Ridiculous GoDaddy Auctions

[Ostrados]

I rarely participate in Godaddy auctions, because I am aware of auto bidders using GD API such as Huge Domains, there are many threads on this already like this one:

HUGE DOMAINS SNIPING GODADDY CLOSEOUTS

For testing I just tried Godaddy auctions, I found a domain name i n c e p t u a l . c o m with no bidders and less than 1 min left, so I placed a bid and then I was immediately outbid in matter of seconds!

Here is a screenshot:

• Notice that my bid ($12) and next bid ($17) were placed both at 10:39 PM
• When I placed the bid the timer was 40 seconds, after my bid the timer was reset to 5 min
• Bidder 2 placed a bid ($17) exactly 2-5 seconds after my bid!!
• Bidders IDs are not shown in the auctions so there is no way to tell by comparing with other auctions.

There are 2 possibilities here:

• The auto bidder was a client using GD API (Such as Huge Domains): in this case this is totally unfare advantage for those clients and is against any ethics in this industry!
• The auto bidder was Godaddy system itself to inflate prices: which would be the ultimate scandal if it was true (I hope it is not)

Both cases are disgraceful..

@Joe Styler domainers community deserve explanation from you!

 

[Ja Kai]

I rarely participate in Godaddy auctions, because I am aware of auto bidders using GD API such as Huge Domains, there are many threads on this already like this one:

HUGE DOMAINS SNIPING GODADDY CLOSEOUTS

For testing I just tried Godaddy auctions, I found a domain name inceptual.com with no bidders and less than 30 seconds left, so I placed a bid and then I was immediately outbid in matter of seconds!

Here is a screenshot:
Show attachment 139824

• Notice that my bid ($12) and next bid ($17) were placed both at 10:39 PM
• When I placed the bid the timer was 40 seconds, after my bid the timer was reset to 5 min
• Bidder 2 placed a bid ($17) exactly 2-5 seconds after my bid!!
• Bidders IDs are not shown in the auctions so there is no way to tell by comparing with other auctions.

There are 2 possibilities here:

• The auto bidder was a client using GD API (Such as Huge Domains): in this case this is totally unfare advantage for those clients and is against any ethics in this industry!
• The auto bidder was Godaddy system itself to inflate prices: which would be the ultimate scandal if it was true (I hope it is not)

Both cases are disgraceful..

@Joe Styler domainers community deserve explanation from you!

Was it Bidder 913932?

 

[Ostrados]

Was it Bidder 913932?

Bidders IDs were not shown in the auction!

 

[Ja Kai]

Bidders IDs were not shown in the auction!

they will show now - since you were a bidder. Go to "didn't win" auctions and the bidder numbers will now populate.

 

[Ostrados]

they will show now - since you were a bidder. Go to "didn't win" auctions and the bidder numbers will now populate.

Oh didnt know thank.. I checked:
Bidder 2 ID: 4000365

After that bidder 913932 joined the auction.

It was battle between those 2 auto bidders and the auction ended at $345 by 4000365

I only placed the first bid of $12.

 

[blank]

It was me this time and it was me working manually.

I do sometimes use "artificial intelligence" advantages (bot, script, convenient point of connection, etc.) - it was not the case now. I wanted this name so I did the work manually.

 

[blank]

@Ostrados - I would really appreciate it if you could edit your initial post to mask the domain name both in the post and in the image.

 

[Ostrados]

It was me this time and it was me working manually.

I do sometimes use "artificial intelligence" advantages (bot, script, convenient point of connection, etc.) - it was not the case now. I wanted this name so I did the work manually.

Interesting! but how did you bid only 5 seconds after my bid? was it just coincidence?

Also your bid was an autobid as shown in screenshot, did you use API?

 

[Ostrados]

@Ostrados - I would really appreciate it if you could edit your initial post to mask the domain name both in the post and in the image.

Cant edit the post please ask mods to edit it using report button.

 

[blank]

Interesting! but how did you bid only 5 seconds after my bid? was it just coincidence?

Also your bid was an autobid as shown in screenshot, did you use API?

It was more or less a coincidence.
I bid as late as possible to avoid extending the time. You probably observe the same strategy.

Autobid meant that I used a proxy bid - significantly higher than the amount it ended for.

Cant edit the post please ask mods to edit it using report button.

