HugeDomains.com is Buying 50%+ of Expiring Domains at GoDaddy.com

[Arca]

I've been wondering about the competition in auctions for expiring domains over at GoDaddy.com, because somebody is paying hundreds for seemingly every domain that gets a few bidders.

I’ve also noticed a clear pattern, with the last bidder (or one of the last bidders) entering the auction winning most of the time, which made me think that there is one large corporate buyer piggybacking of whatever domains other people find and bid on. Turns out that is the case: HugeDomains.com is buying most domains over at GoDaddy.com expired auctions. I looked up the WHOIS of the past 150 auctions I have lost at GoDaddy.com, and 84 of those are now owned by HugeDomains.com and listed for sale on HugeDomains.com.

While 50%+ may not be representative of overall domains bought at GoDaddy, they do seem to buy far more domains than anyone else. The 66 names not bought by HugeDomains.com were bought by a number of different individuals and companies (BuyDomains.com bought 6 of those 66, for example), so 50%+ were taken by HugeDomains, while "the rest" of the auction wins were by a number of different individual domainers and companies.

This might not be news to some, but I've never seen anyone mention that HugeDomains is this active over at GD expired auctions, so I thought it might be interesting for some people to know who is outbidding everyone in the lower range over at GoDaddy. I've read people mentioning that HugeDomains buy names in close-out status over at GoDaddy, but never that they buy most of the domains in auctions too.

HugeDomains absolutely dominates all auctions below $5XX, and they only picked up a single name above $5XX (cakemart.com) in my sample of 150 names, so $5XX seems to be a self-imposed limit for them. If I only checked domains sold below $5XX, the percentage bought by them would be even higher. I've been the second highest bidder in lots of auctions that HugeDomains.com won, and in my experience they will keep bidding until you give up or until the price passes $5XX. By outbidding most bidders in the lower end, and acquiring more than half of the domains other people also have interest, it leaves a far smaller pool of names for the rest of the domainers to compete for, so I guess that's part of the reason why the reseller prices for names keep increasing so much for names in this range.

The only way to buy cheap domains at GoDaddy auctions now seems to be to let domains expire with 0 bids, so that they go to close-out status, and then try to snipe them as soon as that happens. However, some domainers seem to think it's smart to bid $12 on any decent name when there is 1-15 minutes left, hoping that nobody else is going to place a bid, so fewer and fewer decent names are let to expire with 0 bids. However, that strategy never seems to work (I've tried it myself lots of names, and it did not work even one time), because there are always other people watching and waiting for the name to go to close-out, and they jump in and bid if you make a $12 bid, and most of those names are eventually won by HugeDomains.com. What experiences do other people have at GD recently? Anyone else have any good strategies for buying expiring domains @ GoDaddy.com these days?

Some examples of expired domains bought at GoDaddy.com auctions by HugeDomains:
Domain: skillsharing.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $540
Asking price (at HugeDomains): $2995

Domain: ledmaster.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $537
BIN price (at HugeDomains): $2195

Domain: cyberstrategies.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $262
Asking price (at HugeDomains): $2895

Domain: crablab.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $320
Asking price (at HugeDomains): $1895

Domain: dailyportal.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $560
Asking price (at HugeDomains): $2895

Domain: fivesecondrule.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $42
Asking price (at HugeDomains): $2695

Domain: deltacloud.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $365
BIN price (at HugeDomains): $1795

Domain: itace.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $499
BIN price (at HugeDomains): $2595

Domain: sunnykitchen.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $200
BIN price (at HugeDomains): $2595

Domain: baristaschool.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $449
BIN price (at HugeDomains): $2895

Domain: cakemart.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $695
BIN price (at HugeDomains): $3495

Domain: visuala.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $315
BIN price (at HugeDomains): $2795

Domain: massanalytics.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $130
BIN price (at HugeDomains): $2095

Domain: edusport.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $535
BIN price (at HugeDomains): $2995

Domain: acneguru.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $52
Asking price (at HugeDomains): $2495

Domain: stylefolio.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $195
Asking price (at HugeDomains): $1995

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Related: HUGE DOMAINS SNIPING GODADDY CLOSEOUTS

 

[urlurl]

house bidders, shill bidder, disruptors,

 

[campout]

Found one where Huge paid over $500:

robomaster.com 787 USD 2017-03-29 GoDaddy

 

[urlurl]

not a name i would have gone after,

i guess when the robots take us over we will call them 'master'

or is it to replace solo play with robots (masterbot would be a better name i guess )

 

[wwwweb]

They have paid close to $2,xxx for some...

Found one where Huge paid over $500:

robomaster.com 787 USD 2017-03-29 GoDaddy

I was in an auction few months ago where Huge won an they paid $16xx, can't remember the name off hand though.

They put a bin on it on their website at $7xxx

 

[Recons.Com]

They have paid close to $2,xxx for some...

I was in an auction few months ago where Huge won an they paid $16xx, can't remember the name off hand though.

They put a bin on it on their website at $7xxx

How does that make sense for them?

