I just checked in to see how the PAM.com auction at Flippa ended today, and it was interesting to see this one still ongoing. A bidding war has been going on for over the past four hours, with the current price at $71,100 with about 35 minutes to go as I type this.
Flippa’s bidding system (which some love and some, well, not so much) stipulates that the auction is extended one hour for any bids received in the final stages of the auction, which means that this one could keep going for awhile, in case any of you have $75k sitting around and would like to jump in.
A BIN has recently been set at $100,000.
Estibot estimates 166,000 searches per month for PAM.
LinkedIn has only 445,000 people on its system with the first name Pam or Pamela.
Bidding for PAM.com was at $52,743 four hours ago, and four separate bidders have been active above that level, and I’m curious to see how this one will end.
When this auction is combined with other nice sales today, like NameJet’s sales of 417.com at $169,000, and XVV.com at $18,800, the daily total on NameBio’s market recap will likely be the highest in a couple weeks.
Flippa has to be one of the worst auction systems Ive used. The support is great they reach out and are in contact with bidders so that is really good, but this 1 hour extension is ridiculous.
I’ve been messing around with this name for 6 hours, the clock has been reset for an hour over 100 bucks in a few cases.
What a pain in the ass…
So now I got a PM from Flippa saying I wont the auction, but the domain has a buy it now price of 80k listed. The public facing page says its ‘closing in moments’
Using escrow.com to do payment feel like these guys need to get a few things together. If im the actual winner, which at this point I feel like they are using my “winning auction price” to shop this around for a just listed 2 minutes ago BIN price, which defeats the point of going through mind numbing auction process to being with.
Bill,
Every person that has ever bid on Flippa hates the extension. If you really want a name you are forced to stay up all night. Because there IS NO PROXY BID. If you bid it automatically puts that price in. Flippa is a good auction house, if they would listen to their users they could be a great auction house.
Agreed, 1 hour is crazy. I could see 5-10 minutes but an hour is too much. Also I think they should increase the increments as the prices go up. Otherwise you are resetting the clock over a few bucks. Looks like I won it. We’ll see if this closes now.
Bill, congrats on picking up the name, and fingers crossed on the closing.
You should brainstorm with Kevin Fink at Flippa next week. Kevin has been working like crazy to (a) ensure marketplace integrity, and (b) incorporate features to improve the platform. I know he has lots on his “things to improve upon” list, but he has been checking lots of things off the list in the past year.
I think you’re both planning to go to lunch with us on Monday, so I’ll point Kevin out and you can get after him……..Kevin can take it. 🙂
Also just to be clear, flippa reps in this case Kevin, has been top shelf throughout the entire process. Hope they make a few changes but its good to know the human aspect of support is there.
I posted my message above before I saw your post Aaron, I agree with you fully Kevin has been great.
Kevin is THE reason behind the success of Flippa in my opinion. And what a great name. It’s my Mom’s name but got above my number earlier today. Looks like I can’t give her the domain she’s always wanted 🙂
He shared some really good ideas via email on what they might do with the platform in the future, really cool stuff actually. Will be good to meet him and others for the lunch you guys have planned.
I’ll be the $poor one in a PAM beefy-t shit 🙂
Shirt … I mean shirt hah
No edit comments the best for preserving bad jokes and spelling errors forever…
PAM aside Namescon auction is going to be crazy. Best list of names I’ve seen. See you guys in a few days.
Bill,
Agreed on Namescon. Definitely worthy of bringing the checkbook this year. See you soon
Not to mention that once you hit the “BIN” on a Flippa listing the seller can still disapprove it and/or just not respond. This happened to me with 3 separate domains. So it’s not really a BIN at all… it’s more like a “make offer” which is terrible and ridiculous.
Hey everyone,
I appreciate all feedback. My hope is that I can return with an update soon, once these issues have been resolved.
1/ The hour bid extension only happens if you bid higher than the proxy bid in place.
1b/ A year or so ago, the product team polled users who actually voted (thousands of them I think!?) that the one hour interval was preferred.
*I will re-poll applicable domain users and see if revising this is the right move; I personally like much shorter intervals, but strangely the team kept it to one hour by popular request.*
2/ @George ~ The ability to reject a Buy/Now is counter-intuitive and a subpar user experience – and I am sorry for that. In one way, and one way only is this useful: rejecting potentially dodgy buyers (i.e., if you attempt due diligence and they fail to respond or you have little confidence in their ability to carry out the transaction. This is because, in some cases, BIN offers are made by buyers who aren’t serious…but I’d rather just make it harder for fake buyers to do this, which is why I am also going to push to require payment beforehand in these cases).
*Hang in there, as we will get this sorted.*
3/ @Bill – Congrats on this acquisition, and it’s been really great working with you so far, and I know Devoir feels the same way. I have people yell at me (via email) every day, so I greatly appreciate that you can voice dissatisfaction, but have that turn into a productive conversation thereafter. We are a growing team, and our tech side will follow soon enough where we can make these changes on a quicker timeline. As I mentioned, the drinks are on me at Namescon and sounds like we’ll grab a sandwich with the guys as well.
4/ Shane and Aaron – Safe travels and see ya’s soon. Looking forward to catching up! You guys know we’re making things happen behind the scenes, and I really appreciate your continued support.
…what’s up with the formatting, Shane? I didn’t do it dat way 🙂
Kevin,
We took a poll of reader (1000s I think) and they thought no space in the comments was the best way to go. I’ll repoll and see if they want spacing in the future 🙂
@Shane ~ hahaha