Service lets customers place backorders for as little as $15.
Expired domain name service DropCatch.com has launched a beta test of a discount club for customers who backorder a lot of domain names.
DropCatch’s standard minimum price is $59 for a backorder. Under the new program, bulk customers can bid anywhere from $15-$58. If more than one bulk customer places an order and DropCatch catches it, the highest initial bid wins out. There are no auctions.
There’s a bit of a catch: bulk bids below $59 are at the end of the line to get the domain name. If any DropCatch customer places a regular $59 backorder, it trumps the discounted bulk order. Also, with the standard pricing, corporate partners (such as HugeDomains, owned by the same people that own DropCatch) don’t compete. With bulk pricing, an order by a corporate partner such as HugeDomains trumps the bulk bid.
More details, including how to join the Discount Club, are available on DropCatch’s blog.
hmm so if 2 people do a bulk backorder on a domain, say one for 15 and one for 25 the $25 wins with no auction but if 2 people backorder at $59 it goes to public auction. doesn’t seem quite right.
Why can’t versign manage the drop?
The 2 bozos that manage that drop catcher are ego maniacs who realize they are making tons of $$$ because they figured out the current system.
Good for them, they contribute so much to the domain community. So glad to have private run auction houses for yearly expired properties.
Got to hand it to those guys; they’ve rolled out more new domain-related services during the past year than any company except Flippa – and with much less fanfare. A willingness to experiment will keep them in the game as other companies wither on the vine … to mix 3 metaphors.
I don’t think is fair, this way hugedomains can use domainer’s work for free to catch more names for them!
That would be my concern too.
Still, it leaves the old $59 backorder system intact and unchanged. So we cynics can continue to operate as before.