2-U.com Auction Has a Serial Bidder
Monday, December 3rd, 2007
2-U.com to sell for $20,000? Doubtful.
An auction for 2-U.com at Afternic caught my attention this morning. The domain isn’t that good, but has attracted 12 bids and is currently $20,000.
There’s a reason that a few bidders are interested in this domain. There’s a live web site at 2-U.com.my (that’s Malaysia’s country code), so this domain probably gets some traffic. But a review of the bid history looks like there’s one bidder driving up the price of this auction for no apparent reason.
A review of the bids, as seen in the graphic below, shows that a handful of people have taken interest in the domain over the past two years. The domain received a $150 bid in July 2005, $205 in January 2006, $240 in April 2006, and then $500 in April 2007.
Then the domain received a $525 bid by user “Hensem” on November 20 this year:
Suddenly, a bidding war broke out with…Hensem? That’s right. Hensem has driven up the price with another bid on November 21, three bids on November 27, and three more on November 28.
The auction ends on Dember 5, but I wouldn’t count on this one consummating in a completed transaction.
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Andrew, great catch. We are investigating.
Adam Gross
NameMedia, Inc.
Adam, I appreciate how Afternic uses an open username system so we can see who we’re bidding against.
Wow, how stupid. People these days…
(I’m already assuming it’s shill bidding without bothering to do any research or look into the matter).
Perhaps shill bidding, perhaps someone just messing around, or someone who doesn’t understand how the system works.
After doing our diligence, and of no surprise to anyone, we have ended the auction due to the integrity of the bidder. Thanks again for bringing this to our attention.
David Hauser
NameMedia
Thanks David.
Incidentally, my auction for WarrantySavings.com ends on December 6.