Earlier this Summer, NameJet unveiled its “new” website design. To be honest, I was disappointed that the new design was essentially a NameJet branded website utilizing the Snapnames platform. It’s not the look and feel of the platform that bothers me – it’s the search functionality or lack thereof. I won’t belabor the topic since I have already shared quite a bit of feedback along with others like Shane Cultra.
One change to the platform that can be viewed as a positive to some people is the ability to participate in expiry auctions that are ongoing. Previously, a person could only participate in an expiry auction if the domain name was backordered prior to the auction’s start. Once the backorder deadline passed, the expired domain name would be put into a private auction. If you did not backorder the domain name, you could not participate.
I recently noticed this is no longer the case. Take Stadio.com for instance. The domain name expired and is now in auction at NameJet. There is 1 day and a handful of hours remaining, and the minimum bid is $3,666:
While this is good news for people who forgot to place a backorder for a domain name, it isn’t great for others who did. More people may notice an auction as it is closing and jump in during the final moments. I have never spent time analyzing when people participate in an auction, so I can’s speculate whether this is good or bad. I am sure I will love it when I catch an auction as it is ending but will hate it when a competitor outbids me in the final moments of an auction.
So no need to work hard, just keep the $$$ handy
“One change to the platform that can be viewed as a positive to some people is the ability to participate in expiry auctions that are ongoing”.
Interesting
Yeah, why do the research and the hard work to unearth the hidden gems. Now others can see your bid and then just freeride on your efforts and jack up the price you have to pay, or just take the domain for themselves. Thanks Namejet. Definitely a net loss for hard workers.
In reality, though, that was happening before with backorders. People could search domain names and sort by number of bids. This just makes it easier to participate in an auction if they didn’t do it days earlier.
That’s true. But if you were the only one to enter the pre-order, you got the domain for the backorder price of $69 or $79, instead of potentially being bid up much higher by anyone who sees the auction during the extra 3-day bidding window.
I don’t know the answer to this, but I wonder if you could still be the only bidder by placing your bid/backorder 3 days later.
Would have been nice for NameJet to explain the changes.
So the one benefit that they had over DropCatch is now gone. Bummer. They just keep getting worse and worse with this change.