Fu*k Flippa for accepting bids after auction ends...

[ivey]

I was the highest bidder for a domain at the deadline. Why are pending bids allowed when the auction ends and seller is given up to 72 hours to accept? This is not "make offer" but this is a dang auction!!!! A deadline is a deadline.

If a bid isn't accepted before the deadline then it shouldn't be legitimate. I've been watching this name intently for a while. When an auction closes it means it closes.. It is not legal anywhere in the world to be accepting bids when an auction is over.

If you bid last minute then you should cut out the approval process.. Because I would see that a bid beat me and then respond with a higher bid. All i see is that I am the Top Bidder Now i get a messaging said there are pending bids blaa blaaa blaa...wtf Flippa


You motha ffers need to be more transparent...Even ebay is better because if someone outbids you with little time to go you can know instantly that u are outbid.. and respond as fast as you can. I know about sniping.. but the auction is live and u see instantly. Flippa auction is almost like a backdoor deal.. where you send secret bids while shile showing another person as top bidder. This shiiit still shows you as the highest bidder...

What the fu*k is this seller approval about? Clear people to bid and if they are cleared then let them bid and let live be live..If they have a bad history and then close them out all together...

Never heard of an auction where you don't know who won until up 72 hours after the auction ends... that's the message they gave me. I would and back door some motha fuxxers but i won't add another penny to them..

Then to complicate things whenever i bid with under an hour left it seems like time gets added. So why wasn't time added then, even five minutes to prevent this scam. This is worst than sniping. And it might not be added unless the seller is around to accept bids/offers.. to show you have been outbid... Thus you can't respond or get time added because the seller might be home taking a sheet on the toilet or jak n offf in the back room.


It starts with integrity Flippa.. That platform will fail because of a lapse in integrity. Bad practices.

Mark my words: Flippa.com will Fail as a platform. It's a matter of time before anew platform comes into play.

 

[joro001]

Don't do proxies, unless you absolutely need the name... Let the shill?/stupid? bidder always to second guess if they'll have to hold the baby...

The thing is, I almost always bid on expiring auctions not public auctions so just assume there's no foul play going on. Unfortunately experience has shown me something is not right due to the above points.

I can't for the life of me figure out what/who can be doing this, they surely don't stand to gain anything from making me pay more?

 

[Recons.Com]

I don't want to accuse anyone and am not claiming GD does it, but they, as a platform, do gain every cent of higher bid... It could be an employee, in theory (again, my experience is not a proof, but too much coincidence and indirect stuff), whose KPIs are tied to the number of domains and gross amount of sales from expired auctions...

I can't just imagine that everytime I bid last minute, there is another bidder also looking at it and when I decide to wait (random distribution also included) nobody does... Maybe it is a damn stupid investor who does not trust his own taste )) But still, I have made my decision to bid for names I "kinda" want...

 

[joro001]

I don't want to accuse anyone and am not claiming GD does it, but they, as a platform, do gain every cent of higher bid... It could be an employee, in theory (again, my experience is not a proof, but too much coincidence and indirect stuff), whose KPIs are tied to the number of domains and gross amount of sales from expired auctions...

I can't just imagine that everytime I bid last minute, there is another bidder also looking at it and when I decide to wait (random distribution also included) nobody does... Maybe it is a damn stupid investor who does not trust his own taste )) But still, I have made my decision to bid for names I "kinda" want...

This has been going through my head for a while. It's the only explanation I can think of that adds up.

My godaddy executive is welcome to go through my account and look at my winning auctions, it looks very odd and suspicious to say the least.

I also don't want to openly accuse them of things I have no proof of, but it's put me off bidding for most names unless I really badly want it. Even if Godaddy are 100% clean and innocent, they are losing credibility and sales from people like me, so they need to come up with a solution and sort it out!

