Domain Nabber from Name.com

[Deathstarr]

Name.com Released its version of backordering a domain yesterday, The Domain Nabber can be found on there site. I say its a neat little software they released for use. It searches deleting domains and you have the options to choose what you would like such as keyword, traffic, length and more.

Read More or Go to Domain Nabber

 

[Erdy]

There is no point in backordering an enom domain anywhere else than namejet. Similarly with moniker and snapnames. The reason is, as you might already know, partner registrar domains are pushed into the auction system during redemption period. They never enter pending delete status and the dropcatcher never needs to catch them because it is already in their system. This is also the reason why these domais don't get their registration date reset.

Domain Nabber can only catch a pending delete domain. So backordering only non-partner registrar domains on name.com makes sense.

At name.com I checked the "Losing Registrar" drop list and saw godaddy, enom and moniker listed there. So why are these domains here? The answer is, these are partner registrar domains that have completed the auction stage without any bid and then they were let to drop.

For instance when you select godaddy on the "Losing Registrar" list at name.com, the domains that you see are domains that were already auctioned at godaddy. Nobody has bid on them during the auction. Then Godaddy put them through a second stage which they call Closeouts. This is a buy now stage which starts at $9. They drop the price by $1 each day until it reaches $5. Even at that stage nobody wanted them. So after two auction stages at Godaddy they finally entered pending delete. Do you really want to catch them now?

The question is, how many domains are auctioned each day and how many of these are exclusive domains (redemption period [pre-release] which they have already in their system) and how many are pending deletes which they will try to catch?

I can give you exact numbers because on my website I list all expiring domains from all major 3 dropcatchers and I differentiate between partner registrar domains (exclusive) and pending deletes (other) . Here are the numbers:

These are exclusive auctions. The dropcatcher has this domain already in their system:
20.142 domains per day are auctioned at Godaddy which are again Godaddy domains
9.698 domains per day are auctioned at Snapnames which are exclusive partner registrar domains
17.725 domains per day are auctioned at Namejet which are exclusive partner registrar domains
47.565: Total exclusive domain auctions

Then we have pending deletes:
On average 72.714 domains enter pending delete status each day. But this includes domains that were auctioned as exclusive which nobody bid on. So the non partner registrar domains entering pending delete status each day is 25.149
25.149: Total non-exclusive domain auctions

In other words
%65.41 of all expiring domains are pushed to dropcatcher auction system by a losing partner registrar before they even enter pending delete status.

%34.59 of all expiring domains enter pending delete status without going to an auction stage during redemption period and they genuinely need to be catched by a dropcather.

So there you have it. Almost two thirds of all expiring domains can not be snapped by anybody because they enter the auction system automatically without the need of catching them.

 

[Deathstarr]

interesting? I sent an email to someone I know in the company asking. They should reply later today and I will give some info on it.

 

[the_poet]

I haven't read their full site but I'm guessing it's pretty much like GoDaddy: If a domain fails to capture, you could reassign the credit to another domain. But hat's an assumption.

Looks like they let you choose where you want them to send the refund:

We believe our Nabber service is cheaper than many of our competitors and as always there is no risk in placing a backorder because if we don't nab the name for you, we'll refund the charge or give you account credit, your choice!

Maybe if we told them that it sucked, they'd have lowered it. We praised it and the price soared. I think the users screwed themselves lol

:bingo:

 

[the_poet]

Let us know how it goes...

cool thanks just placed 2 backorders and IF they are not successful I will ask for refund!

but I am pretty confident I will get them.

 

[Premiere]

Hi guys,

Thank you for the feedback, we understand the price jump may seem a little shocking. At $49.95 we're confident that Domain Nabber provides a better value for a lower cost than our competitors. It is right up there with the top drop catching services that charge $60+ per domain and you have the added peace of mind that your names will not go to auction. Hostix is correct in that we aren't necessarily trying to compete with someone like Godaddy here.

To answer Archangel, the conversations didn't quite go like that, haha! At Name.com we try to provide the best services at the lowest prices, but with Domain Nabber we had to face the fact that we could not realistically maintain the service at such a low price. We started off at $18.95 so that customers could confidently use the service while we worked out the kinks. The feedback we got during this time proved invaluable and we really thank our customers for that. However, it has always been the intention to raise the price once we made the jump from beta to prime time. This allows us to continue to offer these backorders at no risk to a growing number of customers and give full refunds (no transaction costs, etc.) if the name is not picked up.

