Pheenix.com - Drop Catching Service - Please Share Your Experiences

[Neophyte]

I just signed up with Pheenix.com, a new drop catching service by the owners for FreshDrop, and would like to know your experience with them. Has anyone won a domain with them? Any issues in getting the domains put in your name/in your account?

 

[gorilla_bob]

Hi guys,

Great discussions. And this is the sorta discussions that we have been having internally as well. One of the greatest attractions to Pheenix is the price point. At $18.95 per backorder, it opens up alot of opportunities for people to backorder domain names. I don't think we want to modify that.

In addition, if you are the first bidder on the backorder, then your price is still $18.95 unless someone bids higher. So in many cases, you'll still get it for $18.95.

As we grow our services and add more registry connections to compete with the big boys, our cost sky rockets substantially. The only way to mitigate this cost is to offer auctions.

It's a decision that we thought carefully over and looking at things, it offers a good balance of price point for customers while still allow us to grow as a company.

Tan

 

[Name Trader]

The service as it is, is great. If it's not a sustainable model, then why did you introduce it? I respect your business decision to change it to a sustainable model, even though I dislike it very much. Then the only one backorder deal is back with GoDaddy. If they only had your skills at actually capturing a domain, they might even be worth using. I finally stopped using them after they couldn't even beat a hand reg at their own registrar. You would have thought they would have had systems in place to prevent that. I guess it's back to trolling the Pre-Release lists for me (which I never stopped doing). Keep up the good work. I'm going to be using you whichever model you use.

One comment about the multi-bid though. Are you still going to keep the fact that there are bids on a domain private? Or are you going to advertise to the whole world how many bids a domain has. I would prefer for that to remain private to all but the actual bidders. Or if you have to tell everybody about the bids, only do that when their are multiple bids. Single bids on domains would still remain private. Of course I prefer all bids are private except to the bidders, model.

 

[gorilla_bob]

Stub,

Great ideas. I think disclosing bids if there are multiple bids on it may be a good idea for later. For now, all bids will remain private as we have no current plans on disclosing bids.

Initially we had built the catching program and wanted to build out a simple user interface quickly so that people could start taking advantage of the catch program.

Pheenix is a growing project. There are lots of things that we are working on currently that we will start introducing in the next few months. If you like our backordering platform, wait to you see what we got in store when we launch the new version.

Tan

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

I joined Pheenix only because it was first come first serve model basis. I would simply stop using Pheenix once the multi-bid system is implemented. There won't be any difference between Snap/NJ and you guys.

You could increase the cost for first come first serve but multi-bid system is just ridiculous.

 

[Fork]

I joined Pheenix only because it was first come first serve model basis. I would simply stop using Pheenix once the multi-bid system is implemented. There won't be any difference between Snap/NJ and you guys.

You could increase the cost for first come first serve but multi-bid system is just ridiculous.

I would actually be more inclined to bid only at Namejet/Snapnames if the price was raised. I can almost guarantee they will be caught by one of them, so there's not much point in backordering everywhere if the initial fee is the same everywhere.

While I prefer the current first-come, first-served system, I can see how it's not economical. I wouldn't mind a bidding system as I've had many instances of trying to backorder a name that was already backordered.

 

[gorilla_bob]

Abdul,

The biggest difference between Pheenix and Snap/NJ is that your initial bid will still remain a low $18.95. There are many great domain names out there that shouldn't have a starting cost of $60-80 that it takes to backorder at the larger companies.

In addition, Pheenix allows you to manage all your domain names from one central location. No more madness trying to figure out which registrar a particular domain name is coming from.

Tan

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Tan,

Thanks for your response.

I understand. But I still don't like the multi-bid system even the initial bid will start from $18.95. You may increase the price to let's say $60-80 range but I and many other domainers would prefer to have first come first serve system which is currently going on.

 

[chandan]

how long it takes to charge the cc and place to account after pheenix caught the domain. ?

 

[Name Trader]

Stub,

Great ideas. I think disclosing bids if there are multiple bids on it may be a good idea for later. For now, all bids will remain private as we have no current plans on disclosing bids.

Well I think when you start accepting multiple bids per domain, you will need to address this issue one way or another. I think disclosing the number of bids to the bidders when there are multiple bidders is the way to go. But not disclosing the number of bids to non-bidders should also be the way to go. Of course this is a integrity vs money grab decision.