 

[joethrows]

I don't do proxy bids at GD unless it's a real gem and happens to be closing overnight or when I know I'll be offline during the close

 

[LucidDomains]

You guys should create a separate thread about GD, I want to hear what @FlippaDomains officially has to say about this. This seems shocking and I'm glad it's been brought to my attention. Thanks.

 

[Recons.Com]

Yeah, I agree.

So, from the latest:

1. Flippa let's after auction bidding and if you win, you don't know if you won and you don't get chance to bid higher.

2. Flippa ignores ticket from seller that it has removed reserve by mistake and that results in $60K sale not going through. Ref L7.com

3. Flippa sells a name for $40K, the buyer doesn't honor the deal, but instead of the name going to the second highest bidder, it goes to a new non-participating bidder that was on "waiting list"? Ref. Nerdy.com

4. Flippa let's obvious fraud listings like vodka.life be. And someone claimed that they have reported similar deals and moderators have told him they are fine.

Did I miss anything?

 

[ZapNano]

I was the highest bidder for a domain at the deadline. Why are pending bids allowed when the auction ends and seller is given up to 72 hours to accept? This is not "make offer" but this is a dang auction!!!! A deadline is a deadline.

If a bid isn't accepted before the deadline then it shouldn't be legitimate. I've been watching this name intently for a while. When an auction closes it means it closes.. It is not legal anywhere in the world to be accepting bids when an auction is over.

If you bid last minute then you should cut out the approval process.. Because I would see that a bid beat me and then respond with a higher bid. All i see is that I am the Top Bidder Now i get a messaging said there are pending bids blaa blaaa blaa...wtf Flippa


You motha ffers need to be more transparent...Even ebay is better because if someone outbids you with little time to go you can know instantly that u are outbid.. and respond as fast as you can. I know about sniping.. but the auction is live and u see instantly. Flippa auction is almost like a backdoor deal.. where you send secret bids while shile showing another person as top bidder. This shiiit still shows you as the highest bidder...

What the fu*k is this seller approval about? Clear people to bid and if they are cleared then let them bid and let live be live..If they have a bad history and then close them out all together...

Never heard of an auction where you don't know who won until up 72 hours after the auction ends... that's the message they gave me. I would and back door some motha fuxxers but i won't add another penny to them..

Then to complicate things whenever i bid with under an hour left it seems like time gets added. So why wasn't time added then, even five minutes to prevent this scam. This is worst than sniping. And it might not be added unless the seller is around to accept bids/offers.. to show you have been outbid... Thus you can't respond or get time added because the seller might be home taking a sheet on the toilet or jak n offf in the back room.


It starts with integrity Flippa.. That platform will fail because of a lapse in integrity. Bad practices.

Mark my words: Flippa.com will Fail as a platform. It's a matter of time before anew platform comes into play.

I have joined Flippa couple months ago; but after hearing so many negatives from this company I never visited their site anymore. Peace of mind and stress free are better than few bucks gain. This company it need of some serious transformation; and it will start from top to bottom. Get rid of those trouble makers, they are toxic for the business. Auctions should be clean and be managed by people with clean hand. Just a thought..

 

[deez007]

Im interested to see a response from Flipper here.... one of the directors is a member here. Username: FlippaDomains -

 

[wwwweb]

@Joe Styler

This flippa thread has turned into more comments, and concerns about godaddy marketplace, it seems many investors have lost confidence in the platform, from reading their comments there are certain issues at play, the main one is the lack of introduction of usernames to provide clarity to all bidders of the process.

I hope you can take this feedback, and bring their confidence back.

 

[DNVantage]

Flippa needs to change bidding policy.

1) Pending a bid is bad.

How can a seller verify a buyer? Flippa is in a better position to verify the buyer, not the seller.

If a seller does not like the buyers first bid coz it is too low, they don't approve and even a no reserve auction remains unsold!

I just don't get the point of using Flippa escrow and having concept of pending bids! Signing up for Flippa escrow already is stringent, what else is needed to verify the buyer! For buyer's verified for Flippa escrow, give them privileges, like allowing their bids to be placed immediately. This will motivate more buyers to use Flippa escrow, which is in Flippa's favor.

