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question Question about weird GoDaddy Auctions yesterday.

NameSilo
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I have participated in many GoDaddy auctions before but saw something very weird yesterday that I haven't seen before. I tried tweeting my question out from my twitter account but there was not enough room for me to tweet my full story on there so my tweet probably looked like it didn't make much sense.

This is the tweet I posted...
https://twitter.com/MediaBrandingVP/status/1066815599123279872

Before I post screenshots of the domains and what exactly happened yesterday and get into this, I guess I will just try narrow this post down to 1 or 2 questions in case I am missing something.

So all Expiring GoDaddy Auctions always start at $12.

If no bids at all, then the domain goes to an $11 Buy It Now price. Seen it hundreds of times.

Something different happened yesterday that I haven't seen though. Has anyone ever seen this before though?

Immediately at end of expiring GD auction w/no bids at all, almost 1 second after auction has ended, it shows back up immediately with a bid of $10 and now 5 minutes remaining? So of course as it shows to me now, it completely ended the $12 auction and skipped the $11 BIN process and created another auction starting at $10 immediately. How do I get this domain now? Well I have to bid $15 to get this domain now with an additional new 5 minute clock ticking. Happened 3x. I bid my $15 and won it. Almost like there really was not a $10 bidder, which I believe even shouldn't have been there.

I never seen this happen before and it happened to me 3x yesterday.

What changed, or what am I missing here?

This is only on 3 auctions that I was watching pretty intently for the last 5 minutes of normal $12 auction process.

I followed a couple other random ones yesterday within the last 30 seconds of auction that were very crappy domains and those did go to the $11 BIN within minutes like I have seen tons of times before. Only difference is the (3) I watched throughout entire last 5 minutes created another auction w/one bidder at $10 and when I bid the $15, I won.

Hope I am explaining myself pretty well here.

When did these1 bidder $10 auctions start after the $12 auctions expired?
Almost like there wasn't even a bidder there but showed a new one.

Anyone have any idea what happened there at all?
 
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Ok Just got an answer in case anyone was following this here.

@Paul Nicks replied to me on Twitter.

The $10 auction starts after (no bid) expiring auction ends only when someone placed a backorder @ GD.

Thanks Paul


Paul Nicks.png
 
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I thought it might be backorder related. Thanks to you and Paul.
 
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Just looked at that thread. Good find. So looks like something did change then. I wonder when that changed.

Was someone trying to snipe domains with last second b/o possibly who didnt know GD closed that loophole and added new 5 min clock. Interesting.
 
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Just looked at that thread. Good find. So looks like something did change then. I wonder when that changed.

Was someone trying to snipe domains with last second b/o possibly who didnt know GD closed that loophole and added new 5 min clock. Interesting.

Well Huge Domains snipes names as they go into closeout prompting Andrew at DomainNameWire.com to suggest maybe closeouts should start at $75.

https://domainnamewire.com/2018/04/23/a-simple-way-to-make-godaddy-closeout-auctions-more-fair/

Personally I think that's misguided, not every new domainer can afford to buy a lot of $75 domains and it still does not change the bot snipe problem in anyway.

And if we are living in a world where if the domain gets bid $12 so then bots run it up, like they do, a lot of domains are overpriced, because names go for $200 simply because 1 person bid $12 with one minute left in a 10 day auction, that's kind of crazy.
 
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Well Huge Domains snipes names as they go into closeout prompting Andrew at DomainNameWire.com to suggest maybe closeouts should start at $75.

https://domainnamewire.com/2018/04/23/a-simple-way-to-make-godaddy-closeout-auctions-more-fair/

Personally I think that's misguided, not every new domainer can afford to buy a lot of $75 domains and it still does not change the bot snipe problem in anyway.

And if we are living in a world where if the domain gets bid $12 so then bots run it up, like they do, a lot of domains are overpriced, because names go for $200 simply because 1 person bid $12 with one minute left in a 10 day auction, that's kind of crazy.

Just read AA's post. I don't think the $75 price point would end crazy auction endings over there at GD.

If we are putting a random price tag on any average expiring domain ($69, $75, etc.) it still will not stop all of the ridiculous $300 - $1500 price endings we have seen this past year or so over there.

Inventory is getting gobbled up so it is getting pricier to add a decent dot com into your portfolio now. So average expiring domains are in this viscious circle we created of domain supply and demand.
$12 - 2 years ago, is now $250+

Many more players in the game now IMHO.
 
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I think I have seen worse..

Even after I lost an auction and someone has clearly won it, the 5 minutes kept on extending without any change in the bid amount. And this went on for sometime. As if they were waiting for more bidders to participate even after the auction has ended.
 
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I think I have seen worse..

Even after I lost an auction and someone has clearly won it, the 5 minutes kept on extending without any change in the bid amount. And this went on for sometime. As if they were waiting for more bidders to participate even after the auction has ended.

That would be frustrating as hell. The last 5 minutes seems to always take forever when you are winning at the end of an auction.

Hopefully that was a one time glitch and never happened again.
 
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its obviously a Glitch in the Matrix
 
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TWO THINGS ...

1) It used to be there was a backorder snipe window, where you could get the domain at closeout pricing after the auction closed but before the domain hit closeout. you had to time it perfectly, and delays/windows varied quite a bit from day to day.

Note that this snipping window/loophole was closed about a year ago.

But indeed, the $10 bids are a result of a backorder (that costs $25 at full price which includes renewal PLUS a $10 base bid). It is effectively the same thing as someone throwing in a $12 bid at the last second (except that backorders have a slight delay, so timing it is likely tricky). Either way, placing a $12 bid or a $10 bid ($25 backorder), is a good thing if you absolutely must have the domain .. but it's a gamble .. because you risk others seeing the domain and bidding it up .. but on the other side, you no longer have the risk of someone else being faster than you getting it at closeout.


