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MysteryDomainAuction.com


I found this site through DNXpert.com which again I found some time ago through domaining.com


I think it a pretty smart idea that might earn the owner a nice sum








2 points though ...


1. I think he should lower the 2-week period that ends the auction to 1 week ... that way it will probably increase the amount of people that might expect to win the $10,000-domain/$10,000-cash "prematurely" and therefore probably increase the amount of early bids


2. I think he should consider some change in the bidding process because many people might try to bid in the last minutes in April and if the system needs to authorize a previous $0,01 increment before someone can bid for the next $0,01 increment it might create a bottleneck that might mess-up the end result

 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
I think it's a smart idea for getting himself a lot of money and probably a lot of people that will hate him for paying for nothing...so if he doesn't care about his reputation and just wants money, all power to him I guess. I think for one thing, he would do much better to just say what the name is. I never believe anyone labelling a mystery name a particular value, because it almost never lives up to that...look at all the eBay auctions of mystery domains. I just get the feeling it'll end up being a $500 domain masqueraded as a $10,000 gem.

"I am so sure that the mystery domain name is worth $10,000 that at the end of this auction I will offer to buy the mystery domain name from the highest bidder for $10,000 in cash" I hope simply for his sake of including this statement that the amount he'll accumulate through this will be less than $10,000, just to see him try and weasel out of it.
 
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in the past I have been against many mystery domains auctions found on eBay because I thought they were scams ... the domain was not really valuable ... and they were basically based on "fraudulent"/shill bids that just hoped to receive the promised "bid bonus" if the "final fish" actually paid at the end of the auction





this one though , supposing that the owner of the site does honour the $10,000 cash option clause , is somewhat different ... if the $10,000 cash option is honoured then the bidders don't have to worry about the quality of the domain ... therefore , they could end up with $10,000 in cash with just a $200 bid

 
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Just a note - The original thread for this was moved to the advertising section (To be fair to all) here : http://www.namepros.com/for-sale-advertising-board/547113-mystery-domain-auction-launched.html

He did in fact ask for all types of comments and a few were made before the thread was moved. But , Comments and crashing goes against our own Sales/Marketplace rules here. So please make them in here .... This thread was opened by a different member - so it really isn't "Advertising".
 
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just to clear things up , I do not know the guy that owns that site , I just saw a DNXpert headline in domaining.com and thought that it is a rather good idea which might interest fellow NPers




I actually searched NP for "mysterydomainauction" so as to avoid multiple-threading and got "no results" ... I used the term without spaces because I thought that if someone mentioned the site he would also mention the url (mysterydomainauction.com) and also so as to avoid all the old mystery domain auction threads (the old ones on eBay)




it appears that with the spaces (I tried a search just now to check it) the search gets many results as well as the thread Mark mentions (personally , I saw that thread a couple of hours after I posted mine again through a DNXpert post in domaining.com)




strangely the other thread mentions "mysterydomainauction" but in between "www." and ".com" , so maybe that's why it didn't show up in the initial search ... searching for "mysterydomainauction" right now shows only my thread

 
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I think it's a smart idea for getting himself a lot of money and probably a lot of people that will hate him for paying for nothing...so if he doesn't care about his reputation and just wants money, all power to him I guess. I think for one thing, he would do much better to just say what the name is. I never believe anyone labelling a mystery name a particular value, because it almost never lives up to that...look at all the eBay auctions of mystery domains. I just get the feeling it'll end up being a $500 domain masqueraded as a $10,000 gem.

From what I've read about it, it's a 100 day auction, and the domain will be disclosed on day 50. Seems like a fair compromise to me.

I don't quite understand your comment about his reputation being tarnished because he's in it for the money. Aren't most people in domaining to make money? At least he's completely up front about it.
 
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I just saw the site Yesterday. To me it looks great idea.

No matter what, you have made facts clear on your site and if someone wants to get a link spot for just bidding and a chance to win the auction then he or she might bid.

