Halvarez on Snapnames

[nyc212]

Am I the only person who suspects "halvarez" on SnapNames IS SnapNames?

I've had some terrible experiences with NameJet. I don't even use them anymore. They essentially bid right up to your high bid. I'm not surprised, it's Network Solutions, the most corrupt and sleazy registrar in the market.

But SnapNames, too? Please tell me I'm wrong.

For a while now, though, I've bid on some industry specific domains, highly targeted and low profile, yet halvarez shows up. Today he bid me right up to one level under my high bid..

Who else knows my high bid except me and SnapNames?

With good names dwindling on the drop, DC's are getting desperate (and quite sleazy) it appears..

Watch your auctions and only bid up when necessary. Don't trust the drop catchers and don't put in a high bid IMHO.

 

[Kate]

Halvarez is not SnapNames.
He sees which names get backordered by other people and often decides to enter the auction as well. I have been in auctions with him alone more than once but he is almost always idle.

 

[cache]

I doubt he is snapnames. However be careful to some domains (not expired names), the friends of the owners of those domains sometimes bid up names

 

[fixxation]

I'm in an auction with halvarez at the moment... I do find it very bizarre that he/she/it placed it's bid on the exact same day at the exact same minute as me - has anyone else noticed this with halvarez or any other bidders for that matter? Is it common to be in an auction at Snap with only one other bidder that has a bid placed at the exact same point in time...?

At first glance this would highly suggest that it is Snapnames themselves to me, but I have been wrong before...

: need a "something's fishy" smilie here :

 

[GeoOwners]

There was a big scandle in online poker recently where an employee was seeing all the cards...it would not surprise me in the least that things like that go on in domainland.

Many smart programmers work for the big auction and domain companies and I would not be surprised if some of them are out there gaming the systems they helped design.

it's a jungle out there...

 

[-REECE-]

Well said and I completely agree. I doubt they'd be stupid enough to stick with the same username if they or anyone else were doing this however. Probably more likely gaming the system with a handful of different usernames to reduce suspicion.

Not accusing SN of anything, just saying I do think it goes on with some of the domain auction companies.

There was a big scandle in online poker recently where an employee was seeing all the cards...it would not surprise me in the least that things like that go on in domainland.

Many smart programmers work for the big auction and domain companies and I would not be surprised if some of them are out there gaming the systems they helped design.

it's a jungle out there...

 

[ecigs.net]

Well said and I completely agree. I doubt they'd be stupid enough to stick with the same username if they or anyone else were doing this however. Probably more likely gaming the system with a handful of different usernames to reduce suspicion.

Not accusing SN of anything, just saying I do think it goes on with some of the domain auction companies.

I agree. It is totally possible to game the system. I am not accusing anyone of anything. I am just saying that it would be possible to create a program that could automatically and randomly create user names for the sole purpose of reading the high bid of a user and to bid $5 or $10 under this amount. It would be totally undetectable.

You could even create a whole horde of these automatically generated pseudo-bidders and even have them bid against each other, sometimes winning and sometimes, to create a history of wins and loses to divert suspicion. Since Snap gets the money anyhow, the value of the auction is of no matter. The money goes into the same bank, right.

As long as the auction house is in charge of the coding of their auction programing, there is nothing that can stop them from cheating.

It would really be surprising if they did not tamper with the system a little.

As for "halvarez", I have never lost against him/her. I have bid against halvarez on more than one occasion and he/she never bids. If that's the best Snap can do, they are not very good cheats. If they are cheating, it is going to be a lot more subtle. So subtle, nobody is ever going to know.

 

[Sleepys]

I know other people who are positive that halverez is not Snapnames. They base this on the fact that they say they saw him win a name or two. I find it highly suspicious myself though. I also have never seen halverez get a bid in before me and I have never seen him place a higher bid. It is especially strange, because I have placed my bid with less than 30 minutes remaining before you can no longer even bid. It almost seems like he just wants your domain to go to auction so others can see it, but not to win it himself. It has always looked to me like if halverez is not part of snapnames, that he somehow gets access to their names with bids the moment they get bids. This is because I have left him such a small amount of time before, and he still gets in after me.

I have seen other threads like this in the past. I have never seen halverez come on and defend himself. "I am a real person, who does not cheat". Where are you halverez? :hehe:

 

[gemstar]

Same here! I bid on a no name name and when the auction started he or she was there!

