What is going on with GoDaddy Auctions!

[urlurl]

So, you don't usually see bids on names if they just hit the GD expired auction (unless they are premium or 4L names) with 9 days left. i was looking at expiring names today and these sh*t names have bids on them already, wtf am i missing???

So i did a general sample search of 500 names on GD exp auctions

There were 140 with initial bids (excluding 4L's) - that's almost 30% of the names with pre bids.

So even if no else bids on these names - that's over $3k in auction/renewal fee's (just on the sample i did - there are most likely 100's or 1,000's more)

Here are a few random sample names - Am i totally missing something?

vtmoon.com $12 * USD$ 9D 23H
lagocel.com $12 * USD$ 9D 23H
darubazz.com $12 * USD$ 9D 22H
dongwww.com $12 * USD$ 9D 22H
mbucd.com $12 * USD$ 9D 22H
wildgrfx.com $12 * USD$ 9D 22H
cmkmg.com $12 * USD$ 9D 22H

 

[ikehook]

I can say with about 99.99% certainty that (in this context) that is not at all what @ikehook was talking about on @DomainSherpa ...

It certainly is a numbers game . .and he likely buys a lot more than most domainers .. but where I'm sure he would strongly disagree is that you should not just buy up any domains just for the sake of having a higher "number" of domains. Unless the domains aren't of a minimum quality or desired specification, then you should never just buy a random domain just for the sake of having another domain in your portfolio.

These bids are possibly the result of an automated bidding bot of one of the more equipped domainers out there who didn't see this coming. Doesn't make much sense with the early bids though .. probably just poorly programmed. Or maybe it is a bunch of live users whose English isn't very strong who don't understand that GoDaddy is just arbitrarily making up a number based on completely unknown metrics.

On the topic of the actual valuations .. what they value some of these domains are extremely disconcerting to downright misleading. I personally usually do not pay attention to anybody's evaluation but my own (particularly automated ones) .. but I think many of these valuations are a little too misleading to simply hide behind GoDaddy's "disclaimer".

At the end of the day they are actually good for some domainers who ignore valuations as it focuses some of the attention and investment capital on a bunch of garbage domains that I would never touch with a 1000 foot pole!

Lol, Ategy is correct. If the strategy was to buy the shitiest names ever I wouldn't buy them at auction.

I need to read through this whole thread, but there are horrible names with bids everyday on Godaddy expired usually due to the "traffic" numbers.

On a typical auction day, there's usually around 300-400 names with bids prior to the start of the auction.

These names with "valuations" are probably getting "bids" with back order credits.

A credit allows the buyer to get the name without paying the renewal fee. So for example I bid on a name tomorrow, it ends, I'm the only bidder I pay, $12 +$8.47 if I buy the credit I'm only paying $12.
Maybe someone is testing the valuation numbers and buying them all, or they're confusing the valuation with the old valuation that was based off the quality of traffic.

 

[ikehook]

Holy crap! I just looked at auctions with bids. All looks normal until auctions ending 5/23, there's over 11k with bids. The day before less than 200

 

[ikehook]

Yep... 5/23 33k names at auction, 11k with bids, wtf? Lol

 

[Ategy]

A credit allows the buyer to get the name without paying the renewal fee. So for example I bid on a name tomorrow, it ends, I'm the only bidder I pay, $12 +$8.47 if I buy the credit I'm only paying $12.
Maybe someone is testing the valuation numbers and buying them all, or they're confusing the valuation with the old valuation that was based off the quality of traffic.

Actually .. credits are $25 .. but as you stated they do cover renewal.


As for the rest .. it's very what the ... lol

On the outset it looks like fraud on the part of GoDaddy .. but I suspect that at the root of it is either a flaw in a domainer's automatic bidding bot .. or a bug in the new GD system.

Either way it's a concern and probably a question @Joe Styler should answer before the rumours get out of hand ...

Joe ... ?

 

[ikehook]

Ok I'm 90% sure this is what is happening. Godaddy had an old tool that I mentioned earlier. It gave a valuation based on the traffic, mixed with the search volume, CPC, stuff like that. I'm not talking about the old appraisal tool.

The old traffic valuations were only on names that had decent traffic and they always got bids.

Someone has their Api set up to auto bid on names with a certain valuation, but it's the old traffic valuation numbers. lol. It could have been for tracking purposes only, but now there's lot's of bids on stupid names

 

[ikehook]

Actually .. credits are $25 .. but as you stated they do cover renewal.


As for the rest .. it's very what the ... lol

On the outset it looks like fraud on the part of GoDaddy .. but I suspect that at the root of it is either a flaw in a domainer's automatic bidding bot .. or a bug in the new GD system.

Either way it's a concern and probably a question @Joe Styler should answer before the rumours get out of hand ...

Joe ... ?

They don't have to be $25... I can buy them for $12, but I don't because the credits are a big "hey look at this domain"

 

[Ategy]

Ok I'm 90% sure this is what is happening. Godaddy had an old tool that I mentioned earlier. It gave a valuation based on the traffic, mixed with the search volume, CPC, stuff like that. I'm not talking about the old appraisal tool.

