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More Fraudulent Bidding Activity at DropCatch.com

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Arca

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DropCatch.com just can't get rid of fraudulent bidding activity on their platform. Fraudulent bidders bid up prices, don’t pay when they win, and then the names are re-auctioned again and again until a legit bidder wins.

It is a win-win system for DropCatch. If the fraudulent bidders bid up a legit bidder, DC cash out even more thanks to the fraudulent bidder driving up the price beyond where it would have gone with only legit bidders. If the fraudulent bidder wins, they simply hold and re-auction the name over and over until they get a legit bidder that pays. It's a problematic system for regular bidders, because before these fraudulent bid handles get suspended, they bid up legit bidders in various auctions.

DropCatch's system enables them to get paid for names even with so many fraudulent non-paying bidders on their platform. But even with this auction restarting system in place, there are simply so many fraudulent bidders that they sometimes struggle to find a legit winner, despite multipe re-auctions. Take CannaMarket.com. The domain has already been won by THREE DIFFERENT fraudulent bidders. The first winner, in the original auction, was fraudulent. The name was re-auctioned. The second winner was fraudulent. The name was re-auctioned. The third winner was fraudulent (he bid the name up to $4K). When a name can score a triple fraudulent bidder combo streak on their platform, with no legit winner in sight, it’s clear that there is something wrong with how their system works. They are currently holding cannamarket.com in a dropcatch.com holding account, and I wonder whether they will try to re-auction the name a fourth time, or just let it drop since this is obviously a bad look for them when three out of three attempts of auctioning off the name ended up with fraudulent bidding activity (and who is going to be brave enough to bid against all the fraudulent bidders in a fourth auction? This name is apparently a fraud magnet).

Then there was this auction for lumeo.com recently (it was bid up to $14K by a bidder that most likely is fraudulent, and the winner has not yet paid, and the payment deadline passed a few days ago). How long until this name gets re-auctioned due to fraudulent bidding activity?

I often get emails from dropcatch saying "due to complications involving potentially fraudulent activity, the following auctions you had participated in are being restarted". A quick search shows an inbox full of emails notifying me of fraudulent bidding activity and auctions being restarted:
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I just received another one today. It contained another SEVEN auction names that closed recently with fraudulent bidding activity:

cybercorp.com - Sold for $1251
sefin.com - Sold for $665
devlog.com - Sold for $343
thermair.com - Sold for $457
simplypretty.com - Sold for $515
finte.com - Sold for $350
kinovo.com - Sold for $330

All these auctions involved fraudulent bidding, and have now been restarted (you can go to dropcatch.com and bid on them right now). A quick visit to the dropcatch.com website shows a other restarted auctions as well, such as for evinite.com (sold for $142) and acercloud.com (sold for $370). Will legit bidders win these restarted auctions this time around?

DropCatch.com is very much like a game of hot potato, where fraudulent bidders bid up auctions and don't pay when they come out winning. There is a significant amount of auctions being restarted due to winners not paying up, when compared with other expired domains auctions platforms. The result is that legit bidders have to pay, literally, for the presence of so many fraudulent bidders on this platform that bid up the prices for legit bidders. Just an advice for everyone to be aware of this issue when participating in auctions at dropcatch.com.
 
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I get it. I was on a different side though. I was a seller. I was owed money. I believe I was the only one owed money so I wasn't being given special treatment other than being allowed to beta test domain sales.

Does that mean I was still treated special? If anyone didn't get paid then yes, otherwise not true

You were made whole, I don't know of any other exchange that buys their deadbeat bidders bid, and covers it to payout the seller.

What about all those proxy bidders who WittyNut bid up their auctions, and made them pay thru the nose, how come their bids were not discounted, or refunded, similar scenarios, they should be paid back.

It's not your fault, if you guys are on good terms, and they make the offer that is your right to accept or decline, but there are others in line here who deserve equal consideration.