I personally am jealous of your idea :D but that doesn't means your idea is bad :) It is great. :xf.love:

Thanks :)
 
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Nick - I think you are confusing me with the owner of that site ... or when you said "your site" , "your idea" , etc you meant it towards the site owner in case he reads this thread ?










anyways , I made some calculations and if the bid goes over $14.14 the accrued amount will cover the $10,000 cash option ... if it goes over $20 it will cover the $10,000 cash option even if all bids are from affiliates ... (the calculations don't cover PayPal fees , but you get the picture)


and logically people will keep bidding beyond that since whoever wins gets the domain or the $10,000 ... theoretically a person could bid $200 or $1000 and still make a profit (out of the $10,000) supposing he wins the auction

 
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Sorry my comment was for that sales and advertising section but as this has shifted here. It might be the issue.

Sorry for confusion.
 
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lol , no probs





I think Mark cleared that thread from comments as it was in the sales forum (questions only) and left this one for discussion

 
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Great idea.

"I hope simply for his sake of including this statement that the amount he'll accumulate through this will be less than $10,000, just to see him try and weasel out of it."

I think its a shame comments like this are made. If someone does not agree with something or had past bad experiences with all pay auctions and or mystery domains fine. But to wish bad luck on someone in the same industry for coming up with an inventive and successful idea is a shame. From what I have seen and read about John he is a trust worthy guy and is not going to chuck away his future reputation or income. He is 27 and has a long and successful career in front of him if this idea is anything to go buy. I just wonder how many people actually wish that they had come up with it. I know I do.

If John is going to pay $10,000 that's a lot different to $1,000,000 the guy has already said he has put the money to one side and has it to pay to the winner should they decide to take it.

My view on things.

I think this is a great idea. Every domain / internet industry forum and blog is going to be talking about this. The amount of exposure John will get will be much more valuable than the $10k he is going to give away. People will now discover his other products. It would be really interesting considering the worldwide downturn to see how much his profits actually go up compared to this time previous years. People will be joining his forum buying his Ebook and talking about this guy for a long time to come. I am also sure that marketing circles will also be talking about this. I use to work for one of the worlds biggest advertising agencies. Things like this don't go unnoticed.

When he reaches the $1m and I believe he will, with the rest of the world mainly continuing into a deeper recession your turn on CNN or Sky News as most people do every day and I garantee now they will run this story when he gets the $1m.

Nice one John.

All the best.

James
 
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According to the site:
The auction will end at midnight Pacific time on April 10, 2009 (100 days from launch) or 2 weeks after the last placed bid - whichever comes first.

the winner of this auction will be placing the winning bid at 11:59 PM PST. PERIOD. i don't know what the winning bid will be but that doesn't matter anyway. it's all about the timing here. just think about it.

i suggest that EVERYONE wait until the last minute to bid. there are already dozens who are strategizing this way. if everyone waited until the last minute to bid, the winner will be as near to random as possible.

got it? you don't need to bid until the last minute.
 
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abcproductions said:
i suggest that EVERYONE wait until the last minute to bid. there are already dozens who are strategizing this way.


This is what I thought I would do :guilty:

I also found this very interesting

If your bid (and link) is displaced by other bidders from the Top 50 High Bidders section, it will still remain on the past bids page for the lifetime of this website (a minimum of 5 years).


So bid early and get lost in the large list or bid late and still get 5 years of ads at the top of the list :hehe:

That said.. Always nice to see people with new ideas. I for one think he is not harming anyone, its everyone choice to participate or not... Good luck
 
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It should have ended on the 1st of April, would have been more apt. ;)

Someone said correctly "Never underestimate the stupidness of people in large groups" :lol:

Sorry but it sounds like a get-rich-quick scheme that will ensure large numbers of suckers... errr buyers contribute to the financial welfare of one person - the owner of the site.
 
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Read a bit on game theory and all-pay auctions if you aren't aware of the math behind this.

Basically if bidding reaches $1,000,000, that means 99% of the money paid by bidders will be going NOT to the prize but rather to affiliates + John. Will be interesting to see which domain blogs get off my bookmark list by having a change of heart now that there is money in promoting this.

