domains Pheenix goes to public auctions on multiple backorders

[Name Trader]

I just received this in the mail,

3. Public Auctions coming September 19th.

All domains that have multiple backorders on it will now be available for Public Bidding for any backorders being released on or after 2015-09-19.

As a precondition, if someone did not have a backorder on the domain name prior to it going to auction, their minimum bid is at least $59 in order to participate in the auction.

I predicted on NP's that other backorder companies would change their model. Of course I was thinking of SnapNames/Namjet. So Pheenix were the first one to do it. Makes sense, imho.

 

[Jasonn]

The only auctions they currently have is for their expiring domains, Pre-Release Auctions, not for any Pending Delete auctions.

Which brings up a good point. A lot of Pending Delete Auctions were once Pre-Release Auctions. GoDaddy, SnapNames, NameJet, Dynadot. To name four off the top of my head. You should be placing your bids in the Pre-Release stage to capture these domains. Why? Because DropCatch/HugeDomains are not present in the Pre-Release Auctions. These are all Public Auctions, which may not sit right with the purists like @Jasonn, who seem to thrive on stealth.

It's the one weapon in SnapNames/NamJet armory where they are superior to DropCatch.

i do some pre-release but there is a lot of competition and deep pockets on namejet which has the best names. snapnames doesn't have near the quality in their pre-release. its mostly moniker names which are domains that have already previously attempted to be sold by other domainers before they let them expire. however these are not public auctions. they are closed auctions where you can't bid if you didn't backorder them before the deadline. godaddy does public auctions for pre-release domains and again, its hard to compete there when so many people are watching godaddy auctions and when they see bids get placed they jump on it.

 

[Name Trader]

@Jasonn - Perhaps the greater competition is because this is the first chance at all these domains in their life-cycle. Hence they are perhaps better quality names than those the pass thru Pre-Release to Pending Delete.

 

[main]

i do some pre-release but there is a lot of competition and deep pockets on namejet which has the best names. snapnames doesn't have near the quality in their pre-release. its mostly moniker names which are domains that have already previously attempted to be sold by other domainers before they let them expire. however these are not public auctions. they are closed auctions where you can't bid if you didn't backorder them before the deadline. godaddy does public auctions for pre-release domains and again, its hard to compete there when so many people are watching godaddy auctions and when they see bids get placed they jump on it.

The problem with the Namejet PreRelease domains is that they're not all expiring domains. It's a mix of expiring domains and regular auctions (some with reserves). Look at a domain like Institutes.com right now at PreRelease. It is registered through 2024. That is another reason that there are better quality domains at PreRelease..

As with any auction platform with individual sellers, there is shill bidding going on to pump up the prices.

You also have the domainers who let their domains expire to test the market like what happens at GoDaddy. There are lot of renewals and domains that disappear from the PreRelease.

I really wish NameJet would separate the PreRelease domains into true expiring and regular auctions which should be in their Public Auctions category. It makes it a pain when analyzing the lists for what to buy.

Namejet should have three sections: pending delete, expiring domains, and public auctions.

 

[william3322]

hi anybody?

 

[Omar Negron]

This sucks. Only going to raise prices up but the thing is, Pheenix has not been catching good domain names for a while now....so w.e.

Unless they are adding more registrars (which I think they said in a previous email) in order to nab better names. I doubt it though. We will see.

-Omar

 

[Name Trader]

Pheenix added 100 more registrars.

 

[domainer111]

Guys can I say thank you to an old friend who will be coming back?

Welcome back - the humble Godaddy backorder! Yes, I ignored you for ages. It was just almost too much hassle to set them up. Not anymore!

I've now seen Pheenix come, and Pheenix go. I hope they enjoy their money.

 

[Name Trader]

Are GoDaddy actually competing on the drop nowadays or are they still capturing dropped domains 1 or 2 days after they drop. Which was why they were always so hopeless at drop-catching.

 

[HDmarketing]

Are GoDaddy actually competing on the drop nowadays or are they still capturing dropped domains 1 or 2 days after they drop. Which was why they were always so hopeless at drop-catching.

I've ordered same domains with GoDaddy / Pheenix and Namejet all thru summer. GoDaddy caught none. Pheenix caught the most.

 

[Name Trader]

That's what I was thinking too.

 

[Jasonn]

i hope no one wants to bid on auctions or backorder on pheenix today. you can't.

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[main]

i hope no one wants to bid on auctions or backorder on pheenix today. you can't.

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Same problem here. I wrote support an email about it before. In the past, they have extended the auction when there has been issues. I am sure they will extend today's auctions a day too. Good luck.

 

[000]

Maybe Pheenix ought to spend a little more effort on their site before trying to expand their auction platform. I mean come on the site looks shady as **** from the get-go... I would never expect an end user to feel comfortable using them.

 

[campout]

@-T- that is classic lol

Does everyone else get the "This site uses a weak security configuration" red-line through the https:// at least when using Chrome?

 

[000]

Does everyone else get the "This site uses a weak security configuration" red-line through the https:// at least when using Chrome?

Yup!

