I'm done with Dropcatch.com

[discobull]

I'm really fed up with the dropcatch.com system. I work hard to find dropping domains that fly under the radar, but all that work goes down the drain thanks to dropcatch's policy of putting every domain they catch up for public auction. That means that even though I might start off being in an auction against only one person, thanks to my effort the domain is brought to the attention of every one of their clients so that the next thing I know I'm faced with a feeding frenzy and left to choose between paying multiple times what I would have paid if the auction were private, or letting the domain go. I'm done. I won't be giving them another dime until they set up a system that is fair to its users.

 

[discobull]

I never could understand why anyone would order through Dropcatch, unless it was a name you badly needed at any cost. Order elsewhere. If Dropcatch happens to grab it, you can always join that auction later. For whatever reason, that's their business model - and they have been open about it. Yes, it sucks for users, but why are the users there in the first place with those terms?

Your question is valid and I'm not sure I can give a good answer as to why I ever used them in the first place. I have noticed, however, that the number of active auctions they run has been progressively on the decline. I can't tell for sure whether that means that they've become less competitive at capturing domains, or whether it's because fewer people are placing backorders through them, but, if it's the latter, they might want to examine the possibility that their auction policy has something to do with it.

 

[DU]

in the end if there is a domain that you really like, your going to use it.

No. He was very clear.

"I.wont.be.giving.them.another.dime."

Of course if everyone feels the same way then it makes more sense to use them.. they beat other places AND you might be the only bidder due to everyone feeling it's somehow it's unfair. I like name.com because they only let ONE person get the backorder....because that's fair?

I hate that pre-release auctions tell you how many people are bidding...that's not fair either.

The whole world's not fair.. waah! waah!

 

[WORDSWORTH]

You must be doing something wrong. I got verified in about 1hr. If my memory serves me correctly.

My account status is still showing as 'Pending' despite scanning and sending a copy of my official document around three weeks ago. I didn't receive a reply to the email I sent to chase it up either. I just tried contacting them again.

 

[discobull]

No. He was very clear.

"I.wont.be.giving.them.another.dime."

Of course if everyone feels the same way then it makes more sense to use them.. they beat other places AND you might be the only bidder due to everyone feeling it's somehow it's unfair. I like name.com because they only let ONE person get the backorder....because that's fair?

I hate that pre-release auctions tell you how many people are bidding...that's not fair either.

The whole world's not fair.. waah! waah!

Your diaper looks full. I guess that explains your disposition. On the bright side, you're much cuter than I expected.

 

[tomcarl]

Gotta love that model, you're basically working for them while using their service.

No thanks.

 

[billp3]

I use DropCatch.com extensively and have been from the very beginning. They have caught some great names, there is no doubt about that.

The most irritating thing for me with the public auction format is that it attracts fraudulent bidders. I have had several auctions "restarted" due to "fraudulent" activity. In each of these cases, the fraudulent bidder was a person that did not originally place a backorder on the domain.

For a domain they recently caught and went to auction, my high bid was $251, and another bidder outbid me at to win at $271. When the winner didn't pay, instead of offering the domain to me at $251 or even $271, DropCatch restarted the auction for another 3 days. This gave the auction even more exposure and it closed at over $400 the second time around. I didn't even participate in the second auction.

This doesn't give me much confidence in bidding on higher-dollar names when I see a bidding alias I am unfamiliar with or somebody that didn't originally backorder the name.

 

[discobull]

The most irritating thing for me with the public auction format is that it attracts fraudulent bidders. I have had several auctions "restarted" due to "fraudulent" activity. In each of these cases, the fraudulent bidder was a person that did not originally place a backorder on the domain.

I forgot about this issue. I'm remembering now that when I first opened my account one of the domains I backordered got relisted about 5 or 6 times due to fraudulent bids. It got to the point where I was expecting that domain to be in auction for the rest of eternity.

 

[baseballworld]

Sounds like you're going to drop kick drop catch.

 

[billp3]

I forgot about this issue. I'm remembering now that when I first opened my account one of the domains I backordered got relisted about 5 or 6 times due to fraudulent bids. It got to the point where I was expecting that domain to be in auction for the rest of eternity.