I’ll do that. Please also self report so that the mods understand that it is your wish too to change it - non only mine.

 

[lock]

Wonders why it jumps so vast quickly always suspicious.

 

[blank]

@lock - I don't really understand what you mean. However, I'll try to explain what I think you mean.

This is how auctions work. It jumped "fast" because 2 proxy bids were up against each other. It doesn't need to always increment by the minimum amount.

 

[wwwweb]

Wow usually huge does bid so high on a low appraisal, if people keep paying these kind of prices without a diverse existing portfolio, only a matter of time before they will bleed out unless they are adding significant capital to fund their buys.

Huge did their job, and made the high bidder pay, otherwise it would have sold for a fraction. It’s really to bad they keep playing with people’s bids like this.

 

[blank]

@wwwweb - oh, so the GoDaddy appraisal price is what I should consider when bidding?

 

[ArielT]

Then the fair would be that these proxy bids wouldn't be allowed

One makes the hard work for others to jump in

 

[blank]

@ArielT - what exactly are you talking about?
Do you understand the “proxy bid” concept?

I understand everyone hates GoDaddy for unethical practices but it was not the case here at all.

 

[ArielT]

@blank ok probably I misunderstood

Can someone create an script to auto bid on domains with bids?

 

[blank]

Yes - it is actually quite simple.
However, it would be a very superficial strategy.

...compare it to deciding your purchases based on GD bot or EstiBot appraisals

 

[ArielT]

Yes - it is actually quite simple.
However, it would be a very superficial strategy.

...compare it to deciding your purchases based on GD bot or EstiBot appraisals

Ok, thank you for the explanation

 

[Ategy]

@wwwweb - oh, so the GoDaddy appraisal price is what I should consider when bidding?

Some people seem to think the HugeDomains Bot(s) bids up to a certain % of the GD valuation. I honestly don't follow things that closely so couldn't say for sure .. but I'm extremely doubtful it's just that .. they likely have multiple tiers as well as manual adjustments.

I wouldn't have paid that much for the domain, but it's certainly not worthless. It's a nice brandable.

There are 2 possibilities here:

• The auto bidder was a client using GD API (Such as Huge Domains): in this case this is totally unfare advantage for those clients and is against any ethics in this industry!
• The auto bidder was Godaddy system itself to inflate prices: which would be the ultimate scandal if it was true (I hope it is not)

Both cases are disgraceful..

@Joe Styler domainers community deserve explanation from you!

There probably isn't anybody who complains about GoDaddy more than I do because of their buggy platform. But all these repeated calls of GoDaddy deliberately trying to cheat the system I feel is a bit much.

They used to have a back door bug that had the same effect which actually did potentially cost domainers millions of dollars (that could have been millions of dollars in 100% GoDaddy profit), but while the amounts of money we're talking about are relatively large to us as individuals, it's important to realise that GD is a multi-billion dollar company. They aren't going to deliberately set up a fraudulent auction system and risk losing everything. If you're going to attack anything, then I suppose fight for more transparency .. but unless you have evidence, then the constant claims of fraud really need to stop.

Could there be fraud on either enterprise level or individual employee level? Yes .. 100% there definitely could be. But it's pretty much impossible to prove. I don't think the upper management is doing anything deliberately illegal. At the same time .. like in all large companies .. there is always the possibility individual employees are trying to scam the system. Unfortunately these are just the risks you're going to take when dealing with large online companies. You take the same risk having a bank account at just about every bank in the world these days. Unfortunately I doubt GoDaddy (or any bank) is about to let you or anyone else come in and audit their code .. so it's just a decision people need to make. I personally deal with volume .. so using GoDaddy works for me because even if I lose out on some domains to bots, I still am able to make some fantastic value acquisitions.

That being said .. I totally do understand how it could be vastly more frustrating if you're only targeting 1 domain a week.

If you're going to bid on a domain, then I suggest you do not wait until the last second .. make your bid at 5 and a half minutes before the end so that at least your bid does not trigger an extension.

Also .. if you truly want the domain cheap .. then just take the risk of losing it and wait for it to go to close out. There's most certainly a chance you'll lose the closeout race to a bot or another domainer (likely @blank in this specific case), but when building my portfolio, it makes much more longer term sense to have a 1/2 or 1/3 chance of getting a domain at $11, than bidding up domains into the hundreds. Particularly when you're dealing with volume (and I'm not talking hundreds of domains a week, I simply mean if you track 10 domains a day and end up with 2 or 3 good ones at $11, then that is a good business model).