Personally, I've always figured the day would come where any domains in my Pheenix account would simply vanish forever, so I try to transfer anything valuable out as soon as possible... but that's just me....

 

[domainer111]

@ everyone // yes Godaddy backorders couldn't compete with Pheenix. Unless of course - pheenix don't know about it. They do get a few, they got GadgetCenter.com a (good) while ago. That's why they're back like ...someone making a comeback..

 

[tonyk2000]

I tried to check what parts of pheenix website are working and what are not, and pressed "Terms of service" link. It is working and well describes open auctions model. The following phrases are of particular interest:

"Pheenix and its partners, subsidiaries, and affiliate companies may place a backorder on a domain name (hereinafter, a "Corporate Backorder")."

"A Corporate Backorder will be given the same backorder priority as a Gold Backorder"

To the contrary, DropCatch dot com states the following in connection with their own (Hugedomains) portfolio:

quote begin
"We have contracts allowing third-party bulk customers to use the DropCatch.com software and registrars to secure domains on the drop. However, all DropCatch.com customers get priority over any of these third-party bulk customers. We have created this rule to ensure there is no conflict of interest within the platform.
For example, say there was a valuable domain name XYZ.com dropping and it was extremely competitive and many DropCatch.com customers as well as third-party bulk customers want the domain name. If this domain name is secured by any of our network of registrars, the priority goes to DropCatch.com customers first before any third-party bulk customers. Thus, DropCatch.com customers will always receive first priority over any bulk third-party customers."
quote end

 

[Name Trader]

But, let's face it, when your discount-club-backorder goes to one DC's partner, don't you ever wonder if that domain was actually in their list ? Or they simply prefer to have the domain rather than your $15 ?

I don't mean this as an accusation or anything. It is an inevitable thought, due to the conflict of interests.

I missed this originally. My advice is you should never, ever use a Discount Club Membership to backorder a domain at DropCatch because HugeDomains has priority. So it's no surprise you are losing these domains to HugeDomains, because it's their only way to capture this domain. Actually what surprises me, if this is what is happening a lot, why you haven't gone to backordering the domain instead. Because there obviously wasn't any full price bids and you would have won the domain outright. Also, as I've said, I assume DropCatch use the Discount Club in bulk, because it's their cheapest way into winning the domain. IGNORE THE DISCOUNT CLUB AND ONLY USE FULL PRICED BACKORDERS AT DROPCATCH. Is that clear enough?

 

[Name Trader]

Yup!

Personally, I've always figured the day would come where any domains in my Pheenix account would simply vanish forever, so I try to transfer anything valuable out as soon as possible... but that's just me....

In that respect, they are no different than NetSol and Mniker

 

[Name Trader]

I tried to check what parts of pheenix website are working and what are not, and pressed "Terms of service" link. It is working and well describes open auctions model. The following phrases are of particular interest:

"Pheenix and its partners, subsidiaries, and affiliate companies may place a backorder on a domain name (hereinafter, a "Corporate Backorder")."

"A Corporate Backorder will be given the same backorder priority as a Gold Backorder"

Nice catch Tony. I don't like that at all. Pheenix need to explain, modify or retract that, imho.

 

[Asfas1000]

Problem is, I don't think every single domain is worth $60 or $70 .. Brandables for instance.

 

[Name Trader]

Problem is, I don't think every single domain is worth $60 or $70 .. Brandables for instance.

Of course. That is true. But you shouldn't be surprised about being beat by HugeDomains at DropCatch for Discount Club domains, is all I'm saying. For those cheap domains I always almost use Pheenix exclusively, these days, with good success rate. Usually if it was picked up by HugeDomains it was worth more than what I/you thought. You should NOT be backordering cheap domains at DropCatch. IMHO.

 

[Arca]

I was just checking the results of todays drop, to see if I caught anything that I had backordered. To my surprise, one of the two domains I backordered with Pheenix was available. So I quickly went to Namesilo and hand regged it. Then I went to expired domains to see when it dropped, and they listed it as dropped at 18:37. I hand regged it at about 19:10. Even 30 minutes after it dropped, Pheenix had not managed to "catch" it. The other domain they caught.

Since they announced that they have increase their registrars 500%, they have only caught about 3 out of 40 backorders I've had with them. Most of these were for low competition/lower quality names. I found that a lot of the domains they didn't catch appeared to have been hand registered, and not dropcaught, since they had been registered with registrars that I don't offer BO services (a few of those registrars do offer dropcatching APIs for personal use). Based on what I noticed today, I am suspecting that many of the domains I backordered just dropped, and Pheenix did not register them, and people looking through the newly dropped domains lists at expired domains hand registered them or beat them with their own dropcatching software.

I remember reading about people beating Pheenix with hand registrations a few months ago, and based on what saw today, I guess this still happens.

 

[Name Trader]

It happened to me only once, in the last week also. But usually they capture the majority of what I backorder from them. I assumed it was a glitch. Keep those reports coming.

 

[Asfas1000]

I remember reading about people beating Pheenix with hand registrations a few months ago, and based on what saw today, I guess this still happens.

I wonder if drop catching services focus and allocate resources to domains with multiple backorders only ?