TBR Drop - Mar 25, 2026 (32.Viewing)

DomainRecap said:

It's truly mind=boggling that there were fewer domains taken this week (228) than last week (245) - seems like we may be living in the Matrix.

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Or people are running out of disposable cash

MapleDots said:

Or people are running out of disposable cash

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Last week's TBR mania was the definition of "disposable" cash.

It looks like a TBR week where someone or some people lost some nice names due to events beyond their control, or forgetfulness.

I picked up a name from the drop today at WHC minimum that I sold for low/mid 4 figures 4 years ago and I put in a significantly higher start offer but landed it for $18. Made me happy but feel bad for the person that bought it from me as they did put some work into developing it so I’m not going to post the name.
Not the first time I, or im sure many of us, bought a name back in TBR, but usually had to put up more of a $ fight.
Several times it has been someone I bought the name for that let it lapse or whatever and wanted me to try and get it back for them.
And I will say it was much easier to do in the Siber days when they were kind of dominant and the only people that could participate in the auction of a domain were only the ones that had put in an initial bid prior to the drop. Now we can just jump into an auction anytime so it is not quite as “easy?” as it was then.
Just a ramble..

jaydub said:

Now we can just jump into an auction anytime so it is not quite as “easy?” as it was then.

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True

Eby said:

True

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It's probably easier, just more expensive.

Myid still operates that way but I don’t trust them

rlm said:

It's probably easier, just more expensive.

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Very true

rlm said:

It's probably easier, just more expensive.

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Yes... And technically end users can participate and they would be willing to pay end user pricing therefore outbidding the wholesalers.

However cooler heads dont always prevail auction fever hits a few times per run. Now i just bow out leaving the rogue bidder holding the bag. Sometimes they think they caught a whale but the whale left the dinner table a bid before leaving someone with a bill they were not really prepared for. Hence the silent non payments we dont hear about.

rlm said:

It's probably easier, just more expensive.

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Exactly, but then no one wins but the registrars because the current system is overtly slanted towards them.

Then a lot of investors lose a pile of money and stop spending so much on the TBR, so the registrars lose money.

jaydub said:

And I will say it was much easier to do in the Siber days when they were kind of dominant and the only people that could participate in the auction of a domain were only the ones that had put in an initial bid prior to the drop.

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That is the way the TBR should function and is the way that CIRA originally designed it to operate. Customers would work hard and build domain lists, then place orders at registrars but are somewhat protected as only those who had an order on a specific domain were allowed to bid. This created an even playing field, as both the customer and registrar had an equal stake, with neither holding an overt advantage.

But then came the dark times, then came CatchDrop, who crawled out from under some rock and somehow convinced the CIRA to allow their unprecedented "every domain we win goes to open auction" scheme, which is a predatory system that almost entirely benefits the registrar. CatchDrop made a lot of auction headlines (mostly bad) before they eventually melted down in an orgy of incompetence, but their exploitative auction system was naturally quite lucrative and deemed to be a easy way to "get rich quick" off the backs of foolish TBR auction buyers.

WHC had purchased Sibername and then openly transformed their TBR system into one that mirrored that of CatchDrop, with profitable open auctions for all to take part in. This shift also forced other registrars to adjust their TBR systems until we're currently operating in an environment that is mostly broken, and incredibly slanted towards auction sellers and against buyers.

The guys at CatchDrop helped concoct a fiendish TBR auction system that lives on today, which encourages both sloth and wild spending, and where there are ever-diminishing returns for the hard work put into finding viable domains. Now, the registrars have almost total control over the TBR, while customers bid like drunken sailors and give their preorder data away like candy.

With some help from the CIRA, CatchDrop essentially broke the concept of an equitable TBR system (along with every ethical tenet imaginable) and I don't think it's up for debate that it was very dark day indeed when they were given registrar status.

