OK, I thought I understood the drop cycle and Snapnames/NameJet auction protocols, but it appears I have something more to learn. Here's the crack.
NameJet's pre-release lists said CriticalThinking.com was slated to drop and that it had to be backordered by March 8. I did this at NameJet and Snapnames. Snapnames caught it, and the auction began straightaway on March 8th. I received an email telling me that someone had already outbid my "lowend" backorder bid, and I made a note to check in on the 11th when the auction ended.
Well, I did so yesterday, but I was an hour too late (due to factors beyond my control). Anyway, I saw that the auction had ended, that its status was "Pending Payment," and that namehound had "won" the auction for $284.
Now, this is a domain that received an estimated 757 searches per day (according to certain metrics), had 125 backlinks, an Alexa rating in the mid-1 millions, and a reg date back in '96. Something of real interest. And namehound "won" the auction for $284?
I started kicking myself in the a** real hard for missing the ending time.
But then I smelled a rat. $284? I thought, "There is no way that the rest of the people who backordered that name would let it go for that low." So, I checked the URL on the frontside, and low and behold, the site was up and running as if nothing had happened (when it had not been up and running the day before, I don't think). I stopped kicking myself and instead focused on how pissed off namehound probably was (the nonwinning winner).
So here's my question: How in the heck did this name ever go into auction in the first place? I thought the dropcatchers could not start auctions until a domain had "truly" dropped (as in "dropped dropped").
If that's how it's supposed to work, then how did Snapnames make this error? I can only assume that this is a case of the original registrant re-registering the name very late in the pending delete period and that the databases at the registrar and Snapnames did not communicate that fact to each other in time. But I'm seeking validation from the crowd.
Thoughts? Anything similar happen to anyone else out there??
NameJet's pre-release lists said CriticalThinking.com was slated to drop and that it had to be backordered by March 8. I did this at NameJet and Snapnames. Snapnames caught it, and the auction began straightaway on March 8th. I received an email telling me that someone had already outbid my "lowend" backorder bid, and I made a note to check in on the 11th when the auction ended.
Well, I did so yesterday, but I was an hour too late (due to factors beyond my control). Anyway, I saw that the auction had ended, that its status was "Pending Payment," and that namehound had "won" the auction for $284.
Now, this is a domain that received an estimated 757 searches per day (according to certain metrics), had 125 backlinks, an Alexa rating in the mid-1 millions, and a reg date back in '96. Something of real interest. And namehound "won" the auction for $284?
I started kicking myself in the a** real hard for missing the ending time.
But then I smelled a rat. $284? I thought, "There is no way that the rest of the people who backordered that name would let it go for that low." So, I checked the URL on the frontside, and low and behold, the site was up and running as if nothing had happened (when it had not been up and running the day before, I don't think). I stopped kicking myself and instead focused on how pissed off namehound probably was (the nonwinning winner).
So here's my question: How in the heck did this name ever go into auction in the first place? I thought the dropcatchers could not start auctions until a domain had "truly" dropped (as in "dropped dropped").
If that's how it's supposed to work, then how did Snapnames make this error? I can only assume that this is a case of the original registrant re-registering the name very late in the pending delete period and that the databases at the registrar and Snapnames did not communicate that fact to each other in time. But I'm seeking validation from the crowd.
Thoughts? Anything similar happen to anyone else out there??
