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Will Not Use DropCatch.com

NameSilo
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As many of you know, DropCatch.com will catch a domain that has been backordered, and opens the auction open to the public. Great for them, terrible for being a domainer.

There was an auction for a name, which I have a steady buyer for in that niche. Max I have ever paid for a name in that niche was $150, and I easily sold for $1k+.

There was only myself and another domainer that placed a pre order. Over the next 3 days four more bidders came to the table, and the auction quickly went from the initial backorder price to well over $700 USD.

The only bidders were myself, and a 3rd party who did not backorder the domain, but who came along in the final 36 hours.

The profit margin & risk no longer made sense to compete on the name, so I was out.

If this is the evolution of dropcatching, you better get your names where you can and hold on tight. I never thought I would find myself saying, "I wish NameJet caught that one."

My only consolation is that I cost another party hundreds of dollars, that went to DropCatch of course...

Good for DropCatch, bad for us all. Just something to consider when ordering names.

What are your thoughts?
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
I have a hard time trying to figure out the pros of using drop catch.com

I mean, if there are 2+ Dropcatch bidders, I can always join the open auction later.
If there is exactly 1 other bidder, it makes sense to backorder, and not let the other bidder take it, but no assurance I will get it at a reasonable price, considering that others may join in too.
And if there are no bidders, I can backorder with pheenix which is way cheaper.
 
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I have a hard time trying to figure out the pros of using drop catch.com

I mean, if there are 2+ Dropcatch bidders, I can always join the open auction later.
If there is exactly 1 other bidder, it makes sense to backorder, and not let the other bidder take it, but no assurance I will get it at a reasonable price, considering that others may join in too.
And if there are no bidders, I can backorder with pheenix which is way cheaper.

I agree.

In this case had I not placed an order with DC, the single preorder would have snatched the domain; or maybe another DC service would have gotten it due to the lack of demand for the name.

It's a hard choice to make. People are going to use the service because it works, but the open auction format is something that will put money in their pockets. In the long run I think it's damaging to domaining; nobody likes the guy who shakes up the system and ruins the party.
 
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In this case, yes, there was exactly one other bidder, but in the long term how likely is there will be exactly one other individual ?

Even so ...your Bo didn't help you, or the domaining community.
 
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DropCatch is great for the deep pockets, but bad for value buyers. The deep pockets don't even have to scour through lists and search for domains anymore if they choose. They can just sit back, let others do the dirty work, and just hop into the auctions for some minutes everyday and be done.

The other drop catchers need to step up their games and compete before it's too late.
 
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People have been complaining about this policy from day one, but they clearly don't care as long as they're making money. The only thing that will put an end to their public auctions is for people to stay away from dropcatch altogether. Anytime you so much as place a bid on their platform, you're effectively screwing yourself by rewarding them for a policy that ultimately hurts you.

I place my backorders with the other dropcatchers and whatever those others don't catch I consider lost for good. Pending deletes tend to be the lowest quality out of the various venues anyhow so it's not the end of the world as far as I'm concerned.
 
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Even so ...your Bo didn't help you, or the domaining community.

Agreed. I guess I will just stick to the SN, NJ, PX usuals and consider any DC domain as a loss.

Darn shame.
 
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The same thing happened with me a couple days ago, although luckily the auction didn't go up more than $20 and I still won it, but that $20 increase was thanks to someone who didn't even place a backorder.

In all fairness though, at the end of the day, there may very well be a time that you, myself or anyone can be browsing their auctions and we may be enticed to place a bid for a name we didn't come across to back order, and we may win it and may be grateful for the opportunity, unless we're on a morality kick and never place a bid, it's kind of like a win/lose situation. I'd agree with others that I'd prefer it just be private auctions between the people who placed the backorder.
 
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I agree that it sucks when others jump on board on a name but at the same time I am grateful to have a chance at getting to buy the name. There are times that I would only want to pay the $59 fee for the name but there are also times that I am willing to pay 10 times that for a name.
 
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yeah it blows. i gave them a try, backordered a name i thought no one else would have interest in but sure enough there was one other guy and by the end there 10 other people who joined. a domain that is not a popular term, no other tlds were taken, etc but still went beyond its value (if it ever really had any). there will always be enough people with money to keep their public auctions profitable. the public auctions will almost always also be bumped up by bidders who have no intentions of winning but want to see other people pay more, so there is that too.
 
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Hats off to DropCatch. They invested in the Registrar infrastructure to become top dog Drop Catcher. They can dictate how they sell, open auction style, which puts the most money in their pocket. It's the free market at work. I personally think that Reberry's market is not domainers, but end users. DropCatch seems to transition both, but definitely favors the big spenders. Which most of us small-fry domainers are not. SN/NJ must be hurting bad, not capturing the same amount of domains and then watching them being bid up much higher with DC's open auction system, while their own closed auction model is not optimizing their revenues.

The competitive edge here is the number of Registrars knocking on the Registry's servers when a domain drops. It does 2 things. It crowds out the other companies, like SN/NJ, and as a consequence captures more domains. Unless SN/NJ wake up and smell the roses, they are doomed into accepting the new status quo. And if they do that, you will see them moving to an open auction model, as well.