As for the automated bidding .. again .. I don't see anything wrong with that .. but .. with the following 2 exceptions that 100% DO need to be fixed/changed/addressed:

1 - Bots waiting 5 minutes between bids effectively extending auctions indefinitely.
In my opinion, if you're using a bot it's to act as a proxy .. so you should be using it as such. I'm not saying that a bot owner should not allowed to increase their proxy bid at all in the middle of an auction. But increasing it $10 every 5 minutes indefinitely should be stopped.

2 - Bots being allowed to closeout snipe. Unlike bidding which doesn't really matter because everyone has 5 minutes to respond, closeout snipping by bots *IS* an unfair advantage. Feel free to complain about that all you'd like .. because it is indeed a very legitimate complaint!

ADDED: 3 - Bots should be identified as bot accounts DURING the auction. Even if the auction account number does not show up until the end, auction bid listings should show "Bidder 2 (Bot)" if it's an account with API/bot access.

 

[Ostrados]

@Ategy thanks a lot for your input you really covered the topic so nicelly.

I highly doubt that GD are involved in bidding but I put that possibility on the table because it cant be totally ruled out as we dont know to whom those IDs belong to in all auctions. In my particular case the bidder was known this time and it was totally legit manual bidder.

However the involvment of Huge Domains is ruining GD auctions, you can see in my example how @blank overpayed way above the fair wholesale value of that domain because of that.

This in my opinion is unethical because it gives unfair advatnage to deep pocket investors!

GD must do something about their API access .. like for exampke limit number of daily or weekly auctions an account can bid on.. there are many ways to control this (currently the situation is out of control).

 

[blank]

Bought this one because I like it. It might be used for a project of mine. I don't think I'll sell it.
That's one of the reasons I took the time to do everything manually about this auction.

I doubt HD care much about GD appraisal value. If they don't have their own AI doing the analysis and only base the value on a retail targeted appraisal ... they're complete idiots.

GoDaddy are unfair with API access. API access is not offered to everyone and those who have it, do have a competitive advantage.

1 - Bots waiting 5 minutes between bids effectively extending auctions indefinitely.
In my opinion, if you're using a bot it's to act as a proxy .. so you should be using it as such. I'm not saying that a bot owner should not allowed to increase their proxy bid at all in the middle of an auction. But increasing it $10 every 5 minutes indefinitely should be stopped.

Preventing this would pave the way for closeout snipe - like behavior.
There is a way to prevent this - using random increment - but it would take me about 5 minutes to adapt the bot to circumvent this.

2 - Bots being allowed to closeout snipe. Unlike bidding which doesn't really matter because everyone has 5 minutes to respond, closeout snipping by bots *IS* an unfair advantage. Feel free to complain about that all you'd like .. because it is indeed a very legitimate complaint!

It is impossible from a technical point of view to prevent bot closeout snipe.

3 - Bots should be identified as bot accounts DURING the auction. Even if the auction account number does not show up until the end, auction bid listings should show "Bidder 2 (Bot)" if it's an account with API/bot access.

One could not identify my bot for example since it does not use API access.
I would voluntarily mark it as a bot as I have nothing to hide but I doubt all involved would do this voluntarily.

 

[WhoaDomain.com]

Hmmm thank you for this thread. I really by now should know some of this stuff talked about here.

Most of it I never paid much attention to.
I myself have been hesitant on auctioning my domains anywhere.

For fear no one will bid. I've been trying to figure out "the secret".

I see this domain started as low as $12.

And it's technically a single word domain.

So if what I'm reading here is true then is the "secret" really just to list a domain for $12. And since domainers love a bargain. Good chance someone will bid?

In which case Huge bots will bid automatically just because there is a bid?

I know it's a risk to send a domain to auction. But to start it at $1 (Flippa) or $12 is just too scary for me to think about and hope Huge picks it up and bids.

Best case scenario would be Huge would bid bid after first bid and a snowball effect.

Is it really that simple?

I have domains definitely worth a $12 bid.

Are private sellers even allowed to make starting bid at $25?

