvertised surcharge, I was overall happy with the transaction, and willing to use their site. Now I get an email today with news of a jack in minimum bids, which have been implemented retroactively, and nullified previous bids I placed. So in the course of only a week, and as a new user, I have seen three different ways they have changed or implemented policies that do nothing more then increase my cost, and improve their bottom line. I highly doubt I will be doing much business with Bido again. I doubt I am alone, but who knows, maybe I am just a foolish newb who doesn't understand how paying an auction house more money is a good thing... Sure, it might cut out some domains that are....below par?...and bring in more high valued ones, but how is turning away sellers, buyers, and a profit stream, a good thing for anyone? Sure having higher valued domains is great, but I thought they were a great aftermarket for moderately priced domains. Even if a domain sells for $10, the seller gets money for a domain that obviously wasn't too valuable, the buyer get's a domain for a price they like, and Bido collects a small cut. Win-Win-Win. Or am I missing something?

08-12-2009, 02:53 PM	#620 (permalink)
cmason Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Canada Posts: 1,282 Follow @ColeMason	Enki, I can definitely see how all of those items would tick you off - especially as a newcomer to the industry. I agree with you that the 1-hour auction length makes it appealing and the Bido setup makes it a great place to hang out during that time. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553 The pre-bid policy change is a pretty fundamental shift in how pre-bidding is done. I generally shy away from pre-bidding as the 2% discount is not overly appealing to me. The most useful place I see the absolute pre-bidding is when there is competition between two or more individuals before the auction occurs. As you stated, with regards to your support request, the best thing about Bido is the people that work there - the support and communication from Bido makes it a great place to contribute requests. You know what the best thing is regarding your post above? The Bido staff, most likely MediaHound, will address all of your concerns that you express. The increments get to me at times too. It would be nice if it was a stock $2 increment from 0-50, then $5 from 50-150, then $10 to...well you get what I am saying. The percentage idea is nice, but it just seems a little odd to me. The PayPal/CC fee was a bit of a shock to me the first time - after that I calculated it into the purchase price. I really haven't questioned the legitimacy of the charge, but I was a little surprised that it existed. Personally, I am a fan of the $28 minimum bid (although it is a strange amount) and the cost of accelerating a domain to auction - this will help alleviate a lot of the garbage that has come through the system, while giving confidence to those that are selling domains that would typically sell for mid $xx. As you are a beginner, you argument is very well founded and I would love to see Bido implement $1 starts occasionally. Personally, I am quite satisfied with most of the changes that have been made, but I think that your arguments are well-founded and well-explained.

08-12-2009, 03:20 PM	#621 (permalink)
enki NamePros Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Florida Posts: 58	Thanks for the feedback cmason. And yes I can see your points and, while I personally don't like some changes, how they could possibly benefit the site overall. But I still think some of them are negative. Look at today's auctions. 6 out of 14 domains went without any bids. Almost half. Why? I imagine because no one wanted to pay $28 for them. If the minimum bid was still $1, I imagine most if not all of those would have sold for something. So not only did this new policy hurt the seller and prospective buyers, but Bido received no money for any of those six auctions. 11% of $1 is still better then 11% of $0. It seems to me like they have the potential to be a great site, and are heading down the road of eBay. Back when eBay first came out, they were awesome. They didn't overcharge, or nickle and dime you to death, and the people who used it were real....people, who just wanted to get rid of some stuff and others who wanted to buy it. Now eBay is, well, crap. A complete joke of a company. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553 The CC surcharge (which is like I said completely against merchant agreements) cost me money, and really pissed me off. The other stuff didn't really directly affect me, but just put a real bad taste in my mouth that this site is taking a really cool idea, and trying to jack up rates to nickle and dime people. Hopefully I am wrong.