At the end of the day the consumer will make the choice to use the platform, or take a pass, but they should set things straight if they say themselves they have failed their customers, and start fresh with the current information out there. I for one feel extended credit lines with no payment due dates is a very dangerous advantage against a cash paying bidder.
 
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My bank offers "fast-track" limited current account for college students and the like, which can be opened online and has a lot of limitations, among others max/min account balance, limited number of monthly withdrawals / outgoing payments, and some other limits. I may open such an account in a few minutes. I will then ask my bank to print a bank reference and include statement that it is limited account. I will be very happy to fax this bank reference to dropcatch. Will they allow me to bid on credit, and pay after many months? It appears they should, as an earlier post of today clearly shows.

Or, will they refuse my credit bidding application quoting "Animal Farm", by George Orwell: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others" ?
 
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My bank offers "fast-track" limited current account for college students and the like, which can be opened online and has a lot of limitations, among others max/min account balance and some other limits. I may open such an account in a few minutes. I will then ask my bank to print a bank reference and include statement that it is limited account. I will be very happy to fax this bank refence to dropcatch. Will they allow me to bid on credit, and pay after many months? It appears they should, as an earlier post of today clearly shows.

Or, will they refuse my credit bidding application quoting "Animal Farm", by George Orwell: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others" ?
There must be an issue with the source of those funds, they may not be sent thru traditional means for whatever reason. There have been instances where domains have been used to launder funds, perfect front. These people would be willing to overbid, and overpay to meet quota limits, once again making for a very dangerous marketplace.
 
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With regards to Weed.cc – the user WittyNut won this domain. This was a marketplace auction (not a Dropped Domain Name.) We explained to the domain owner that we were having a hard time collecting payment and offered several different options, and the domain owner opted to have DropCatch cover the winning auction amount. Keep in mind this was a “private seller” domain as part of the new DropCatch Marketplace. This was not a dropped domain. This is why this domain was not automatically re-auctioned and we ate the extra cost to satisfy one of our first marketplace sellers.

Did bidder WittyNut bid on any other "private seller" auctions besides Weed.cc?

I get it. I was on a different side though. I was a seller. I was owed money. I believe I was the only one owed money so I wasn't being given special treatment other than being allowed to beta test domain sales.

Does that mean I was still treated special? If anyone didn't get paid then yes, otherwise not true

Unless Mr. Reberry shares another example, you appear to be the only private seller who got paid as a result of WittyNut's bidding. Call it special treatment or not, but you decided to cite a poor price on your numeric domain for reasons you were disappointed with the results (then WittyNut was a nonpayer), and instead of re-auctioning Weed.cc, you opted to take the price WittyNut bid up. I don't believe the domain was worth anywhere near that level, but to each their own. Why not just re-auction the domain, and take what you can get for it?
 
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I believe I was the only one owed money so I wasn't being given special treatment other than being allowed to beta test domain sales.

This thread erupted and I really just didn't want to get publically involved here in another mess, but I need make a statement that I support DropCatch, I use Namebright- transfers are instant and the bid price includes the registry fee, there are no hidden charges and the prices are good. I trust the platform. I have patience to see that the bidder qualification screening needs to be fine-tuned. I am happy to see that they responded here- unlike all the other non-responsive companies we all know about.

I suspect that the remaining buyer who has funds issues- are not his issues, they are most likely overseas transfer limit issues and international banking with all the new post 2009 beautiful regulations being force fed down the throats of foreign banks by Uncle Sam. DC cannot comment on this for customer protection, but I will speculate. I could be wrong.

I have not been involved in the specific auctions and bidding issues that the people on this thread are upset about. I am sorry to read all this negativity, and would be upset also as OP is since he wasted his time on these auctions. I don't bid on many auctions, but did get run up on one name. Not sure who the bidder was, but I think it was just a rogue idiot, but if I ask and I am sure they will let me know. When I call, they answer the phone. When I email, they answer it. I have checked whois on those auctions that I have lost, all were clean 3rd parties or under Namebright privacy- no funny business ever like some might expect where a name is moved out to HD and I have checked at least 50. When they state if you bid the $59. they don't bid against you.

