I few weeks back I had placed bids on a couple of expiring domain names over at SnapNames. These were actually two domains that I maintained for another person who just up and disappeared without even paying me for my services. I had heard from a friend, the person that actually introduced us that he was having some family problems so really I wasn’t too concerned about being paid. I think we all know family has to take priority over business and know he only did what he believed was right. I have some great idea for the domains and they complement each other nicely so I have been anxiously waiting for them to be released.

Anyway, I placed the bids with the understanding that the domains would be released to me today if I was the high bidder. It turns out the way SnapNames handles domain name acquisition is kind of twisted. If I had been the only bidder I would now own the domains. But because there were other bidders the domains go into a second auction even though I was the high bidder. Now it turns out that if there are last minute bidders “in fairness to bidders” the auction will be extended even beyond this second date. I have never heard of an auction being run in this manner.

I have been to live offline auctions where the person with the most cash in hand wins, bid on numerous items on eBay where the auction ends on a specific date, and taken place in sealed auctions where you don’t know what others are bidding but they also end at a specific time. I have never heard of an auction triggering a second auction that could theoretically be extended forever. In my opinion it borders on unethical behavior and I say this because right now SnapNames owns the domain but what I was told by Rodger is they only acquired the domain because there where bids for the domain. So now the longer they can delay the auction the more money they could potentially make.

And to top it off no matter how long they keep this auction game going I can’t retract my bid according to the terms I agreed to when placing the original bid. It could take months to reach an end to the auction if people just increase their bids at the last minute by a dollar or two even if I’m the high bidder the entire time from what I understand now.