Pool.com inflates price

[suthra]

Pool.com artificially inflates price. I was bidding on a domain. It had a total bid of 100 dollars. I counterbid for 120 Dollars and within 2 hours the price went to 232 dollars .

Pool.com is doing an unethical business.

 

[Grrilla]

I think in some instances a Registrar who is partnered w/ Pool could directly or indirectly be involved in shill bidding. I think Jeff's suggestion to follow up the Whois changes is good, but oftentimes difficult to follow all of the way back to the source, due to smoke and mirrors.

Another concern: What assurances are there that only those backordering are allowed to enter the auction? What happens if a $500 name happens to slip through the cracks and only recieves one backorder? There is no documentation, that I am aware of, that allows a participant to see the bidding history- How many bids are from unique bidders? How many backorders were placed for the name? Who, (even by alias user name), are the parties involved in the bidding? Where can one access the final bid amount, w/o following auction to the last minute.

Unless I am missing something, there is alot of important information that is unavailable, and should be available, particularly to customers who are backordering and spending their money at auctions.

Ebay makes most of this info public record for 3 mos after an auction. By keeping the blinders on, Pool will always be open to this speculation, regardless of whether or not actual unethical activity is taking place.

I would have thought, naively it appears, that there would have been a third party monitor or auditor involved, particularly w/ the $ amounts involved.