No reason I'm aware of Chris - will look in to it.
Thanks.
This is by design Jay and we want the Selling Today (No Reserve) page to remain as no reserve at this stage. We will review over the next few weeks, but need to get some solid data before effecting a change.
I can't help but think the same thing as others have mentioned - all domains should appear in the one auction (including domains yet to meet reserve).
Especially given that my gut feeling is that when there are some big ticket domains going up for auction on the same day it tends to increase bids on all domains across the board (I'm not sure if you guys haven any data on that - might be to find out though).
The way I see it, the fact that a domain has a reserve isn't really the end of the world even if it does pass in. Everyday domains are won by bidders on NetFleet, but they don't get them because they aren't caught by NetFleet. So the occasional AMA domain that doesn't meet reserve could just be dealt with in much the same way.
That said, I think it's also important to realise that I assume most sellers are serious about selling their domains, and they too have a disincentive in setting a reserve too high (or even setting on at all). And having AMA domains listed on the front page (regardless of reserves) gives everyone the best chance of getting a deal done which is what is best for the buyer, seller and netfleet.
Obviously if it was me, I would just have all auctions that were finishing that day listed on the main page, regardless of whether they had met reserve or not.
If you guys were worried that people might dump "decent domains" but with unrealistic reserves which filled up the auction and pissed people off you could just cap the number of domains that people are able to list with a reserve per a day to something as low as 5.
That said, it hasn't been an issue before, and it was always REALLY rare to see more than a few AMA domains with bids finishing on any one day. So I don't think there is much to fear for allowing AMA domains to come to the front page regardless of whether they have hit reserve.
Also I wouldn't even bother signalling that a domain hasn't met reserve either - just let the domain pass in if it doesn't meet reserve - it would just be like any real world real estate auction.
As for how to treat the reserve, I would just have the reserve act like the highest proxy bid. So most bidders would just treat the domain like any other domain that they weren't winning on.
If their final proxy is above reserve then that's great news for the buyer (got the domain for a price they were happy with), the seller (sold the domain for at least a price they were happy with) and NetFleet who makes commission.
If anything allowing sellers to have reserve also serves NetFleet's best interest as well because it helps maximise their commission, because domains with well set reserves essentially act like an extra bidder at the auction in the event that there aren't many serious buyers.
ie, if a seller thinks a domain is worth $750, and is willing to sell it for $500 and the best buyer thinks it is worth $1000, and is willing to buy it for anything up to that price, but the second highest bidder is only willing to bid $200...
Then without a reserve the domain would sell for $201 with and NetFleet pocketing only $16 in commission, whereas with a $500 reserve, it would sell for $501 (the buyer still happy otherwise they wouldn't have bid that price) and NetFleet will now get $40 commission for the same domain sold to the same buyer.
Of course, it very likely that if a owner thinks a domain is worth $750 they are not going to list it for sale at all under the no reserve system (I know I wouldn't), which of course works against NF who want to incentive as many listings as possible to increase the number of transactions.
Today we saw a great result for selling with no reserve and appearing on this page, with RP.com.au fetching $1889, among many other no reserve domains getting good prices too. More to come tomorrow by the looks of it too.
Still it's a HUGE risk to list premium domains without reserve and I know I for one won't be doing it, even if that means I miss out on some front page exposure (which will basically means I won't bother listing them because they won't perform any better than they did under the previous AMA - if anything I think they'd perform worse because it's even harder to find AMA listed domains these days).
It would appear that there is room for more filtered "radio" buttons; e.g. "Selling Today"; "Closing Today - Subject to Reserve" "All Auctions"
I agree, just allow for more filters if people really care, or start complaining.
Personally, I'd make the change and wait to see if you get complaints. It's easy enough to roll back a change if it doesn't work out, but you'll be kicking yourself for not doing it sooner if it turns to be a success.
That said, the COR process is stupidly simple with NetFLeet hosted domains these days I'd be surprised if people even cared, especially if any sort of "pre-authorisation" process could be developed.
Just my two cents.