2) There actually *IS* a glitch in the matrix as well, potentially a very serious one for some users. And that is that the "time remaining" indicated on the domain's auction page is based on YOUR computer's clock. So if your PC clock is 15 seconds out of sync from that of GoDaddy, then indeed a bet and/or backorder could indeed have been placed at what appears to you to be AFTER the auction ended, but in reality there were still a few seconds remaining.

Conversely, if the unsync were 15 seconds the other way, and you wait until the last few seconds of auction to make your bid, then your bid won't actually be valid as the auction would have closed.

This is a serious auction integrity issue .. but I'm thinking the only real work around would be for the "time remaining" to be hard coded in the webpage at load time with no dynamic countdown.

GoDaddy likely made a deliberate choice letting this "glitch" go as they probably see the benefits outweighing the potential problems (particularly considering that most people's devices are all synced).
 
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Really? Who can confirm this?

If I wasn't 100% I would have said "I think ..." or "might be ...". It's very easy to check for yourself .. just change your computer's clock 20 seconds and refresh the page .. you'll see that the countdown is always synchronised to your internal clock as opposed to GoDaddy servers. What I'm not sure about is if it's just the seconds, or if it's also minutes and hours .. but it's definitely the case when it comes to seconds.

There have been literally dozens of bugs, glitches, loopholes, etc on the GoDaddy platform. I've reported tons, but most of the time it just gets lots in bureaucracy. Unfortunately I'm aware of these issues because of lost domains, overcharges and several other frustrations.

I don't discuss ongoing security bugs for obvious reasons (nobody bother PM'ing me asking me for details), but in the past I found things like a bug where a bid you placed on Domain A would actually be placed on Domain B (at least twice I was forced to pay for Domain B .. essentially a domain I did not intend to bid on). As well as a backdoor that allowed you to see other people's exact "supposedly secret" proxy bid. Or losing an entire year of registration on hundreds of domains. Losing domains to expiration because you can't access renewals/transfers on certain platforms. Email glitches that result in transfer codes not being sent. Incorrect pricing. Some really serious issues .. outside of auctions as well. There's a fairly serious security issue I reported a couple of times MANY years ago that's still open.

It got so bad for a while that I was reporting some new problem/glitch to my rep a couple times a month a year or two ago ... it got the the point where I felt bad for my rep and sometimes even started my email to him apologising because I knew I was making his life complicated .. lol.

But it certainly isn't all bad. Sometimes it's to your benefit .. lol. Like a loophole of being able to renew an expired domain without paying any redemption fees right until day 42 after expiration. Or the loophole mentioned here where you could beat closeout snipers with a well timed backorder snipe.

Each time I post like this I must stress that unlike most, I don't think GoDaddy is evil or out to get us. There's nothing intentionally deceptive or misleading (even if there are plenty of things that are unintentionally that way). They are simply cursed like 95% of large companies and big government institutions .. essentially their platform is so big that as it grows, certain parts get lost in the shuffle of upgrades/changes. A scalability nightmare! Lots of bugs where things cross sections/departments and it's the classic case of the right hand having no clue what the left is doing. I'm a power user .. I tinker a lot .. I do a lot of trial and error .. the end result is that I know the GoDaddy platform better than at least 99% of their employees. Again .. it's nothing against them .. it's just that the scope of their platform is so big that it's almost unavoidable. Worst case, it's likely often a case where someone just doesn't want to deal with the issue, passes it along to the next person, etc etc .. then 5-6 people later it just disappears and is forgotten .. lol.

I had a couple of sessions with their team a year ago team on this latest version of auctions, and they were quite amazed at the feedback I gave them .. lol.

At the end of the day it can often be extremely frustrating having to use the GoDaddy platform .. but there's also no denying the fact that they have the best platform if you want to find good expired domains at the best value. I've kinda given up on reporting things these days .. just got so fed up of always getting run-around or the rather patronising "thank you for bringing this issue to our attention, the appropriate parties have been informed and will look into it", followed by ... nothing .. no follow up, no apologies, no explanations, and usually .. no corrections/fixes. GoDaddy seriously needs to hire me as a consultant for a few months .. lol. I'd live to spend Winter in Phoenix instead of Montreal .. lol! Mind you .. when I asked him, Joe never replied if Steamie is allowed to use their slide or not? :(

Again though .. not to bash on GD, this sort of thing is very normal once you hit very large scale platforms .. it really isn't deliberate in any way. Almost everyone I've ever communicated with at GoDaddy have been genuinely friendly and as helpful as you could ever ask for (AS LONG AS it was something they could directly address themselves, which unfortunately isn't usually the case when it comes to the bigger bugs).
 
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Yes, it seems someone is using mass backorders again on domains valued over a certain amount but instead of going straight to the person who backordered they are put up for an additional 5 minute auction. This seems it will only net them the crappiest domains. Perhaps they are unaware of the loophole change?
 
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This seems it will only net them the crappiest domains. Perhaps they are unaware of the loophole change?

1- It could be they are unaware.

2- It could be that for them it's just a numbers game .. if they target 100 domains and don't get 75, then they still get 25 domains at backorder prices. Every day there are plenty of solid domains that make it through the auction cracks!

I've grabbed a lot of great domains at $17, $12, or even at closeout .. however .. it is indeed a numbers game .. you have to go deep into the expiration lists to find domains not likely found by others .. and even then it's a small percentage of really good domains. But if you're persistent and work hard, you'll definitely end up getting some! :)
 
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