I’m also weary of the fact that registrars can sniff at lightspeed while we as the end users can be banned if we sniff more than a few times per minute. So they have a built in advantage by removing any possibility of a lucky catch to junk names. The system isn’t setup to be a level playing field in any direction. I remember the days of Netsol being the ONLY registrar by government mandate… and $200 Yr reg fees. Registrars have enjoyed a monopoly which simply isn’t acceptable in any other industry that I can think of.

A few thoughts:

Why not give registrants the option to participate in the proceeds from drop auctions? If I could opt to pay an extra dollar per domain name at the time of registration to share 50/50 in the SnapNames’ auction proceeds for names I might later choose to let drop, I would not hesitate. Selling as an owner on SnapNames (in advance of the expiration date) is far different than drop auctions where the domain owner is no longer in control.

Market makers promote liquidity. So what is the point of any party offering a domain name appraisal unless that party is willing to back it up with hard dollars? Even if Moniker offered (for a limited period of time following the appraisal date) to purchase a domain name for 50% of the value Moniker places on it, this would create instant liquidity and go a long way toward building confidence in domain valuations.

Most ethical registrars will wait 45 days after expiry to steal your domain and make a profit from it.

Most registrars aren’t ethical — except Fabulous so far.

You might want to update appraisers that gobble.com somehow bucks the trends unbeknownst to them as well. Oh and let Google know that Gobble is in fact searched as many times per month (3 days before Thanksgiving)

As for a registrar building up a portfolio of high value names: Somehow I think that a registrar has an unfair advantage and is highly suspect of shady dealings. In fact if this is perfectly legal according to ICANN, it might be worth pointing the AG toward. As you know, regardless of what ICANN might claim as “perfectly legal”, it may not actually be legal in the real world. You know, Unfair Practice Act and all that legal nonsense.

But I digress, as this is just one mans opinion for what little it’s worth.

We may not like it but perfectly legal and within ICANN Rules

I’m the General Manager of YummyNames, and I would like to address your comments:

* “It only took 6 days to get back to me.”

I checked and you emailed us on Friday at 6:38 PM our time. We replied the following Monday at 10:59 AM. Our goal is to reply within one or two business days, which we did. The reply did have to wait over the weekend and maybe that’s why it seemed longer to you.

* “They sent a canned response.”

Yes, our initial responses are ‘canned’. Given the number of inquiries we deal with daily that is the only way we can manage.

* “It’s a fairly obscure dictionary name thats worth about $2-4k and they said they want high 5 figures SHYEA RIGHT!

It’s a six-letter, one-word, highly-brandable .com domain similar to Rattle.com or Jumble.com. If you shop around, I think you will find that domains like that are hard to find for less than five figures.

* “To avoid sticker shock they want me to send them my finacial to make sure (they can hammer me) I can afford what they’ll ask. Again SHYEA RIGHT!”

We did NOT ask you for your financials. We asked you if your domain name acquisition budget would support a five-figure domain purchase like this because we value our customers’ time and don’t want to waste it by entering into negotiations that will never go anywhere. This is a reasonably standard and time-honoured negotiation response.

Feel free to contact me directly at bill [at] yummynames.com if you’d like to discuss any of this further.

Cheers