Like everybody else, I don't like the DC model. But it's the new reality. Get used to it.

Also. By refusing to use DC, IMHO, you are resigning yourself to the same reality as SN/NJ now face. You never know, if you will be only bidder, and win the domain outright, by using the best drop-catch system available. Of course if there are multiple bids on SN/NJ, you are unlikely to be the only bidder on DC. Then, for these marginal domains you need to decide if a cheaper droptcatcher like Pheenix, can do a better job for you.
 
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Monopoly is a bad thing, except for the owner of the monopoly.

If other drop catchers go out of business, Dropcatch.com may decide that the minimum bid should be $100

Would anyone want for instance godaddy to buy up all other registrars and charge $18 per year renewal versus $9 ?

... Anyways imo a domainer is better off when he has options. A monopoly is an absence of options.
 
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Dropcatch is smart. Why would any registrar limit auctions to only those with BO?

Don't hate, just open your wallet if you really want a particular domain imo.
 
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Dropcatch is smart. Why would any registrar limit auctions to only those with BO?

Don't hate, just open your wallet if you really want a particular domain imo.
but why should we all pay more money because dropcatch decided to do public auctions?
 
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but why should we all pay more money because dropcatch decided to do public auctions?
Because you want a particular domain. Otherwise it wouldn't matter who caught it. You and others only care about the tactics of dropcatch because they catch domains you want to own ;)
 
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Why should drop catching have ever been allowed ?

Why should Go Daddy auction names off that someone can still renew while taking the money upfront ?

Why should a company not be allowed to run their business anyway they want that is within the laws of their jurisdiction ?

This is the Wild West, that's why.
 
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Because you want a particular domain. Otherwise it wouldn't matter who caught it. You and others only care about the tactics of dropcatch because they catch domains you want to own ;)
i care because it costs me more money than it has for the past 12 years i've been backordering domains. i've never won a dropcatch auction because they always go beyond their value.
 
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i care because it costs me more money than it has for the past 12 years i've been backordering domains. i've never won a dropcatch auction because they always go beyond their value.
Auctions cannot go "beyond their value" because it's an open market system. Shill bidding would be the only way for an auction to end with a compromised price. Are you suggesting this kind of behavior from Dropcatch?
 
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i care because it costs me more money than it has for the past 12 years i've been backordering domains.
Wouldn't it be better if there was no comp? That's basically what you're asking for...
 
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Dropcatch is smart. Why would any registrar limit auctions to only those with BO?

Don't hate, just open your wallet if you really want a particular domain imo.


What you call smart, I call unethical. Those of us that invest time, effort , and money into finding valuable domains understand why they shouldn't be offering the results of our work to those that haven't made the same investment. The only people that I can imagine being ok with this are people that have money but no idea how to find good domains on their own. Dropcatch basically throws their customers under the bus every time they take a domain that only two or three of us had the skill to find and then offers up the results of our efforts to the rest of the world.
 
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What you call smart, I call unethical. Those of us that invest time, effort , and money into finding valuable domains understand why they shouldn't be offering the results of our work to those that haven't made the same investment. The only people that I can imagine being ok with this are people that have money but no idea how to find good domains on their own. Dropcatch basically throws their customers under the bus every time they take a domain that only two or three of us had the skill to find and then offers up the results of our efforts to the rest of the world.
This thread is basically a bunch of cry babies.

Nobody did hard work by placing a BO. It's laughable to think that folks here suggest that competition should be limited in any way. Get over it. Dropcatch is no different than Godaddy expiring auctions. Anyone can participate there right? Now what's your argument? Gonna piss on Godaddy's system too or bid and pay fair value?!
 
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This thread is basically a bunch of cry babies.

Nobody did hard work by placing a BO. !

My mistake. I've obviously been hallucinating all these years thinking that I spend hours each day going through lists of deleting domains. Thank you for correcting my misimpression.
 
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Auctions cannot go "beyond their value" because it's an open market system. Shill bidding would be the only way for an auction to end with a compromised price. Are you suggesting this kind of behavior from Dropcatch?
Soo many domains sell for more than their worth. Just because a domainer thinks he can sell it for x amount and invests x amount doesn't mean its worth it. I spend hours every day searching dropping lists, it may not be "hard" work but it requires a lot of time.
 
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My mistake. I've obviously been hallucinating all these years thinking that I spend hours each day going through lists of deleting domains. Thank you for correcting my misimpression.
Any successful and some unsuccessful domainers spends hours scouring the drops. That doesn't entitle them to the absolute best price when names delete.

What folks in this thread want is a deal...reseller pricing, not gonna happen! From a business standpoint, Dropcatch has invested tons, it's wise to open bidding to all buyers.

Wow!

Now I'll ask again, how is this different from godaddy expiring?
 
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We should all be glad that they don't catch every single good domain available and then tell us all to Fuck Off and if we want the name to go buy it at Huge Domains for 2500 bucks.
 
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