Thanks Marsi. There are some changes coming this year to make that less of an issue. What I have been seeing happen with the CHIPs especially is that some names are changing hands so quickly they are not being updated in real time and with a delay of a day or two there is a potential impact. Let me give you a scenario:
Domain Investor A has a domain FDGH.com and lists it for $1600 on GoDaddy, Domain Name Sales, Sedo, Flippa, etc etc, and of course direct Whois inquiries. Well the name is undervalued so multiple people spot it. Someone buys the domain name at Sedo and the domain isn't moved to the new buyer yet, Buyer B. Buyer C buys the domain name at GoDaddy. Pays us and the name is already moving to Buyer B at Sedo. There is probably also a Buyer D, E, and F at other places that the name is listed
Buyer C contacts us and says, I didn't get the domain. We follow up and find out Domain Investor A no longer has control over the domain. We take action against them, normally banning, fining and canceling their listings. Once Investor A's listing for this CHIP is cancelled and he is banned that opens the ability for another person to list the same domain, Buyer B who got the name via Sedo. So a couple days later that name is for sale for say $2,200 from Buyer B. What it looks like is Investor A didn't want to sell you the name for $1,600. We cancelled the sale and then BOOM Investor A re-lists the name for $600 more. But it is actually Buyer B.
It doesn't have to be a CHIP, there are many customers looking for undervalued domains and when they find one there are typically multiple buyers, those buyers on undervalued names want to re-sell it at the higher value so they re-list it after buying it. CHIPs have just made this demand for the same types of names more focused. It may make us look bad, but in the end we want a fair marketplace for everyone and if someone does not deliver a domain name we take action against them. We also do our very best to verify the ownership of the domains before they are listed, as you will know if you ever tried listing a name with different Whois info than whats on your account
At the end of the day we have a more streamlined solution to help with this that also makes the marketplace even easier and better for everyone, but I can't let our competition know what is in the works so stay tuned for later this year, and thanks for bringing this up.