Sedo Not The Company I thought it was… Perfume.org canceled

by Jeremy Schoemaker on September 20, 2007 · 57 comments

So I just got a call from sedo.com reguarding the perfume.org auction. (guess who was the top bidder ya it was me)

They said they apologize but they are going to have to cancel the auction on perfume.org.

Here is what the dude told me. There was this thread on dnforums where the user posted it and put a Buy it now price. After getting a few offers the user decided to close that Auction and post it on Sedo.

After I posted the Auction someone went to dnforum and since the thread was still live they claimed the BIN (buy it now) price.

Dnforum contacted sedo and had them remove or cancel the auction.

They actually called me 2x to clarify exactly what happened because I think they thought I would post it or something. Imagine that. But guess what I kind of feel like a jackass for having a contest for a domain for sale that now is canceled.

I just thought Sedo was a reputable domain seller where if there was a domain for sale with no reserve… it was actually for sale.

I mean if they will take a auction down just because of some stuff going on at a forum then I am guessing they would for sure take it down if the seller requested which kind of defeats the purpose of a no reserve auction? blah!

Im such a newb at domaining (on this level). I have registered thousands but sold very few on a site like this most of the domains we have sold have been mass quantity .

We will figure out another way to do the contest…. (OR maybe the lowest bidder should win since it sold for 0 on that auction??)

About the author...

– who has written 2414 posts on ShoeMoney.com.

Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.

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{ 53 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Nick Leavens September 20, 2007 at 1:52 pm

I’d say all ‘bets are off’ – as the domain didn’t actually sell via Sedo. Or, if you can verify that it was sold via the BIN price on the forums, use that amount as the winning amount.

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2 Ken Savage September 20, 2007 at 1:52 pm

bastards! isn’t there something in their use policy that says that someone can pull an auction or every bid is bonded after going in. Then what’s to stop me from dropping my domain in there and pulling it if I don’t get enough for it.

What would you do with perfume.org anyways, man? i cant think of an affilaites out there selling perfume online in bulk. SRSLY

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3 Cheapgirl September 20, 2007 at 1:53 pm

Well that sucks. I was looking forward to seeing what you were going to do with it. (I had a feeling that you might have been bidding on it :D )

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4 Gecko Tales September 20, 2007 at 1:55 pm

That sucks. Buying used domains can be a total pain. It’s about the only way to get a good name anymore though.

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5 Instant Community September 20, 2007 at 2:11 pm

Well congrats on winning it and losing it Shoe, talk about domaining i am in your newb shoes too. Lol

Sedo… this post cracked me up.

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6 Contest Beat September 20, 2007 at 2:20 pm

SEDO have some extremely bad business practices if you get down to it.

Looking forward to your next comp!

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7 Eric Lander September 20, 2007 at 2:24 pm

I think I should win, only because I say so. Then, in return, I need to buy something from Amazon that YOU recommend, and I’ll have to provide my unbiased review of it. Think of it as… reinvesting $25 for a product review that you can slap some affiliate links on to make into MORE money.

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8 Justin September 20, 2007 at 2:26 pm

Sedo sucks.

Spend a little time around NamePros or DNForum, you’ll see quite a few people saying the same.

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9 webprofessor September 20, 2007 at 2:27 pm

dnforum isn’t exactly a great place either.

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10 Nick Sullivan September 20, 2007 at 2:28 pm

I think I should win because although it went for 0 and I said $4,500 which wasn’t the lowest probably either. I should win anyway. Just because… I sort of… want to win like. So… yeh.

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11 Mike Mothner September 20, 2007 at 2:35 pm

At least now the rest of us can be more wary when considering where to bid for domain names. It seems to me that there must be a more dependable way to ensure that you are working with a legit company that won’t pull this type of stuff. Better luck next time!

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12 CPA Affiliates September 20, 2007 at 3:17 pm

Thats crazy man I was getting ready to bid on it :) as i could pass it up on sedo.

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13 Theo September 20, 2007 at 3:21 pm

Can’t you contact the seller, and buy the domain from him?

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14 Robert G September 20, 2007 at 3:24 pm

What was the BIN price? Can you tell us your bid?

I don’t see what SEDO could do in this situation. The owner has control of the domain. They can’t force the owner to sell it unless the domain was transferred to them, like using escrow. SEDO is a good company. And this is a tough situation.