I have nothing against John -- it's a business idea and I wish him the best. It's basically gambling -- nothing wrong with it but shame on any domain bloggers who promote this as anything other than gambling.
 
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According to John himself, he's already set aside the $10k beforehand. I also agree with those who said that this story will go mainstream when and if he hits that $1million.
 
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Domain sales

It looks like a domain listing site! Pay a couple of dollars and post your domain. Not bad for the first few that got on cheaply, lots of eyeballs and exposure. Good advertising. Beyond that its a sucker trap. :imho:
 
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Samit said:
It should have ended on the 1st of April, would have been more apt. ;)

Someone said correctly "Never underestimate the stupidness of people in large groups" :lol:

Sorry but it sounds like a get-rich-quick scheme that will ensure large numbers of suckers... errr buyers contribute to the financial welfare of one person - the owner of the site.
^^:bingo:

I have yet to read a positive blog post about this whole joke.

-Galel
 
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personally , I don't understand why the whole (negative) fuss about this


a guy had a nice idea and decided to risk $10,000 of his own money to see if he can achieve something innovative and make some money (as well as for his affiliates)


he is upfront about the terms and he places a guarantee on the domain for $10,000 so the domain quality risk is eliminated (unless he does not honour the cash option in which case his reputation is on risk)


if the bid passes the $15-$20 mark (depending on the number of affiliates) he will have earned enough to cover for the $10,000 in cash anyway even if he didn't have the cash readily at hand beforehand (if it doesn't reach that amount , I think he will borrow the remaining amount from somewhere so as to protect his reputation)


he is already at ~300 bids while only in the 3rd day , in this pace he might pass the $15 mark in about 5-7 days (the earnings will have then covered for the cash guarantee even if he didn't have money beforehand)










what I think he should do though ...


1. limit the number of days for "premature" ending ... if he has the $10,000 in hand beforehand and the site gets some traction ... it might be a good idea to take a risk and lower the premature ending to even just 1 day !!! this way many people will visit that site daily (or many times a day , domainers are always online lol) hoping to bid and win the domain/$10,000 prematurely while other bidders don't-watch/sleep/etc

1 day is very risky (especially because of the possible inactivity of weekends) but something like 2 days or something could increase early bids tenfold


2. change something in the bidding process regarding the ending of the auction ... the way that it needs appproval of the previous increment before the next increment it might cause a bottleneck towards the end

postponing the end of the auction for 1 hour (or 1 day) in the last hour (or last day) of the auction might solve this too










I think people should not over-scrutinize/over-criticize this little endeavour ... I think he did it in a light-hearted/joyous manner , so treating it like it is a superimportant/supervital issue is a little excessive ... it might not be a revolution to domaining but it is a pretty neat concept and and could bring some money to the owner/affiliates and possibly some attention to the industry


if you click on the links that people submit you will see that it is starting to become a pretty nice collection of domainers' developed sites and projects

 
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The mathematics are deceptive as bidding progresses. The amount of money made at $2.76 (current bid as I write this) is but $380.88 (not sure why his site reports higher, I don't think my math is wrong...).

Anyway, at $15, it would require $11,250 raised, or 29.5 times as much raised. I'm sure we'll see bidding slow as the price goes up -- only makes sense, especially considering most of the people who've been bidding so far have been doing it for a cheap link, not because they thought they had any chance of actually winning.

Sites like this prey on the stupid -- nothing wrong with that, government does the same with something called the lottery, which is exactly what this is. Someone will end up $10,000 richer. Anyone bidding before the last day for any reason but a backlink is a fool.
 
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Hi REECE,

The mathematics are deceptive as bidding progresses. The amount of money made at $2.76 (current bid as I write this) is but $380.88 (not sure why his site reports higher, I don't think my math is wrong...).

This anomaly that you speak of is explained on the front page, on the buy page (in terms and conditions) and in the faq.