 

[Ategy]

@Avtar629 .. I think you're allowed to set anything you want as a starting bid? (Not 100%)

But I think a big factor is that most people only look at "Expiring" auctions at GoDaddy.

Then beyond that people look at names with bids.

After that, most people actually looking just randomly for domains with no bids likely filter for $12 names specifically because the system is flooded mediocre domains from other domainers with unrealistic (WHOLESALE) price expectations.

I think in the end it's that ultimately people's time is better invested in searching expiring names where better value can generally be found.

GoDaddy's strength (size/volume) for wholesale buyers, is a weakness for sellers, as your domains simply get lost in the biggest portfolio in the world. Just as many domains go to auction every single day at GD than can be found on just about any of the brandable marketplaces' entire catalogues that they've taken years to grow!


I think the key at GD is to get enough outside attention so that you'll get a couple of bids .. promote them here at NamePros, or pay NameBio or @Domain Shane, etc to list your domain .. once you get a couple of bids early enough, then AS LONG AS YOU HAVE A QUALITY DOMAIN, then other people will see it and bid on it. (Nothing will help any domain that isn't at least very good)


But about self-promoting on NamePros .. I've said it a few times now .. if you want to be serious about promoting yourself, your business and ultimately your domains, you also need to realise that very few people are ever going to take "Avtar629" seriously .. it's the same as getting an email from [email protected] .. in that you might actually have something good or relevant in the email, but because of the way it was presented (the email address), almost no one will ever take it seriously. In fact .. most people won't even look. It's nothing person, it's just time management and the statistical probability that it's spam .. or in your case .. that you're probably selling a domain like yoyoheywhats-up546.xyz.

Same thing for your avatar .. I'm 100% fine with people using whatever they want as their avatar .. and my interpretation could be very wrong .. but your current avatar makes you look like you are mocking fat kids, and thus portrays a very immature and very childish image and not somebody anyone you could ever trust or rely on for serious business.

To be clear, you could be the nicest person in the world, and maybe that's a picture of you so you aren't mocking anyone else .. but in the world of business and domains, people unfortunately don't have time to get to know everyone they transact with. Particularly on the internet it's just not realistic to expect people to take 15 minutes to research the background of the person behind every email send to them from emails like [email protected] .. nor in the world of domains is it reasonable to expect people to take the time to investigate the background of each person for every domain they're considering acquiring. Sure it might be true for $50K+ domains, but if you're talking about $12-$25 domains, then your buyers are likely all about volume and scanning thousands of domains every day .. and as such people simply won't listen to what you have to say because they don't have the time.

I've said this to you a few times before and suggested you take advantage of the fact @NamePros allows us to change our usernames (and you can change your avatar yourself). Seems you even agreed .. but then ... ??? Maybe consider starting the new decade with a new image?


Again though .. if your domains aren't very good then presentation won't really help at all .. but I just don't get why you deliberately make it harder for yourself to be taken seriously and thus make it harder for people to ever want to do business with you?


Anyhow .. sorry if all that came across as harsh .. I'm just telling you the unfortunate truth of the realities of business. I still wish you nothing but the best and tons of domain sales!

 

[Lord Antares]

Hmmm thank you for this thread. I really by now should know some of this stuff talked about here.

Most of it I never paid much attention to.
I myself have been hesitant on auctioning my domains anywhere.

For fear no one will bid. I've been trying to figure out "the secret".

I see this domain started as low as $12.

And it's technically a single word domain.

So if what I'm reading here is true then is the "secret" really just to list a domain for $12. And since domainers love a bargain. Good chance someone will bid?

In which case Huge bots will bid automatically just because there is a bid?

I know it's a risk to send a domain to auction. But to start it at $1 (Flippa) or $12 is just too scary for me to think about and hope Huge picks it up and bids.

Best case scenario would be Huge would bid bid after first bid and a snowball effect.

Is it really that simple?

I have domains definitely worth a $12 bid.

Are private sellers even allowed to make starting bid at $25?

HD only bids on expired auctions (owned by godaddy) which makes me believe all sorts of conspiracy theories. There is simply no reason why they wouldn't bid on private auctions when the prices there can be up to 90% lower.
So there's no hope for you that HD will bid on your name.

Also, you can set your own starting bid. One of mine starts at $250. Better than paying for a reserve price.