advice Namejet Bidding Activity

[richface]

I have been in buying mode all year on Namejet but noticing unusual bidding activity on the platform so for example I have notice one user always bids like $10 dollars away from auction reserve on dozens of domains if not hundreds . For example auction starts with 39 bidders all at 69 the bidder in question has one bid at $689 $10 shy of reserve might just be myself being silly but when it spans across dozens of domains I just got to ask how come the bidder rarely hits the reserve price and seems to be a few dollars away almost 90 % of the time. Also I backordered a 5L.com today pending delete , I was the only bidder with a few hours to go and then suddenly 15 participants join with all their user names beginning with Sn--? I can understand 2 or 3 coincidence but 15 new participants all with the usernames beginning with SN--? is it like a secret society of domain kings? took snap shots on my phone I really want the name but i have a feeling these SN-- users want it more. Any thoughts on these SN-- guys? happy to go on a bidding war if this group is well known or maybe new username format?

 

[Arca]

SN-- = people who ordered the name at snapnames. If your bid handle at snapnames is 123xyz, namejet bidders would see it as sn--123xyz. Similarly, namejet bidders show as nj--"bid handle" over at snapnames.

A lot of domainers prefer to user snapnames over namejet for pending delete names these days, as namejet publishes a list of all domains with 3+ bidders on their homepage (which usually brings in another 50-150 bidders after it appears on their hompage, that would not have backordered the name if it hadn't gotten exposure on namejets homepage). It's also possible to see domains with 1-2 bids with a more manual method, so all your research into which domains to backorder is exposed to other bidders (= more people will backorder the name).

With SnapNames you don’t have this problem of having your backorders exposed. Auction prices for names NOT shown on NameJet's homepage prior to dropping are usually drastically lower than for names not exposed on their homepage, so it's easier to get a decent price by using snapnames for pen del names instead of namejet.

Domains caught by NJ or SN are put in a private auction for all the people who made backorders at each company, so placing a backorder at either service is the same (except namejet exposes your research to everyone and snapnames does not).

 

[forge]

I have also noticed a high degree of activity from one particular bidder who, as you say, seems more often than not to be bidding right up to (but still below) the reserve in many, many NJ auctions. It does seem pretty unusual. In fact, I was "caught" myself after bidding up on a name by just $10, and meeting reserve, with no one bidding against, and as a result was a little shocked to end up with a win.

 

[Wannabean]

This has been brought up before and I recall namejet looked in to it and took action against the bidder.

But basically if you don't think the name is worth it don't bid. Always going to be the danger that someone has 'set you up' to hit the reserve no matter what platform or how well policed it is. But if you bid it's cause you wanted the name for that price right? So if it happens to hit the reserve then that's good for you. Actually all that's happening is the faux bidder is just giving away the reserve amounts to those that look closely enough....

I would, however, like all reserves to be fully disclosed from the start and then this little annoyance goes away.