We definitely understand your reaction and we hope that now you understand a little bit about where we're coming from. As always, we appreciate your feedback.

Cheers,
Lesley Yarbrough
Community Manager
Name.com

Sounds great in principle but when you look at the track record, the numbers don't add up.

Two months ago I ran a test where I backordered 10 domains via GoDaddy and Nabber only. Two were caught by Snap, One by NJ, Two by Pool, Three by Godaddy, Two were caught by two different private scripted dropcatchers, but none by Nabber. I received 10 refunds in as many days. That was at the old price.

Unless you changed your service, added several dropcatch servers/registrars and implemented a serious timing protocol it's a waste. If you can't even beat the Chinese API scripters then you have some serious work to do.

Sorry to be blunt but I don't see why domainers would be spending money on this product. It's clearly meant for end users. And the price change is merely a reaction to GoDaddy's terrible drop+auction method - which is also money better spent elsewhere with better results.

I am not associated with any of the above so if you can improve your catchrate I'll gladly change my opinion.

 

[Eguru]

Snapnames, dont charge you upfront so I think Brad is right when he said NO UPFRONT CHARGES, catch it and we pay happily, or else why get our money stuck somewhere waiting for domain to drop & not caught by Nabber!! :wave:

(I have bolded the quote area I agree most with)

The bold text in this quote makes the most sense I have heard in a while. I'm sorry, I dont have money to lend name.com while they "try" to get my name. I'd rather it go to auction and KEEP MY money unless I actually GET MY PRODUCT. If you don't win an auction at another dropcatcher, then sell some more domains..even if that means stepping up your selling skills to win the auction next time. My money, my money, MY money. I domain to make MORE of MY money, not give it away. The money they are holding "just in case" they get the domain I could be using elsewhere.

Refunding the money IF they don't get your name..what an expensive process: expensive with time wasted waiting for the money to be returned, and expensive to do if you backorder multiple domains (maybe only a "domainer" issue).

Not sold on this idea. Good luck to anyone doing it. %%-

 

[Erdy]

The only explanation I have to that is namejet must be auctioning the same domain twice. Once as a pre-release domain during redemption period and then if nobody has taken it, a few days later as a pending delete domain.

I took 1000 random pending delete domains from namejet and tested their registrar. I found 82 enom domains. Also I found lots of godaddy and moniker domains.

The system works like this:
Godaddy auctions godaddy domains during redemption period. Snapnames auctions moniker domains during redemption period. And namejet does the same for enom domains. During that stage the other dropcatchers don't see each other's exclusive domains. In other words those domains are listed only on their partner dropcatcher. You can take a pre-release namejet domain and try to find it at snapnames. You can't. Then if those domains are not taken they enter pending delete status and the same domains are auctioned again but this time all dropcatchers will list them.

A few years ago snapnames was using the terms partner registrar and other registrar. I like that a lot since it was very easy to understand. Later on they started calling partner registrars as "expiring domains" and other registrars as "deleting domains". I think this new terminology is totally crap and they should revert back to the original.

This is why you can see godaddy and moniker domains at namejet under pending delete section. You can also see enom domains on namejet under pending delete.

The domain you bought at namejet must have been auctioned at namejet a few days prior to that auction and nobody took it.

On namejet, under "my account/ reports" I can see all domains I won along with their source. The source is either pre-release (just another name for partner registrar) or pending delete. I checked all pre-release domains and all of them maintained their original creation date. None was reset. So I think you will see that the domain you won has was a pending delete domain.

Let me put it this way: Most pending delete domains are unwanted waste that have already passed one auction. If any moniker, enom, godaddy, network solutions, register.com, dotster directi domain enters pending delete status it must have been already auctioned once and nobody took it. If you want good quality domains you need to find them on their partner dropcatcher before they enter pending delete status, while they are still in redemption period.

Therefore name.com has no chance catching a quality domain that is registered with one of the major registrars unless the domain was overlooked during the first auction on its partner auction house. On the other hand if the domain is registered with one of the smaller registrar then all dropcatchers including name.com will genuinely try to catch it.

