Morning Folks!!
Let's look at anon poster vs an anon online bidder.
Some anon's post responsibly on either side of any issue and I respect their rights to be private if they choose especially when they always use the same nickname. Most know who is behind a nickname when that is the nickname they always use. Then there are anon's that change names with every comment only to post mean spirited bullshit that they made up. Assholes. Morons and worse. Can anyone disagree with that other than the second group? Either you are a responsible poster or not. I am not saying you have to use your real name,
Now let's look at anon online bidding. Let's just say for arguments sake that we are at 50/50 from the 2 groups above. 50% post responsible, 50% are assholes. Now when you take that equation to the next logical step, you have 50% legitimate bidders and you have 50% POTENTIAL SHILL BIDDERS!! Do you folks really want to do that just to INFLATE your prices and have folks pay more than market value?
And that is if you were to accept that only 50% of the anon's are assholes.
So there will be NO ONLINE bidding at TRAFFIC. I have PROVED why.
Here is a story from an actual phone bidder that many know. Mike Law.
Part of my comment there that I want to include in the record here:
Sorry folks, there will be no online bidding at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. auctions. If you don’t have a phone, then I guess either you are in prison or you can’t afford the bill.
We are taking the anonymous bidding out of the auction. You can still be anonymous to the audience of bidders, but you can’t be anonymous to US. You still have to pay US. You still have to send contracts to US. So phones work. They make sure you are a REAL person. Nobody in the room knew Mike Law was bidding. Including me. So I don’t understand the argument about being anonymous. Its a paper tiger. It means nothing. Just something for folks to crow about.
The majority of the ones so upset are the ones that would abuse the system to begin with. Bye bye. We are running a CLEAN auction and that supersedes the dollar volume. TRAFFIC is not dependent on the auction. It is just an add on for folks that want to participate or observe. It’s entertaining with loads of action.
We defined a new way to do CLEAN business. We don’t need sales to save face so we don’t have to invent sales. With each auction more folks will have more confidence.
There is an online auction every second of the day. TRAFFIC won’t be one of them. We do it different and in time we will attract the type domains I want at the prices that is either for domainers or end users. Maybe in the future we may require domains with end user prices to guarantee at least 2 bidders or their domain will not be in the auction.
Everyone can run their own auction the way they see fit. The TRAFFIC auction will be different and that is the way we see fit.
When you can EASILY have a system that is RIPE for abuse and I have seen that abuse for over 16 years, I know how to stop that part and I have. The monkeys in their cages are going nuts!! And that is to be expected.
My hope is to run the auctions and the online bidding will be eventually limited only to the people with the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. App or the phone. Then we we KNOW who you are. EVERYONE knows who you are. SIMPLE. If sellers don't want to use our venue, nobody is pointing a gun to their head. THAT is the group that has the most weight in this equation.
So it isn't like I am opposed to online bidding. I am opposed to the FUCKING SHILLS that have been at COMPANIES in our space. Halvarez was NOT the only one. Oversee was NOT the only company engaging in such shit and someday I still believe some will go to prison for the CRIMES they committed. That is my personal opinion and I have the position to INSURE that will not be the case at TRAFFIC.
So folks will be able to say a lot of shit, but they won't be able to bid unless they are known. If that pisses folks off, then so be it. When folks have CONFIDENCE they will make the auction bigger and better and one thing is for sure, I have the patience to see it through.
But that does not even address the wi-fi in the hotels. In a recent survey from Travel and Leisure, it rated ALL the hotel chains. You know what EVERY one of them had in common? They may have gotten 98, 97, 95 in all areas, but when it came to wi-fi and such, NONE got out of the 70's. NONE! Not a hotel in the world. Business services was their worst category.
So we have witnessed online platforms that crash auction after auction after auction. For one thing or another. The kicker is there was no wi-fi at the Ritz because of an ATT failure during the storm we had. So had we advertised online bidding and it did not occur, oh boy the shit I would be putting up with.
When things progress to a point where things are dependable, we will look at it again. But for now, your phone is on your hip and if you want to bid, that is the way to do it. :-)
And one last point. When I look back at any of the million dollar plus sales we have had at TRAFFIC in the past, in each and EVERY occasion, the competing bidder was on the phone, not the internet. Why?? Because it was that important to MAKE SURE that their bid was received. They could not afford a snafu and either can we. Think about it, if you REALLY wanted a domain name, you would be on the horn. You would not take the chance that your connection would go down. That the auction connection would go down. You would INSURE you had an open line of communication and that is called the PHONE!
Sometimes it is hard enough for folks you know to do what they say. When you don't know them, the odds go up exponentially. So you can comment anonymously, but when it comes to bidding, no way in hell!
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
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Bill Roy
Well done for sticking to your guns, what is right is right, no matter what the clamour from the disgruntled.