Bidding on NameJet on behalf of others

[Theo]

I've been watching an active NameJet bidder who makes rather aggressive bids, sometimes in the thousands of dollars. The domains that he gets, end up in the hands of other entities in a matter of days. This leads me to believe that he places those bids on behalf of others. One deal must have also fallen through, as the LLL .com he won is still in the hands of Netsol, "pending renewal or deletion". Is this type of behavior against the T&C's of NameJet?

 

[theinvestor]

It's not an issue in my opinion, but it would be his responsibility if the person he was bidding for backs out. In that case...it would be an issue for NameJet.

 

[Theo]

I'm not talking about speculative bidding in order to resell later, but rather, about an organized process backed by the funds of others. I am not quite sure whether this is within the acceptable practices at NameJet, as it's essentially "brokering" or bidding via a proxy.

 

[theinvestor]

I know what you mean Acro and like i said i don't see why this is an issue unless some of the bids aren't paid for.

 

[all4cost]

Are the domains going into "their" name for at least a short while ? Or just being moved straight to Other assorted entities ... ?

It's not another case of people selling items before they even own or control them again I hope.

 

[draggar]

Honestly, I don't think it's an issue. If the domains are not paid for, that's an issue between the broker and NJ and honestly, I don't think NJ cares what happens to the domains after they've been paid for and transferred out.

 

[theinvestor]

If i have a deal with someone else to pay a certain amount for a domain...what does that have to do with anyone else?

 

[.h2o.]

Personally I would only feel confortable with that if I had the end users funds in my possession. That is why so many deals fall though on NJ
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[Theo]

Are the domains going into "their" name for at least a short while ? Or just being moved straight to Other assorted entities ... ?

It's not another case of people selling items before they even own or control them again I hope.

So far the pattern is 7-10 days, including the 24-48 hour payment period. So I think these are pre-agreed deals.

 

[exponent]

I've noticed this too. You might consider keeping tab on where the domains go to see if its a consortium of people using one account rather than someone playing the role of liaison.

 

[chillking]

I think it's the best way to make big money without gambling your own . But it needs to be done right .

 

[Tenkk]

Acro itd be appreciated if you let us know who this bidder alias is

I've been seeing the same suspicious activity on NJ as well, and shot off an support ticket to them.

 

[Theo]

Acro itd be appreciated if you let us know who this bidder alias is

I've been seeing the same suspicious activity on NJ as well, and shot off an support ticket to them.

bidcorp

Example transaction: domain telecomp.com
Won on 12/23/2008
Paid around 12/28/2008 and transferred to bidcorp
On 1/17/2009 it was transferred to the owners of the .net

There are other such examples but I am tired of digging all the dirt and getting no appreciation for it. This is not entertainment, it's our business.

I suggest that anyone who has interest in domains that were lost in such a manner at NameJet, contact them to let them know what's going on.

 

[Tenkk]

I actually had a thread looking for bidcorp's identity couple months back.. He's outbid me many times. that bastard

but I always thought of them as the company, Big Foot domains, no?

 

[Theo]

AFAIK, bidcorp is based in Israel. At least, that's what the WHOIS records show.

 

[erabus]

I actually wandered here as the result of such a solicitation.

It looks like the broker targets domains that have established .net owners and puts in a low back-order bid for the .com. Then once the auction is private, he contacts the .net owner and offers to bid on their behalf. I guess once the auction is private the only way for the .net owner (who, as in my case, may not even have known an auction was upcoming or possible) has no alternative but to bid through one of the people already in the restricted pool.

You tell the guy how much you're willing to bid, and he bids for you up to that amount and then does an escrow transfer of the domain to you if the bid wins. Supposedly. All sounds a little shady to me.

 

[GUA]

In the past, and on occasion I pay others to pursue domains for me simply because I am too lazy.. I have never done so on sites like Namejet, and SN.. To me it seems a bit dodgy/fishy.

If however it is simply someone who cant be bothered to do it themselves, I see no problem. It is essentially person A buys it, and sells it quickly on. The fact it is pre-arranged is irrelevant IMO

 

[erabus]

And I certainly don't mind paying somebody who managed to get into the private auction to pick up a domain name I want, so long as it's a reasonable price for the service and I have some assurance that I'm participating in a fair auction, especially if the price is cheaper than it would otherwise cost to go through the legal work of suing the eventual winner for the trademark.

But since I have no view of the auction, for all I know the winning bid is $200 and I get charged $10,000 and the guy pockets the difference.

I figured this out. Not a bad business plan really.

Backorder lots of domains and wait for them to go into auction.

When a domain goes into auction, contact everyone who has a vested interest in a domain name.

Find how much they are all willing to pay.

Win auction and promptly resell the domain at the highest price offered to you.

You clear, at minimum, the difference between the 1st and 2nd bid, since you win the auction at the price of the 2nd bid and get to resell it at the price of the highest bid revealed to you in advance. And, with NameJet apparently not releasing domains that only have one bidder, you never get stuck paying for domains nobody wants.

 

[Theo]

Thank you for sharing.

 

[keyser]

At SnapNames, serious doubts about the following domains/ bidders :
Asana,com/ domz
Simin,com/ domz
Boet,com/ breedeer66
Spectacle,com/ obadeshka

Some of the auctions mentioned above were supposed to clear in 09/01/02 !