discuss Bot at GD auctions, driving the price just below your maximum proxy bid ?

[Primary Names]

Wanted to ask this to fellow domainers who are active at GD auctions.

Bidder 2739899 - I am calling it a bot, because I have crossed paths with this bot before and so did some others as apparent in this discussion. It was capable of putting a bid with only a few seconds left and had been doing it tirelessly for one and a half hour till it reached a couple of dollars below my maximum proxy bid.

The domain I was bidding had 5 bidders in the beginning. The bot entered only after the price reached mid XX and then kept chasing my maximum proxy. For the last one and half hours it was just the bot that kept extending the auction endtime. While it kept pushing the price and auction endtime, the domain was visible to all human bidders for one and a half hours but not a single human saw the value in the domain expect the bot. This made me realize that I overvalued it and that it was a mistake in my judgement to put 3XX max proxy bid on it. Expensive lesson for me, I guess. Also, FYI it had a GD appraisal value of lower XXXX.

How often does this happen ? I guess my question boils down to....

Recently, has it been possible to win a domain quite below ( not just few dollars ) your max bid at GD auctions ?

If this type of behavior or pattern is rare then I would assume I had been just unlucky. But if this has been happening to all of us, all the time then this is bad news.

 

[Primary Names]

I guess it's a bit of a grey area.

I have heard once about the "grey area" being an area where the most money is made.

I mean if it was proven that an auction house was incentivizing a 3rd party to bid up an auction without intending to win it then that's shill bidding

My point exactly. Maybe some form of shill bidding but still illegal by all means. I could experiment by participating in a ton of auctions but that would mean a significant amount of money at risk. Instead I thought I will ask the good folks here about their experience that could prove me wrong or otherwise.

 

[Ostrados]

AFAIK, 913932 is an HD bot.

This thread is rather about trying to determine whether these bots always makes you pay your maximum proxy bid amount all the time for all the folks.

If this happened only once or just few times by different bidders then it is just a random event. But if others reported same thing then there is a pattern.

 

[Mister Funsky]

AFAIK, 913932 is an HD bot.

Unfortunately most of the folks seem to be missing the point of this thread. This thread is not about whether there are bots in the auctions and point out who they are. Although, they are rampant at GD auctions and making a list of bots in order to recognize them is pointless because bot or not GD does not reveal the id of the auction participants, till the auction finished.

This thread is rather about trying to determine whether these bots always makes you pay your maximum proxy bid amount all the time for all the folks. I know that when you put a proxy bid you are mentally prepared to depart with that money. But if this happens 247 to all the folks then it is quite obvious that the system is rigged for us common folks to overpay. As I made it clear that it does not happen at another platform and I was happy to save the money.

Oh yea...it is just one of the HD bots. I've found a pattern in the different bots (haven't checked it lately) and it seems different bots target different type/quality domains. Useless information really, just trying to get into their/its head.

In another thread a while ago, I mentioned that I drove up pricing on purpose for fun and found a pattern in how high the bots go before a human intervenes. It was fun but the time it takes to 'play' with the bots is too valuable for me to give away so I moved on from that. There is a definite pattern when the bots stop and human jumps in (or at least there was) so it became like a video game to me.

Without helping the competition (bots and their owners) there is a significant flaw in the way they operate...not going to say more as I want the error to continue.

So, to get to the proxy bid part, I've won many names that never got close to my proxy bid. Also when able, I do the bidding 'live' to prevent any pre bid information being available. A big day for me is grabbing 5 names so I'm not bidding on a huge amount of names daily.

 

[Steve Andersen]

I am constantly being bid to my proxies on GD, DropCatch, and SnapNames. But it is always the slow roll. I am at work during the time these things generally hit so If I want something I have to place a proxy bid. It seems like I am always the last one left bidding against the bot. But it is always a slow roll. They place one bid with a few seconds left to extend, the wait exactly 5 minutes. If I win its always within a few $$ of my proxy. if I lose its almost always one bid over my proxy. I can't think of any name I have every won with less than 75% of my proxy. On GD, I just don't bid anymore unless I really want a name. I simply wait and see if it goes to closeouts. I would rather pay $50 than. Try to bid on something at 12 and 6 minutes left only to see it go to $300-$400.

 

[Steve Andersen]

I am not a fan of regulation by I would like to see all these places be externally audited to ensure the process is fair and equitable. I was also thinking about following names I know I lost to what I feel is a bot run up to see where they end up.