question I bid on a domain with a huge premium renewal at GD auction, by mistake.

[Primary Names]

I mostly am busy with my day work and engage in some domaining mostly in the evenings or early mornings for about half an hour so the whole exercise is pretty hasty in that sense I like the domains that appear at auctions at GD. Generally I just put my highest bid and forget about it. I lose most of the domains ( mostly to HD ) but do get decent domains some times. The other day I was going through the process faster than usual and I was on the phone due to office affair and also in a tense conversation with my wife so eventually I ended up bidding on a non dotcom domain with premium renewal of a whopping $3XXX. Obviously, I did not notice the premium renewal while putting the bid. Slapped my forehead and have been shaking my head over it since.

GD is expensive but I really like the domains that appear at their auctions so I would not want to close my account there any time soon. Despite it being an honest mistake if I was forced to pay I was mentally prepared to pay the sum only because I could afford the loss this time since I had a sale of lower mid $XXXXX, just last month. I am calling it a loss because I would certainly not be paying the absurd "premium" renewal fee that I would not be paying next year. Additionally I am from India so there was added GST of 13% added to the price along with the renewal fee. So basically it would have hurt my economics but fortunately someone else bid higher. I just hope it is not a domainer like me who missed the "premium" renewal written right there somewhere. As I said......... I am still shaking my head over the whole thing since ....... I thougt I got such a stupid rookie mistake after all these years.

There was around two days left for the auction to end when I wrote to [email protected] and started a private conversation with GD handle here at NP telling them that it was an honest mistake. Despite being a time sensitive matter. I am still hearing crickets. No surprise there but I would not blame GD if they wont forgive the mistake and they "had to stand" by their "policy". Also I don't think they keep much from the massive renewal amount which obviously would go to the registry. It is extremely expensive to call US from where I stay, but I still tried calling up on the phone and it did not just go through probably because my network was not optimal.

I do have more than a few domains stuck there but even if I did not I would not have run away from GD just out of principle. Note that I would not mind paying higher $XXXX for the domain if the renewal cost were normal because then I could hold it all my life. Holding onto a "premium" renewal is absolutely not my thing.

I was just wondering if anyone has been in such situation earlier ( regardless of the platform ) and if you could share with us if things worked out or not. Or did you end up paying a heart breaking sum due to their "policy" ? Do you think GD would have forgiven the mistake ? How was your experience ? What is the usual response from the registrar in such case ?

Not my case but here is tweet from Elliot I saw yesterday.. with somewhat similar concern.

 

[Edukar]

Friends, we deviated from the topic. Imagine that a newcomer bought a similar domain. If he has a linked bank card, money for renewal will be lost off automatically. And it will be impossible to return them. Registers should not receive huge commission for premium renewal It is necessary to prohibit this practics. It is necessary to boycott such auctions at all. Premium renewal is a frank fraud.

 

[pb]

But is the renewal fee discount applicable also to premium renewal fees with an auction? Presumably that fee is set by the registry.

In the case of 888.xyz, registry fee is $10k, while Godaddy charges $10,999 if you have DDC and $12,999 if you don't, as we could see in the first and the ninth post, respectively.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

In the case of 888.xyz, registry fee is $10k, while Godaddy charges $10,999 if you have DDC and $12,999 if you don't, as we could see in the first and the ninth post, respectively.

So this seems curious. So, in general, are various auction marketplaces selling these unregistered, registry-reserved premium domains, allowing for additional registrar premium renewal fee markups?

One wonders if this is really helping or hurting the auction marketplaces? After all, auctions can be fun, and appear very popular, especially the GD marketplace. Why spoil them with variable pricing for certain bidders, along with potentially very unexpected, much higher "renewal costs" that really are actually part of the base bid price?

As @Recons.Com wisely points out, one challenge is the variable price for each bidder, depending on whether they have some discount. Ultimately, though, perhaps some computer algorithm could calculate that and still present the actual total cost for each bid necessary for proceeding?

Why potentially harm some bidder who does not understand that the "renewal" cost is an actual cost needing to be paid along with the rest of their bid, if they are the winner? Thank heavens the mistake didn't happen to our opening poster. If it had, his wife would likely have had some vey choice words with him!

 

[Recons.Com]

Why potentially harm some bidder

They don't think in terms of "harm", "do no harm". They think in terms of impact on bottom line. And, unless there is large enough outcry and damage in other areas because of this, they make more money this way and that is all that matters for them.