Sealed bids with pool... wtf?

[johnny6]

I hadn't backordered anything from pool in about two months, so maybe this is a change everyone understands, but I don't get it...
I backordered two domains - and was presented with an email saying that pool had captured the domains and I had to submit a sealed bid before moving on to the challenger bid round. Sounds retarded, right?
So, I read over tha FAQ's and apparently you have to enter a bid for the domain you backordered, arbitrarily guessing how much you will need to pay - and the top few bids make it to the magical mystery challenge bid segment. THEN, you bid against other people like the old system, as far as I can tell.
My question here is... do you have to submit a sealed bid for every domain you backorder...even if it's not evident (and they certainly don't make it clear..) that anyone besides you has actually bid on that domain? In other words, am I going to bid on a domain that potentially no one else backordered...thus paying pool $xxx instead of the $60 that would have secured it?
.....

 

[Rikkers]

The simple answer is YES

And YES it sucks

Strictly speaking you don't need to enter a bid if you only want to pay $60.

If Pool have caught the name & it shows no bid amount against your name, then somebody else backordered it before you & you will need to bid if you want that name.

If however there is a $60 bid showing against your name, then you were either the first to backorder that name or you are the only person to backorder that name. Then you have to "spin the wheel" and risk either bidding against yourself, or losing it to somebody else who may only have bid a few dollars more.

As I said, it sucks

 

[showcase]

Hi,

Agree it is not a good change that Pool has made. I too received an email indicating that I was the first to backorder for $60.00. I really didn't think the domain was all that so I didn't increase my bid. I was not placed in the final round.

With the previous system the first to backorder had a bid of $60.00 and even if you decided not to bid any higher being the first gave you the opportunity to see how much the domain sold for.

I can tell you that a bid of X,XXX doesn't always get you into the final round. I think they did this to kick up the start point and eliminate the small players.

I think Snapnames stinks too. I was in one of their auctions the other day. The particular domain was at $175.00 into the last minute of regular auction time. There was only one other person bidding. He placed a bid that was $30.00 under my bid and Snapnames extended the auction when I was still the high bidder. They did this four rounds of over-time. The final straw was when they allowed someone to bid that did not participate in the normal auction time and them let him in for the overtime. I will not play in Snapnames Auction again.

That has never happened to me with Pool..................

Over at Enom's Club Drop it really isn't much different. The Big Players like Ultsearch, Buydomains, and Verticalaxis are putting in hugh proxy bids to capture the names they want. They are hoping to get them for a few thousand dollars as most of the domainers can not afford to go much higher. When a bid for a high quality domain name is showing $2,200 in the last two minutes of the auction and every bid you place returns a message that your bid is not high enough to put you in the winning position and you have gone to $8,000, then you know that the $2,200 current bid had a Proxy in for at least $10,000. The domain I was speaking of went for $8,500.

The system basicly forces you to bid the most that you are willing to pay for the domain if you really want it. Had I not attempted to win the bid on that particular domain it would have gone for about four or five thousand dollars less, and it would have been a steal of a deal for the winning bidder. It is truly all a gamble. It's like being on the Black Jack table and knowing when to stay and when to walk away. I did walk away from the Snapnames auction.

Have a great day.......................Best of luck at the domain auctions.......

Showcase :wave:

 

[suthra]

Thatz why i dont go for hi-profile names until i stabilize myself in this domain game.

 

[showcase]

Hi,

What I find even more remarkable is that I just found out that when you participate in an auction with Enom and win the bid, they also charge you additional $29.95 for registration. How greedy is that????????????????

Even Pool doesn't do that............................

Also Enom allows people who have backordered a domain yet never participate in the designated auction time to participate in the auction if it goes into over-time. I think that stinks. Over-time should be for the folks that participated in the auction to cause the over-time. The other folks that backordered but didn't get their max bid in during the last five minutes of the regularly scheduled acution time should be eliminated from the auction and not allowed to show up for the forth over-time. It's like they didn't show up for the auction, but they showed up for over-time. Wrong..........wrong.......wrong. Snapnames does the same thing and I will not participate in any more of their auctions. Snapnames doesn't even require a bid in the last five minutes to exceed the winning bid to bring the auction into over-time. They told me that anyone that bids in the last five minutes causes the auction to go into over-time. Why bother having a time frame for the auction at all under those terms? They might as well say the auction will be over when we say so.

If you are only being charged for your bid when winning the auction and they register your name where they choose to, that is one thing, but when they charge you additional funds for registration, they should allow you to choose your registrar. Entirely too greedy.........................and too much control.

Thanks for allowing me to vent......................

Showcase

 

[Anthony]

@showcase: Enom should only add $29.95 to your bid if that's the regular pricing for your account. If you get an $8.95 account, then it will be $10 (or whatever winning bid is) + $8.95...

@johnny: WTF, indeed! They are out of their minds over there!

 

[showcase]

@showcase: Enom should only add $29.95 to your bid if that's the regular pricing for your account. If you get an $8.95 account, then it will be $10 (or whatever winning bid is) + $8.95...

@johnny: WTF, indeed! They are out of their minds over there!

Hi John,

Thanks for the tip. Got that taken care of...................

Cheers,

Showcase :wave:

 

[mole]

The domain I was speaking of went for $8,500.

This is how it works:-

A big proxy is put in but there is never ever any intention to pay if its real amount.

The objective is to wait and see if that domain converts into a "reasonable" price.

If it does, payment is made. If it doesn't, the payee just defaults, uses another throw away account with throw away "credit" lines, and moves on.

It is difficult for eNom to pin such cartels down. Its a very calculated game.