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SAV auctions advice: DON'T BID against user s_n...

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Hi all, this is quite a specific issue but will interest users engaged in SAV auctions.

It happened several times already and from what I understood from SAV support, nothing will be done to prevent it, so I might as well make it public, it may help some of you.

s_n_7cf63f, one of the frequent bidders on SAV auctions, defaults payment lately. So don't enter a bid war with him because it will only lead to the following situations where you overpay for the name:

1. You loose the bid war and end up second behind him. What happens in this case is that when his payment method is charged and fails, you, as second highest bid, are charged immediately. You win the name , but at a high price.

2. You win the bid war and end up paying a high amount. But you could have paid way less.

Here is what you should do instead when you find that user s_n_7cf63f is the current highest bidder:

1. Bid the lowest amount possible allowed by the bidding system (usually = "highest bid + $1").

2a. If you are then highest bidder, don't enter a bid war if user s_n_7cf63f tries to beat you. Let him add $1 and wait for the end of the auction. You should end up with the name. (True on 29th of june 2020)

2b. If you are immediately beaten by a s_n_7cf63f proxy bid, don't enter a bid war. Just wait the end of the auction.

You understood that to win you should make sure you are second behind s_n_7cf63f and not try to outbid him.

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A bit of background: got caught up in bid wars in at least two auctions (probably more, but didn't document it back then).
Last time was last week when I ended up overpaying for two domains on the same day. That's when I realized that there was a repeating scheme.

Some would say it's all part of the game, but I felt cheated because had I known in time that the user had defaulted on the first domain, I would NEVER had entered the second bid war!!!

I also feel that SAV could easily act in the case of this specific user by banning him (temporarily) from auctions. I know it's possible because... it was done to me! During the first weeks I used SAV, I had MANY problems with the charging of my visa card. Was banned from auction quite fast!!!!!
Could never sort it out, had to take a new card with a different bank just to pay SAV... (saw on different threads many users had similar payment problems).


@Nick R See below for suggestions on how to change that.

Your support made me understand that user s_n_7cf63f was acting fair and no special measures needed to be taken. I was even answered that I was outbid by a proxy bid (which shows a complete misunderstanding of the problem raised by the way...)

Shouldn't you implement a better system to take in account these situations?

Two suggestions :
- relaunch auction erasing the defaulting user from the bid history.
or
- In case of a duel ending with the winner defaulting, charge the second bidder only the amount of his first bid at the start of the bid war.

Don't know if it's worth the pain for you implementing all that, maybe the ban would simplify things.

In the meantime, my advice to all users is, you can win against s_n_7cf63f if you act like mentionned above. (disclaimer: True today, will not be true anymore if the user uses a valid payment method).

Good luck to you all.
Hagop
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
It looks like the user s_n_7cf63f had the first backorder on the domain before they were banned last year. We do give the first user the opening bid BUT they will be unable to bid any higher based on being banned.
 
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It looks like the user s_n_7cf63f had the first backorder on the domain before they were banned last year. We do give the first user the opening bid BUT they will be unable to bid any higher based on being banned.


What are you guys doing to whois btw? I noticed my whois details were updated this month, not by me, which triggered an alert on my monitor.

Added whois privacy or something? It seems random, domains still in my account and untouched.
 
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We have not made any changes to our WHOIS system recently.
 
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We have not made any changes to our WHOIS system recently.


Thanks. Who can I contact to look into this specific issue? Public Whois records clearly state a change was made. I can't see any changes in my account and I sure as hell didn't update anything. Ownership is the same, nameservers the same, account secured.

For example, the domain advertised under my username was supposedly update the sixth. But not by me.

Kinda troubling as this wouldn't be the first time your system messed around with domains/DNS.

Weird stuff.
 
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If you look at the WHOIS and do not see any changes, it would be more inclined to think it may be the monitoring service. As long as the WHOIS looks right you will be good.
 
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If you look at the WHOIS and do not see any changes, it would be more inclined to think it may be the monitoring service. As long as the WHOIS looks right you will be good.

No, Whois changed at your registrar, which is publicly verifiable. My monitor just checks for any changes that occur on whois by quiring a Whois server.

Bottom line, something was updated/changed and it's not ownership or DNS servers so something must have triggered this.
 
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If you want to take a look at the WHOIS and DM me exactly what changes I would be happy to dig deeper. Without that there isnt much we can do.
 
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What is the process for having a 3rd party audit these auctions? I have had the same concerns surrounding Godaddy auctions as well. Since they are a publicly traded company there should be some reassurance that the auctions are legit from a 3rd party.
 
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I dont participate in Sav auctions, period.
Too many horror stories.
 
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What is the process for having a 3rd party audit these auctions? I have had the same concerns surrounding Godaddy auctions as well. Since they are a publicly traded company there should be some reassurance that the auctions are legit from a 3rd party.

I would be happy to answer any questions you have if a 1st party can help. Feel free to DM me at anytime.
 
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I would be happy to answer any questions you have if a 1st party can help. Feel free to DM me at anytime.
Does your team perform 3rd party audits on the auctions? How do we know Shill bidding is not taking place?
 
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Does your team perform 3rd party audits on the auctions? How do we know Shill bidding is not taking place?
We do perform regular audits on the auction platform and manually investigate all reports of potential malicious bidders.
 
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