For Sale Pool.com changes their auction mechanism

[Jack Gordon]

To be honest, I'm a bit surprised so many people are still using Pool. Wholesale corporate greed tends to be a turnoff in the marketplace, and Pool's continuing example of it drove me away months ago.

If customers refuse to support things like this, they have a way of magically changing into more palatable policies.

As for me, I am doing just fine without Pool in my life.

 

[Sharpy]

greed

2 entries found for greed.

greed ( P ) Pronunciation Key (grd)

n.
An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth:

n.
POOL.com , A Canadian based company with an excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth:



Domain speculation is a "it's my ball so we're playing by my rules" game. If you own the name, and people want it, you set the rules.

I don't like pool, never have. But the product they offer is "one of a kind" and is usually the best. Not even something close will do. Windows.com and Windeaus.com. Sound the same, look close. One would command millions the other is available for reg. It's not like Coke/Pepsi, ATT/Sprint/Verizon. So if you want their product, you can't go anywhere else to get it. And if nothing close will do, you have to buy it at pool.

Because they now have the infrastructure in place to catch more than there share of theses "one of a kind" - "nothing close will do" products, they can do what they want. Their clientel may drop in numbers for a while, they will loose some permanently, but the money will stay.

This is just a way of getting more money.

 

[Jack Gordon]

You are right - Pool can do whatever they want. But you can refuse to support them. If every worthwhile domain is going to be bid up to retail value there, what is the appeal of fighting for them? Why not focus on a niche, and use all other available resources to achieve dominance in it?

All I am saying is that if enough people refuse to play along, Pool will have no choice but to listen and change their strategy. We have a great system - use it!

 

[freestyler]

To be honest, I'm a bit surprised so many people are still using Pool. Wholesale corporate greed tends to be a turnoff in the marketplace, and Pool's continuing example of it drove me away months ago

As for me, I am doing just fine without Pool in my life.

D I T T O. :approve:

 

[David G]

To be honest, I'm a bit surprised so many people are still using Pool.......As for me, I am doing just fine without Pool in my life.

Exactly, I stopped using Pool a long time ago what with insane prices and their bad registrars I am stuck with who make it so tough to transfer away.

This latest move (apparently to get higher prices) would make me even more unlikely to do business again (unless its a niche name I wanted very badly) but even then I would not go beyond the original offer, and not play that game.

 

[skylight]

i never use pool and do not intend to Enom, Snapnames and Namewinner is enough for my need.

Boo Pool

 

[hiOsilver]

This Pool nonsense is one of the main reasons that I wrote the Pro-WLS column for DNJournal last year. If it is not clear to you yet, most of the profit in expiring domains has been transferred to the big DropCatchers and the registrars. Clearly, they now OWN the valuable dropping names; there is now just competition among them to see who gets what to sell. Also, at least WLS is transparent. This blind bidding is awful.

BuyDomains already has such a huge portfolio and war chest, that they have to be happy at the thought of pushing all of us out of their way. There have been bids at Pool where I was head-to-head with BD and let them take a domain for $90, but their max bid was $3000 to $5000. So, Pool figures that they can extract more money from the big players (instead of getting $90 from the situation described, they get $3000 or so -- quite an improvement), and the big players will be thrilled to crowd you and me out, even if it costs them in the short run.

At least with WLS, those people who were willing to put in the time and effort to figure out what to pursue early enough would get some good domains at a reasonable price. And do not tell me that BD was going to buy a WLS on every conceivable domain. That really would have been throwing their money out.

I know how I will react to this Pool nonsense:
1. Email Pool to express my dissatisfaction
2. If I get a domain at Pool without bidding, then fine. Otherwise, I will bid low (if at all), hoping that everyone else is ticked off at the lack of transparency.

This could backfire on Pool if fewer people bid there. However, it is more likely that Pool has fewer domains go to real auction, but they get a lot more domains sold at 4 figures and above.

 

[mole]

Moral of the story... get off your .COM highhorse. ICANN, Internet Engineerers, Content Providers.... will ensure that .COM willl lose its terrorist Al Qaeda mannered threats on why a person should be held hostage to a stupidly high price for a .COM name or risk a sword cutting a neck off.

 

[DomainBuyerBroker]

Pool should call their new sealed bid auction for what it is: an offer to pay your full retail price. A sealed bid auction is NOT an auction and they should be careful about how they describe their service.

Maybe the department of commerce would like to investigate their business model and description?

Also, if they are selling domains for other people in their marketplace, I would assume that they need a valid auctioneers license in the state/province in which they operate.

A while ago I added $100 to the $60 bid to all pool names I wanted in order to cover my pain in the ass factor of dealing with all their crappy registrars.

Now I will add another $100 for this pain in the ass factor.

So, now I won't backorder a name at pool unless it is worth $260 to me. I don't know about you but I don't see many names that I need to pay $260 for.

If they get it and I miss, I'll wait for another name to drop. No big deal.

Too bad, I used to love pool but they keep playing big bully.

I will vote with my wallet. Hey Pool...enjoy the peace and quiet.

 

[Nameable]

IMHO this change is based on 2 things:

1. The obvious: Pool can make more money this way. Beaten to death, I won't continue the discussion.

2. Less obvious: Pool "listened" to its customers who've been whining about alleged shill bidding and having to show up at obscure times to get bids in at the last second. You all should have shut up and taken your business elsewhere... maybe you did and that's why pool's going for #1, though I doubt that's the case.

Anyhow, the strategy for all who continue to use pool should be obvious - BID LOW and ONLY BID ON NAMES YOU REALLY WANT - get the word out!

