status-resolved Time For NamePros To Make GTLD Sellers State Renewals For New GTLD's

[wwwweb]

To many people here are attempting to sell GTLD's to newbies, and others without stating the renewals, sometimes just in error, other times obviously.

One guy even thought not mentioning a $1000 annual renewal, was no big deal for a GTLD expiring in 3 days, will leave them unnamed, but it surely was. They had bought the domain on ebay for $20, and headed over hear to try, and cash in.

I have seen numerous auctions, or make offers here for $250, $500 renewals, and the sellers are not stating this, it should be required, as it is a monetary matter, and needs to be addressed going forward.

The people who might oppose it, are maybe sellers who are looking to exit their quickly expiring premium domains to unsuspecting buyers.

Also I saw a thread on shill bidding that was closed down, I experienced three instances of shill bidders in the past year, and reported those people. 2 out of the 3 were suspended, the other was using a second account, and was given a warning, and a few weeks after that I saw they had their account closed.

In regards to the person named in that thread, I participated in their fund raising auction, and they kept emailing me to offer more names, and such, some of which I did, then they moved a bit further, and asked me to bid on their auctions even if I was not interested, and they would not make me honor my new bid. I reported it to the mods, and this person was simply given a warning. I blocked them, so I have not seen what they have been up to, but it sure sounds like no good. I added the mods to the convo for them to verity the statements, not sure if they felt sorry, but they did not suspend this person, and it looks like they only increased their efforts in the past year from the comments on that thread.

Shill bidding hurts everyone.

I feel these are two issues hurting liquidity on the site today, without buyers you will not have a fluid marketplace that will continue to have willing sellers who are going to offer decent inventory. They both go hand in hand.

 

[Eric Lyon]

To many people here are attempting to sell GTLD's to newbies, and others without stating the renewals, sometimes just in error, other times obviously.

One guy even thought not mentioning a $1000 annual renewal, was no big deal for a GTLD expiring in 3 days, will leave them unnamed, but it surely was. They had bought the domain on ebay for $20, and headed over hear to try, and cash in.

I have seen numerous auctions, or make offers here for $250, $500 renewals, and the sellers are not stating this, it should be required, as it is a monetary matter, and needs to be addressed going forward.

The people who might oppose it, are maybe sellers who are looking to exit their quickly expiring premium domains to unsuspecting buyers.

Thank you for suggesting this. I'm going to add it to the rules shortly and make a notice for sellers.



Edit: OP added a report to his suggestion thread after posting:

2 out of the 3 were suspended, the other was using a second account, and was given a warning, and a few weeks after that I saw they had their account closed.

Shill bidders have their marketplace access removed immediately (No exceptions, No warnings). That is not shown publicly and is not related to an account being closed. If an account is closed, it means their account exceeded the threshold for warning points.

asked me to bid on their auctions even if I was not interested, and they would not make me honor my new bid

Please send me the links to this (And add me to the Conversations) so I can investigate.

I reported it to the mods, and this person was simply given a warning.

If shill bidding was found, their marketplace access would have been removed.

Shill bidding hurts everyone.

We do not allow shill bidding (Never have). We've made that clear time and time again with our actions.
Please provide the evidence you mentioned and I'll find out exactly what happened.

Thanks for your help,

 

[Eric Lyon]

asked me to bid on their auctions even if I was not interested, and they would not make me honor my new bid

Update:

I just finished reviewing a total of 3 conversations (Database confirmed, 20 pages total) you had with him (@steitieh added me to the Conversations). I was unable to find any request for you to shill bid on his auctions:

• https://www.namepros.com/conversations/2546344/
• https://www.namepros.com/conversations/2545338/
• https://www.namepros.com/conversations/2680363/

Was there another means of communication between you and him that I haven't seen yet? Was it outside NamePros via email, skype, etc.?

If it was on NamePros and I overlooked it, please link me directly to the comment where he asks you to shill bid.

Thanks for your assistance in this matter.


Edit: Added conversation links for your convenience (No one else can access them).

 

[wwwweb]

Eric,

It was the predatory behaviour, and egging
on. Now I see after the fact why people are upset, and what has developed from such behaviour a year later. It was troubling to say the least, and is troubling what has come from it.

You have already been added to the convo, and will find these specific passages on page 15. Back then they may have not meant a lot, but after the fact, I feel they mean more.

1. steitieh
   Not $2K - I said I wanna BIN it @ $2K , but if you take it a step higher and see whether people would outbid you or not - then I can price it accordingly. Because I don't want to price it @ $2K while some people are interested @ $3K + I need every dollar now.
   
   Also, I had it in the "Offers Wanted" Section and it got many offers - I PMed them all with the auction link but they're still not online.
   
   steitieh, Oct 30, 2015
   
   
2. steitieh
   So Bro? Wanna take it a step up? and if nobody bids till tomorrow - I'll sell it to you at your Bid?

 

[Eric Lyon]

It was the predatory behaviour, and egging
on. . . Back then they may have not meant a lot, but after the fact, I feel they mean more.

Thanks, but that's not what you said. This is what you said:

• "asked me to bid on their auctions even if I was not interested, and they would not make me honor my new bid"

Can you please explain?

 

[wwwweb]

Thanks, but that's not what you said. This is what you said:

• "asked me to bid on their auctions even if I was not interested, and they would not make me honor my new bid"

Can you please explain?

Taking it a step higher and see if people will outbid me, that is how I took it, I wouldn't be liable for my bid if I didn't want it.


The second message came later as I did not respond, and another one after that as I didn't respond to the second one either. As I wanted no part in bidding for the sake of getting outbid.

It was bad behaviour, and that is why I reported it. Maybe this is why people are upset a year later, it was the start of something bad.

Sometimes we have to read between the lines, as some are much more dubious than others, but in hindsight I feel these words mean something more.

 

[Eric Lyon]

He sent this message ~2 hours later directly after his first message (Before you responded):

So Bro? Wanna take it a step up? and if nobody bids till tomorrow - I'll sell it to you at your Bid?

That clarifies his first message: he did not ask you to bid without paying.

Please help us by carefully reporting the truth so that we are not spending hours investigating things that didn't happen when we could be investigating actual fraud to keep our community safe.

Thanks for understanding,


Edit: Thank you to another member for bringing this to my attention:

It was suggested to me that it's possible @wwwweb reported the first message and then a moderator questioned Steitieh about it, leading to the second message to cover his tracks. I thoroughly investigated this possibility by reading every report on Steitieh in 2015 and asked @wwwweb if he filed a report. The results was that a report was never filed and therefore that was not the cause for Steitieh's followup message 2 hours later. This appears to be a simple case of misunderstanding and not an attempt at shill bidding.

Thanks to everyone who helped with this,

 

[Eric Lyon]

Update:

Rule updated to include large renewal prices:

Rule 6.1.6. Each domain name in a sales listing must include its expiration date if it is expiring within 3 months, its registrar, its renewal price if the cost exceeds $15 at its current registrar, and payment options.

• The renewal price of a domain that is less than or equal to $15 at its current registrar may be omitted. Tip: You may also want to specify the price to transfer/renew the domain name at a different registrar, especially if it's less expensive than renewing at its current registrar.

A notice is shown when creating a new thread for sellers to alert them of the update: View here.

@wwwweb - Thanks again for the idea!