What's odd, is that for one the auctions I was in, they offered the domain to me for the $59 backorder fee when the winner didn't pay. It was only me and one other person in that auction, so maybe they selectively decide which auctions to restart based on the popularity. NOT a good policy if that's the case.

 

[discobull]

What's odd, is that for one the auctions I was in, they offered the domain to me for the $59 backorder fee when the winner didn't pay. It was only me and one other person in that auction, so maybe they selectively decide which auctions to restart based on the popularity. NOT a good policy if that's the case.

I'm not sure it's an inconsistency because once they terminated the other person's account, they couldn't start an auction since they only had one bidder left for the domain. I'd bet that if their had been 3 of you under the same circumstance that it would have been relisted.

 

[xtmoney]

even they can do this "fraudelent bids itself" and you will never know that.

 

[billp3]

I'm not sure it's an inconsistency because once they terminated the other person's account, they couldn't start an auction since they only had one bidder left for the domain. I'd bet that if their had been 3 of you under the same circumstance that it would have been relisted.

That makes sense. However, this person's account has not been terminated. They are active in backorders nearly every day.

There is an auction ending today that has been driven up from $560 to $2005 this morning by a bidding alias that I haven't seen before and didn't originally backorder the domain. It will be interesting to see what happens with this one.

 

[Bram C.]

I can see how many people placed an initial backorder vs how many people end up bidding on the auction. If only 2 of us start off in an auction and by the end of it there are 8 bidders and neither I nor the other original bidder end up winning the auction, I think it's safe to say that other dropcatch users have capitalized on our work and that the closing bid was higher than it would have been if we had been placed in a private auction just between the 2 of us.

I don't like the dropcatch.com system either. Auctions should be private, not public.

That said, if only 2 people start off in a dropcatch.com auction and a total of 8 bidders end up bidding when the auction becomes public doesn't mean that those 6 people capitalized on your work.

Here's an example based on my own experience: I bid on a domain that I want on Namejet + Snapnames (and ignore dropcatch) but Dropcatch ends up catching it, so I join the dropcatch public part of the auction. Did I capitalize on your work? Nope, since I found the domain myself prior to any auction start.

But yeah I agree, some bidders will end up profiting from the work of others.

 

[discobull]

I don't like the dropcatch.com system either. Auctions should be private, not public.

That said, if only 2 people start off in a dropcatch.com auction and a total of 8 bidders end up bidding when the auction becomes public doesn't mean that those 6 people capitalized on your work.

Here's an example based on my own experience: I bid on a domain that I want on Namejet + Snapnames (and ignore dropcatch) but Dropcatch ends up catching it, so I join the dropcatch public part of the auction. Did I capitalize on your work? Nope, since I found the domain myself prior to any auction start.

Ok, so in that scenario you haven't benefited from my research, you've only benefited from the fact that I've placed a backorder somewhere that you haven't. That's not that much better.

 

[Bram C.]

Ok, so in that scenario you haven't benefited from my research, you've only benefited from the fact that I've placed a backorder somewhere that you haven't. That's not that much better.

I think you misunderstand: I'm not placing a backorder on dropcatch.com for one simple reason: because I'm "hoping" nobody else will place a backorder on dropcatch for that specific domain so there won't be a public auction there in the first place. But if there is a public auction for a domain I researched, I will join. I did the work of finding the domain prior to any auction so I don't see why I shouldn't be able to bid on it elsewhere.

If everyone would stop placing backorders on dropcatch.com then maybe they will consider making their auctions private (and if auctions become private there I would actually start placing backorders there again).

never could understand why anyone would order through Dropcatch, unless it was a name you badly needed at any cost. Order elsewhere. If Dropcatch happens to grab it, you can always join that auction later. For whatever reason, that's their business model - and they have been open about it. Yes, it sucks for users, but why are the users there in the first place with those terms?

Exactly.

 

[Jasonn]

i gave them a shot but with the public auction system prices go high quickly beyond what they are worth. now when they catch a name, i just forget about it.

 

[discobull]

I think you misunderstand: I'm not placing a backorder on dropcatch.com for one simple reason: because I'm "hoping" nobody else will place a backorder on dropcatch for that specific domain so there won't be a public auction there in the first place. But if there is a public auction for a domain I researched, I will join. I did the work of finding the domain prior to any auction so I don't see why I shouldn't be able to bid on it elsewhere.

