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I recently sold cryptocomicbook.com and decided to list some additional domains for sale, at the exact time I listed them a handful of ua.(TLDs) got listed for

I recently sold cryptocomicbook.com and decided to list some additional domains for sale, at the exact time I listed them a handful of ua.(TLDs) got listed for sale including ua.com and whoever listed them must have done it in bulk and given them all the same price ($76). So I bought the ua.com for $76, at that point the seller must have realized what happened and immediately changed the sales price of all the other TLDs from $76 (example ua.co went from $76 to a min of $48,000), the marketplace confirmed the seller was verified as the owner or had authority to sell ua.com. Of course after the fact the marketplace reversed the transaction, they oddly reconfirmed the seller was verified/legit (I thought they would say the seller got past their verification but wasn’t legit), and they have refused to confirm why if the seller was legit that they reversed the sale transaction.

codezero 5y ago
They reversed it because it was an honest mistake and most people like to know that if they make the same mistake it can be undone.
- GordonS 5y ago
  I have to agree - although I'm surprised the registrant actually used common sense here, it was the fair thing to do.
  - supergirl 5y ago
    maybe it was a bug in their system, so they were on the hook
- masswerk 5y ago
  It may be worth noting that in most countries a contract essentially is established by the consensus of wills by the parties involved. An error in objecto ("I didn't mean the thing I accidentally said or listed") is a legitimate excuse and nullifies a contract. (The consensus didn't exist and thus the contract had never been established in the first place). (This is also a reason why marketplaces, where things "just happen", are, let's say, complicated, as they do not adhere to this legal tradition.)
  - throwaway_kufu 5y ago
    It can be a defense in the US but not likely the case here, the remedy wouldn’t be specific performance (ie give me the domain) but damages for a fair market value of what I paid for, specific performance is very rare in the US. There would also be claims against the marketplace (despite their terms of service indemnifying them) other laws apply that can’t be waived under both federal and state law such as fair trade practices acts and deceptive trade practices). The whole point being anyone could increase prices that were advertised and say oh my ad was in error rendering every contract reversible and subject to post hoc price increases.
    - AussieWog93 5y ago
      I mean, that's what judicial discretion is for. Good luck convincing a judge that the seller honestly intended to sell his domain for 1000x lower than market value.
      - throwaway_kufu 5y ago
        No that isn’t what judicial discretion is. In contract law judges are not permitted to unilaterally interject their understanding of a contracting party’s intent and revise the terms of a contract, try looking up the “4 corners of a contract”. I’ll give a specific example of a buddy of mine who in 2008 (during housing bubble) used to buy foreclosed homes at auction. There was a $2-3M home foreclosed Miami Beach home on auction, he put in a bid for about $200k, then the clerk of court website crashed, he didn’t think much of it, come to find out it crashed for everyone locking in his bid, the bank moved to set aside the sale on the basis of uncontrollable 3rd party error, my friend showed up single handedly with a few cases printed up in support of his position and the court denied the banks motion and my friend received title to the house. If the bank had any remedy it was for damages against the courts system that caused the damage not against the contractual winner of the auction.
        nmfisher 5y ago
