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General questions
A domain is a personal address that is entered in the address bar in the browser. It may consist of words, numbers and special characters. The length may not be longer then 63 characters (letters, numbers and special characters). Hyphens (-) may not come in first or last position.
Each domain consists of a sequence of characters, which are seperated by one or more points.
The top-level domain is the ending of the domain and is always in the last place.
In our example "www.companyname.eu" "eu" is the top-level domain, "companyname" the second-level-domain (also called domain) and "www" the third-level-domain (also called subdomain).
An exclusive domain is offered and auctioned in cooperation with the current domain owner exclusively on nicsell. The difference between the regular auctions is that these domains have not been deleted and are not (yet) in the grace period.
The process before, during and after the auction is identical to the "normal" RGP domains. In that regard nothing wil change for you.
Your benefits: You can bid on exclusive domains as comfortable as on all other domains. After the auction closes and the payment has been processed you will receive the auth codes for your domains (there is no catching-process).
You can read the conditions from the registrar who is responsible for the administration of the respective domain extension.
That is the RGP domain information site, because the search has failed.
Regarding RGP domains - on which you can bid here - it is normal that they are deleted by their owner (see also what is RGP?)
One other reason might be that the website is no longer available. If that is the case and you are the owner of the website, you should contact the the hosting provider as soon as possible.
You can bid on .de, .eu, .at, .se, .nu, .ch, .li and .pl domains.
Domains which are deleted by mistake or on purpose will move to quarantine. It's also called "Cooldown", "Quarantine" or "RGP" (Redemption Grace Period).
The .de domains will remain there for 30 days, .eu domains for 40 days, .at domains for 58 days and .pl domains for about 60 days.
During this time the domain owner can choose to stop the deregistration. If it is not stopped, the domain becomes available after 30 or 40 days of grace period and can be re-registered.
The re-registration of popular domains takes place within a few milliseconds after the domain is released from the quarantine (see also How much time does a catch-process take?)
Questions about the process and the domains:
We put domains up for auction that were recently deleted and exclusive domains. During the auction the deleted domains are still in the grace period. These domains are available on the free market as well. We have taken it upon us to catch these domains for our business customers.
The domains will be added in the auction list (domainlist) two weeks prior to their release. Starting from then you are able to bid on them.
Tip: Create a daily Domain alarm for your desired domain now and we will automatically inform you when your domain is available.
Your Customer ID is used for the identification of your person and should be given to us if possible in every case of contact so that we can assign and respond your request as quick as possible.
You have a fixed budget, which you can invest in the auctions freely. If you have won an auction and paid for it, your budget will be replenished by that amount. Your budget is calculated independently from one period (see also How is my budget assembled?).
If a domain has been deleted, it moves to the so-called quarantine / grace period (see also What is RGP?). During this RGP you can bid on this domain. Before the RGP runs out, the auction will close and the high bidder is awarded the contract that we try to fulfill by attempting to register the desired domain. Please note: You only get the prerogativ of the registry by winnig the auction.
The live auction covers every auction in the domain list in realtime without refreshing the website. If another customer places a bid on a domain that is part of your domain list, the relevant data will be updated as if the website had been refreshed. If the number of bids changes even though you have not place a bid, those changes will be displayed as a mathematical equation (1 +2) in the bid column. The right number represents the number of changes. If you place a bid, an existing equation will be resolved into a single number. Dutch auctions are excluded from the live auction.
The live auction is marked by an animation ( 
) which can be found above the filters and in affected auctions within the column. The relevant entries in the domainlist will not change positions (even if e.g. the order set by a prior filter becomes incorrect). Every user is solely responsible for the accuracy of their local system time. The time difference serves as an indicator of this accuracy and is displayed above the filters along with the latency of your internet connection. These values are displayed in black for a minor deviation, red for a significant deviation and orange for values inbetween. If the deviation is too large, a box appears as a warning, which will not reopen for eight hours if closed. In order to avoid compatibility issues please ensure the use of a modern browser. Every user is allowed a maximum of up to 10 simultaneous tabs using the live auction.
The button enables switching into the mode of quick bid placements. There you can use to determine the amount, which will be added to the current maximum bid. If the minimum bid of the respective domain is not exceeded, the button is shown in color and the value is set to the minimum bid. When selected, you will need to confirm the increase once, which finalizes the new bid that is displayed in the button . The confirmation button will be inactive for the first 0,2 seconds in order to avoid any misclicks. As soon as it becomes active the symbol will appear in the confirmation button. During this process, if a bid was placed that surpasses yours, your current confirmation will be cancelled. At any time, the button allows you to move one step backwards or exit the quick bidding mode. The values of these buttons can be edited in your Account settings. If you have problems with the time offset, you can also change how the countdown is displayed.