How is the old system more equitable? Under the current system if ten people want the same name, they compete openly instead of hiding behind who happened to place a preorder at the right registrar. It sounds more like you're upset about losing an edge you used to have. Now I can go to whatever registrar won the drop on whatever name I want and pay what I feel it's worth. The current tbr system puts the domain in the hands of the person who values it most, or at least the person willing to pay the most. Thats a pretty normal market outcome. An open market is not broken just because some buyers are reckless.

Legalnonconforming said:

How is the old system more equitable? Under the current system if ten people want the same name, they compete openly instead of hiding behind who happened to place a preorder at the right registrar. It sounds more like you're upset about losing an edge you used to have. Now I can go to whatever registrar won the drop on whatever name I want and pay what I feel it's worth. The current tbr system puts the domain in the hands of the person who values it most, or at least the person willing to pay the most. Thats a pretty normal market outcome. An open market is not broken just because some buyers are reckless.

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I tend to like the open system more as well, a lot of times I almost never do pre-orders and places that require that lose my business. It is actually a significant loss just from my purchases alone. The only TBR I currently use is WHC, I figure if they don't land the domain then I don't spend as much money that week.

Canspace - is nice if you want to grab a sleeper but they have no auction
WHC - is my preference because it's wide open to join at any time.
BM - Love the guy but I find it too complicated for newcomers and also not wide open to anyone.
Grape & Register - Too complicated for me, tried them, spent a fair bit of money there but it's way more expensive if you don't pre-register.
MyID - Is a closed system and has a dubious reputation.
NamesPro - Don't have enough personal experience with them but everything is manual and I don't care for that.

Anyone can jump right in at Grape/Register but it costs significantly more, whereas everyone pays the same price at WHC.

Technically those two are the only truly open platforms I know of and all you have to do is register once to participate.

I learned a lot of lessons participating at WHC, but I have also taught a lot of lessons. I see high bidders selling their won domains at losses just because they got auction fever. If I feel someone is bidding me up too high with the domain is approaching retail I will now stop at an odd number just to teach the newcomers that once they bid they actually have to purchase the domain.

I started tracking TBR sales at WHC over 1k and and it's amazing how many still have the default WHC page indicating to me that a good portion of those domains may not actually have been paid for. Personally I think WHC should add them as a supplementary auction every 30 days or so, one needs to be open and transparent about which auctions are not completed.

I find myself pulling out earlier now knowing a number of the sales are not completed and I'm probably paying more than I need to against bidders that should be restricted. I also think bidding limits should be in place depending on history, I don't think a new bidder should be allowed to place a 20k bid and then walk, I think he needs to leave a deposit before being allowed to bid over X amount. Once you have a history the deposit is no longer required.

So to sum it up, there is something here for everyone, the best deals are probably at BM considering only a few members actually bid there so if you want a bargain you might want to participate there as well. That said if Canspace lands one for you there is no auction it's just yours so it's probably worth it to pre-order a few sleepers there as well.

Well the issue he's complaining about is that he/we used to be able to put in countless hours of effort each week to identify the small percentage of actually valuable domain names in the list, we would then place pre-TBR bids, and then IF that registrar caught the domain, we would get it at that price - no post-TBR auction. So we were rewarded for our efforts.

The current system allows people who didn't do the work to identify those top domains, to just simply jump into the auction after they see it must be valuable because its in auction. That's the issue. The registrars can target the domains based on the people placing the pre-TBR bids, leveraging our pre-TBR efforts to identify those domains, then they maximize their profits by exploiting our work. That's the crux of the issue @DomainRecap is highlighting, and most old school domainers would likely agree with that perspective.

The only thing we can do is stop placing pre-TBR orders at those registrars - which I have done. But enough others still do it so that it doesn't matter.

There are really only 3 successful TBR registrars. WHC, Baremetal & Grape. You can mess around with some of the smaller ones, but 99% of the time your efforts are for nothing.

Baremetal and Grape have hybrid auction systems that recognize their customer's pre-bidding efforts in different ways. At Baremetal, they allows bids < $200 to act like the old-school system where your pre-TBR bids win it at that price. This is one opportunity where we can still sneak in some good domains under the radar. Any domains with multiple bids of $200 trigger the open post-TBR auctions - like WHC does.