 

[dab81]

Just got confirmation of 3 auction starts

all have halvarez in!

two with just one other user

one with just halvarez and myself

 

[Ms Domainer]

*

I'm not halvarez, but sometimes I jump in an auction that I'm pretty sure I'm not going to win. I don't do it very often and ONLY for domains that I would be willing to buy at the minimum price. (I once got stung by jumping in on a domain that I was iffy about, and I got stuck with it. It's a gambling domain, which is hard to monetize in the States. Lesson well-learned.)

In one case, to my delight, I actually won the auction because the high bidder turned out to be "invalid." Shill? Stiff? A bidder who is a crook? Who knows? Until some oversight is established, we'll never really know if shill bidding is taking place. There were 16 or 17 bidders in that auction, and three or four were actually active, including "invalid," so it was clear that some bidders jumped in just to "watch."

The trick for me: I never bid more than I would be willing to pay, which means keeping a cool head and NOT checking the last minute bids. I'm pretty sure that had I lost my cool and outbid "Invalid," I would have paid more than double for my domain. I think what I paid was a fair price for a great keyword in an iffy TLD.

This is not to say that shill bidding is taking place, but I suspect that non-winning bids are not checked for validity, though I could be wrong. (Snapnames, Pool, and NameJet, feel free to address this.)

In another auction, I really wanted the domain (over 50 bidders in that one, about 10 active), but I still set the highest price I was willing to pay, and left the house (and computer). Fortunately, I got the domain for $$$ less than my top price, but I was also willing to walk away from bidding if the price went over my maximum. Yes, I would have been disappointed, but since the domain was for specifically for development, I now know that I could have regged a hyphen domain and probably would have eventually gotten similiar results (not making a lot of money yet, but picking up traffic all the time, especially as I add content).



It's definitely tricky out there, and assigning a value to domains is not easy. I guess the best thing to do is read DN Journal's weekly list and actually do SERPS on domains sold to see WHY they sold for a certain amount. After a while, one can see patterns. Usually, the sale price makes sense; when it doesn't, sometimes a search of the buyer will reveal that he/she is an end user and wanted that name specifically.

Pays to be nosy in this biz.

*

 

[Blitz]

What about checking to whois after halvarez wins an auction? Anyone know any names he/she/it actually won?

 

[SpareDomains]

I have been in a couple auctions with just halvarez and myself both with minimum bids and he never raised his bid and I won them as my bid was first, I assumed it was a bot and would raise his bid to make me spend more but he never raised so I pulled them at minimum bid, I never bid till the last minute and I never put in a reserve in case it is a bot to prevent bidding based on a review of my reserve price.

 

[MilkyTea]

If Halvarez was Snapnames, with the intention of pushing up auction prices so that they make a larger commission, it would make sense that the user is not idle after the initial bid which appears to be the case most of the time.

 

[Greg]

I'm bringing this back up to see if anyone has more info to add. I placed my first back order for a name and sure enough it is being sent to auction with halvarez as the other bidder.
To me this sounds like Snapnames trying to get more people to bid on the name and push the price up instead of being happy with my $59 dollars. I want this name but I don't think I will bid any higher because that will just push up the price that I pay. Do you think this is the right approach?

Thanks,

Greg

 

[gemstar]

Once the govt gave up cont it became a dirty racket

 

[JoshuaPz]

Here's his whois info:

The Domain Queue
Domain Admin ([email protected])
+1.2532752381
Fax:
2661 N Pearl St
#255
Tacoma, WA 98407
US

He owns StunningCurves.com, SexMags.com, and many other names. Google reveals that "Domain Queue" was involved in UDRP dispute for BetaCar.com, but can't glean much else on the guy/girl.

 

[HuntingMoon]

halvarez is probably too busy finding names to backorder to stop and post.

 

[ecigs.net]

halvarez is probably too busy finding names to backorder to stop and post.

He can't be that busy if he has the time to watch me 24 hours a day and instantly submit a bid when I do.

Halvarez bid exactly when I did at Snap this week:

MyBid...............14-Feb-2009 12:24 PST
halvarez...........14-Feb-2009 12:24 PST

 

[MattheP]

Just checked my bidding history from 2008, and 'halvarez' was in almost all auctions i attended. We were also alone in some auctions, but he (or it) never bid.