The other means of placing a bid (single-bid and mass-bid) will work as usual. Placing a single bid will still refresh the entire domainlist.
If you have the domainlist open for more than one hour during the live auction, the live auction will be automatically finished. This is also indicated by a message. If you would like to participate in the live auction again, you have to reload the domainlist.
If you have placed at least one bid in an auction, your maximum bid will be displayed in blue below the current bid €10. If you are a bidder in an auction where the reserve price is not met, this will be displayed in orange €33 additionally.
We differentiate between both of these bid types during the bidding process:
- Maximum bid: This is (still) the norm. If you submit a maximum bid, the actual bid increases with bids of other users automatically up to your maximum bid. Only if somebody places a bid above your limit, will you lose your position as high bidder. You are always allowed to raise your maximum bid even if you already are the high bidder. If you place a maximum bid onto a premiumdomain your maximum bid will become the current bid, if it is lower than its reserve price, even if nobody else has placed a bid on this particular domain yet. That means these domain names don't start at €10 in the auction system. If you are the only bidder for a domain name that has a set minimum price of €100 and your maximum bid is at €500, the current bid would raise to €100. In addition your maximum bid of €500 is still valid.
- Minimum bid: You can directly place a minimum bid in order to start an auction at e. g. €50 (instead of normally €10). You can also bid in an already running auction to raise the price directly. If you have already placed a minimum bid on a domain, you can raise it by placing a higher minimum bid.
What is the minimum bid for? The higher the price of the domain at the end of the auction the higher the priority for this domain in the catching phase is. For example a domain for €50 has substantially more register-attempts than a domain with a final auction price of only €10.
Tip: You can also place both minimum bids and maximum bids for one domain. An example would be €50 minimum bid and €500 maximum bid for one domain.
Yes, there is a minimum bid of €10.
There may be a different minimum bid for quarantine domains, depending on the respective domain ending.
| TLD | minimum bid |
|---|---|
| .de | €10 |
| .eu | €10 |
| .ch | €10 |
| .li | €10 |
| .pl | €10 |
| .at | €12 |
| .se | €15 |
| .nu | €15 |
There are two types of auctions on nicsell:
- Auction: This the type of auction everyone should be familiar with. There is a fixed date until the biddings close. The auctions start at €0 and the person with the highest bid wins at the end. If a reserve price was set and not met, a negotiation will begin. The seller can decide whether or not to accept the highest bid that was placed.
- Dutch-Auction: This type of auction is also called reverse auction. The purchase price is set by the seller and about 7 days prior to the end of the auction the price will start to decrease by a small amount at a fixed interval until the reserve price has been met. People will always only see the current price the auction is at. Bids of other participants are hidden and you will only ever see whether or not your bid is the highest as well as the amount of bids that have been placed. If the purchase price meets or falls below the highest bid, the auction will immediately close, making the person with that bid the winner. If the reserve price was met, the auction will end and a negotiation may begin with the then highest bidder. The seller can decide whether he/she wants to accept the highest placed bid.
We are launching a second-auction, in case an authinfo2 (Auth2) was set that prevents a domain from being registered and pushes the date the quarantine ends backwards.
If you have bid on a domain that we were unable to register for you previously and that was deleted by the domain owner once more, we will notify you about these second-auctions as well.
Whether you want to be informed about second-auctions can be adjusted at "Account > Notifications".
- Detailed search:
- In the detailed search you can search for any number of terms by separating them with commas or blanks.
- With a ! preceding a search term its results will be excluded (negative search).
- If a search term starts with a ^ , only results that start with the search term will be displayed.
- If a search term ends with a $ , only results will be displayed that end with the search term.
- If a % is specified in a search term, it will be considered as a placeholder and is seen as no or any amount of characters.
- If a _ is specified in a search term, it will be considered as a placeholder and is seen as exactly any one character.
- If a search term starts with a . , the search term is considered as a top level domain.
- If a search term contains at least one . and no ^ , $ , % or _ , the search term is seen as a complete domain and must be found exactly like that.
- To improve the search, umlauts are searched in all spellings (ä = ae, ö = oe, ü = ue, ß = ss).