Grape recognizes those pre-TBR bidders' efforts with a discount, while still putting the domains into an open post-TBR auction.

WHC just says screw it, we're successful enough, we don't need to make any concessions to those people doing the pre-TBR dirty work.

So smart domainers try and make use of the modified systems at Baremetal and Grape.

But it comes down to what you value more - your time or your money. You'll spend more at WHC, but you don't have to put in the effort. You'll get better deals at Baremetal or Grape, but you have to put in the effort to bid pre-TBR.

rlm said:

WHC just says screw it, we're successful enough, we don't need to make any concessions to those people doing the pre-TBR dirty work.

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And you think all of the top contenders at participating auctions all have legitimate pre-orders?

I would bet you bottom dollars the notion of PRE-ORDERS is just a formality at this point. Auction houses know what sells and they go after those domains regardless of if they have pre-orders or not.

rlm said:

Well the issue he's complaining about is that he/we used to be able to put in countless hours of effort each week to identify the small percentage of actually valuable domain names in the list, we would then place pre-TBR bids, and then IF that registrar caught the domain, we would get it at that price - no post-TBR auction.

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Not really, as I was referring to the more recent, near-universal pre-CatchDrop TBR format of "only those who placed a bid are able to take part in the TBR auction". You know, like how virtually all the major players, including WHC, used to do things before CD convinced CIRA to open up Pandora's Box so they could jack auction prices and make more money.

That was the fairest method and I remember reading an old pre-Fury outline of how the TBR is supposed to work and this was the standard design. Place your preorders and if there was more than 1 bidder, then those with orders would participate in an auction at the winning registrar.

Then CatchDrop slithered out and somehow convinced the CIRA to toss that out in favor of an "anything goes" system, and as you know, when companies have an "anything goes" option, then the first thing to go are the auction participant's wallets.

MapleDots said:

And you think all of the top contenders at participating auctions all have legitimate pre-orders?

I would bet you bottom dollars the notion of PRE-ORDERS is just a formality at this point. Auction houses know what sells and they go after those domains regardless of if they have pre-orders or not.

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Well of course, as after CatchDrop got the CIRA to open the floodgates, there are no longer any rules or accepted format and literally anything goes.

I bet there is also shill bidding going on in the TBR auctions, which as RLM attested, the CIRA doesn't care one bit about and thinks it's totally cool.

CatchDrop, Catchdrop, CatchDr.... Say it three times and they'll appear.

rlm said:

Grape recognizes those pre-TBR bidders' efforts with a discount, while still putting the domains into an open post-TBR auction.

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The more I think about it, the more I believe that of the big dogs, Grape has the fairest TBR system, which is faint praise indeed. Sure, their auctions are open to everyone, but only those who placed a pre-order get the discount, which puts all the sloths, laggards, slackers, and wastrels right behind the 8-ball when it comes to competitive bidding.

It's as close as we're going to get to the "old" pre-CatchDrop TBR system the CIRA had espoused, where those who placed a preorder gained some level of protection from potential abuse. I'll need to do some research first, but I may start using Grape more going forward.

DomainRecap said:

It's as close as we're going to get to the "old" pre-CatchDrop TBR system the CIRA had espoused, where those who placed a preorder gained some level of protection from potential abuse. I'll need to do some research first, but I may start using Grape more going forward.

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They focus most of their resources on the top 2-3 domains, chances of them catching what you are going after is slim and probably a waste of time.

MapleDots said:

They focus most of their resources on the top 2-3 domains, chances of them catching what you are going after is slim and probably a waste of time.

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Did you check out last week? Quite a few mid-to-low range domains that ended at $60, or $30 total in real money. Those same domains would go for $100-$200 at WHC, and I see it happen every single week.

Must be something in the water over at WHC, as their auction prices (relative to the quality of the domain) are way, way above anyone else's.