Venting: Auction Idiots

[Spade]

Alright, this is a little rant, but alas, Im super annoyed.

So, I wont go into specifics, but I do a lot of my domain shopping at auction. Specifically at TDNAM. I get so annoyed when someone starts bidding up the domain name, well before the end of auction, basically highlighting the domain to the rest of the world.

Dont these people realize that instead of just waiting to the end of auction, they are just putting a magnifying glass on the domain name, thus in turn helping people who may not have noticed it, to start bidding on it?

Ahhhhhhh...... stupidity. Stop bidding, just wait toward the end of auction.


....... I hate people sometimes.


Justin

 

[name idol]

We feel your pain, domainspade

I won't offer any advice, I know that's not what one wants to hear when venting.

What I will say is that I have noticed the same phenomenon pretty much everywhere except on Ebay - where it's the exact opposite of course.

 

[HBK216]

Everyone does not believe in waiting until the end of the auction to bid. No rule against doing so & maybe money isn't an issue in regards to it possibly being exposed more.

Frustrating for possible bargain hunters? Sure

Idiots: Unnecessary

 

[Spade]

Everyone does not believe in waiting until the end of the auction to bid. No rule against doing so & maybe money isn't an issue in regards to it possibly being exposed more.

Frustrating for possible bargain hunters? Sure

Idiots: Unnecessary

I didnt say a rule existed, but a common sense principal should. If you understand how auctions work, much as many people on ebay do, you would focus on bidding at the end of auction, and not the begining or middle.

I suppose if money was of no consequence, it wouldnt matter, but I somehow think its my reasoning, and not limitless finances.

Idiots: Absolutely!

 

[HBK216]

I didnt say a rule existed, but a common sense principal should. If you understand how auctions work, much as many people on ebay do, you would focus on bidding at the end of auction, and not the begining or middle.

I suppose if money was of no consequence, it wouldnt matter, but I somehow think its my reasoning, and not limitless finances.

Idiots: Absolutely!

I participate in many auctions, it is a practice I've spent way too much money on over the years. While I see your point & have felt the same way about auctions, I do see other points.

Some bid on auctions & can care less about the price. They want to make their bid & be in it to win it. I also know many who like to go for an early knockout blow & scare bidders off of something. I've seen this practice work a lot.

So I think calling people idiots who don't follow the same auction beliefs as you is totally unnecessary.

 

[verbster]

Sometimes auctions are like poker: A player goes all-in to scare everyone away...to establish dominance, be it a bluff or not.

End of auction bid-sniping can be just as frustrating, though....

 

[IAmAllanShore]

Justin,
I think you're assuming that it's not the sellers that are bidding up their items on purpose in order to highlight them.
Not saying they are, but TDNAM and the others might be the antithesis of "transparent".
-Allan

 

[Matrix1976]

THere is another factor to consider here, not everyone has the luxury of being free at the time an auction ends or on the day it closes. I have on a few occasions bid my maximum bid a day or 2 before an auction ends because of time constraints... Sometimes i won auctions this way, sometimes i was outbid and lost the domain...there is no right or wrong way to bid in auctions if you know what you are doing and have a personal reasoning behind it....

 

[Spade]

Justin,
I think you're assuming that it's not the sellers that are bidding up their items on purpose in order to highlight them.
Not saying they are, but TDNAM and the others might be the antithesis of "transparent".
-Allan

This is an expired auction and the expired domain name owners, dont recieve any compensation at TDNAM for domain sales.

THere is another factor to consider here, not everyone has the luxury of being free at the time an auction ends or on the day it closes. I have on a few occasions bid my maximum bid a day or 2 before an auction ends because of time constraints... Sometimes i won auctions this way, sometimes i was outbid and lost the domain...there is no right or wrong way to bid in auctions if you know what you are doing and have a personal reasoning behind it....

I do understand this, and this is very likely a possibility. But, to make me feel better, Im going to assume the person bidding against me is just an idiot. lol.m

(Update)
The Auction ended today, and it was a bidding war. Subsequently, the domain name sold for $755 - my max bid being $750.

I have one more move in my playbook, even if its a long shot - I'll let u guys know what happens.

Justin

 

[IAmAllanShore]

This is an expired auction and the expired domain name owners, dont recieve any compensation at TDNAM for domain sales.

Indeed... but I know that some well known domainers on this board would let their .us go to the brink in order to see what they would fetch at auction, only to renew them after the auction was over. (From this point on, I am not referring to anyone here.) By bidding early/often on their own "expired" domains, it highlights the domain in the eyes of bidders, thereby creating a demand that could still be there after the domain is renewed - or giving the owner a free REAL appraisal of exactly what the domain is worth.
I wouldn't call your view naive, but you're still missing some of the angles that can be played here - shill bidding is only the most obvious, and while I've elucidated another option, I hope you keep digging We've long been to willing to accept things as they appeared - as you did with my comment

I have one more move in my playbook, even if its a long shot - I'll let u guys know what happens.

Justin

It's not a long shot, but any TDNAM bidder worth his salt is already 2 steps ahead of you - You can hope that the other bidder waited to see what happened at the auction, but the play for TDNAM should always first be to do what you're thinking about now I've gotten some frustrated emails from "winning" TDNAM bidders, but if the name goes for $400+, it's a good deal all the way around. As you yourself said, the seller gets nothing from TDNAM... shame, isn't it?