        That's not a contractual mistake though, is it? It was an auction, meaning anyone could bid, and he put a genuine bid for $200k. Just because the system crashed doesn't mean anyone actually made a representation they didn't intend to. A more realistic example would be the wrong house getting listed for auction due to clerical error (but one still owned by the bank). I'm fairly sure that would be set aside.
- throwaway_kufu 5y ago
  Maybe...I tested your theory and asked them to reverse my recent sale of cryptocomicbook.com on the same basis and my request was declined. In either case there is both contract law and state federal law (unfair trade practices) that would support my claim in the courts if I were so inclined.
  - cj 5y ago
    > I tested your theory and asked them to reverse my recent sale Was your recent sale grossly and clearly mispriced with evidence such as similar domains selling for many orders of magnitude more?
    - throwaway_kufu 5y ago
      Who is supposed to make that determination? It was below the marketplaces own valuation is that’s not enough and must use an ambiguous word like “grossly” essentially meaning in the sole discretion of the marketplace? In any case it’s neither in their terms or service nor supported by case law. Who ever listed it agreed to the terms of service/contract multiple times and verified the price multiple times, it’s not incumbent on a buyer to point out to a seller their price is below market value (and that come directly from the case law for contracts). If there was an error (either by the lister or maybe a bug in the marketplace software) believe it or not the claim would be against them and not me, and presumably they would both also be covered by insurance specifically for those kinds of damages. Im not saying I will take legal action, for example I offered them to just put my domains on their “premium listing page”. But I’m also not here to debate the legal merit of contract law.
      - codezero 5y ago
        You can't know that the person who listed it doesn't have a special MSA (service agreement) with their vendor that gives them premium support and or protections not offered to "normal" end-users, and you seem to believe there is some sort of clear black and white with how business may make decisions when there are incidents on their platforms. As a person who misses a lot of flights, I can tell you that they can always reroute you, usually for free, and sometimes get you home faster, but if you're an asshole and constantly talk about how you've been wronged, you get to wait for the next flight.
- dehrmann 5y ago
  It's not a blockchain domain registry.
clukic 5y ago
As I read this I literally had a config file open in another window with references to ua.com. it's owned by UnderArmour and serves endpoints to their Fitness API. This would have been one of the more interesting answers to the most common support question at my company: "Why wont my runs sync?"
stainforth 5y ago
Why should I believe in markets when transactions can just be reversed like this?
- cj 5y ago
  If you walked into a car dealership and saw a price tag of $100 on a car that normally sells for $250,000, would you also lose faith in the dealership when they return your $100 and tell you the car was not meant to be priced at $100? If anything, the example should boost your confidence in the marketplace. Marketplaces exist to provide a fair experience to both the buyer and the seller. Not just the buyer.
  - matheusmoreira 5y ago
    > would you also lose faith in the dealership when they return your $100 and tell you the car was not meant to be priced at $100 Yes.
    - cj 5y ago
      Now imagine it was your own car in the parking lot, and an employee of the dealership accidentally tagged your car for sale as one of theirs, and mistakenly and irreversibly sold it, all while you were test driving a new car :)
      - smilekzs 5y ago
        "you" would then sue for damages?
      - 3np 5y ago
        Then the dealership is on the hook for at the very minimum the actual market value of the car.
      - matheusmoreira 5y ago
        Looks like they owe me a new car.