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15 doolally September 20, 2007 at 3:30 pm

Dnforum contacted sedo and had them remove or cancel the auction.

Was it Dnforum or the user on Dnforum who cancelled the auction? It seems a bit strange dfn acting on the users behalf

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16 LeGo September 20, 2007 at 3:49 pm

I was going to bump it up to 3 g’s before end of day. Then thought of how high I would actually go. I guess someone got it at the $24,000 buy it now. I wouldn’t have gone that high.

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17 LeGo September 20, 2007 at 3:52 pm

$24,000 according to the link posted…

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18 Lee Dodd September 20, 2007 at 4:11 pm

I got the same call from a guy named Brian. I had placed a bid as well, so I guess they contacted all the bidders.

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19 jim September 20, 2007 at 4:46 pm

What a joke but not much Sedo can do right? What happens on eBay? Same thing…

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20 jim September 20, 2007 at 4:46 pm

It already sold to someone else I would think? that’s why it was canceled in the first place…

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21 Word Hugger September 20, 2007 at 5:22 pm

DP + sitepoint > sedo.

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22 The Dino September 20, 2007 at 6:31 pm

Well I think it is good since the seller had kind of deal with DNforum when he put price there… But on the other hand I would like to get also as much as possible and I think Sedo would get more money for him.

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23 Travel Notebook September 20, 2007 at 6:39 pm

Wow sedo sucks. No way they should have canceled a no reserve auction.

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24 Deepak Dutta September 20, 2007 at 10:15 pm

I have a few domains parked at sedo. I don’t know where else to park it.

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25 Joeychgo September 20, 2007 at 10:41 pm

that really sucks Jeremy

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26 lyricsreg September 21, 2007 at 12:50 am

“called me 2x to clarify exactly what happened” … they were scared, and they should be ! :)

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27 BrendanC September 21, 2007 at 3:40 am

I recently had the pleasure of purchasing a domain listed at Sedo. The seller accepted my bid and then Sedo took the money from me via Paypal. Two days later Sedo emailed me to say that the seller wasnt the registered owner of the domain so the sale couldnt go through.
Then it took a full month for me to get my money back from Sedo, when all it really takes is to click the refund button in Paypal.

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28 maurizio September 21, 2007 at 6:51 am

No one wins because even 1$ is more than 0 and you said that the winner is who the nearest amount but not more than the amount paid. Ok. my english is bad so:
$amount_paid = $_GET['amount'];
$guess = …;
$winner = 0;
while ($guess as $gu => $i) {
if ($gu $winner)
$winner = $gu;
}

Ok. maybe it’s not a correct PHP syntax but I’m so bored that I wanted to post it without checking.

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29 Robert G September 21, 2007 at 7:25 am

Try Namedrive.com

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30 Tracy Robinson September 21, 2007 at 8:49 am

I was gonna guess $27000, did I win?

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31 Credit Card Offers September 21, 2007 at 12:57 pm

This is too bad. This is unprofessional on the part of Sedo.
I just hope I dont face any problems while selling my domains. I have a few domains up for sale on Sedo.

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32 Jonathan Volk September 21, 2007 at 5:03 pm

Wow this reminds me sorta of my experience with Milliondollarwiki. Got shafted out of a page even though I bought it first.

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showpost.php?p=4475357&postcount=8

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33 Kanute September 21, 2007 at 5:10 pm

“Non si piange sul latte versato ” an Italian would say

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34 Monty September 21, 2007 at 9:16 pm

I agree with Robert G, this isn’t Sedo’s fault, I think they went out of their way to help clear things up, they don’t have the authority to force a transfer of the domain to someone else, seems like the seller and dnforum are the bad guys here, not Sedo.

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35 Jim Spencer September 21, 2007 at 10:13 pm

It sounds like Sedo didn’t know everything about the seller’s activities with the domain.

Outside the auction space, just selling a domain at Sedo is not a binding commitment. You are not required to sell the domain. Some folks put domains for sale just to see at what level the fish will bite.

Hey, at least they told you what happened and you got a free education. They could have just as easily told you that the seller removed the domain from the auction and it is no longer available.

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36 Grivon September 22, 2007 at 9:25 am

So my somewhat jokingly “$1 bob” comment was right?!?