Even if pending bid is used, it should be used only for buyer's with negative rating, else bid should be applied immediately.

Another problem with pending bid is, if a seller is is not around to approve new buyer close to the closing time, the bid is not placed. Seller loses out the higher bid and buyer though willing to pay more, still does not win the auction.

2) Extending the auction by one hour is way too long.

With few dollars, and bidding on 59th minute every time, a buyer can stretch the auction for hours. Extending the auction by 5 minutes is sane. How long are most buyers going to wait around if auction is extended by an hour every time. Seller loses out again if buyers leave the auction due to such long extensions.

 

[Casey L]

I loathe that pending bid policy. I'll spend a month watching a domain and bidding and in that last minute I'll have to throw a Hail Mary of a bid, hoping I get the highest bid.

I imagine flippa is well aware of the policy, it's only because they know bidders have to bid more than usual if they really want to win an auction, which means more commission for them.

 

[wwwweb]

Anyone know why flips hides usernames but gives clues to total spent beside the name, what's the big secret?

 

[Joe Styler]

Thanks I will send the feedback up. The disclosure of bidder via a bid handle has been a topic we have looked at in the past but can look at again. We have a lot of bidders on the auctions and a pretty robust fraud check system in place with both manual and automated checks which keeps our platform the cleanest I have experienced. We have released many things over the years such as bidder verification to keep evolving our platform and make sure it is running fairly for all participants.
We are also a public company which means we are audited by outside agencies for many things. You're also right in pointing out that we make money from the auctions. That money needs to be accounted for and that is checked as well by auditors.
I would say in many cases it is pretty easy to see who is bidding against you by simply watching the whois for the new owner. Some use privacy but many bidders do not and it is fairly easy to see who the winners are after the fact if you watch their patterns. Many of these "last minute" bids are not done by a person sitting at a desk but someone using our API, which anyone can access if you request access from support. Write your own code to tell it to keep an eye on certain auctions and outbid at the last minute and try and wear out the other bidders as it seems they are trying to do here.
We have chosen after consulting with many customers to not release our user names at the time of bidding. There are positives and negatives to both sides. Some of the positives have been mentioned already. One of the main reasons we do not list usernames is we believe the value of the domain name should speak for itself. It is fairly easy, again by watching the whois, etc to see who belongs to what handle. I think it is fairly common knowledge for many frequent bidders on Namejet for example, to know the handles of the "famous" domain investors. We think everyone should have a fair shot at the auction and should do their own research regarding the names they are investing it. It is not fair for someone to see that Frank Schilling or Rick Schwartz etc are bidding on a domain name and then jump into the auction they would not have bid on without seeing the handle of a famous bidder in the mix. This protects everyone, once you start winning names and work hard at refining a niche and sifting through tens of thousands of names on a daily basis to find those gems, when people start seeing your success resulting from investment in time, energy, and money they will start watching your username and bidding accordingly. We know because it happens at other marketplaces, and they get complaints for having the usernames exposed
As I said there are pluses an minuses to both sides. We believe in a philosophy of having the name itself determine the value, we strictly enforce auction rules to make sure bidders are legitimate and complete payment, and ban those who don't and we are audited by outside entities.

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

It sure is.a bad thing but even when you are the highest bidder ,next to the number of bids there is a bracket which shows the number of pending bids. If you see 2+ pending...then always expect to be outbid.

If the BiD is not approved and you are declared as winner then you still need to expect those bids to be approved. The question is... Where you declared as winner? If no then there is no problem but if you were and then pending bids got approved then that is disaster

 

[Recons.Com]

It sure is.a bad thing but even when you are the highest bidder ,next to the number of bids there is a bracket which shows the number of pending bids. If you see 2+ pending...then always expect to be outbid.

