I have sat back and read all of this, and wanted to wait a little for the dust to settle. Clearly the writing is already on the wall. I think it is time that I addressed the original issue. A mistake was made by me, not the 'Booth bros'. Andy Booth, not James Booth.
There was a misunderstanding in terms of the status of this small handful of domains. I had thought they were already sold (we had discussed a trade value, me and Oliver do this kind of thing all the time), that once again they were free game at auction, but it later became apparent that wasn't the case. Oliver's intentions with the domains were only to list them on my behalf. Obviously when that came to light, I knew I had screwed up.
I have no track record of being a shill bidder. I am not in the business of pumping up or inflating a domain value. I naively wasn't fully aware of the TOS at NJ, and given I was not technically the seller, tried to genuinely buy some of the domains back (as technically they were already transferred. Despite Whois records indicating I was still owner, they were out of my hands/control).
James' involvement (BQDNcom) was innocent - he wasn't in on anything. Just because we are the 'Booth brothers', it doesn't mean that we always work together. James does his own thing for the most part. Sometimes we are connected, for example in the case of buying D8.com, but generally he conducts his business alone. He was obviously aware that these domains were about to be put up for sale and saw an opportunity. His intentions weren't to inflate the values. He actually won 2 of the small handful of auctions that DID complete either for himself, or on behalf of a client. Even more disturbing, he in recent days received a death threat via his website, BQDN.com, about his Namejet bidding activity.
Oliver, thinking he was just selling for me, took it upon himself to bid on the domains that he knew had parking revenue. Those turned out to be the ones he genuinely wanted (take MovieZone as a case in point). Oli wasn't trying to inflate any value either. His understanding at this point was that he wanted to buy the good ones and his bid was not made to pump anything up, he had every intention to follow through.
I would never knowingly have sabotaged my own reputation for something like this. There was no attempt to disguise who we were (which obviously looks beyond stupid given what was come to light) in terms of bidding handles, nor was there attempt at fraud or deception. On the domains I was bidding for, I took the view that they were no longer mine, and I had as much right as anyone to buy them back. I even won one and had every intention of following through. Again, inflating the value was never the goal. There was genuine intent there.
About my activities in other auctions, such as MGP.com, I have never made any attempt to 'fake' a bid. If I'm bidding, it's because I want it.
Jonathan
@NJ had a different understanding of the situation, and for that reason had defended me. There were several miscommunications during this debacle which is why it has escalated to this stage. It's unfair to make him the scapegoat as he was only doing his job.
I was the one here at fault, but I hope you understand that is was a genuine mistake, not part of some elaborate conspiracy to defraud anyone. I hold my hands up and apologize to anyone that may have been affected in bidding for those domains. I am disappointed to have let down the domaining community and have learned a lot from what has happened.