codezero 5y ago

They reversed it because it was an honest mistake and most people like to know that if they make the same mistake it can be undone.

GordonS 5y ago
I have to agree - although I'm surprised the registrant actually used common sense here, it was the fair thing to do.
- supergirl 5y ago
  maybe it was a bug in their system, so they were on the hook
masswerk 5y ago
It may be worth noting that in most countries a contract essentially is established by the consensus of wills by the parties involved. An error in objecto ("I didn't mean the thing I accidentally said or listed") is a legitimate excuse and nullifies a contract. (The consensus didn't exist and thus the contract had never been established in the first place). (This is also a reason why marketplaces, where things "just happen", are, let's say, complicated, as they do not adhere to this legal tradition.)
- throwaway_kufu 5y ago
  It can be a defense in the US but not likely the case here, the remedy wouldn’t be specific performance (ie give me the domain) but damages for a fair market value of what I paid for, specific performance is very rare in the US. There would also be claims against the marketplace (despite their terms of service indemnifying them) other laws apply that can’t be waived under both federal and state law such as fair trade practices acts and deceptive trade practices). The whole point being anyone could increase prices that were advertised and say oh my ad was in error rendering every contract reversible and subject to post hoc price increases.
  - AussieWog93 5y ago
    I mean, that's what judicial discretion is for. Good luck convincing a judge that the seller honestly intended to sell his domain for 1000x lower than market value.
    - throwaway_kufu 5y ago
      No that isn’t what judicial discretion is. In contract law judges are not permitted to unilaterally interject their understanding of a contracting party’s intent and revise the terms of a contract, try looking up the “4 corners of a contract”. I’ll give a specific example of a buddy of mine who in 2008 (during housing bubble) used to buy foreclosed homes at auction. There was a $2-3M home foreclosed Miami Beach home on auction, he put in a bid for about $200k, then the clerk of court website crashed, he didn’t think much of it, come to find out it crashed for everyone locking in his bid, the bank moved to set aside the sale on the basis of uncontrollable 3rd party error, my friend showed up single handedly with a few cases printed up in support of his position and the court denied the banks motion and my friend received title to the house. If the bank had any remedy it was for damages against the courts system that caused the damage not against the contractual winner of the auction.
      - nmfisher 5y ago
        That's not a contractual mistake though, is it? It was an auction, meaning anyone could bid, and he put a genuine bid for $200k. Just because the system crashed doesn't mean anyone actually made a representation they didn't intend to. A more realistic example would be the wrong house getting listed for auction due to clerical error (but one still owned by the bank). I'm fairly sure that would be set aside.
throwaway_kufu 5y ago
Maybe...I tested your theory and asked them to reverse my recent sale of cryptocomicbook.com on the same basis and my request was declined. In either case there is both contract law and state federal law (unfair trade practices) that would support my claim in the courts if I were so inclined.
- cj 5y ago
  > I tested your theory and asked them to reverse my recent sale Was your recent sale grossly and clearly mispriced with evidence such as similar domains selling for many orders of magnitude more?
  - throwaway_kufu 5y ago
    Who is supposed to make that determination? It was below the marketplaces own valuation is that’s not enough and must use an ambiguous word like “grossly” essentially meaning in the sole discretion of the marketplace? In any case it’s neither in their terms or service nor supported by case law. Who ever listed it agreed to the terms of service/contract multiple times and verified the price multiple times, it’s not incumbent on a buyer to point out to a seller their price is below market value (and that come directly from the case law for contracts). If there was an error (either by the lister or maybe a bug in the marketplace software) believe it or not the claim would be against them and not me, and presumably they would both also be covered by insurance specifically for those kinds of damages. Im not saying I will take legal action, for example I offered them to just put my domains on their “premium listing page”. But I’m also not here to debate the legal merit of contract law.
    - codezero 5y ago
      You can't know that the person who listed it doesn't have a special MSA (service agreement) with their vendor that gives them premium support and or protections not offered to "normal" end-users, and you seem to believe there is some sort of clear black and white with how business may make decisions when there are incidents on their platforms. As a person who misses a lot of flights, I can tell you that they can always reroute you, usually for free, and sometimes get you home faster, but if you're an asshole and constantly talk about how you've been wronged, you get to wait for the next flight.
dehrmann 5y ago
It's not a blockchain domain registry.

clukic 5y ago

As I read this I literally had a config file open in another window with references to ua.com. it's owned by UnderArmour and serves endpoints to their Fitness API. This would have been one of the more interesting answers to the most common support question at my company: "Why wont my runs sync?"

stainforth 5y ago

Why should I believe in markets when transactions can just be reversed like this?

cj 5y ago
If you walked into a car dealership and saw a price tag of $100 on a car that normally sells for $250,000, would you also lose faith in the dealership when they return your $100 and tell you the car was not meant to be priced at $100? If anything, the example should boost your confidence in the marketplace. Marketplaces exist to provide a fair experience to both the buyer and the seller. Not just the buyer.
- matheusmoreira 5y ago
  > would you also lose faith in the dealership when they return your $100 and tell you the car was not meant to be priced at $100 Yes.
  - cj 5y ago
    Now imagine it was your own car in the parking lot, and an employee of the dealership accidentally tagged your car for sale as one of theirs, and mistakenly and irreversibly sold it, all while you were test driving a new car :)
    - smilekzs 5y ago
      "you" would then sue for damages?
    - 3np 5y ago
      Then the dealership is on the hook for at the very minimum the actual market value of the car.
    - matheusmoreira 5y ago
      Looks like they owe me a new car.