- Example:
- sport
- sport, music
- sport, !transport
- ^sport, sport$
- ^sport$
- sport, !^sport, !music
- sport%event, event%sport
- sport__%event
- sport, music, .eu
- sport, !.com
- sport.de
- sport.de, music
- sp%t.de
- Character length: The character length determines the length of the domain. If you enter e. g. a length of 4 to 6 characters only domains with this specific length will be shown.
- End of auction: The filter end of auction allows you to define a time frame in which auctions will end. Every auction that is available during this window will be listed.
- First letter: Here you can enter the first letter of your desired domain. Again only the domains with this first letter will be listed.
The domain alarm is intended to notify you whenever new and interesting domains are auctioned. You can log in, go to the domainlist and select filters of your choice. Then simply activate the domain alarm.
In order to create a new domain alarm, you have to customize your filter settings in the Domainlist first. For example you can filter for .de domains that include "car". Then you have to apply the filter.
Once you have applied the filter, the button will appear in the upper part of the box. The button is only displayed, when a valid filter setting has been made.
After clicking the button a form will appear below where you can set the description and notifications. By clicking on "save" the domain alarm is created for you.
The following notifications can be set.
- Daily: nicsell will notify you every day about new domains.
- Weekly: nicsell will notify you every week on monday about new domains.
- None: nicsell will not notify you.
Do you want to make changes on the domain alarm (description, notifications and filter) you can click under "Account > Domain alarm" on of any domain alarm. As an effect of that the domain list will be open with all defined filters and matching domains. Inside the filter section there is additionally a form where you can edit the description and adjust the notifications. With a click on "Save" all changes inclusive filter settings will be saved for the domain alarm.
Every entry (domain alarm) in the domain alarm list contains the three buttons . Therewith found domains within the domain alarm can be grouped and with one click displayed in the domain list. The number in the button represent the count of found domains for this group. You can group into the following groups:
- All: Therewith domains which are matching the filters will be displayed.
- New: Of all domains that match the filters, only those that have been added since the alarm was last called are shown, i.e. have not yet been seen. This time of the last call is updated every day at midnight. This enables you to view the new domains during the day without instantly hiding them.
- Last 7 days: Domains, that were added to the domain list in the last seven days and matching the filters, will be displayed.
Additionally in the top of the domain alarm list there are the three buttons . Therewith you can display all domains of all domain alarms. The number in the button represents the count of found domains like the other buttons. This does not have to correspond to the sum of the individual buttons, because, for example, a domain can be found in several domain alarms.
To delete a domain alarm you can click under "Account > Domain alarm" on the button of any domain alarm.
The function "favorites" is used, that you can observe interesting domains. So you have for example domains in view on that you not bid currently or on that you want to pay particular attention when bidding.
In the domainlist you will find a star in front of each domain. By clicking on this star it will become green (). This adds the domain to your list of favorites. In this same manner you can also remove the favorites again ().
If domains that you have marked as favorites are offered again, they will be displayed with a yellow star ().
Of course you can filter the domainlist by favorites too.
In the customer account at "Account > Favorites" you will also find a seperate overview of your favorites.
You also have the possibility to add individual notes to your favorites in order to classify them more easily. In your favorites and domain list (for currently active favorites) you can use the buttons and to edit or save your notes. If a favorite with a note is removed from the domain list and added once more without having reloaded the page, the previously set note will be restored.
The auction is still running. You are the highest bidder on this auction.
The auction is still running. Your current maximum bid for this domain is lower than our preassigned minimum price. In case of a successful catch the status might switch to negotiation.
The auction is still running. You have been outbid and should increase your maximum bid, if we are to attempt to register the domain for you.
The auction has been closed. We are currently trying to register the domain. Usually the domain will only remain in this status from the moment the auction closes until about 7:00 clock of the next day (in single cases it may take up to 3 days).
The auction has been closed. Your bid failed to meet the reserve price. The seller will now decide, if he/she still wants to accept your maximum bid and sell the domain to you. It usually takes one work day for a decision to be reached (however, sometimes it might take up to 7 days).
The auction has been closed. The catching process has concluded. We have been able to register the domain for you successfully.
The auction has been closed. We successfully auctioned your domain off.
The auction has been closed. Unfortunately, you were not the highest bidder for this domain, therefore we will not attempt to register the domain for you.
The auction has been closed. The catching process has concluded. We have declined your bid, because it did not meet our reserve price. Therefore the domain has not been registered for you. You will not be charged for this auction.