If the BiD is not approved and you are declared as winner then you still need to expect those bids to be approved. The question is... Where you declared as winner? If no then there is no problem but if you were and then pending bids got approved then that is disaster

And how is the bidder supposed to know what are the amounts of the pending bids? He never gets a chance to beat that price and that is ridiculous.

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

Yeah, I agree.

So, from the latest:

1. Flippa let's after auction bidding and if you win, you don't know if you won and you don't get chance to bid higher.

2. Flippa ignores ticket from seller that it has removed reserve by mistake and that results in $60K sale not going through. Ref L7.com

3. Flippa sells a name for $40K, the buyer doesn't honor the deal, but instead of the name going to the second highest bidder, it goes to a new non-participating bidder that was on "waiting list"? Ref. Nerdy.com

4. Flippa let's obvious fraud listings like vodka.life be. And someone claimed that they have reported similar deals and moderators have told him they are fine.

Did I miss anything?

Is it mandotary to offer to the second highest bidder? Isnt it the seller's choice and also the buyer to accept?

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

And how is the bidder supposed to know what are the amounts of the pending bids? He never gets a chance to beat that price and that is ridiculous.

You can be sure of one thing... They are almost all the time higher bids so you should be ready.

 

[Recons.Com]

It is normal practice.

If the winning bidder is shill, then it goes to second highest and only to the amount that would be there without the winning bidder. Otherwise, there is huge incentive for the platform and/or seller to engage in bogus auctions or at least not fight them.

I was the second bidder on GD auction and stopped my bids at $3K letting the other guy get it. In a week got an email from GD that I am having it for around $300, i.e. the level at which it became two way bidding.

The only other alternative would be to reauction, as we all do on NP, when the sale does not go through for any reason.

 

[Recons.Com]

You can be sure of one thing... They are almost all the time higher bids so you should be ready.

I have no clue what you just said...

 

[wwwweb]

It is normal practice.

If the winning bidder is shill, then it goes to second highest and only to the amount that would be there without the winning bidder. Otherwise, there is huge incentive for the platform and/or seller to engage in bogus auctions or at least not fight them.

I was the second bidder on GD auction and stopped my bids at $3K letting the other guy get it. In a week got an email from GD that I am having it for around $300, i.e. the level at which it became two way bidding.

The only other alternative would be to reauction, as we all do on NP, when the sale does not go through for any reason.

So say you made that last one bid, and ended up winning it, knowing what you know now, that people like this operate freely without the consequence of a $10 fine, how does that make you feel.

I am sure you have been on the other side of that bid plenty of times in the winning position, you just don't know it.

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

I have no clue what you just said...

Why? Is my English that bad? . Based on experience I have seen that any pending bid is always higher than the bid you are submitting and even if it is the same then it is still given priority since it has been submitted before yours

 

[koskov]

Another problem with pending bid is, if a seller is is not around to approve new buyer close to the closing time, the bid is not placed. Seller loses out the higher bid and buyer though willing to pay more, still does not win the auction.

That is a real pain in the ... I had to sit near my laptop for a few hours in a row, just to make sure that I approve all last minute bids. Really inconvenient

 

[sofiapartner]

Well - and if you are playing with proxy bid - as most do ? How can you know that the pending bid is higher ?

 

[joethrows]

That is a real pain in the ... I had to sit near my laptop for a few hours in a row, just to make sure that I approve all last minute bids. Really inconvenient

i bid on a domain at flippa once that closed prior to the seller accepting my bid which had been placed at least one full day prior. 3 or 4 days later, seller finally accepts my bid and i was then notified that the domain was mine.

 

[koskov]

i bid on a domain at flippa once that closed prior to the seller accepting my bid which had been placed at least one full day prior. 3 or 4 days later, seller finally accepts my bid and i was then notified that the domain was mine.

So basically that seller didn't give an opportunity to other potential buyers to place their bids and as a result might lost some profit. Accepting bids after auction ends isn't good for both, sellers and buyers