If you acquire 100 names like that, you'd spend 160 000$. If you sell 1%, that is $7,000 revenue minus $800 renewals, minus $1,600 cost of the item, which leaves $4,600 before other expenses, taxes etc.

That is less than 3% return. You'd need 4% sales, which is really hard to achieve, from your inventory just to get to around 10% return, which is not much for such a risky business...

 

[davidc1]

is ther anybody understanding what they do, except losing money ?

 

[Asfas1000]

To break even, they need to sell 1600 / 7000 = 23% of their domains (assuming similar pricing) in howmany years it takes (renewals are negligible).

With a 2% yearly sell through rate, they'd need 12 years to break even.
With a 3% yearly sell through rate, they'd need 8 years to break even.

Only thing that makes sense is they have a much higher sell through rate, for whatever reasons.

 

[Recons.Com]

I seriously doubt they have higher than 1-2%.

BB, BR achieve around 3% by having much more user-friendly interfaces and working with clients, having great seo etc.

HD sucks in all that and their website is very outdated.

 

[Asfas1000]

These better domains certainly have a better chance of selling than random made up brandables. Their payment plans should help too. I'd think 5% is far from impossible for the better domains.

 

[davidc1]

a customer told me they make about 0.5% sales.

 

[Asfas1000]

a customer told me they make about 0.5% sales.

Maybe this is for their reg fee expired domains ? (drop-caught)

 

[davidc1]

Maybe this is for their reg fee expired domains ? (drop-caught)

yes, catched domains only.

 

[Asfas1000]

yes, catched domains only.

Yeah , different ball game.

 

[davidc1]

Yeah , different ball game.

most others comes from GD ?

 

[Asfas1000]

most others comes from GD ?

No idea, sorry.

 

[wwwweb]

How does that make sense for them?

If you acquire 100 names like that, you'd spend 160 000$. If you sell 1%, that is $7,000 revenue minus $800 renewals, minus $1,600 cost of the item, which leaves $4,600 before other expenses, taxes etc.

That is less than 3% return. You'd need 4% sales, which is really hard to achieve, from your inventory just to get to around 10% return, which is not much for such a risky business...

Sorry, to many names to remember so the domain was qmetrics.com and they listed it with a BIN of $8995, after paying $1623, so about 5x.

 

[Recons.Com]

Sorry, to many names to remember so the domain was qmetrics.com and they listed it with a BIN of $8995, after paying $1623, so about 5x.

Still doesn't change the math behind. And just tested their inventory/site again, a lot of trash domains, so I'd expect less than 1% sales.

qmetrics is ok name, but definitely not $9K name.

Actually, when you look at their inventory pricing, you can get the feel that they are clueless. They sell Chinese premium LLLLs at about 2x of the wholesale/reseller price, while they have something like hhjo/com for $19,300(!!!) or about 90x of wholesale price.

Also, lots of .net names, which have even less liquidity... And their "dictionary" section is plain joke. some examples of $25K+ "dictionary" - countershock.com, micrometeorite.com, itchproof.com, reshooting.com, curvesome.com, shovelboard.com, duckish.com, maplike.com. Imagine now the trash they have for under $10K.

I can spend a week and get a similar collection at $25-50/name average.

 

[urlurl]

Sorry, to many names to remember so the domain was qmetrics.com and they listed it with a BIN of $8995, after paying $1623, so about 5x.

doesn't make sense, not a great name, over pay on auction and trying to sell for unrealistic amount.

 

[hookbox]

What they lack in modern web design they make up for in payment plans. Being able to buy a $3,000 domain for 100 bucks a month is a no brainer. I'm sure their sell thru rate is much higher then we think because of their payment plans.

 

[urlurl]

yup, so true

 

[DomainVP]

wow

Panty Box . com sold for over $1k - i was out at $100

its a nice name but $1k is way over resale value IMO

Someone likes low profit margins and wasting money.

 

[Recons.Com]

What they lack in modern web design they make up for in payment plans. Being able to buy a $3,000 domain for 100 bucks a month is a no brainer. I'm sure their sell thru rate is much higher then we think because of their payment plans.

Lease option can (big maybe) double the sell through ratio, but not increase it tenfold.

 

[urlurl]

the problem with long term lease's is most startups wont last 1-2 years. I have sold a lot of names to start-ups - i do check up on some of my sales and some don't make it to development and some don't work out a few years later. I would rather sell $x,xxx upfront.

 

[dordomai]

It hasn't slowed down, but with icann 60 day locks, Godaddy push pains, and escrow issues, this is not helping domainers, just adding more risk, and costs.

Unless economy hits a wall, I don't see a slowdown in aftermarket prices. You just have to let the suckers keep paying, and eventually as renewal hit along with a lack of sales, they will get that deer in the headlights moment.

Newbies are looking for quick profits, it's a sad reality, those days are just not there, to many smarter end users with many tactics, and options.

is ther anybody understanding what they do, except losing money ?

drive domainers out of Godaddy to Dropcatch backorders, destroy the market?

 

[urlurl]

discourage domainers to get out of the industry?