As many of you know, I have been trying out listing domain names for sale on SnapNames.com . Now there is no cost to list your domain name unless you have to transfer your domains to Moniker or uDomainName etc. If your domain does sell, there is a 20% selling fee.

Some of the domains that I have listed started to end as of yesterday, so I can write a little about the auctions.

Now with any auction, there are more "popular" domains and will always sell if priced right. If you list a 2 character domain starting at $99, it will sell! 9F.net for example, which I listed and is still at auction is a good example. I should say if the buyer pays, it will sell…… more on that below.

So yesterday, I had 4 domain names ending. All prices were starting prices/reserves. FullTimeMother.com $690, No Bids. PoundThis.com $99, No Bids. LJQ.org $499, Bid QGE.org $499. Bid. I had listed some with a little higher price to lower risk. I listed the 3 letter .org’s at $499 because I have seen similar domains for around that price sell. So I thought!

I wasn’t going to say this, since I have several domain names currently listed on SnapNames, but it’s just SO deceiving I have to say something!!!

When a domain name shows bidders on In Auction domain names, this does not mean people are in at the price showing of the auction. So, when I listed LJQ.org at $499, it showed I had 5 bidders in the auction. The 5 bidders in the auction can very well make a bidder think they all have a $499 bid, which is NOT true. 3 of those people had a pre-backorder in place before I even listed the domain name. So they were able to be "in the auction" at $99. One person placed a bid of $499 and another bidder placed a last day bid. Oh, by the way before I get to far off track. The bidder didn’t pay and hadn’t paid for "other auctions" so it says Payment Failed in my account. No contact from Snap to let me know of this and no info on what to do next…

Now back to the deceiving part. The problem that I see here and what I think is Very Deceiving is this. Many people will look at the Bidder Number and how many people are in the auction and the Price. The bidders never even think that those people "in the auction" might not of BID the current price it shows! For example, the domain name CED.net is listed on SnapNames. Now if you click the domain you will see the auction. (make sure to come back) What you will see, is 27 Bidders, with a current price of $5,500 and the auction ends May 4, 2008.

Ced.net might seem High at $5,500 to most and what’s deceiving is, you can’t tell if the Reserve has been met! The price listed is Really the Reserve Price and in order for you to get into the auction now, is to place a bid at the current price of $5,500.

So you might of been thinking…. Ok, there are 27 bidders in the auction and the highest bidder currently has a bid of $5,500? NOPE. The highest bid could REALLY be $99 for all you know (this is just an example, as the real bid could be $5,500. It’s just an example). Once you place your bid of $5,500 you would be able to see the other bidders prices if you clicked on the Price of the domain after you bid. You might be suprised…. You will also be buying the domain at that price unless you get outbid!

So again, I think this is Very Deceiving, as you could think, well there are X amount of bidders and the current price is X amount. The domain Must be good and place your bid for the current price not even knowing, the real high bid could of been Way lower etc.

I think this is going to lead into A Great Deal of Non-Paying bidders, because they are going to think they were deceived or tricked into placing the higher bid. Now most of my domains I started at $99, so anything that is higher (besides the LLL.org’s) all has bids and the current prices are what the highest bidder price is up to.

A fix for this….. I have it, but Snap is going to have to pay me for it, because I am done giving out idea’s for free . So atleast my readers are aware of this problem.

Jamie Zoch www.DotWeekly.com