Here is a quote from the front page:
( * If by coincidence two or more bids are bought at the exact same time for the same amount, bids will be ordered by time of purchase. )

Here is rule 3 from the terms and conditions:
Every time a new bid is purchased the bid amount is incremented by $0.01. But, because controlling time and space is beyond my capabilities, if by coincidence two or more people bid at the same time for the same bid amount, the bids will be sorted based on bid time, down to the millisecond, with the latest bid declared higher. This criteria will also be used to determine the winner of this all-pay auction in said scenario. If at the end of the auction two or more bids are highest with the same amount, the bid that arrived last will be pronounced highest!

I also say at the top of the terms and conditions:
To buy a bid in the mystery domain auction you must agree to abide by the following terms and conditions. Please read this agreement carefully before bidding.

And I will repeat here - please read the terms and conditions carefully before you bid. If you do not agree to the terms and conditions PLEASE do not bid. By ticking the "Agree to terms and conditions" you are agreeing to the terms and conditions!

Finally, for your other statement:
Sites like this prey on the stupid -- nothing wrong with that, government does the same with something called the lottery, which is exactly what this is. Someone will end up $10,000 richer. Anyone bidding before the last day for any reason but a backlink is a fool.

Do you really believe that people are currently bidding to win the auction or are they bidding for the link on the center page? People are smarter then what you give them credit for.

John
 
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I hope not John. At the same time, I question how bidding should ever get much over the $5 or so point unless you're able to continuously drive traffic to the site -- most traffic is currently being generated by hype created here + on domain blogs, something which won't be sustainable, so you'll need a new source of traffic.

I think listing the whole $1 million dollar thing on the site is a mistake -- it'll turn anyone off who's interested in bidding for anything other than the link when they see your goal and what the prize amount is. I don't see the mainstream media (which I presume is the reason the $1M goal is stated) picking this up either.

The whole part on the right hand side listing how much money has been made at certain prices is basically saying "this is how much people who have place bids have so far lost" at those prices. As a businessman, this is not what I would want to share with potential customers. I don't tell endusers and other domainers how much I will profit off of them if they buy one of my domains at a certain price -- it's bad for business.

The thing about Million Dollar Homepage is that not only did it receive likely 1000 times the traffic MysteryDomainAuction.com is currently receiving, the pixels were also prominently displayed on the page. Nobody is going to scroll through hundreds of links -- the only ones of long term value are the ones in the top 50. Being up 5 years isn't going to make any difference for someone who's link is on page 200.

geronimo said:
Do you really believe that people are currently bidding to win the auction or are they bidding for the link on the center page? People are smarter then what you give them credit for.
John
 
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I respect your opinion REECE, but my opinion does not match yours.

This is not a SCAM or a GAMBLING scheme - people are willfully bidding with the aim of getting traffic from the links.

All I ask is for people to wait 100 days to pass to see who was right about the traffic rather than make harsh judgments which are based on opinion alone. If you don't like the idea, don't bid. In fact, stay away from the page altogether if it won't let you sleep at night :).

John
 
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Reece - when the bid was $2.76 (now it is $2.79) I think the accrued amount should be $382.26 ... only a couple of bucks from your calculations and somewhat off from what is onsite (maybe his calculations are a little off ... EDITED: maybe it is because of same time bids , please also read the "ADDED:" section in post #28 in this thread)



the extra incentive of winning the domain/$10,000 prematurely could make this a nice project , that's why I said that lowering the premature ending to 1 day (though very risky) might make people bid more/earlier so as to "snipe" the domain/money prematurely (for a rather good profit)



I don't think a lottery (not talking about the site but lotteries in general) is trying to lure stupid people ... it is just a game ... you pay a very small amount (in comparison to the possible winnings) to earn a very small statistical chance to win huge money ... it is just a game , a gamble ... nothing wrong with it (if done in moderation) and it can be pretty exciting and profitable in cases



people might also bid for the traffic/exposure ... or the fun of participating in a (domaining) event like this ... or even spending a couple of bucks and making a person that had a nice domaining/development idea somewhat richer while having a chance at a $10,000 payout

 
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I have read a couple blogs that seem to hate the idea.
personally I think there may be some jealousy going around.

I think its a great fun idea and maybe a way to get a few visitors to your site.
 
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