For those who got confused with the terms. This is what different sites like to call the same thing:
1. pre-release (namejet.com) = partner registrar (old snapnames.com) = expiring (snapnames.com) = exclusive (namecatch.com) = exclusive (dropday.com)

2. pending delete(namejet.com) = other registrar (old snapnames.com) = deleting (snapnames.com) = other (namecatch.com) = unexclusive (dropday.com)

 

[Ms Domainer]

*

My understanding:

Pre-release goes with the registrar's partner, who sends it to auction (or sells it to the one bidder for the price he/she has bid) and never drops; retains its creation date.

Pending Delete will actually drop, so it's good to bid on the big three: Snap, Namejet, and Pool.

No, I don't hang with the pre-charge that namenabber charges. My cc company goes nuts with those kinds of back and forth charges.

IMO, Not a good business model.

*

 

[Archangel]

From their site:

Along with leaving the Beta tag behind, we are also updating our pricing. During our Beta period we offered the Domain Nabber service for as low as $18.95 per domain name and based on feedback from some of our users, comparing our service to others, and looking at statistics, we've decided to make the new price for Nabbed .com and .net domains $49.95/domain, starting April 12, 2010. We believe our Nabber service is cheaper than many of our competitors and as always there is no risk in placing a backorder because if we don't nab the name for you, we'll refund the charge or give you account credit, your choice! We appreciate all the feedback and suggestions we've received and we hope the low beta pricing made it worth it.

How did those conversations go? "Oh, love your service but it's too cheap for me. Think you could charge me $20-30 more? Thanks--appreciated!"

 

[the_poet]

They probably mean their customers have sent them congrats and rated their service very positively. I don't think people have suggested them to increase the price

 

[Archangel]

It makes ya wonder if we were the reason for the price raise. "They love us! So maybe we should jack the price up." Maybe if we told them that it sucked, they'd have lowered it. We praised it and the price soared. I think the users screwed themselves lol

They probably mean their customers have sent them congrats and rated their service very positively. I don't think people have suggested them to increase the price

---------- Post added at 02:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:21 PM ----------

That'll be interesting to read.

interesting? I sent an email to someone I know in the company asking. They should reply later today and I will give some info on it.

 

[the_poet]

For me the question is: though they fully refund in case the grabbing fails, why do they have to charge $49.95 in advance? Each time you place a backorder and it fails, you'll need to wait for the bank to send the refund to your CC. Won't it be easier to charge the fee only if the domain has been successfully grabbed?

 

[Archangel]

I haven't read their full site but I'm guessing it's pretty much like GoDaddy: If a domain fails to capture, you could reassign the credit to another domain. But hat's an assumption.

For me the question is: though they fully refund in case the grabbing fails, why do they have to charge $49.95 in advance? Each time you place a backorder and it fails, you'll need to wait for the bank to send the refund to your CC. Won't it be easier to charge the fee only if the domain has been successfully grabbed?

 

[Deathstarr]

Well I mean I read it all but I didn't think about the price cause I don't back order. I do like name.com but the pirce seems to be in competition with SnapNames or NameJet, not GoDaddy.

Yes, You do get to choose if you would like a refund or account credit to use.

 

[name.com]

Hi guys,

Thank you for the feedback, we understand the price jump may seem a little shocking. At $49.95 we're confident that Domain Nabber provides a better value for a lower cost than our competitors. It is right up there with the top drop catching services that charge $60+ per domain and you have the added peace of mind that your names will not go to auction. Hostix is correct in that we aren't necessarily trying to compete with someone like Godaddy here.

To answer Archangel, the conversations didn't quite go like that, haha! At Name.com we try to provide the best services at the lowest prices, but with Domain Nabber we had to face the fact that we could not realistically maintain the service at such a low price. We started off at $18.95 so that customers could confidently use the service while we worked out the kinks. The feedback we got during this time proved invaluable and we really thank our customers for that. However, it has always been the intention to raise the price once we made the jump from beta to prime time. This allows us to continue to offer these backorders at no risk to a growing number of customers and give full refunds (no transaction costs, etc.) if the name is not picked up.

We definitely understand your reaction and we hope that now you understand a little bit about where we're coming from. As always, we appreciate your feedback.

Cheers,
Lesley Yarbrough
Community Manager
Name.com

 

[Archangel]

Thanks for coming in here and clarifying things for us. From the way I see it, the best two deals in this niche are GoDaddy and name.com . Bot have their advantages over the other. GoDaddy is cheaper (under $10 if you know how to) and name.com isn't too terribly much cheaper than Pool. But if name.com won't place domains into an auction, then there alone is the BIG factor between them and the rest. I do wonder, though, what the success rate is for name.com's. All & all, this sounds like a winner but I think $34.99 would be the best price, to best differentiate between the bigger services.

