Can SnapNames employees bid against me at auctions?

[metaxom]

Hey guys, I was wondering if there is any control over snapnames and namejet auctions for dropped domains. Can one of their employees bid against me so they can earn more money? Who can tell who is bidding against my bid? Thanks.

 

[JMJ]

You can't honestly know for sure. If it were anyone it would be the registry itself that has the name and I wouldn't put it past them. I can say that I have a pre-order on one that slipped through the cracks in the past few days where I was the only bidder that seems to not want to come out of it's "Releases on:" status. And if it doesn't I have a sneaky suspicion as to why and that being that the registry holding it wasn't pleased with the results.

 

[chenzen]

Hey guys, I was wondering if there is any control over snapnames and namejet auctions for dropped domains. Can one of their employees bid against me so they can earn more money? Who can tell who is bidding against my bid? Thanks.

First of all, we can't do anything even if they do bid against us. They will never acknowledge that they will bid against you. And with so many auctions going on at a time, it may not really be possible to bid against everyone. Every domain has it's own worth and if they try to automatically up the bids, there will be too many bids won by themselves only and it wonn't serve their purpose.
So I would just bid the amount I am willing to pay without caring about these odd things

 

[-REECE-]

Yep, agree 100%

It was a thought at the back of my mind several years ago when I was more active on drops, wondering just this, but it really matters not in the end, nor do I think it breaks any U.S. laws (I'd say it certainly falls into the unethical category however) if they were doing this.

First of all, we can't do anything even if they do bid against us. They will never acknowledge that they will bid against you. And with so many auctions going on at a time, it may not really be possible to bid against everyone. Every domain has it's own worth and if they try to automatically up the bids, there will be too many bids won by themselves only and it wonn't serve their purpose.
So I would just bid the amount I am willing to pay without caring about these odd things

 

[Spade]

Are you asking if these companies Shill bid? or if an employee happens to also be bidding on the same domain?

When I worked for Godaddy, I bid on TDNAM domain names frequently. Did I have any advantage over any other bidder? No. I didnt know what their cap bid was and it made no difference when I left Godaddy and continued to bid on domain names.

Shill Bidding would be a huge no-no. If it were discovered that something like this had happened, the reputation of a company and the Class action lawsuits would probably cause irreparable damage.

 

[gemstar]

I often wondered myself. I was bidding against bidder Taryn on NameJet. I Googled the name for Namejet auctions and this is what I got
http://www.google.com/search?q=tary...ox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GFRD

It may be a coincidence but this person is the project leader for NameJet.
You would think that The IT dept would by default not allow user names to be regged that have the same names as staff at NameJet just to close any suspicions of conflict. Especially a project leader who was the past President of Pool.com

 

[cache]

I doubt snapnames or nj would do that since I do check the whois afterward. However I suspect some people who sell their own names through auction do Shill bidding.

 

[-REECE-]

I don't think that's even up for debate imho -- but it happens at pretty much every internet auction site and likely a lot of live auctions as well (not naming names!).

However I suspect some people who sell their own names through auction do Shill bidding.

 

[metaxom]

Thanks guys. I guess there are lots of people out there with interest in dropped domains without snapnames or namejet having to bid to raise the price. It feels different though when every few minutes someone bids more than you do in auctions.

 

[james2002]

I think employees have got their right to bid if they are "genuinely" interested in particular domains.

 

[metaxom]

I see but I was more interested in bids that are planned by the company. By the way, I understand SEDO employees are not allowed to bid in any of the auctions, domain sales, etc.

I think employees have got their right to bid if they are "genuinely" interested in particular domains.