If everyone would stop placing backorders on dropcatch.com then maybe they will consider making their auctions private (and if auctions become private there I would actually start placing backorders there again).



Exactly.

I get your point, but to me the intention behind not placing the backorder doesn't change the picture all that much. I also think that it isn't enough to siimply not place backorders because when we participate in their auctions we're still giving them our financial support and thereby encouraging a continuation of the status quo . That's why I won't be doing business with them at all until the policy changes.

 

[SimpleDomaining]

domainer1: hi DropCatch, here is a domain i would like you to catch for me. it is definitely worth to backorder.
domainer2: hi DropCatch here is a domain i would like you to catch for me. i did all the research about it, and i think it worth to backorder.
DropCatch: thank you for showing me where i can make some money. In return i promise, you will get no benefits from me for doing it.
domainer1: but.. but.. DropCatch we did all the work, give us a right to just fight between two of us...
domainer3: hmm... oh look they found an interesting domain, why i wont go and bid on it too... i am also interested... so what they spent time, effort and money, i have bigger pocket.
DropCatch: i love guys with bigger pockets! lets auction it! comeone , everybody!


is this really sounds fair? i am surprised this conversation still going. No one was in domeiner1 or domainer2 skin?

 

[tonyk2000]

As per the history of our industry, nobody (until dropcatch dot com appeared) found it profitable to set 100+ registrars (like dropcatch345.com etc), which HugeDomains did. This indicates that:

a) it is likely not profitable to maintain 100+ registrars for the purposes of private dropcatching alone (buydomains or lets say hugedomains themselves before they went public)

b) it is likely not profitable to maintain 100+ registrars for the purposes of public dropcatching alone (snapnames/namejet etc)

Indeed, each registrar pays large accreditations fees to ICANN alone, and it is not free to maintain each legal entity in sense of accounting etc.

Since HugeDomains is actively participating in the game themselves (for domains not ordered by us the customers with dropcatch.com), all the scheme likely works in the following mode:
- by participating in the "game" themselves, HugeDomains is helping the scheme to survive
- by using dropcatch.com, we are helping the scheme to survive

Of course it is unethical to run "public" auctions in the way dropcatch does. They however need more funds to maintain all their 150 (or so) registrars.

As a side note, we have seen blog/forum posts completely supporting their "open" auctions model. It appears that a legit and ethical model might be:

- stop accepting backorders

- catch anything YOU selected and were able to catch

- auction everything you were able to catch on public platform with $59 starting bid

If one thinks about it, blog and forum posts that are giving support to dropcatch model are missing the fact that adding "Collective Intelligence" to composing registration queue, which dropcatch does, is not compatible with "open auctions" model at least in sense of ethics.

We have also noticed that some bloggers or members of different forums, posting in their blogs or forums that open auctions model in "dropcatch way" is not good, still frequently (or not so frequently) join themselves to open dropcatch auctions for domains they did not order before the deadline. Which opens a simple question - if you do not like open auctions, why do you join open auctions? Please do not. If you do not like this model - you should not support it... Some rare exceptions might be unique cases of lets say new customers who were technically unable to preorder the domain name yesterday as yesterday they were not members yet

Well, we are dropcatch customers, and, since we do not support open auctions model, the only domains we order with dropcatch are:
- those that worth $59 at least
- (and, at the same time) may have resale potential (regardless of our intentions to resell or not to resell this particular domain). As this would prevent HugeDomains from catching the domain for their own portfolio. They try to catch pretty everything with even a remote reselling possibility...

Shortly, we are legit and genuine dropcatch customers, we pay our bills on-time, but we do not support their current business model and so we use them only because we "have to" for some (but not all) domains from our daily "wishlists"...

 

[youngjump]

Dropcatch's boss is keen

 

[Zombies]

BTW, is there anyway to see the auction results (end price) of auctions on DropCatch?

 

[Garandy]

Zombies, it looks like you can still go to the auction page for at least a couple of days after it ends if you weren't a participant. After that, I think you have to have been in an auction to see it.