Hi guys,

Thank you for the feedback, we understand the price jump may seem a little shocking. At $49.95 we're confident that Domain Nabber provides a better value for a lower cost than our competitors. It is right up there with the top drop catching services that charge $60+ per domain and you have the added peace of mind that your names will not go to auction. Hostix is correct in that we aren't necessarily trying to compete with someone like Godaddy here.

To answer Archangel, the conversations didn't quite go like that, haha! At Name.com we try to provide the best services at the lowest prices, but with Domain Nabber we had to face the fact that we could not realistically maintain the service at such a low price. We started off at $18.95 so that customers could confidently use the service while we worked out the kinks. The feedback we got during this time proved invaluable and we really thank our customers for that. However, it has always been the intention to raise the price once we made the jump from beta to prime time. This allows us to continue to offer these backorders at no risk to a growing number of customers and give full refunds (no transaction costs, etc.) if the name is not picked up.

We definitely understand your reaction and we hope that now you understand a little bit about where we're coming from. As always, we appreciate your feedback.

Cheers,
Lesley Yarbrough
Community Manager
Name.com

 

[Deathstarr]

I am sure the service will be an award winner during 2010 and show that Name.com can run with the big dogs, No registrar or drop service gets every name. I am confident that Domain Nabber will grab names and provide the service it was intended to, Though the price is a little steep it is not the highest price on the market.

 

[pixelbypixel]

Name.com won't send to auction if there are multiple people back ordering? How is that going to work?

First come first served? Random?

 

[Deathstarr]

I think they will Stil with the First Come, First Serve. But I will e-mail Lesley and she is he/she can't clear some more Questions about the platform.

 

[namenut]

I don't mind it if they, my registrar, credit my account and the funds
are available at my control.

Cool search tool though and it seems fast. I'm just soooo leery of all
our serch data being used against us later to inflate the prices on names
with popular or numerous searches. And front running us.

Godaddy, and others, sell our search data already. All the registrars
need is a real time tool to get us before the check out or in our carts.

Remember the days of compilng a list of available names then researching
them to go back and reg the ones worthy? Those days are gone because
of all these search tools we use.

Wow .... what a loony rant .... sorry guys/gals. I digress

For me the question is: though they fully refund in case the grabbing fails, why do they have to charge $49.95 in advance? Each time you place a backorder and it fails, you'll need to wait for the bank to send the refund to your CC. Won't it be easier to charge the fee only if the domain has been successfully grabbed?

 

[name.com]

Name.com won't send to auction if there are multiple people back ordering? How is that going to work?

First come first served? Random?

Yes, our backorders are on a first-come, first-served basis.

Thanks for coming in here and clarifying things for us. From the way I see it, the best two deals in this niche are GoDaddy and name.com . Bot have their advantages over the other. GoDaddy is cheaper (under $10 if you know how to) and name.com isn't too terribly much cheaper than Pool. But if name.com won't place domains into an auction, then there alone is the BIG factor between them and the rest. I do wonder, though, what the success rate is for name.com's. All & all, this sounds like a winner but I think $34.99 would be the best price, to best differentiate between the bigger services.

We can't really give out the percentages of our success rate, but we will say that we're extremely competitive with the other drop catching services.

I think they will Stil with the First Come, First Serve. But I will e-mail Lesley and she is he/she can't clear some more Questions about the platform.

Thanks Hostix, I appreciate the email. Please feel free to email me if any other questions or concerns come up.

Cheers,
Lesley

 

[NameClerk]

From experience, I can confirm that it's first come first serve. Only one person can back order a particular domain.

I've been able to successfully back order approximately 10 domains in the past month using this service. Success ratio was roughly 50%. What I can't confirm is whether any of those successful back orders were also back ordered at NameJet or SnapNames.

 

[name.com]

Cool search tool though and it seems fast. I'm just soooo leery of all
our serch data being used against us later to inflate the prices on names
with popular or numerous searches. And front running us.

You have a valid concern. We assure you that at Name we take your privacy and security very seriously, and we NEVER record any search data on our site. We prefer to build our business on a foundation of trust and relationships vs. trying to scheme our customers.

 

[nuco6]

please provide a pagerank checker for domains search