To give the idea it's own thread let's discuss the idea put forth by Andrew Rosener of @MediaOptions that owners would be allowed to bid on their own domain names at auction.
Andrew never stated to do it secretly or against an existing platform's TOS.
I don't see what Andrew sees, let's say I have a 4L.com Rayy.com, there are a bunch of backorders at $69 and the name is at $300 with Andrew in the lead.
I think $300 sucks, so I bid Andrew up, he counters back and this goes on in traditional bidding war style to $1,800. For this hypothetical no one else jumped in so it's just me the owner vs Andrew. I obviously have an advantage, I try to get Andrew to go to $1900 so I bid $1850 he has to go to $1900 to take the lead. He doesn't he says too much for that name I'll pass. I will the auction at NameJet. I pay them $1,850 and they send me back 90% of the $1,850.
I was certainly in an advantageous position compared to Andrew, without me, the owner, he wins at $300. No other person bid, only the person with a vested interest, the owner bid.
I have proposed a few exotic type auction ideas here at Namepros over the years, some have been allowed, some haven't. One I proposed that @Eric Lyon thought was interesting but decided against (I had no problem with that). Was an owner clawback option, where the owner does not participate in the auction but if it closes say at $500, the owner could say I want to callback my name and pay the winning bidder say 10 or 20%.
In that example the market would be fair, everyone bidding upfront would know that the owner had the option to clawback the name. It would be better than a reserve auction because there would be some monetary gain for participating and being top bidder as opposed to bidding all day on GoDaddy, not meeting reserve and the high bidder has nothing to show for their effort.
Just my opinion, what is your opinion?
Andrew never stated to do it secretly or against an existing platform's TOS.
I don't see what Andrew sees, let's say I have a 4L.com Rayy.com, there are a bunch of backorders at $69 and the name is at $300 with Andrew in the lead.
I think $300 sucks, so I bid Andrew up, he counters back and this goes on in traditional bidding war style to $1,800. For this hypothetical no one else jumped in so it's just me the owner vs Andrew. I obviously have an advantage, I try to get Andrew to go to $1900 so I bid $1850 he has to go to $1900 to take the lead. He doesn't he says too much for that name I'll pass. I will the auction at NameJet. I pay them $1,850 and they send me back 90% of the $1,850.
I was certainly in an advantageous position compared to Andrew, without me, the owner, he wins at $300. No other person bid, only the person with a vested interest, the owner bid.
I have proposed a few exotic type auction ideas here at Namepros over the years, some have been allowed, some haven't. One I proposed that @Eric Lyon thought was interesting but decided against (I had no problem with that). Was an owner clawback option, where the owner does not participate in the auction but if it closes say at $500, the owner could say I want to callback my name and pay the winning bidder say 10 or 20%.
In that example the market would be fair, everyone bidding upfront would know that the owner had the option to clawback the name. It would be better than a reserve auction because there would be some monetary gain for participating and being top bidder as opposed to bidding all day on GoDaddy, not meeting reserve and the high bidder has nothing to show for their effort.
Just my opinion, what is your opinion?
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