question Can sellers at auctions mark their domain as pre-release?

[WhoaDomain.com]

If no, why not?

I like the "look" and set up of a pre-release auction. I've never bid on any but I assume it's self explanatory.

I like the fact that people bid the min bid and it can it can end up with 5 or 10 or 20 bids. All $59 or $69 starting.

I assume those who bid on pre-releases get notified automatically via email when the domain auction starts or if they are outbid.

Sure not all of those other min bids will probably ever go beyond $59 but it sure looks good to have an auction that already has 5 to 10 to 20 bids.

Why is this exclusive to just expired or deleted domains?

As a seller I'd like to list my domains for auction months in advance and promote it.

Anyone interested who wants to get notified when the auction starts will place their $59 bid and just wait for an email.

No free notifications. Just place a bid if you want to be notified.

The result is a domain auction with 5 - 10 - 20 bids already before it the auction even started.

Most bids will never end up higher than $59 but who cares? Just get that "number of bids" number up so it looks good.

I believe pre-release domains have an "edge" over private seller domains because of this.

What do you think?

 

[Ategy]

I can't say for sure because I don't have time to use namejet (absolutely nothing against them, it's just that I spend hours a day already going through goDaddy auction's 50k expiring names a day for my lists at NameCult) .. but I'm pretty sure the distinction is deliberate. They want to keep "expired" domains separate because it's apparently what buyers want. There are a lot of buyers who focus on expired domains because the majority of them were dropped by end users and have a much lower rate of have already been on the market .. or even worse and have had lots of failed outbound attempts.

Plus I think you're allowed to date your auctions 28 days into the future at NameJet (like Flippa I think), so I'm not sure how much more you really need? If someone's domain is not going to sell well with 28 days to promote it, I think the problem is likely more the domain and that even more time won't really make it any better.

In general it's not to anyone's advantage to have too many listings .. if you allow a longer period it just floods the listings even further.

There's also going to be a problem if it's too long then some people will forget then even placed a bid.


When are "Pre-release" domains posted anyways? After they are released back to the registry from the registrar (~42 days after expiration)?

 

[WhoaDomain.com]

Ok. So say you auction a decent or awesome domain. And promote the crap out of it.
With no bids it will get lost.

Plus domainers filter these sites anyway for auctions with bids. That's where the pre-release comes in.

 

[Ategy]

The most important part of what I was trying to say is that "Pre-Release" is just their way to distinguish dropped domains. Like "expired" domains. Buyers want to be able to distinguish and filter out domains auctioned by other domainers for various very valid reasons some of which I mentioned above.

How far in advance does namejet post "Pre-Release"? Is it really significantly longer than 28 days anyways?

Ok. So say you auction a decent or awesome domain. And promote the crap out of it.
With no bids it will get lost.

No .. my other point is that if you make the amount of time even longer than 28 days then there will be even more domains listed and because of that your domain will get even more lost than before.

If your domain doesn't get a single bid after 28 days then it's not a "decent or awesome" domain. Plus most people wait until the last hours or minutes before bidding anyways.

Plus domainers filter these sites anyway for auctions with bids. That's where the pre-release comes in.

Again .. I don't get it .. "Pre-Release" is just a "Category" they use to distinguish it's type .. they give you 28 days .. how is that not enough? How will adding more tangibly change anything?