Are you sure about that? I was under the impression that the valuations displayed were on domains that had manual valuations done on them at some point in the past ... which also explained the reason there were so few of them.

As for the new system .. for domainers that take the hours to slug through the lists these horrendous evaluations can actually be a good thing .. on one hand I almost hope they stay as ridiculously bad as they are so quickie domainers are less likely to find the ones I want ... but on the other hand there's a little red light flashing in my brain that says this is morally wrong and eventually going to look bad on the community as a whole ... I'll give it abit of time and see how things play out ... will be very interesting to see if Godaddy retracts what are obviously unintended bids for May 23rd domain auctions.

Particularly when I've pointed out to them that bugs in their system has actually had my bid on one domain apply to another domain .. and their answer when I contacted them to fix the bid was "Sorry .. it's in our terms of service ... bla bla bla .. you are stuck with the domain despite the bug in our system because you agreed to our terms". Cost me about $300 for 2 domains .. all they needed to do was push the domains to the next highest bidder .. would have only cost them $10 and keep a customer happy AND most importantly motivate me to help them fix isolate the problem. Worse yet .. the bug is still there .. as is another security flaw I pointed out to them last year (which I won't mention out in the open for obvious reasons).

But as I say time and time again .. they've got the expiring domains I want .. so forced to put up and shut up (except for venting about it here of course .. lol)

because the credits are a big "hey look at this domain"

Yup ... I've recently come to that conclusion as well .. I actually tried experimenting with Credits a couple of weeks ago ... and it totally messed up a name I was trying to grab .. it didn't grab it so I grabbed it manually ... only to have it disappear from my cart in well under the usual allotted time before payment .. was pretty pissed actually .. yet another GD bug!

 

[ikehook]

Are you sure about that? I was under the impression that the valuations displayed were on domains that had manual valuations done on them at some point in the past ... which also explained the reason there were so few of them.

As for the new system .. for domainers that take the hours to slug through the lists these horrendous evaluations can actually be a good thing .. on one hand I almost hope they stay as ridiculously bad as they are so quickie domainers are less likely to find the ones I want ... but on the other hand there's a little red light flashing in my brain that says this is morally wrong and eventually going to look bad on the community as a whole ... I'll give it abit of time and see how things play out ... will be very interesting to see if Godaddy retracts what are obviously unintended bids for May 23rd domain auctions.

Particularly when I've pointed out to them that bugs in their system has actually had my bid on one domain apply to another domain .. and their answer when I contacted them to fix the bid was "Sorry .. it's in our terms of service ... bla bla bla .. you are stuck with the domain despite the bug in our system because you agreed to our terms". Cost me about $300 for 2 domains .. all they needed to do was push the domains to the next highest bidder .. would have only cost them $10 and keep a customer happy AND most importantly motivate me to help them fix isolate the problem. Worse yet .. the bug is still there .. as is another security flaw I pointed out to them last year (which I won't mention out in the open for obvious reasons).

It's possible that they were done manually, I'm not sure, but even if they were it was based off some sort of metric that flagged the name.

The fact that there were so few of them reinforces that idea that an api is placing the bids because it's set to place a bid on anything with a certain valuation.

The "new valuation" is simply an upgrade to the old Godaddy appraisal tool. It's the same one that give you a price suggestion in the premium listings section of the dashboard.

So basically they've removed the old valuation and placed the new appraisal in the same spot. I don't think it's malicious just poor implementation, I actually talked to Styler about a new appraisal tool that was coming out several months ago.

I'm pretty sure that most of these bids will disappear in the next few days as bidders realize their API is placing bids on the new Appraisals and not the Old valuations.

 

[Ategy]

I'm pretty sure that most of these bids will disappear in the next few days as bidders realize their API is placing bids on the new Appraisals and not the Old valuations.

How is it possible to remove bids? Seems that goes not only against their terms .. but also against the ethics of how auctions are supposed to be run .. like at least a few of them have had 2nd bid .. are they going to contact those people as well and give them the option to nullify their bid? Or automatically reduce everyone's bids by $5?

They should have used a different term and technically a different data-field name on the back end to avoid both real world user confusion as well as API issues for those that automate their bids.

It's possible that they were done manually, I'm not sure, but even if they were it was based off some sort of metric that flagged the name.

What I meant by manually is that people used to get evaluation credits (I honestly can't remember with what product/service .. I know I have a few) .. so *I think* if someone used that evaluation credit on a domain or paid for a manual valuation .. then those old results were what was show in the past.

Anyhow .. at the end of the day I'd like for things to be crystal clear about if bids that are actually showing are indeed bids .. or if they are invalid bids that are to be removed ... because like it or not .. if you're interested in one of those domains and that information isn't extremely clear one way or another well ahead of time (Ideally should have been) then the auctions on the domains in question will be completely lacking integrity .. accidental shill bidding is still shill bidding .. and has the effect (unintended, accidental or otherwise) of artificially inflating auction prices.