08-12-2009, 04:45 PM	#622 (permalink)
MediaHound NamePros Regular Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Florida Posts: 556	Enki - first of all, please allow me to express my gratitude to you for taking your time to write and put your thoughts up to the community here for an open discussion. We really like to hear feedback and take the opportunity to explain the Bido platform, how we built it, and reasoning behind some of the changes to the flow and formats. Where we see opportunity to improve, we will strive towards that. Hence the latest release from this morning. We may not always get everything exactly right but we do try to improve where we can. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553 As you mentioned, some domains closed today without any bids. Unfortunately, we have had that happen even when bidding was at just one dollar. Therefore, some from today may not have sold even for just one dollar (nobody knows). Worse, for the seller, is when a name sells for only one dollar. With no bids, the seller can keep their prized domain and hope for better luck next time, market better next time, etc. However if it sells for just a dollar, the seller is at a loss. One dollar bidding was very effective when we auctioned just one domain per day. It encouraged vibrant bidding with many bidders showing up each day to bid and try and win the domains. But now that we are auctioning multiple domains per day, sellers are not getting a fine ellipsoidal spotlight on their domain like they used to be able to. And back then it was extremely competitive to even get your domain listed for auction because Bido could only pick the one best daily. So as our story unfolds, we ramped things up to a multiple format (Bido could not survive with auctioning one domain per day), and we allow the members to vote on what goes to No Reserve auction. However, this one dollar start was an artifact that remained from the legacy format. And it was discouraging sellers to list quality inventory in fear they would sell their domain for less than they desired, or worse, less than their out of pocket expenses, or even worse, the dreaded $1 sale. Yes, buyers enjoy obtaining domains for a dollar, but the long term effect is sellers scatter in fear, and the well of inventory dries up. So it was inevitable and a change was needed to give sellers a layer of protection, more of a cushion to earn returns, and reward their time for the process of listing and verifying ownership, writing a description, marketing the auction, transferring the domain, etc. Since nobody likes to do all that for next to nothing, while perhaps even loosing money (and of course time) in the process, it's what doomed the format. So today we changed this, we start the auctions at $28 and set the path for a much more vibrant marketplace with better quality, more excitement, and overall a more satisfying experience for everyone involved. When it comes to these price points, it is a delicate balance between a good experience for the sellers as well as for the buyers to have a continuous stream of quality inventory and return day over day. __________________ http://www.bido.com http://www.bido.com/VoteForProfits http://www.bido.com/SubmitDomains

08-13-2009, 12:04 AM	#623 (permalink)
enki NamePros Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Florida Posts: 58	MediaHound: Thank you for your candid response addressing my concerns. I agree that there are benefits to your new system, though I still believe in some cases a no-minimum might be warranted. However, I would like you to address the credit card surcharge complaint. Persuaint to your merchant agreement, and Visa & Mastercard regulations, you are prohibited from applying any direct surcharge to payments. --- http://usa.visa.com/download/merchan..._merchants.pdf (see Page 10) "-No Surcharging- Always treat Visa transactions like any other transaction; that is, you may not impose any surcharge on a Visa transaction. You may, however, offer a discount for cash transactions, provided that the offer is clearly disclosed to customers and the cash price is presented as a discount from the standard price charged for all other forms of payment." --- This was not the case. While it is basically a cheat, gas stations can get around this rule by discounting the ADVERTISED cost of gas if you pay in cash, but they cannot advertise the cash price and then jack up the cost if you pay with a credit card. In Bido's case, you don't even mention a surcharge until after an auction is won (I just re-read the FAQ to double check), and you clearly tack it on top of the advertised 'purchase price' as a percentage fee. There is only one exception to the surcharge rule, which is the Convenience Fee: "For merchants who offer an alternate payment channel for customers to pay for goods or services, a convenience fee may be added to the transaction amount. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553 If the merchant chooses to assess a convenience fee to its customers, the merchant must adhere to the following rules: • The fee is being charged for a bona fide convenience of using an alternative payment channel outside of the merchant’s normal business practice (see example below). • The fee: – must be disclosed to the customer as a charge for the convenience of using the alternate method to pay – is applied only to non face-to-face transactions – must be a flat or fixed amount, regardless of the amount of the payment due – is applied to all forms of payment products accepted in the alternative payment channel – is included as part of the total transaction amount – cannot be added to a recurring transaction – is assessed by the merchant that provides the goods or services to the cardholder and not a third party • The customer must be given the opportunity to cancel prior to the completion of the transaction" -- In your case, you do not qualify for this because taking a credit card is not your alternative method of payment. I imagine most customers pay with either a credit card or Paypal (which also has a surcharge, making this further exempt), and the check/wire method is the actual alternative method. Their example is a utility company who normally receives payments by check or cash, but gives people the convenience of paying online for a flat fee. Furthermore, this is only allowed if it is a flat fee, not a percentage based on purchase amount, as in your case. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553 Visa and Mastercard both have this policy in effect. American Express does not in and of itself, however they do have a policy that you can't treat taking Amex differently then any other card, and therefore if you take Amex and Visa/MC, you must treat Amex with the same rules as the latter, including the no-surcharge rule. Like I mentioned before, violating these rules makes a merchant subject to both fines and loss of their merchant account, not to mention loss of customers for shady practices. I assume and hope that you and Bido were unaware of these policies, but now that you are, will you be removing the surcharge? Thanks.