However you have the possibility to reopen the negotiation again if you interested in the domain. For a new negotiation, a form is provided with which you can submit a higher bid. Please note that this is only possible within 5 days after the auction ends.
Additionally the count of auctions where you can reopen the negotiation will be displayed in the account dashboard under Bidding history.
The auction has been closed. The auction had to be stopped prematurely. The reasons for this are either:
- The quarantine-enddate has been moved (for example due to the setting of an AuthCode2),
- The domain was restored by the previous owner or
- These domain has been deleted by the DENIC (a so-called "immediate delete")
If you go to the auction history you can't sort the domains you have bid on by status. However, you can narrow them down. Depending on which option you want, you can either choose "Highest bidder", "Outbid" or any another status.
You have several options in order to bid on multiple domains at the same time. There are two choices: The "export" and the "import". Ongoing auctions can be exported and maximum bids per domain can be imported.
The export in detail:
- First of all you have the possibility to download our complete list of all ongoing auctions. Please use the button "download list" in the domainlist. If you have selected no filter the complete list will be downloaded. It is important that you have either not set a filter prior or reset it with "reset filter".
- Furthermore you can export a selection of auctions. Simply filter the domains using a "filter" of your choice, click on "apply filter" and download the filtered results via the button "download list".
The import in detail:
- First of all you can edit a recently exported domainlist and import it. Please open this list and edit the second column "Your bid in EUR". Afterwards save your list in the CSV format. Important: Always use a semicolon (;) in order to divide your entries. In our domainlist you can select the edited list and click on "upload list".
- You can upload your own domainlists (even from foreign sources) at any time. It does not matter, if this list contains domains that we do not know or for which there are currently no active auctions. The important thing is that you upload a CSV file which contains the domain name in the first column and you bid in EUR in the second column and the columns are seperated by semicolons.
- Another option is our form which opens when you click on "submit mass-bid" in our domainlist . There you can paste domains (even from foreign sources) into the text box. Please only enter one domain per line. In the field below you can place your bid in EUR.
In general it does not matter, if you use the IDN or ACE spelling in order to import your domains. We will automatically convert them.
We will immediately notify you about any success-, warning- and error-messages regarding which domains you have become the highest bidder, have been outbid or where the entry was incorrect.
In order to obtain this information in the form of a list again, you can filter the domainlist. For example view all domains you have bid on with the filter "Narrow > Only bidding auctions". Simply click on "apply filter" and afterwards again on "download list".
If we were unable to register the domain, we charge no processing costs. You only pay, if the registration was successful.
Yes, by going to the dashboard. Switch to the bid history and set the filter to "only bidding auctions". In the last "column" you can see the actions you can perform. Click on the button and enter your new bid.
It is not possible to calculate how long the process takes exactly. The domains become available within a certain timeframe. In exceptional cases it can take up to 48 hours after an auction has concluded until we can define the final status of a domain. The actual catching-process takes only a few milliseconds (valuable domains are usually not available for a longer duration than that).
If you've been outbid in an auction, you have two options. You can either bid again (if the auction is still running) or you can stop, because the current price exceeds your limit.
If the registration was successful, you will receive a payment request. In this email you will receive the information that the catching-process was successful.
With the bid history in the domain list, you have the opportunity to set your last and most frequently used bids again and to use your set plus buttons. For this purpose, a button is displayed in the domain list to the left of each bid field, with which you can access the history.
The drop-down menu is divided into three categories. Use the up-arrow and down-arrow keys to navigate through the menu. To confirm the selection, press the Enter key. If you want to exit the menu, you can press the ESC key or click with the mouse outside the menu.
If you're in the bidding area while in writing mode, you can also use the down arrow key to navigate to the drop-down menu.
If you select a value, it will be written to the bid field. If it is a value of a plus button, it will first be added to the current bid and then written to the field.
The inTld count indicates the number of Tlds for which the same domain name is also available. Example: The domain name "test" can exist for several Tlds e.g. test.de or test.at. The following Tlds are taken into account for this:
- .com
- .net
- .org
- .info
- .biz
- .ca
- .us
- .co
- .br
- .uk
- .nl
- .be
- . fr
- .es
- .pt
- .de
- .ch
- .it
- .at
- .pl
- .cz
- .dk
- .se
- .ru
- .cn
- .kr
- .jp
- .au
- .in
- .ga
- .eu
- .me
- .mx
Billing questions:
Congratulations - you were the high bidder. And now?
