I am a regular bidder on NameJet, and I find myself bidding on auctions that have reserve prices. Oftentimes, these auctions do not meet their reserve prices, and the domain names don’t sell. I think NameJet should try to work with sellers and bidders to close deals on domain names that did not meet reserve prices.
In my opinion, if NameJet were to privately broker deals on unsold domain names, it would be a win for all three parties. Sellers might be able to sell more inventory, buyers would get to buy less expensively (and privately), and NameJet would earn a commission on any sales it helped to close.
Sellers  won’t have to deal with collecting a payment, and they also don’t need to worry about handling the transfer. Buyers can easily submit their payment in the same manner as it would have been submitted had it been an auction, and the domain name would be  transferred immediately upon payment. There is far less friction with this type of transaction than a private transaction between two parties that haven’t done business before.
The reason this works is that sellers don’t necessarily know the identities of the bidders for their domain names. NameJet knows this information. NameJet is also a trusted platform and would be able to facilitate these deals more securely than people on their own. They know their clients’ payment records and can ensure a secure transaction for all parties.
One potential pitfall of this is the likelihood of this having to be a manual service. This means the company would likely need additional staff. From my perspective, though, the amount of revenue generated from commissions would be substantial.
I think it would be great to see NamJet reaching out to buyers and sellers on unsold inventory. This would help drive revenue for sellers (and NameJet) and provide good deals for buyers.
They do sometimes reach out to the high bidder. Ive bought more than one domain after getting an email from the NJ team.
That sounds like a wonderful idea.
Might cause an influx of buyers just thinking they don’t need to meet reserve – they’ll just wait for the private second round lowball offers…
~Patricia — Ohio USA — DomainBELL
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I think that makes perfect sense. All together now..LETSGOCUBBIES.com
IMHO those who think that domain investing is just purchasing names and then unloading or quick flipping them to wholesale buyers on NJ or somewhere else will have a harsh wake up call … 🙂
As for your idea, NJ has an auction-based business model.
Going after buyers to close deals which haven’t reached Reserve Price is a different thing, more time and resource-consuming, also because often there is a wide gap between offers and reserve.
Without mentioning other downfalls, including “fake” offers, sometimes just under Reserve, and the one Patricia mentioned above …
It’s possible that some sellers use Namejet as an advertising platform. Maybe some sellers purposely put high reserves so the bidders who may want the name can buy it directly from them after the auction and the seller doesn’t pay the commission on the sale. Seems like a simple way to avoid commission costs.
Anyone notice how aggressive TARYN is bidding in all major auctions, they are on a buying spree big time.
Taryan = Frank Schilling aka new gTLD seller but a .Com buyer.
Taryn also uses an automated bot to bid on domain names on NameJet.
You are also up against the deepest pockets in the domain Industry on NameJet, as well as newer Chinese fund Investors.
Most of the old school domainers know each other as well and communicate back and forth privately about domains etc.
Good luck!!
Oh yeah, forgot to mention that Taryn is the first name of the CEO (Taryn Naidu) of Rightside, who is friends with Frank Schilling.
Rightside owns 50% of Namejet and Frank owns/owned shares of Rightside stock as well. See the big picture now?
Web.com owns the other 50% of NameJet.
NameJet is not on a level playing field to bid on domains, it’s an old school domainers club I like to call The NameJet Gang.
What is your point?
My point is that the domain Industry as a whole is unregulated and needs to be regulated better.
Got it. I didn’t know what you were implying or where you were going with your comments.