08-13-2009, 05:36 AM	#624 (permalink)
MediaHound NamePros Regular Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Florida Posts: 556	Actually, as per the Terms of Service, Bido has a 3% management fee for all transactions, however there is a discount for wire or check payments. These terms are on our site at all times in our TOS (which is more thorough than our Frequently Asked Questions) and presented when members join. We simply discount the management fee from wire or check payments. __________________ http://www.bido.com http://www.bido.com/VoteForProfits http://www.bido.com/SubmitDomains

08-13-2009, 08:45 AM	#625 (permalink)
enki NamePros Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Florida Posts: 58	I don't remember reading that, but I'll take your word for it. But that doesn't matter because it is still a violation of your merchant agreement. Like I quoted in my previous comment, you are NOT allowed to charge a percentage based management fee for credit card transactions. It is clearly stated in Visa's Merchant Agreement, which I quoted and provided the link for, that if you want to charge any type of "convenience fee", "management fee", "handling fee", whatever you want to call it, it must meet certain stringent criteria, two of which are: ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=560553 1) The fee is being charged for a bona fide convenience of using an alternative payment channel outside of the merchant’s normal business practice. 2) Must be a flat or fixed amount, regardless of the amount of the payment due Now, #1 is debatable, because like I said, I would believe that a vast majority of your business is either through Paypal or Credit Cards, and only a small percentage of people would wire funds or send a check. But let's forget about this one. The second guideline is clearly not being met here. You are not allowed to charge a fee dependant on your the purchase price. It must be a flat fee, regardless of the original price. Period. So you might be able to get away with charging $3 for the 'convenience' of using a credit card, but that would have to apply to a $28 auction, or a $2800 one. Lastly, if Bido is trying to go the route of the 'cash discount' trick, it still doesn't qualify because while you technically are allowed to discount the check/wire transactions by 3%, this must be done after the advertised purchase price is accepted. The official price must be the pre-discounted one, not the post-discounted one. Ie: if someone buys a domain for $103, you can discount the cash price to $100, but not the other way around. So regardless of where this 3% surcharge was hidden in the ToS (yes I did find it), it's not allowed persuaint to your merchant agreement. Not to mention in my opinion these surcharges are a deceptive tactic for any business to do. It's like when I sign up for a $49/month cell phone plan and get hit with $25 more a month in taxes, fees, and non-mandatory regulatory fees. If only the federal government was as strict as Visa. Anyway, I digress. One last sidenote, while I was typing this, I did a quick search and I believe it is in fact against Paypal's ToS for you to surcharge their transactions as well. I could be wrong about this, as I didn't spend too much time verifying it, but a quick Google search returned this is true. So if you continue these practices, you could in theory lose not only your merchant account, but your Paypal account could be suspended. Then the idea of check/wire transactions being the normal payment method (required by Visa for the convenience fee) would truly be tested, no? I'm not going to debate this anymore. I've made my point, and I've backed it up with factual data. Regardless of the ethical nature of this hidden (yes, burying something deep in a ToS still is hidden in my book) fee, it is clearly against your ToS with Visa. No matter how Bido wants to categorize it is irrelevant. All Visa (as well as MasterCard, and by relation Amex (only Discover doesn't care about surcharges)) cares about is what the final cost to the consumer is. Your current auction format doesn't support the discount method, and your percentage fee is contrary to the rules governing the convenience fee method. So one of them has to change, or you have to do away with this 3% surcharge to buyers altogether. Or not. Last edited by enki; 08-13-2009 at 08:53 AM.

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