Shane, thanks for letting us know honestly about your compensation on your unsold weed, lol. You didn't need to do that, and I give you credit for answering me that when I asked you about it in the AMA. I don't want to get on your case or you to get on mine anymore, I will agree to disagree with you about your comments to me the other day on a previous thread.

Moving forward.

Your assumption above I believe is incorrect. ("I believe I was the only one")

If you recall I posted this on 8/10/2017:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/dropcatch-private-auctions-beta-soon.1034985/

I started this thread simply to alert the rest of the members that there was a new alternative to the "other" infamous venue with significant issues. You responded to that thread. I don't recall when I inquired about becoming a seller or when they emailed me but I also made listings, I just checked and they closed soon after that date.

As a seller, I don't know who bid or who didn't pay me in this mess- but I had at least 2 and lost money.
For the record I had deadbeat bidders as a seller and was not offered anything but to relist my names.
I never was offered to be paid back nor thought that I should ask, so it surprised me when you mentioned about your deal. Does that change my feelings? Not really. Do I expect reimbursement also. No.

I remain grateful to DC as I was invited as a beta tester especially since I remain a "nobody".
("I am a nobody that has no ambition to be somebody, when the rest of the world wants to be someone" This was a quote a friend who recently died. He left the EU rat race and opened my favorite restaurant on a beach I love out in the Caribbean.)

The seller opportunity was offered with the stipulation to report any bugs and I have had several minor communications with support. There are few things here and there- but mostly cosmetic. The best thing is that the sellers side is HONEST, and SELLERS CANNOT BID ON THEIR OWN NAMES- with the interface the way it is designed.

Again, weeks earlier in the thread someone mentioned I had friends or something like that to my positive comment- and I clarified that I am not friends or anything but a customer of Dropcatch. Please don't start slinging the mud too hard. I am not advertising or have any affiliation ads on a blog or anything at all other than they have my credit card on file and like and support DropCatch- in fact I am quite happy with everything about them and Namebright too. The nameserver batch changes are instant. All the functions are some of the best. Only Namesilo is only other interface for domainers that comes close and is imho, neck and neck with domainer friendly controls.

My only wish at this time is that they clear this up quickly, continue to communicate here and bring more goodwill to the industry and work out their internal systems and they let us buy more names instead of so many going to HD. LOL. I am thankful that they take the time to post here unlike the other venues, and just needed posted that to clarify. Thank you @Jeff Reberry
 
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main -

wnnrscrs is a long term customer. We have special terms and payment process setup for this user due to a restriction with their bank (along with a few other long time customers), and we have zero reason to believe this user will not pay for a single domain that they have won. This is not in our general terms, as we have an agreement that extends the time this user is able to pay. This user pays for every domain they win, no exceptions, and if they do not, they will be suspended like everyone else. For the record, this user is paying the full amount on domains and does not have any type of “special deal”.

While we have been asked for this dozens, maybe hundreds of times, nobody gets special or preferential discounts on won auctions.

@Jeff Reberry We just want some transparency and consistency. This is the first acknowledgement that some people receive special treatment. wnnrscrs is a big spender, so I personally understand that he could receive special terms to extend the payment window, but but at one point he had not paid for won auctions that were 45 ~ 50+ old. That seems pushing it. It looks like he did finally paid up for some those older auction wins,

After what happened with wittynut and arirangcnt / xdaydreamx (also was a long term customer), that makes people uneasy. Even for people with special terms there should be a set limit. Allowing people to continually bid without having paid for auctions beyond 30 days is extremely generous to them and unfair to the rest of us.

I know people in this thread and others who spend tens of thousands of dollars a year and are extremely valuable to the DropCatch ecosystem that do not receive special favors and can't add new backorders if they haven't paid within 24 hours. That seems unfair.
 
