NameJet

In July of 2010, SkiMarket.com sold on NameJet for just a bit under $8,000. The domain name was re-auctioned on NameJet today, and the final sales price was a fraction of that, closing at just $2,600.

When it sold the first time, there were five bidders who bid $2,000 or higher, and this auction had just two bidders bidding above $2,000. The winning bidder this time around does not appear to have been a participant in the previous auction a year ago.

I blogged about this before, but Ski Market was once a thriving ski shop in New England. In 2009, the company filed for bankruptcy, and it appears that the domain name was not renewed and thus went to auction at NameJet.

Personally, I bid higher than the winning bid back when it was first auctioned but missed the end of the auction today. I think it’s a solid name, but I had slight concerns about the brand image and likely wouldn’t have put the time in to develop the domain name.

Perhaps the owner can build the site or sell it to a New England based ski shop that wants to attract people who may not be aware of the company’s demise. Compete shows that over 1,000 people tried to visit the website in November of 2010, despite the fact that the domain name did not resolve.

On various forums and some blogs, I’ve seen people ask the question, “who is the NameJet bidder called NameJet Reserve?” Most of the time, it seems that people are upset because this “mysterious” bidder is the only other bidder in a particular auction, it shows up at the last minute, and/or it increases its bid just above or below your bid.

The NameJet Reserve bidder almost appears to have the hallmarks of a shill bidder working on behalf of the auction house, but that is most definitely not the case.

The NameJet Reserve handle is not actually a bidder at all, and as the name itself suggests, it is the reserve price set for a particular domain name that has been placed in a private auction at NameJet. My understanding is that the Reserve bidder was created as a way to enable reserve auctions on a platform that was not built to support them. According to NameJet, there are plans to roll out a true Reserve Auction format, but I am not sure when that will happen.

You won’t see NameJet Reserve bidding in pending delete domain auctions, just infrequent auctions for privately owned domain names that have reserve prices. If you happen to be the only bidder, it will continue to bid along with you until the reserve is met. One good thing is that once you’ve surpassed NameJet Reserve in an auction in which you are the only other participant, you are going to win that auction and don’t need to track it until it’s over.

Once again, NameJet Reserve is not some conspiratorial bidder that is shill bidding on behalf of NameJet 🙂