Mr Webname said:
One of the major problems with the auction in most cases is the unrealistic reserves placed by sellers. Members look at the names and treat it no more than a standard sales thread because sellers are unwilling to "take a chance" that there name will actually be worth what they think it is.
If sellers were more realistic in their reserves and kept to the concept of a true auction then it would certainly gain a great deal more interest and in the end would produce better results for both buyers and sellers.
This issue ties in directly with a potentially flawed buisness model. The problem with the auction relates to the type of buyers on the board. Most of the buyers are resellers and all buyers want names at wholesale.
This whole issue is very deep as evidenced with the debate over whether dnforum posts should be search engine indexed or not. The hard nosed resellers do not want the exposure and the more flexible reseller does want the exposure.
As of today, the forum is structured in my opinion to allow resellers to deal with other resellers. We currently can use Afternic, Sedo, BuyDomains or greatdomains to broker our names at retail to end users.
I believe the dnforum auction is allowed for all members on the board to particpate. I do not remember if
bronze are able to participate. If not they should be included.
Personally I like the business model and believe more reseller type buyers attending each auction would drive its effectiveness.
It would be nice to see published attendance figures and other stats after the auction is completed. This would give a basis for measurment, in which should lead to some logical decision making for the auction.