| Taking bids "off the wall" is common practice in any auction house, selling any item where they have a reserve. They do it to save time as there's no point messing about with bids that go nowhere near the reserve.
I don't think it hurts sellers in the slightest, after all they are the ones who are setting the reserve to begin with. It also stops people entering items into auction as a means of having them evaluated, and if they didn't do it then every man and their dog would be entering names with high reserves and just seeing what they go to....by bumping the bidding up to near the reserve straight off then it makes it a pointless exercise in terms of getting an "evaluation" and you get more domains which owners are genuinely looking to sell.
I have a fair bit of experience with auctions (although not in relation to domains) and I thought last nights auction was very well handled. OK, so the auctioneer got himself a little tied in knots a couple of times, but you try standing up there and keeping your concentration for as long as they do and see how you manage....lol. |