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@Jeff Reberry We just want some transparency and consistency. This is the first acknowledgement that some people receive special treatment. wnnrscrs is a big spender, so I personally understand that he could receive special terms to extend the payment window, but but at one point he had not paid for won auctions that were 45 ~ 50+ old. That seems pushing it. It looks like he did finally paid up for some those older auction wins,

After what happened with wittynut and arirangcnt / xdaydreamx (also was a long term customer), that makes people uneasy. Even for people with special terms there should be a set limit. Allowing people to continually bid without having paid for auctions beyond 30 days is extremely generous to them and unfair to the rest of us.

I know people in this thread and others who spend tens of thousands of dollars a year and are extremely valuable to the DropCatch ecosystem that do not receive special favors and can't add new backorders if they haven't paid within 24 hours. That seems unfair.
First off Main, A very well thought out, and structured comment, and question.

What many fail to realize is Dropcatch is essentially underwriting higher bid prices within their platform, with such incentives of interest free open payment plans.

If these people did not have access to this free money they would not be outbidding you, here lies the issue, Dropcatch is encouraging these bidders to bid aggressive prices within their platform, and outbid you to make you pay more at the same time by removing payment timeline obligations from them.

Godaddy does not provide credit to its bidders, and for good legal reasons.

I feel Dropcatch has opened themselves up to a legal gray area here, and depending on how far it goes back, and what the terms of such agreements are.

Bottom line if these people can't pay for the auctions by the given payment due date, they shouldn't be bidding, or outbidding cash in hand paying customers. These bidders wouldn't even be in play, if they were not financially pardoned into submitting timely payment by Dropcatch.

Well if they weren't given these special considerations, well then that would mean lower closing prices, which would not be good for Dropcatch. At the end of the day that is first priority, at all costs, real paying, rule abiding platform users as shown by all their previous actions come last.
 
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Access to lower cost of borrowing
My bank offers "fast-track" limited current account for college students and the like, which can be opened online and has a lot of limitations, among others max/min account balance, limited number of monthly withdrawals / outgoing payments, and some other limits. I may open such an account in a few minutes. I will then ask my bank to print a bank reference and include statement that it is limited account. I will be very happy to fax this bank reference to dropcatch. Will they allow me to bid on credit, and pay after many months? It appears they should, as an earlier post of today clearly shows.

Or, will they refuse my credit bidding application quoting "Animal Farm", by George Orwell: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others" ?


You lead towards a very valid point Tony, the fact there is not active link or application form for credit on Dropcatch, really shows you how much of an added incentive this is for so called special bidders, there maybe contingencies of minimum bid placements, or spend to maintain such an open credit status which is troubling, and very one sided.

The bidder / seller transaction in an auction format should always be at arms length, not under considerations of incentive in disregard of other equal bidders.

The correlation of these pardoned bidders to bidding activity is very abnormal, their over activity, and eagerness to bid is very telling.
 
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It's obvious a select few are getting special treatment while most aren't. At the very least, dropcatch should provide some guidelines to all customers where it specifies how much a customer has to spend per month, so that payment arrangements can be made and the terms of such arrangements. But secretly providing payment arrangements to a select few customers is not fair to the rest. They are giving leverage to a select few while others don't have that. I have lost many auctions just because I didn't have the cash at the moment the auction would end. Maybe I had money coming in but didn't want to take the risk.

In fact, my dropcatch account got suspended the other day because their system hadn't detected payment for a backorder I had already been charged for. So just after a few days of emailing support, and Mr Reberry directly, nothing got solved and my account got suspended. I had to call twice to get the issue resolved and my account back in good standing. Glitches happen so this is not the main issue. The issue is how for just 1 "unpaid" backorder I couldn't backorder anything else for the next few days and how quickly my account got suspended vs the selected few with big extended credit lines or "payment arrangements" if you want to call it that way. Some of the people mentioned in this thread with such payment arrangements are US based according to what I see; so overseas funds restrictions shouldn't be the case for all.
 
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It’s Thanksgiving here in the US, and this will be my last posting until next week. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Reiterating my point once again - WittyNut was a mistake on our end. In no way did I or any of our employees realize how many auctions this user won without paying for outstanding domains in the shopping cart. This issue was isolated to this one account. Every single non-paid dropped domain will be re-auctioned.