---------- Post added at 06:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:29 AM ----------

I joined Pheenix only because it was first come first serve model basis. I would simply stop using Pheenix once the multi-bid system is implemented. There won't be any difference between Snap/NJ and you guys.

You could increase the cost for first come first serve but multi-bid system is just ridiculous.

There could be a whole lot of difference between Pheenix and SN/NJ. Pheenix could have integrity. But that remains to be seen at this stage.

I think going multi-bid is inevitable. But if they implement it in a different way than SN/NJ, it doesn't need to be bad.

I think disclosing the number of bids to non-bidders will only encourage people to go to SN/NJ where there might be no bids. At least until the time that Pheenix is regularly beating them

 

[gorilla_bob]

Chandan,

Usually orders are processed at 1:30 PM PST for domains caught that day.

Stub,

The current plan is to send out emails after we catch domains to people that have a domain with multi-bid auctions notifying them that there is a private auction. There is no current plans to advertise how many bidders a domainname has.

All and all, we want to try to make the process simple and easy as possible for everyone.

Tan

 

[invented]

I joined Pheenix only because it was first come first serve model basis. I would simply stop using Pheenix once the multi-bid system is implemented. There won't be any much difference between Snap/NJ and you guys.

You could increase the cost for first come first serve, but multi-bid system is just... tiring.

This.

This, I concur.

 

[Name Trader]

@gorilla_bob - Ahh!! OK. Better than expected Better than SN/NJ.

Then all you have to do is announce that this multi-bidding is implemented, so we don't go thinking ours is still the only bid on the domain because our bid was accepted

 

[gorilla_bob]

Stub,

Right now it is still first come first. Once we are ready to transition to a multi-bid system, we'll notify all our customers.

Tan

 

[jk23]

Got beat by Reberry today. That's disappointing.

 

[xtmoney]

good service..beat namesilo easy.

 

[gorilla_bob]

jk23,

I'm sure there are some domains that we have caught that the Reberry system tried as well. The problem with comparing domains that Reberry caught that had Pheenix backorders is that there is no way to know how many other domains that Pheenix beat Reberry on as it is a closed system.

All in all, if you go after the type of domain names that the Reberry system is going after and Pheenix is able to catch the domains, then most likely we are beating the Reberry system in those instances.

Tan

 

[indiegrind]

Tan, I was intending on waiting to try to sell my pheenix caught domain but I listed on sedo immediately out of habit, and recieved an offer today. Any eta on a separate registrar interface?

 

[gorilla_bob]

Indie,

Congrats on the sale. It actually wouldn't be a seperate interface. It would be more like the next version of the platform. I'm not allowed to say when the launch date is just yet, but we are looking in the range of months rather than weeks.

Tan

 

[chandan]

i can see 2 nameserver fields in ns section for domains. its best to give 4 fields for update imo

 

[indiegrind]

Indie,

Congrats on the sale. It actually wouldn't be a seperate interface. It would be more like the next version of the platform. I'm not allowed to say when the launch date is just yet, but we are looking in the range of months rather than weeks.

Tan

Thanks for the quick response.


I look forward to see what you guys will have to offer in the future. I am going to continue to use your backordering service in its current form because I really like the current setup.

 

[gorilla_bob]

Chandan,

Thanks for the tip. Yes, in the new version you'll be able to add more nameservers.

Tan

 

[tonyk2000]

As many other members, I'd appreciate an opportunity to order with cheap no-bidding model as well. But, lets wait a few more weeks - as soon as some known clowns spamming all the internet with their offers to buy a pendingdelete domains develop scripts to automatically pre-order everything with pheenix - it will be the "end of the game". Common domainers would be unable to order anything reasonable. Furthermore, with limited resources (the resources are never unlimited), and without an ability to dynamically allocate the resources based on number of preorders - domain quality, pheenix will become the 2nd godaddy in sense of dropcatching.

I hate to say this, but, pheenix management, please, switch to auction model ASAP.

Do we need another auction service? Yes, we do. If it has ethics. No whois spamming. No publishing of most active preorders lists - should respect members intellectual property. No halvarez. Just to name a few points...

 

[Name Trader]

I think not providing api access would help all us little guys a lot.

 

[gorilla_bob]

Tonyk2000,

Yes, the multi-bid feature is a priority for us and we will launch it most likely within a few weeks.

Stub,

Api access won't hurt the little guys once we have the multi-bid feature in place.

Tan

 

[Name Trader]

I take your point. Except if you allow sniping software to bid on domains in the auction phase. Don't they need to use your api?