If you have won an auction, we will try to catch the domain for you. If the registration was successful, you will receive an auth code (key) after your payment.
If the domain was successfully registered, please settle the invoice. As soon as we receive your payment, we will send you an email with the auth code. Please transfer the domain within 14 days after having received the auth code.
The invoice will be generated automatically after your payment has been received and recorded. This usually takes one working day after the receipt of your payment. You will receive the invoice by email once and will be able to download it at any time in your account at "Account > Bills".
In order to enable the transfer of a domain to another registrar, the new registrar will require a so-called auth code (also called AuthInfo-Code) from the current registrar. This auth code acts as a password for the domain. You will receive the auth code from us by email after we have processed your payment. Afterwards you can view the code by going to your "Account > Bills" at any time. Simply click on the button .
At "Account > Bills" you can download the auth codes in a bundle per order. You will receive a file in CSV format. Simply click on the button .
As described in our terms and conditions, you have to settle any invoices within 14 days after the domain registration at the latest. Otherwise, there will be an additional fee of €5 per domain and started calendar month.
The number in the box indicates that an invoice has not been settled yet. Once the invoice has been paid for, the little box will disappear and only reappear in case there is another open invoice.
More questions:
The small red box with the number indicates that you were outbid at e. g. two auctions. The intended result is that you may bid again or leave it to another bidder.
In the auction history, you can see the progress of your bidding for each auction you participate in. In addition, the bids of other auction participants can be viewed, although the actual bid is not always displayed. Either the exact bid is displayed or a price that was exceeded by the bid (such as >= €30). This price can e.g. the minimum price or the current bid. The icon signals that all other auction participants cannot see your exact bid, but only the current bid of the auction.
In order to ensure anonymity, the opponents of the auction are not given their names, but rather in an encrypted spelling (such as **** fe1b). The encryption changes dynamically with each domain or auction. Thus, it cannot be traced back to a specific customer or recognized in another auction.
If a domain has a minimum price, this is shown with an orange background. If you are the highest bidder, your highest bid will be highlighted in green in the list. Otherwise, if you are not the highest bidder, the highest bid of the highest bidder will be highlighted in red.
You only pay the amount you have bid on your desired domain. You may submit a maximum bid for each auction. Paying is only required, if we register the domain successfully. Please note that additional costs for the transfer of your domain to a new provider are not included.
You receive a fixed budget from us. Usually it amounts to €6,000 after the registration. This budget can be used in every ongoing auction and can be viewed in your account.
First, your bids from current auctions, including those in the catching phase, are deducted from this budget. This deduction only happens as the highest bidder and is limited to €5,000.00 per auction. Whenever you bid more than €5,000.00, only this €5,000.00 will be deducted from your budget.
Likewise, open invoice totals are deducted without limit. If an invoice is created from a winning auction with a bid above €5,000.00, the full invoice amount will be deducted from the budget. The available budget will therefore be lower.
If your budget is insufficient, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will gladly increase it accordingly after reviewing your account.
Some examples of how your available budget is composed and calculated:
- You have a budget of €6,000.
- You are currently the high bidder at 2 domains. On one of those you have placed a maximum bid of €10, on the other a maximum bid of €20. The maximum bids are totalized (€10 + €20 = €30). Your current available budget is now €5,970 (€6,000 - €30).
- Additionally, you were the high bidder for 3 domains, however they are still in the catching-process. You won each domain for €10. The amounts are totalized (€10 + €10 + €10 = €30). Your current available budget is now €5,940 (€5,970 - €30).
- Futhermore, you have won 2 domains for €20 each. They have been successfully registered by us, but you have not paid for them yet. The outstanding invoices are totalized (€20 + €20 = €40). Your current available budget is thus €5,900 (€5,940 - €40).
- Suddenly you were outbid in an auction you had invested €20 in. This amount will be released and your current available budget is now €5,920 (€5,900 + €20) again.
- You settle your open invoices. Once we have processed them, your budget will be released accordingly. Your current available budget is then again €5,960 (€5,920 + €40).
- Currently you have a budget of €5,960. If you now bid €5,500, only €5,000 will be deducted from your budget (special rule budget deduction). This leaves a budget of €960 (€5,960 - €5,000 = €960). If you win this auction and an invoice is created, the special rule no longer applies. Then the full bid is deducted from the budget (€5,960 - €5,500 = €460).
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