Bedsides WittyNut and wnnrscrs - everyone else is current. We have hundreds and hundreds of customers on the DropCatch platform. Go browse through all of the auctions in the past few months - you will not find any other user who is outstanding (other than several days for incoming wires, credit card declines, spilt carts and so forth.)

Our policy is clear - you complete payment for a domain or you will be suspended for non-payment.

Before I sign off for the weekend, I also want to steer this ship back in the right direction….

One of the points someone made earlier in this thread - what happens if a user who has been suspended for non-payment participated in another auction and drove the auction winner up. For example - WittyNut participated and was the second highest bidder in several other auctions.

This thread made us think long and hard about these unique and rare situations - but they do happen. What should be the role and responsibility of the auction platform?

While we can simply shrug our shoulders and claim it is natural artifact of auctions - that position does not sit well with us. We do not “just want to be another domain auction platform” - we want to go above and beyond and earn your trust and respect. We are truly committed to our customers.

We believe the “right” thing to do is to make our auction winners whole - meaning we are going to go above and beyond and issue refunds if this occurred. While this is a lot of work and engineering effort - from the customer perspective - it is simply the right thing to do. We care deeply about customer trust and want everyone to have full confidence in DropCatch.

We are close on our full analysis - but we still need a few more days. We will have final deals after this holiday weekend.

I understand some of you are frustrated this is taking a long time - we agree this is taking a long time - longer than we expected - but we want to be 100% accurate, have the right information, and make sure we have the most customer friendly policy going forward when these situations happen in the future. Stand by - hang tight - we will be going above and beyond.


Sadly, something tells me no matter what we do, you all will never be satisfied. I hope I am wrong.
 
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Also, regarding auction history.

you have voiced your concerns and we are listening. Going forward, we will display all prior auctions (in the case of a new-re-auction.) We finally have this functionally almost ready to go and will be making this live next week. Any re-auction will show any and all previous auctions on that domain (assuming you participated.) This is more transparent. You will have had to participated in the previous auction to see the history, but going forward this is now a feature we are making available.
 
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Sadly, something tells me no matter what we do, you all will never be satisfied. I hope I am wrong.

The fact that you took the time on a national holiday to address this is self evident that you care. I appreciate seeing that and we all should be acknowleding that. I believe that your personal attention to details and looking closely and continuously communicating with your customers is the key. As the retired owner of a small business I took every complaint and handled it. I called people back to discuss minor problems even during my vacation. If you look at the other small businesses who post here like Namesilo and Dub and others who post here repeatedly, they all maintain great rapport and reviews, and get referrals and grow. Just with listening to their customers and answering the tough questions.

Every customer large or small appreciates communication, whether it’s good or bad news. Please continue to communicate here (as you can) so this thread does not grow with unanswered questions and speculation as that unfortunately fuels negativity.

The bad example are like the Brandable marketplace thread now with 473,323 views and 7991 pages and the “other” auction platform thread now with 96,767 views and 1,512 posts and continuing. Those are imho mismanaged goodwill and PR opportunities. The owner/management silence is the worst decision they could make. The continuing NP member questioning and auditing, the anger of corruption and negativity on those threads is because they have failed to get rid of the corrupted people and communicate. They cannot seem to do the right thing, ignore problems and go silent. Both of those threads should be good examples of how NOT to handle issues.

Keep up the good work, enjoy the Holiday and continued success with catching the most names!
 
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Quick update – 69 domains will be re-auctioned today, from the non-payment of user WittyNut.
 
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For integrity purposes anyone who has outstanding balances should not be allowed to bid, guys if you are bidding keep an eye out for new usernames, something tells me WittyNut is not done yet, he actually had the balls to put inquiries in on domains he lost to try, and buy them with money he supposedly doesn't have after he lost.
 
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Nothing like some free advertising
Quick update – 69 domains will be re-auctioned today, from the non-payment of user WittyNut.