Which for one day is great for you and me as it drains the purchase power of whoever that competing domainer is .. but at the same time it makes it a little concerning to participate in an auction where the integrity has of the system has been thrown out the door (again .. whether it's purposeful which i very much doubt .. or more likely just because of sloppy coding / implementation / foresight .. it doesn't matter as the end result is the same).


*OR* .. We could actually be wrong .. and there actually is a real domainer(s) out there who just loves these domains and is bidding on them with the full intention of paying and owning them !!! lol

 

[ikehook]

I think they'd remove them because of the change in the system. It's not normal but Godaddy isn't run my nazi's they realize something different or unusual happened. I've had my own auctions stopped. Numerics with "69" in them were flagged as adult and weren't in the normal feed. I got 1 bid only, Godaddy didn't let the auction go through as it was their fault.

 

[urlurl]

day 3 and the bids keep coming in, most of the bids are only on the valuated names. im not sure what the total count is but who has that kind of capital to throw blindly at names

 

[ikehook]

41,671. That's the total amount of names with bids at auction.

 

[urlurl]

does that exclude 4L's

 

[ikehook]

does that exclude 4L's

yeah that's the overall total of names with bids.

 

[urlurl]

so lets say we take out 1,671 for 4L and obvious premium names; we are looking at 40,000 names (assuming from one bidder) over 3 days. lets also assume they don't bid anymore and they get almost all the names they put a bid on... that works out to $820,000 and counting!

 

[urlurl]

...and then they were all gone, all the pre bids have been removed????

 

[kostaki]

Yes it is back to normal now. ~2500 auctions with bids.

 

[ikehook]

...and then they were all gone, all the pre bids have been removed????

I haven't checked, but like I said previously I'm sure it was an API bidding based off the old numbers. Once they figured it out they had them removed.

 

[Joe Styler]

GoDaddy doesn't place bids on auctions. So we wouldn't place initial bids on the auction. I am and have been out of the office since last Thursday. I am in Europe at domaining Europe, if you are not here it is a great event. My responses are going to be pretty delayed until I am back in the office in about 7 or 8 days.

If you use a backorder on an auction, so you are the first person to place a backorder on the domain before the domain is listed in our expired auction then the bid will start at $10 instead of $12. This is because a backorder gives you a better deal if you buy them in bulk then just bidding without the backorder. So for example if you buy a 100 credits you can get them for $17.48 a credit. This credit covers your renewal for the domain and the first $10 of the bid. So if you place the backorder first and get the domain opening bid it shows $10 and no one else wins you only use the credit you do not pay anything additional.
If there is a bid for $400 and you have the backorder on the domain and you win, you would pay $390 and use one backorder credit instead of paying $400 and the $10 renewal for the domain for instance. So it is a bit cheaper to buy backorder credits in bulk and use them to help you bid and many big customers take advantage of this as it saves them money in bulk. Anyone can use this strategy. The flip side of this strategy is that the backorder will show a bid on the domain on the auction and it will tip others off to the fact that you have interest in the domain.
Hope that helps a bit. As I said I am super busy working at the conference and then trying to keep up with my other work so most likely you won't hear from me for another week

 

[Ategy]

@Joe Styler ... yeah .. I think most of us were pretty sure it wasn't GoDaddy faking bids ... however ... I think most of us would like to know officially what happened to those thousands of bids that disappeared .. as well as maybe a bit more details/metrics behind the "Valuations" (vs what they were in the past)?

Thanks

 

[wwwweb]

@Joe Styler ... yeah .. I think most of us were pretty sure it wasn't GoDaddy faking bids ... however ... I think most of us would like to know officially what happened to those thousands of bids that disappeared .. as well as maybe a bit more details/metrics behind the "Valuations" (vs what they were in the past)?

Thanks

I also thought once a bid is placed it is final, and cannot be retracted.

Looks like someones software got caught with their pants down, it has to be a very big player, and only one comes to mind.

 

[urlurl]

yes, one comes to mind for sure

 

[wwwweb]

yes, one comes to mind for sure

I actually purchased a 4L.com from this big player via TDNAM in Nov 2015, a few days before the chips shot up by like $600 in a day, they refused to transfer it over because they said their was a glitch in their price update, and it did not get updated correctly. My money was stuck in limbo for 10 days then returned $17XX. They faced no recourse for not honoring their sale from TDNAM.

I would love to know how all those bids got retracted, as this has been the holy grail, once you place a bid you have to honor it. If they want to play with automated tools, that is fine, but they should have to honor their bids like the rest of us. A few times, I have put an extra digit, and pay a few multiples higher, but I pay regardless because those are the rules, and they are serious about them.

But shouldn't everyone play by the same rules... Where did all those bids go?

 

[urlurl]

isn't that always the case, those with big volumes/cash get to do what they want while the smaller fish are eaten up.

 

[ValleyRock]

isn't that always the case, those with big volumes/cash get to do what they want while the smaller fish are eaten up.

Do you have API access ?