Silent auctions make more sense on Moniker’s legacy platform.
In late 2006 Moniker launched “Marketplace Pro”, the domain registrar’s answer to domain aftermarket sites. It used Marketplace Pro for its silent auctions as well. The platform wasn’t perfect, but made it easy to find domains and place bids.
For the past few silent auctions Moniker has switched to SnapNames, which is owned by Moniker’s new parent company Oversee.net. SnapNames has the added benefit of many registered users and visibility, but it comes with so many drawbacks that I think Moniker should stick to its legacy platform until the kinks are worked out.
First, there are no categories at SnapNames. At Marketplace Pro you could easily search for silent auction domains within a category. You could limit your browsing to consumer, finance, etc. At SnapNames you just get one long list.
Second, the SnapNames platform requires you to go through a “checkout” process for bidding on domains. It doesn’t make much sense: you have to add the domain to your cart and then proceed to checkout to place a bid.
But perhaps most frustrating is the lack of transparency that comes with the system. You have to work around the system to figure out if people are actually bidding on a domain. For example, take a look at this screenshot of a few of the domains that show bids in the silent auction ending tomorrow:
It would appear that Pay.com had 80 bids with a high bid of $1,470,590, right? Nope. If anyone placed a bid/order on the domain at SnapNames before the auction started, it gets counted as a bid even though it’s below the reserve. And in order to find that out, you have to add the domain to your watchlist and then review the bids.
SnapNames wasn’t created for an auction like this, and it seems like the platform has been stiched together to make it work. Until the kinks are worked out, I recommend Moniker stick to its Marketplace Pro platform.
Francois says
Funny as just few minutes ago I went to this site to look at the great domain deals (Monte words) available.
An I found it was a true nightmare!
It’s not clear, what are these minimum bids, are the reserves, are the higher bid placed and in this case what is the reserve? And who bidded, and what were the previous bids.
Like you I prefered the rustic Moniker marketplace, this one is maybe god for domain drops but for an auction it’s zero.
Curtis says
AMEN… The Snapnames auction format is incredibly confusing. As a newbie it took me a while to understand “what was what”. Looks like I am not alone.
If they keep the format I’ll probably switch to a different provider for my next auction.
Lda says
Well said Andrew.
I’d be amazed if Snapnames’ auction system actually elicits many/any bids from the apocryphal ‘end users’. It’s hard enough to get a grip on what’s going on there when you’re in the domain game.
Just my observation, but its format looks typical of what happens when programmers also assume the role of system designers. In my experience, a mess.
Snapnames should have an experienced auction designer giving the programmers instructions on what the system should look like and achieve.
monte says
by the beginning of the year, many of the key marketplacepro features will be incorporated into the SnapNames online auction system and experience. You will see great improvement by mid January.
also, the concept of backorders due show up on many of the names in the auction. this is both a good and bad thing we discovered. Bad because it makes it initially appear that there is interest at the reserve levels when there is not…that is flushed out through the system anyway….good because all previously interested parties in the name are then notified that the domain is now available for bid at auction…which has actually resulted in several sales above reserve. I would say the later out ways the bad part of this. Again being improved in the near future.
either way, there are great names in the extended auction so go get em!
D says
How difficult is in Snapnames go to “bulk bid” and place bid on as many domains as you wish within few seconds ? something you can not do at Moniker. “Categories” are for morons, the big buyers run their own numbers do not need this. Who cares about Joe Shmo with sweaty $200 in his pocket anyway ?
Francois says
Andrew, it’s D who written it:
“Categories are for morrons”
Sorry … LOL
…
D,
Everybody does not have the time nor the tools, nor the knowledge to sort himself these thousands “great names”.
Anything that can be done to help potential buyers find the type of names they are looking for is positive and involves more sales.
In my case I became a gourmet, so I like to quickly locate premium domains (gastronomy) and ignore low quality names (fastfood) without having to check name by name.
I can understand that Andrew (who is not a morron) can be interested by domains of a specific category and does not have the time to check thousands domains.
I would like to see and can search on the reserves, search popularity, term frequency, traffic, type-in, … all these metrics that potentially outline the quality of domains for investors.
…
Monte, glad to hear about improvement to come.
D says
Correct speling IS “moron” not “morron”.
All the data Francois “Morron” is mentioning are already in the xls list of domains downloadable at the Moniker’s site.
Snapnames system is better for bulk bidders, I can take big list to bid and bid one minute before 5 minutes start ticking so no copycats, cockroaches and leaches can steal my research in bulk like it was happening at Moniker’s.
Also the closing time is at same time so I do not need to sit 4 hours and waiting till my picks comes up.
Andrew says
The good news is that Monte is in charge of the entire Aftermarket group at Oversee, so he can get this done. Marketplace Pro wasn’t perfect, but neither is SnapNames for this purpose. Adding MP features to SnapNames should to the trick.