-Allan :gl:

 

[Spade]

Indeed... but I know that some well known domainers on this board would let their .us go to the brink in order to see what they would fetch at auction, only to renew them after the auction was over. (From this point on, I am not referring to anyone here.) By bidding early/often on their own "expired" domains, it highlights the domain in the eyes of bidders, thereby creating a demand that could still be there after the domain is renewed - or giving the owner a free REAL appraisal of exactly what the domain is worth.
I wouldn't call your view naive, but you're still missing some of the angles that can be played here - shill bidding is only the most obvious, and while I've elucidated another option, I hope you keep digging We've long been to willing to accept things as they appeared - as you did with my comment

-Allan :gl:

Allan, if the owner allowed the domain to go to TDNAM, they would be required to pay the redemption fee on the domain name ($80). This would not be a free appraisal. Although I suppose it is possible to send your domain to TDNAM by allowing it to expire, to try and guage interest, and then sell to potential buyers, but based on the whois information, I doubt that is the case.

Perhaps I am being Naive, but sometimes things are as straight forward as they seem. I am fairly confident I even know who was bidding against me in the auction today. I did work for GoDaddy, and know who their top TDNAM bidders are.

Justin

 

[IAmAllanShore]

Allan, if the owner allowed the domain to go to TDNAM, they would be required to pay the redemption fee on the domain name ($80). This would not be a free appraisal.

Now, indeed. At TDNAM's inception, nope... That was one of the early complaints against TDNAM, is that the auction was so far out that the redemption fee wasn't there.

And aside from the "appraisal" nature of things, calling the previous registrant to convince them that $80ish will net them $800 might sound like snake-oil at first (Especially to the non-technical, usually those letting their domains expire), but with advent of zero-privacy, it's not hard

Best,

-Allan :gl:

 

[Spade]

Now, indeed. At TDNAM's inception, nope... That was one of the early complaints against TDNAM, is that the auction was so far out that the redemption fee wasn't there.

And aside from the "appraisal" nature of things, calling the previous registrant to convince them that $80ish will net them $800 might sound like snake-oil at first (Especially to the non-technical, usually those letting their domains expire), but with advent of zero-privacy, it's not hard

Best,

-Allan :gl:

Allan,

I do appreciate your input as always. Thanks much for your insight.

Justin

 

[VisualArtistFrankBonilla]

Not everyone is an expierenced domainer. I would guess many of the "idiots" you talk about might be rookies. Maybe they are just excited, seeing a nice name they think they might win. Naturally, they put in a bid. Shouldn't be that big of a deal. I have bid on many items on Ebay. As long as I am the one sneaking in that last second bid, it doesn't matter to me what others do. I know what my top price will be , so it wouldn't make any difference anyway. Of course, you are entitled to state how you feel.

Ps- Peace, don't hate!

Frank

 

[shockie]

As long as I am the one sneaking in that last second bid, it doesn't matter to me what others do.

i think justin's point was that these "rookie" moves are causing him to have to sneak in unnecessarily high "last second" bids, lol.

 

[Domainate.com]

I've bid high bids before the end of an auction many times. It's not a n00b or rookie move at all. Why do I do it? Because I think a LLL.com for instance will draw MANY more eyes if it's under $2,000 with under a day left than at $4,000+ with that much time left...more people will follow it to the end hoping it will stay that low so they can get in and get a steal. I don't like having a bunch of assholes try to sneak in at the end (not that you're one of them, but some people that do it are really stupid and keep waiting til the very last second, extending the auction as much as possible, which is what really can lead to more people getting in). More than that, I simply hate bidding wars. Sometimes people get caught up in them and bid a price they would not normally have bid, and thus if I scare them off before the end of the auction, then I don't have to worry about fighting them for the name.

Personally, I think the way that Moniker runs its silent auctions at Traffic is the way domain auctions online should be run. Minimum increment is always 10% of the price, which gets rid of a lot of sneakiness and rewards the early bidder a little more, which is as it should be! It also helps stop some needless bidding wars IMO. $100 or $200 more on a $10,000 name when you were going to go $10,000 max is a much easier choice to make than $1,000 more, not to mention you could bid your max $10k early, and if someone overbids you, you're then staring at $12,100 min bid. Who knows, it may be why some names go for cheap there, but that's great for those who are buying. There were still a bunch of extended auctions and whatnot, but that's to be expected anyways. You do whatever you can to be there at the end of the auction if you really want the name.

 

[Spade]

In this particular case, there was 1 bid on the domain name for $10, then the next bidder bid the domain name up to $20, then the following to $35, and then to $70.

I came in after the $70 bid, I put a proxy bid in, and it went to $90 - shortly thereafter a big boy came in and started a bidding war with me.

I dont believe this was a tactic to try and scare other bidders away. I think it was simple a newbie, not really considering bidding strategy. I agree, that not everyone thinks like I do, which is why this is simply a rant.

LoL

I appreciate everyones input, I have sinced calmed down.

 

[goodkarmaco]

I am happy when my name is in auction and very quickly the bids start to come way before the end. I know my name will get a decent price. Bad for the buyer, good for the seller.

 

[whitebark]

I've put bids on .ca tbr auction domains in the first minutes of a five day auction only to see nobody else place any bids. Sometimes setting an early pace discourages the bargain hunters from even trying. On the flip-side as someone else mentioned - being sniped can be even more annoying. And sometimes the auction ends at stupid times - 8am EST for example - I'm not getting up at 445 am PST to snipe a domain - no I'm putting in my max bid early.

 

[Lasher]

I have one more move in my playbook, even if its a long shot - I'll let u guys know what happens.

Justin

Good luck reaching the original owner to pull the name out of redemption for 500 bucks

(And if that wasn't the last move in your playbook, now you have another)