I've seen a number of people admit to bidding at pool just so they could see the final price. This is ludicrous and even more so now. Maybe we should start a site that reports on pool's sales prices so people will stop.

 

[mole]

1. The obvious: Pool can make more money this way. Beaten to death, I won't continue the discussion.

Okay, circumstances accepted. Be prepared to die and bleed big money. Then find NO buyers for your stupidity in this biased and lopsided investment strategy till you breath your last breath after ICANN has introduced 30 new gTLDs to rival .COM.

 

[christopher_c]

Under Pool's new system, you have to split your available capital among all the auctions underway because you never know which ones you might win

This is the thing that bothers me the most as a small-time drop player (i.e < $25k per year in purchases). It's rare that I'm bidding on only a single name at a time and I do watch quite a few of them with my bid in at $60. Nearing the end of the auction it becomes more clear which domains are going to be the best buys for me which is where I'll put my money while leaving the others. Ideally I'd be able to put my maximum bid down on all domains and take it at that price but I am playing with limited resources & yes, I am looking for better deals.

Under this new scenario, my options are either to go only after domains that I'm sure I want or alternatively to drop my max bid down on all domains & see if there are any hits.

At least in my scenario, this new system means I bid less $$ or bid less often.

>>It' not a proxy. Read the email, it's your actual bid.<<
Sorry for the lack of clarity sid, I was responding post #9 asking whether I'd bid more or less with the new system. Namely, I will bid less under the new system than I was doing under the previous proxy based system.

 

[strongvis]

figures! 2 for 2 on my desirable list went to pool today

 

[chatcher]

This Pool nonsense is one of the main reasons that I wrote the Pro-WLS column for DNJournal last year. If it is not clear to you yet, most of the profit in expiring domains has been transferred to the big DropCatchers and the registrars. Clearly, they now OWN the valuable dropping names; there is now just competition among them to see who gets what to sell. Also, at least WLS is transparent. This blind bidding is awful...

Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. I don't like things as they are today, but I hope WLS is dead. WLS would absolutely cure all the problems related to who gets a dropping domain name, BUT all those same problems would then shift to who gets the WLS slot. I don't think it would be any easier, especially for the small player who can't sit and hold 50,000 slots, even if he were able to get than many worth sitting on.

Personally I would like to see expired domain names handled like foreclosures on real estate with delinquent taxes. If you stop paying your taxes, you'll lose your property and it will be sold. But whatever it brings in excess of the tax bills, interest, and costs belongs to you. Under this system, the domain name would go to the highest bidder in a public auction, but the big profit would be gone from the process, and the original registrant of a very valuable domain name would be compensated for his loss (if he can be found). The process would have to be much simpler and cheaper than the real estate system, probably automated at the registry level.

 

[Theo]

Bye pool, thanks for the last grabbed domain, Simpleton.net

I guess I will now point it to Pool.com as a prime example of Pool's stupidity.

 

[mole]

The players who will really bleed are those that play many names a day. Now they will have to do it blindfolded.

Previously a proxy bid of say, $10,999, might get you the name at $99. Now with the sealed bid system, that $10,999 is what you pay - minimally - just to survive the "1st round". This will really screw up the big players like BD for sure.

 

[actnow]

The players who will really bleed are those that play many names a day. Now they will have to do it blindfolded.
............. This will really screw up the big players like BD for sure.

Initially, they will experiment with high bids and low bids. And, since they
bid on so many names they will figure out an overall strategy quickly.

Plus, they will place many large bids to secure the names they want.

The blindness is what will turn off the small and medium size users.

So, instead of making Pool their primary catcher. They will end up using them as a secondary source.

The top position Pool maintains in the domain catching category can easily
be replaced by another service within a period of 90 days.

 

[Mr Webname]

The top position Pool maintains in the domain catching category can easily
be replaced by another service within a period of 90 days.

True but probably only by a withdrawal of use by a majority of users - "we don't like your game so we're going to play elsewhere". But what are the chances of that happening? - immediate personal interest will likely prevent a mass long term buying strategy.

 

[chatcher]

...So, instead of making Pool their primary catcher. They will end up using them as a secondary source.

The top position Pool maintains in the domain catching category can easily
be replaced by another service within a period of 90 days.

Secondary source? What is that? You don't know in advance who will catch the names you want. If you want a domain name caught by Pool, they are your only source, and you pretty much have to play their game.

Now if you don't care about any particular names, and you can be satisfied to choose from the many names Pool doesn't get, sure, you can avoid them. But they will still keep catching their share of the dropping names and somebody will get them. I don't think you will hurt Pool by boycotting them for two reasons. 1. If you are willing to skip the names that go to Pool, you probably weren't one of the really high bidders there anyway, and 2. The kind of names that will now not be backordered under the new system at Pool will be low-value names, and less of those to try to catch will mean more resources devoted to the high-priced names, which might actually mean more $$$ for Pool.

If you think they will lose their position within 90 days because of registrars leaving them for other drop services, I don't see that as a very realistic possibility. They seem to pay registrars well enough to keep plenty of them.

 

[actnow]

I don't want to answer your questions because it could help Pool.

But, this industry is totally different from many of the other major industries.
There is no "brick and mortar", No need to build up manufacturing inventory, etc., etc.,

The way that Pool was created could easily be duplicated by someone else.

If you think Pool is not replaceable. You are being "short sighted".


(Tigga and Scorpio could do a simple SWOT analysis. And, the answers would be
obvious. In preparing a business plan, a company undertakes a SWOT analysis, identifying their internal strengths and weaknesses and taking account of and addressing external factors—including markets and opportunities, and adverse events and threats.)