LocalShop .ca pushed to auction (1 Viewing)

Esdiel

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2020
Topics
133
Posts
1,180
Likes
992
Country flag
---

LocalShop .ca has been pushed to 7-day auction at GoDaddy, with the current high bid being $386 CAD ($300 USD).

The auction ends this Dec 31st at 10:50 AM (PST).

Simply type in the domain and it will take you directly to the auction.

Should you win the auction, GoDaddy will be responsible for handling the payment and transfer.

This domain has been in use/registered since at least December 1st, 2002 (as per archive.org).

---

So I first want to say I had trouble deciding whether to make this post under the "Make offer" section or "Talk Domains" section... since I'm hoping to get more offers (via members here), but this is also a new "experiment" for me and I thought I would share the details.

I've had 4 different bidders make offers on this domain since November 11th, 2020, ranging between $100-$300 USD. Although I wouldn't exactly be thrilled with selling at the current bid, I thought it would be interesting to see how it might play out if I send it to auction with 4 different bidders in play. In case you didn't know, GoDaddy will send notifications to the all previous bidders to let them know the domain was pushed to auction. As of now, no other bidder has placed a higher bid since I sent it to auction (3.5 days ago), but we all know most auctions take off in the final minutes/moments.

There's also a risk that the 4 different bidders are really the same person (using different accounts), trying trick me into sending it to auction, but I don't think that's the case and made the last minute decision to take that risk and send it to auction. In fact, I was actually too late to send it to auction (i.e. I didn't meet the deadline), but I already had the screen open on GD so I tried anyway and it worked. At that point I was just curious to see if it would still send to auction, and well it did, so now I'm committed (lol).

There's no room for negotiations considering the domain is already in auction and in GD's hands now, but feel free to ask questions or share your thoughts.
 
I pushed to Auction a couple of times and was not impressed with the bidding.
I rather decline the offer and wait for everyone to bid more if they want it, this way I am in control.

As soon as I push a domain to auction it seems like I never get another bid.
 
That's the old scam - create multiple accounts and put in several mid-range bids, trying to make it look like there is a lot of interest and luring the seller to "send to auction".

Then the "only real bidder" automatically wins at his or her optimal bid.

The only way to combat the potential for this trick is to do what Esdiel is doing, and promoting it widely and contacting other potential buyers.
 
Thanks guys.

I already starting contacting people/companies using similar domains for their own websites but what do you guys think about me contacting people who own similar domains (not in use) by sending them emails via CIRA's contact form (i.e. to let them know the auction is happening)?

There are actually a lot of similar .CA domains registered but many of them aren't developed and their whois info is private (hence why I am considering using CIRA's contact form). A lot of these domains have been registered for a very long time too.


For example (all .CAs):

LocalShops has been registered since 2004.

LocalBiz since 2000.

LocalBusiness/es since 2003/2006.

ShopLocal since 2000.

ETC ETC ETC


Smart idea? Worth trying?
 
Yes, send them all a link to the auction

Hopefully somebody bites and a bidding war starts
 
BUMPDATE:

1. Reminder that the auction ends tomorrow, in about 18 hours from now. Up to 435 views now.

2. I had a chat with the guy who owns the ShopLocal domain (i.e. the same as mine but with the words reversed). He's owned the domain for more than 2 decades now and mentioned he received a 125K offer for his domain but turned it down. Let's just say it was a huge electronic retailer who made the offer, and we've all shopped there before. I asked him if the offer was made recently and why he turned it down, but he's gone silent ever since. I'm trying to stay subtle here and not spell things out since I'm not sure he would appreciate me sharing the info. He was friendly but I don't really expect further details.

I'm not sure why that specific company would be interested in that specific domain. I know you're probably thinking he was bullshitting me but he's an older gentleman that has done very well for himself with his own company (a serious company).

3. During my research i found that there are a lot of websites/companies/directories out there focusing on creating local online marketplaces as part of the "shop local" movement. Here are a few examples that have made news:

ShopLocalCanada .ca: This website is relatively new (May 2018) and already has a lot of traffic. CIRA did a story on them too:
https://www.cira.ca/resources/ca-do...ocial&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=buffer

ShopCity . com: These guys have been around for a while and are somewhat like a franchise company. If you join them they will give you a templated website and a domain for the city/town you represent. They own a ton of "shop<city/town>.ca domains, from shopvancouver to shophalifax and everything in between, including much smaller towns I never heard of before https://ottawasun.com/2016/09/18/shopcitycom-creating-new-way-to-shop-locally

LocalShops .com: a very new Calgary start-up trying to fight the big bad amazon. They don't charge anything yet but eventually will. They plan on expanding in the US too next year. One of the founders has a few e-commerce businesses.
https://financialpost.com/entrepren...repreneurs-link-to-new-and-existing-audiences

This shop local movement has existed for a while but it's really blown up since the pandemic started. Here's a recent article I came across. Makes me think I should have done a lot more outbounding:

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/shop-local-canada-toronto-edmonton_ca_5fbd649dc5b6e4b1ea4676d8
 
10 minutes left! Next bid is only 389 CAD ($305 USD).
 
I really hope you didn't get jacked here and someone steps up at the last minute.
 
DomainRecap said:
I really hope you didn't get jacked here and someone steps up at the last minute.

Lol well the auction experiment was a bust lol.

I don't feel like I got jacked since I knew this was likely going to be the outcome. And I only picked up the domain 7 months ago so it's still a decent quick flip and I'll use the money for renewals. No regrets, other than the time I spent trying to promote it. I did however learn a lot about this "shop local" movement. It'll be interesting to see if the domain gets developed.

ps: Do you think it will get reported on namebio since it was a public auction? Or does namebio only report domains from GD's expired auctions category? Hopefully it doesn't get reported since it's not the kind of sale I would want reported.
 
UPDATE:

I thought I would let everyone know the buyer didn't pay up and the transaction was automatically cancelled after 30 days. I'm happy about it since the experiment was a bust and I was never thrilled to sell at the current bid.

I've actually been meaning to contact GoDaddy for a few weeks now to cancel the transaction, since the person had clearly surpassed the deadline to pay. I believe they only had 5 days to pay now that I look into it, but obviously GD will keep the matter open for up to 30 days if you don't call in (and ask/force them to cancel it).

As you will read in the screenshot below, the buyer is also banned from future purchases at GD Auctions but it was probably a bogus account to begin with. GD will allow people to create an account and place up to 2 bids up to 1500 USD before they need to verify their account. Hopefully they at least try to keep track of people opening a bunch of bogus accounts.

Screen-Shot-2021-02-01-at-12-27-50-PM.png



Anyway, no major news here but I thought you guys might find the details around it interesting/useful. This topic may also need to be moved again considering it didn't sell in the end.
 

Members who recently read this topic: 2

Support our sponsors who contribute to keep dn.ca free for everyone.

New Discussion Posts

CatchDrop.ca

New Market Posts

Google Ad

Popular This Week

CIRA.ca

Popular This Month

Google Ad

Back