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HD bot is piggybacking

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I'm writing this to let others know what they're letting themselves in for when it comes to GD expired auctions, and being up against the Huge Domains bot on GoDaddy, which is usually bidder id 913932.

For a while I thought the Huge Domains bot that runs rampant everyday worked against a predefined list of domains to go after. I assumed it had a set list every day and it would bid up to 9-12% of the GD valuation.

This assumption was wrong! As I discovered a while back.

The HD bot is actually working by piggybacking of the research and effort put in by us human investors and then simply placing bids based on that, using a typical 9-12% range of the GD valuation to do so.

I've known for a while now key ways to help me identify when it is the HD bot that I'm up against on a GD expired auction.

Today, I bid on two domains that had just 1 bid and less than 30 minutes remaining. I already knew due to it having 2 bidders the HD bot would love to come out and play!

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In my opinion this is not a fair playing field at all.

You as an investor most likely spend a fair amount of time researching domain names before you place a bid. All your time and effort is now being put at risk, or causing you to overspend on your inventory, simply because a bot with seemingly endless funds can watch what is going on at the auctions at all times, and piggyback of the effort you've put in on a day to day basis to browse the lists and research.

I advise you to really think before placing a bid on a domain that currently has no bids. I think if there is a domain you're really after, you actually have better luck of getting it for $11 or less at closeouts. If you wait for the auction to finish, and then keep checking very frequently until it appears again as a closeout.

Hypothetically speaking, with this knowledge at hand, I suppose it is possible for someone to lure the bot in on purpose and drive up prices to make it overpay on purpose. Hypothetically if this were to happen enough, this may make them reconsider what they're doing.

Again, purely hypothetical.

If you think a bot and a company that profits from the work of others is a fair playing field then in my opinion you are wrong. It is wrong.

These sort of bots need banning from any and all types of auction places.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
If you think a and a company that profits from the work of others is a fair playing field
Nothing about domaining is fair. Those in the barn know the wolves are among the sheep. Only a few call it out. For that, thank you @Dave!
 
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Nothing about domaining is fair. Those in the barn know the wolves are among the sheep. Only a few call it out. For that, thank you @Dave!

Thanks. I just want others to know what is happening.

I don't expect GoDaddy to shutdown such operations as long as it is making them money!
 
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I've been warned not to share such information publicly, but I feel I must so others know what they're letting themselves in for when it comes to GD expired auctions and being up against the Huge Domains bot on GoDaddy, which is usually bidder id 913932.

For a while I thought the Huge Domains bot that runs rampant everyday worked against a predefined list of domains to go after. I assumed it had a set list every day and it would bid up to 9-12% of the GD valuation.

This assumption was wrong! As I discovered a while back.

The HD bot is actually working by piggybacking of the research and effort put in by us human investors and then simply placing bids based on that, using a typical 9-12% range of the GD valuation to do so.

I've known for a while now key ways to help me identify when it is the HD bot that I'm up against on a GD expired auction.

Today, I bid on two domains that had just 1 bid and less than 30 minutes remaining. I already knew due to it having 2 bidders the HD bot would love to come out and play!

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In my opinion this is not a fair playing field at all.

You as an investor most likely spend a fair amount of time researching domain names before you place a bid. All your time and effort is now being put at risk, or causing you to overspend on your inventory, simply because a bot with seemingly endless funds can watch what is going on at the auctions at all times, and piggyback of the effort you've put in on a day to day basis to browse the lists and research.

I advise you to really think before placing a bid on a domain that currently has no bids. I think if there is a domain you're really after, you actually have better luck of getting it for $11 or less at closeouts. If you wait for the auction to finish, and then keep checking very frequently until it appears again as a closeout.

Hypothetically speaking, with this knowledge at hand, I suppose it is possible for someone to lure the bot in on purpose and drive up prices to make it overpay on purpose. Hypothetically if this were to happen enough, this may make them reconsider what they're doing.

Again, purely hypothetical.

If you think a bot and a company that profits from the work of others is a fair playing field then in my opinion you are wrong. It is wrong.

These sort of bots need banning from any and all types of auction places.
This is not new news, been discussed on another thread here, not sure who told you not to talk about it publicly it is not exactly blanketed by executive privlege, or maybe it is. I have cost them thousands, by flipping the piggy back on them, and making them overpay, it works both ways, but yes godaddy has let this relationship go to far, time to see other people.