I see lots google ads around for dropcatch. You using the profits from the shill bidders for that campaign?

Time to change the title of this thread to
“Dropcatch domain reauction advertising thread”
 
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Nothing like some free advertising


I see lots google ads around for dropcatch. You using the profits from the shill bidders for that campaign?

Time to change the title of this thread to
“Dropcatch domain reauction advertising thread”
Since people defrauded by Wittynut, and other deadbeats have not been reimbursed as of yet, I am guessing they are hoping for a VERY BIG DAY to make up the revenue loss, and hopefully then some to pay back others so they do not feel the pinch internally.

What really should happen should be a reauction for people who backordered, or participated in the auction, not a whole new marketing event.

Who knows if they will pay anyone back, since the technology does not exist to scan wittynuts bids, and deduct the difference, and hit refund that can do this in a month.
 
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We absolutely will NOT be waiting until we loose critical numbers of customers to address this. We value customer feedback and we hear your concerns. We are exploring additional methods of verification to help us reduce the number of re-auctions on our platform. While we might not be able to completely prevent re-auctions our goal is to keep the numbers as low as we possibly can. Customer feedback is always welcomed through PM or direct email at [email protected] for questions, concerns, or comments you may have.
 
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This thread was started on Oct. 28th, so it "celebrates" one month anniversary today. Are there any other noticeable changes, except of increased advertising budget @ drop catch, which is natural as nobody wants to lose critical numbers of customers as @DropCatch Support indicated?
 
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Quick update – 69 domains will be re-auctioned today, from the non-payment of user WittyNut.

Will this WittyNut re-auction include Weed.cc?
 
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Well now WittyNut's demons have been laid to rest,and Dropcatch has been repaid, maybe it is time for them to compensate their cheated client's a month plus after the fact due to their somehow granting of magical powers to only WittyNut's cart.

Time is money,
Time heals all wounds,
Therefore money heals all wounds...
 
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seems like everytime i try and bid on dropcatch i am outbid by names i've never seen previously. these people are overpaying big time in my opinion.
 
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seems like everytime i try and bid on dropcatch i am outbid by names i've never seen previously. these people are overpaying big time in my opinion.
These people have special payment considerations in place, they don't have to come up with the money in 4 days going into the weekend etc.. some have taken months to pay. You are not playing on an equal playing field, the number of bids coming out of South Korea is very high also, not sure what it equates to, but just a fact.

Yes, they are overpaying, heavy bid buttons.

So I believe the 3rd time CannaMarket.com was auctioned when WittyNut was in play it sold for 4,383 USD, and today during the 4th attempt it sold for $2,005 to Dropcatch's favorite bidder ckrgksanrndghk

The power of a single corrupt bidder can cost an honest bidder thousands, about 125% extra in this case to what the market was willing to bid. That is why it is very important for these operators to monitor their exchanges, and when they notice they have 69 unpaid auctions, do something about it, hopefully sooner, than later.
 
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With regards to the display of the original auctions (in the case of a re-auction) – it has been brought to our attention we are not being fully transparent. We agree. Thus, going forward we will make all auction history available to all participants of that auction. The original design excluded the former bid history for technical reasons. We hope to have this live within a week. Thus, if you bid in an auction and it is re-auctioned, you will see the original auction data.
Original auction data is still missing in most cases where a domain auction has been restarted. Any idea when this update will be fully implemented?
 
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Original auction data is still missing in most cases where a domain auction has been restarted. Any idea when this update will be fully implemented?
Namebio is still reporting CannaMarket.com sold for 4,383 USD after all this time, and their knowledge that it didn't close.

As Jason eluded to frustration in getting outbid, could be some of those people were sourcing namebio, and seeing higher recent fraudulently bid sale prices thinking they are getting value on their bids, when they never even actually closed.
 
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Original auction data is still missing in most cases where a domain auction has been restarted. Any idea when this update will be fully implemented?
Not much has really been done, just moreso talked about, given a month in cyberspace is like an eternity.

As yet another week has come, and gone.
 
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