The penny has dropped ..... Drop is owned by Dark Blue which also owns Domain Active Pty Ltd which got a dropped name "caught" for them on Drop without them making a bid (no bids against the name at all on Drop) whilst that name was bid for on NetFleet ..... and yes by me ..... I bid on 3 names on Netfleet, all only seconds before the close (after "extended" time on Drop) .... I was highest bidder on all 3 .... two are registered to me but the other that had NO BIDS against it on Drop is now registered to Domainactive Pty Ltd .... and there was no proxy bid .... zero, zilch. I had both screens open - I have more than one computer and yes I was refreshing VERY REGULARLY.

Registration of the name for Domainactive was more than ten (10) minutes AFTER the registration of the other 2 names by NetFleet ..... seems somewhat odd to me.

It also seems odd that five (5) other names at the same auction that also did not have bids against them were "caught" for and registered to Domain Active by Drop

Is it that the names listed on Drop are available to the rest of us if one of the Dark Blue group don't want any of them, or putting it in better English, is it that if a Dark Blue associate entity has an interest in a particular name or names being dropped that in essence, regardless of whether that entity bids or not that Drop will secure ("catch") that name (those names) for that entity.

I wonder if Drop.com.au is prepared to disclose the names it "catches" for its parent and/or associated companies / businesses?

I happen not to be a member of Drop .... I joined NetFleet some months back and was not aware of Drop till a few weeks ago and see no sense in paying fees for two sites that have the same content available for dropped domains (or do they in fact have the same content for each auction?).

Now that I am aware of the association between Drop and its associated companies I must admit I am happy to be a NetFleet client.

How about some feeback on this ...... it is understood that the entities are disclosed on the Privacy Statement on the Drop site ..... you know, that document we all religiously read on every site we become a member of (paid or otherwise) or routinely revisit ..... but should Drop.com.au make their association with other registrars, domain sales, domain ownership and domain etc, etc, etc companies by way of something out in the open, on the home page so that all newcomers get the whole story? Why would Drop not be proud to boast of their relationship and promote their partners instead of having a couple of references to Fabulous on the links page ..... you know, the page that you find by going to the home page footer and search for a link that says links in fine print (tiny font).

Ok, that is it for me for now, I need to get some room freshener spray, something smells around here.

cheers,
Mike

p.s. is it only me who detects an odour (or is it standard practice and I am just naive)

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Edit: What Timmy and George said (explained it better)

FFS - enough with the conspiracy theories. If you want the fucking things then bid, simple as that.

Oh and Shags, you'll have to be the highest bidder too.

Could not have said it better myself
Shags if you can DO better than create your own drop/auction/WTFsite
if not then work with the system

Despite misconceptions by some domainers, catching a dropped name is not a "God given RIGHT"
Sites like drop.com.au catch 1000's yearly and would never risk their income,reputation and clients by trying to rip off clients.

1 of the many advantages of the aussie domain marketplace is the lack of hidden corporate and ownership information.
Realising Dark blue once controlled drop.com.au is not exactly rocket science. You could always buy some shares.

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3Ddrop is available.

Perfect name for shags new drop auction site
Offering a free "dummy Spit" if name not caught.

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To correct some of the opening comments made on this post.
1) Domain Active Pty Ltd is no longer owned by Dark Blue Sea Ltd. Not since the on market acquisition of DBS by the Photon Group.

2) Drop has an arrangement with Domain Active to place a catch on any requested domain providing that it did not receive any bids at auction. This is a legacy arrangement that carried over from before the Photon Group acquisition.

It works like this... a flag is placed on domains in the Drop list, but the flag is overridden when the domain receives the minimum $1 bid from any Drop customer. This means that we never disadvantage our customers by restricting them to domains.

I am aware that it affects both Domain Watch and Netfleet customers, but this is not our business concern. Our commitment is to our customers, and not to the customers of our competitors.

3) "Spoiler Alert": Currently we are trialing some tasting software on the Drop list. More information about this service will be released soon along with some taste stats. It will mean that the daily number of caught expired domains will increase. If the initiative works and it is viable, then we will make the opportunity available to all our customers. Important to note: there is no current policy position against tasting com.au domains.

4) Mike, aside from the fact that as you disclosed you are not a customer, and therefor we are not obligated to disclose anything to you about our Drop auctions. This information is actually publicly available. A simple whois will disclose anything about the daily drop catches. If you are interested about this data then why not check the list daily and start up a spreadsheet? We though, will not display this information, nor will we display similar information about any of our customers.

In Summary:
* The Drop platform is open and transparent to all our members. Arguably, it has allowed our industry to grow with confidence because of the trust it has created in the market place.

* We readily answer questions when asked. Andrew, myself, and the Drop support team in general, have often gone out of our way to help our clients navigate .au policy. Often beyond the call of client/business relationship.

* We treat all our customers equally, and NEVER for example offer auction discounts to just some exclusive clients. In an auction you should be confident that your under bidder doesn't enjoy a 10% or 15% advantage over you.

In conclusion:

Mike (shags38), because we have no relationship with you nor a history of business I am not sure why you have chosen this public forum to voice your concerns. Nor why you have elected to post your questions in a negative and defamatory tone.

It would have been simple to just ask, hey does anyone know why 'XYZ'...?

I am confident that the overwhelming majority of our customers will vouch for the integrity and openness we have actually brought to this industry. Actually, the comments and questions you raised are commonly known to almost everyone, and those that aren't aware probably don't care to know.

Mike, if you do want to be sure to catch a domain you want then I recommend placing bids across all three drop catchers, i.e. Drop, Snapper, and Domain Watch. Even though over the past 7 days, we have recorded a 99% catch success average, it still doesn't give us a 100% spread. We are still working on that!

PS: You are welcome to join our Drop platform any time, and we invite you to enjoy the priority and friendly service we equally deliver to all our customers.

Best Regards,
George Pongas
Catch you at the Drop!

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DROP | Drop Catch Specialists.
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FabulousDomains | over 12,000 Premium com.au Domains!
http://www.FabulousDomains.com.au

I forget to mention Mike, if you contact us directly I will be happy to extend a Promo Code to you that will considerably discount our Drop Membership.

After all, being a DN Trade member has its privileges

Best Regards,
George Pongas

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FabulousDomains | over 12,000 Premium com.au Domains!
http://www.FabulousDomains.com.au

If you want a domain badly enough you should bid on as many platforms as you can.

do ALL dnTrade members get the promo code?

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