You can bid in the last 5 minutes, and things will be calm for a minute until a bidder comes in with a $1xx proxy, and it is always bidder 913932,913933 they are inflating prices of domains, create a false sense of demand. Here is the thing, people fight the bid, and overpay, essentially turning a $11 domain into a $150 domain.
 
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HD and their bot are a huge problem for everyone except Godaddy who probably makes big money on the ignorance of ordinary bidders - The problem with not bidding on a name and instead try to buy it when it lands in closeout is also problematic because they probably also uses bot to catch the best one - There is a thread about this here:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/huge-domains-sniping-godaddy-closeouts.1135689/
 
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HD and their bot are a huge problem for everyone except Godaddy who probably makes big money on the ignorance of ordinary bidders - The problem with not bidding on a name and instead try to buy it when it lands in closeout is also problematic because they probably also uses bot to catch the best one - There is a thread about this her:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/huge-domains-sniping-godaddy-closeouts.1135689/
Did you see their stock price was up almost 20% yesterday on earnings.
 
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Did you see their stock price was up almost 20% yesterday on earnings.

Yes, I saw it - Now they can afford to send HD a great Christmas gift this year
 
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HD and their bot are a huge problem for everyone except Godaddy who probably makes big money on the ignorance of ordinary bidders - The problem with not bidding on a name and instead try to buy it when it lands in closeout is also problematic because they probably also uses bot to catch the best one - There is a thread about this here:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/huge-domains-sniping-godaddy-closeouts.1135689/

Yes, seen that thread though it doesn't dive into the piggybacking aspect. I wanted a new thread to shine light on and discuss this side of things.

Thanks.
 
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Yes, seen that thread though it doesn't dive into the piggybacking aspect. I wanted a new thread to shine light on and discuss this side of things.

Thanks.
It would be interesting to know how many people outbid them, and why they continue to poke the beer if they end up paying $150 for these kind of domains they can dropcatch for reg fee on their own exchange, it makes little sense? It's almost like they want to be outbid.
 
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Be interesting to hear what @Joe Styler and @Paul Nicks views are on this.

Joe has said on several occasions that they allow these bots and if you buy big yourself, feel free to apply for one - He says they don't use bots for closeout but it's so strange that the best names disappear faster than Lucky Luke shadow and most end up in HD portfolio
 
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It would be interesting to know how many people outbid them, and why they continue to poke the beer if they end up paying $150 for these kind of domains they can dropcatch for reg fee on their own exchange, it makes little sense? It's almost like they want to be outbid.

I wouldn't mind so much if the HD bot was only bidding on a set list that its been given day to day.

The real ugliness comes from the piggybacking.

Perhaps if GoDaddy don't want to shutdown bots, a compromise could be to limit what is available.

Maybe we demand the removal of a bots ability to see the number of bidders during an auction and how many bids it currently has. At least that way it couldn't watch all domains at auction, waiting to snipe any that pick up bids.

I wonder what @Joe Styler and @Paul Nicks think of that suggestion?
 
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a compromise could be to limit what is available.
A compromise seems fair in this situation. I see all sides of this issue and respect it, but the balance should be fair from all sides as well.
 
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It doesn’t matter what anyone wants, only thing that matters is the bottom line.

If there is only one bidder in the world willing to pay $20 for a domain turd, the stalking bot will make sure they pay at least $200 for it. Who wouldn’t want a bot pushing prices up by 10X on their exchange everyday. It’s the perfect marriage, no reason to disrupt it to make it an even playing field.

Bots should not be allowed in closeouts, godaddy already let them have years of freebies with the backorder closeouts loophole, and I guess they got into this by spending all those worthless backorders after the fact.
 
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It would be fair but would probably cost them a lot of money and they run a company not a charity site
 
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It would be fair but would probably cost them a lot of money and they run a company not a charity site

Fair point but they can lose money other ways. I'll explain.

On the other hand GoDaddy risks alienating domain investors from their platform and services.

Even I am fed up and I only keep a small portion of my domains there, which are closeout picks or auction wins. I transfer them out a couple of months before renewal is due usually.

They're missing out on thousands in renewal per year from me alone simply because of this. How many others have done the same? Isn't this also costing them money?

The more they risk alienating investors, the more likely those with large portfolios in the thousands will leave them, and they lose money there too. Also people will stop bidding on their expired auctions altogether given time if they're just constantly losing to a bot as it is a waste of time. If those people stop bidding, the bot won't go after as many domains and GoDaddy lose there too.

