Reactive.com auction is taking so long — Why this
Dropcatch needs to increase its bidding increments.
There’s a heated domain auction going on at DropCatch.com right now. Bidders have placed over 350 bids and counting for reactive.com, pushing the price up over $135,000. (Update: the auction ended at $168,450.)
Like all domain auction platforms, DropCatch automatically extends the auction if there are bids in the final minutes. This makes the auction drag on and on, and there’s a good chance it will still be underway when you read this.
Peter Askew has been tweeting regarding the auction. He must be getting tired:
Bidding increments are too low for that price level
— Reglike.com (@Reglike) October 25, 2022
As I discussed with him on Twitter, this auction is taking much longer than it needs to since of the firm’s bidding increments.
DropCatch’s bidding increments start at $5 but top out at $50 once a domain hits $500. So when bidder demands bid $136,050, just $50 over luxtea‘s bid, it reset the clock to five minutes.
Compare this to DropCatch’s competitors.
SnapNames and NameJet have 14 steps. They hit $50 increments at the $1,000 mark. By the time an auction hits $10,000, it’s up to $500, and $5,000 following $100k.
GoDaddy has 8 steps, starting at $5 for domains below $500. It’s $25 by the $1,000 mark, $250 by the $10,000 mark, and $1,000 on auctions over $50k.
I suspect that most of Dropcatch’s auctions had lower prices when the service launched years ago. With escalating bid prices, the firm ought to consider raising its bidding increments.