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37 Bulbboy September 22, 2007 at 9:48 am

Sedo can suck both ways. and it wasn’t even for very much, but repeated attempts to contact the buyer went unanswered. I thought these things were supposed to be legally bound? Obviously not.
>.

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38 Kyle September 22, 2007 at 12:34 pm

Sedo has yet to impress me. Sure, they have a huge database of high-quality domains, but what’s that worth when they make stupid mistakes like this. I have (and never will) sell my domains on Sedo… I hate the idea that Sedo charges 10% for doing nothing.

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39 Brian September 22, 2007 at 5:29 pm

I’m wondering why it’s back up for sale on Sedo. Doesn’t make any sense if it sold for that $24,000 bin (unless the buyer is already trying a resell).

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40 Bulbboy September 22, 2007 at 11:15 pm

The new buyer must be trying to capitalise on the current interest / screwup and hoping for a quick flip.

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41 Jonathan Volk September 23, 2007 at 12:43 am

Any updates on this issue with sedo?

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42 Beauty Girl September 23, 2007 at 5:09 pm

I have recently started domaining a lot … Have already got some good domains with GREAT age and authority …
What do you think should be the value of Etextiles.com ?

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43 Beauty Girl September 24, 2007 at 3:27 pm

Hmm .. dude unable to make out what you wish to state … Care to elaborate ?

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44 Joeychgo September 24, 2007 at 5:47 pm

I am curious also

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45 CatherineL September 28, 2007 at 3:25 am

That’s a shame – it would have been nice to see how much it would have made.

Beauty Girl – Etextiles is not a bad domain – at least it’s quite easy to remember – but I did read that 8 letters or less is more valuable. Anyway – I suck at choosing domains so I’m probably not the best person to ask.

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46 Neil Duckett September 30, 2007 at 3:42 pm

Agreed, Sedo play funny buggers all the time.

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47 tommy t October 2, 2007 at 8:27 pm

i saw the domain name bitched.net for sale on sedo. that is a pretty good name for a new blog. you should pick that one up.

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48 Neon October 20, 2007 at 5:58 pm

as a buyer, we always hoped to get a good deal.
at sedo, when we trying to purchase domain even with listed fixed price there, as long as seller dont like the price at that moment, he can still reject. nothing can be done about that and sedo cant really enforce anything. buyer will feel frustrated.
unless there is some sort of contract which states, once price reached a certain reserve, it cannot be withdrawn and must be sold…

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49 MyGoodFinds October 24, 2007 at 10:10 am

they just wanted you to blog about it?

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50 mark December 17, 2007 at 3:16 pm

today… sedo announce ” last mobi aution ” void before of their server problem

and I wonder what will be their next move

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51 Jay November 15, 2010 at 7:38 pm

I’m in the exactl opposite situation. I received an offer for a domain I had parked on Sedo for years. It was a reasonable offer so I decided to send the domain to auction yesterday. After the auction started, I checked my domain list to see where it’s registered. Alas! I couldn’t find it. It turned out that I forgot to renew the domain last year and now somebody else owns it. Yes, it’s my fault, I know. I have already contacted Sedo to ask them to cancel the auction. But I have not heard back from them.

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52 Drew August 2, 2011 at 11:43 am

Several days ago I have received an offer on sedo to buy a domain that matches my business name. After several hours of thinking I decided to buy the domain. I transferred the money to Sedo via paypal and…. 3 days later Sedo wrote me that the transaction has been canceled since it was a fake sale and they are dealing with the seller and Sedo suggested to me to take legal action against the seller. The seller wrote to me it was Sedo’s glitch indeed and showed me their correspondence, where Sedo actually excuses themselves to the seller for this mistake! It’s been 5 days now and Sedo stopped responding to my messages and did not refund my money even if they wrote they will. I am submitting a payment reversal (claim) with paypal to get my money back from Sedo (sedo.com, Sedo.co.uk, Sedo.de), which appears to be a dishonest and untrustworthy business.

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53 Andrew September 5, 2011 at 12:34 pm

On SEDO recently (July 2011) I was offered a domain name for $160. I decided to buy it. THe SEdo backed out stating that the seller changed their mind. Seller stated it was Sedo’s error. It took quite some time to get my money refunded. What a waste of time! I cancelled my Sedo account.

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