What they need is balance in my opinion.
 
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It would be fair but would probably cost them a lot of money and they run a company not a charity site
Yes change will be hard if not impossible. I worked at a tech company in the 90's that was giving the largest stock returns. The company culture became complacent and nobody changed anything as long as the stock went up. Ultimately, a new CEO was brought in to change that.........Anyway, that's my experience. I have no idea if that applies here or not. I just see a pattern.
 
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The piggybacking has been known about for years but good to bring it to the fore for those that don't know. I assume the bot queries GD about domains with bids every min or two and bids on pretty much anything with a bid. It could be stopped if the GD API stopped returning results on bid queries.
 
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GD auctions are ridiculous, prices are inflated by 1000%, you cant actually touch anything especially high value domains!

Most of us are aware of bots bidding in auctions and inflating prices , and if GD keep ignoring this they will lose the human bidders overtime. They are making high profits now but in the long run they may start losing after losing domain investors like us!

Making Huge Domain suffer by bidding on crappy domains is lucrative idea, I wish we can get united and everyone of us places 1 bid on 1 crappy domaim per day. However it is risky because we are not sure that the bot is really piggybacking and we may end up paying for those crappy domains :xf.grin:
 
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Making Huge Domain suffer by bidding in crappy domains is lucrative idea, I wish we can get united and everyone of us places 1 bid on 1 crappy domaim per day. However it is risky because we are not sure that the bot is really piggybacking and we may end up paying for those crappy domains :xf.grin:

It is more complicated than just placing 1 bid.

Hypothetically it is possible to lure the bot in.
 
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Did you see their stock price was up almost 20% yesterday on earnings.

As far as the stock:

CNBC broke it down

Key Points

  • GoDaddy on Wednesday announced its biggest ever share buyback of $500 million.
  • The company reported a 12% rise in quarterly revenue as the web hosting company earned more per user, sending its shares up 10% in extended trading.
  • Average revenue per user rose 7.1% to $155 in the third quarter.
  • At the end of the quarter, GoDaddy had 19.1 million customers, up 4.6% from a year earlier.
 
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As far as the stock:

CNBC broke it down

Key Points

  • GoDaddy on Wednesday announced its biggest ever share buyback of $500 million.
  • The company reported a 12% rise in quarterly revenue as the web hosting company earned more per user, sending its shares up 10% in extended trading.
  • Average revenue per user rose 7.1% to $155 in the third quarter.
  • At the end of the quarter, GoDaddy had 19.1 million customers, up 4.6% from a year earlier.
Interesting to see that average user revenue of $155, most people probably spend more than that here in an hour there, let alone in a year.
 
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It is more complicated than just placing 1 bid.

Hypothetically it is possible to lure the bot in.

FWIW,

my two recent GoDaddy auction experiences...

I was watching ilovedabs (.com) at expired auction, and it got swooped up within seconds of reaching GD closeouts. I was shocked somebody beat me to it. I wrongly assumed HD. Rather, it was a regular in the canna domain space. e.g. Others, besides HD, wait for closeouts. Even if others aren't using bots, there's still an advantage to lightning speed. I consider this a fairly lost domain, assuming the registrant didn't use a closeout bot, because well, jepordy rules, the one with the faster finger gets first dibs...

Today, I was weary to bid on a Geo domain at GD auction, but with 1 hour left, and not knowing if I'd have internet access in the coming hour, I placed a bid, with the assumption HD would swoop in. To my surprise, I won the domain at $12. HD has several similar of these geo domains, some with smaller and larger cities, not to mention over the years they've acquired several of my/these specific related geo drops, so I assumed they had a keyword monitor to bid/catch these domains. Maybe they're shifting away from the category, or geo's... Whatever the case, I was surprised to finally win a $12 domain at GD auctions.
 
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I have cost them thousands, by flipping the piggy back on them, and making them overpay,

Then they dont bid again... lol
 
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Then they dont bid again... lol
So let’s say you bid on a $12 domain heading to countdown zero, their bot will activate and put a bid in based on the valuation something like $143 or something, so now you have that proxy wall, so when you bid $22, $50, $100 you keep getting outbid, then you might bid $150 breaking their proxy wall, and overpaying, and they don’t bid again after that.
 
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