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

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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



Related: HUGE DOMAINS SNIPING GODADDY CLOSEOUTS
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
M e d o .com is already at $30k with 6 more days left, its a very nice name - lets see who wins it!
Not for 30k+, Yikes
 
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I'm glad people are finally starting to open their eyes (slowly) to DropCatch & HugeDomains. Though I do believe it is most likely too late to lessen their growth and dominance.

You need to understand they are *using* you to feed them valuable metrics, and then they are cherry picking the gems for themselves. This is why I will not place a backorder on DropCatch. I don't want to feed their wallet or metrics. Both will ultimately be supplying your main competition with much needed assets and superior data/analytics.

The money can be used to buy more registrars (which they do constantly) which increases their reach and ability to catch more and more drops - therefore locking you into their platform if you want a drop. The data is used to decide what names HugeDomains will add to their portfolio by using domainer demand as one metric. So they will either gain data or money from you when you use their services, which will continue to be used to stack the deck against you moving forward.

Also they are getting the added advantage of raising reseller prices and draining the hobby domainer's bank account so they can no longer compete with HugeDomains in the future. They have the money in hand to weather a temporary (or even extended) rise in acquisition cost, while most domainers can only sustain a high acquisition cost for a very limited time.

Once the beast has grown to a certain point there will be no competing with them. This will only leave crumbs for us other domainers to fight against among ourselves - which will continue to lower in quantity and quality. This has already started, but finding the gems missed in the drop list will more and more be a thing of the past as time goes on.

If your assets have been drained by inflated auction costs - and you can not acquire any drops that will produce a decent return - That will most likely push you out of this market with a bad taste in your mouth. Now there is less competition for the big boys - which DC/HD is poising themselves to stand in the top of this group.

One of the best posts on this thread.

100% agree with every point above, I think domainers are in serious trouble trying to buy most decent/good inventory going forward and indeed this has been the case in recent months.

Bottom line is the aftermarket is fierce and competition is more intense then ever thanks to the likes of dropcatch/hugedomains (and other buyers with big wallets). In most cases domainers are already having to feed off the scraps and like you I think that trend is likely to worsen over time.

I myself am now at the point that I am thinking twice about selling my better names at auction as even if they are getting good prices on the sell, to re enter and buy on the aftermarket is a very expensive game and going to blow a serious hole in my wallet. I've been monitoring numerous domains at NJ in recent weeks and have bid on none of them as prices went crazy every single time.

Interesting times!
 
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One of the best posts on this thread.

100% agree with every point above, I think domainers are in serious trouble trying to buy most decent/good inventory going forward and indeed this has been the case in recent months.

Bottom line is the aftermarket is fierce and competition is more intense then ever thanks to the likes of dropcatch/hugedomains (and other buyers with big wallets). In most cases domainers are already having to feed off the scraps and like you I think that trend is likely to worsen over time.

I myself am now at the point that I am thinking twice about selling my better names at auction as even if they are getting good prices on the sell, to re enter and buy on the aftermarket is a very expensive game and going to blow a serious hole in my wallet. I've been monitoring numerous domains at NJ in recent weeks and have bid on none of them as prices went crazy every single time.

Interesting times!
At Godaddy the odd name would sell for $1k, $2-3k very rare, and over $10k hardly ever but once and a while.

Now this is a daily occurance, the odds of finding an end user who wants your exact domain without other options is rare.

Huge domains has a dictionary of every keyword in their domain database, type it in, and for under $3k you get many choices.

As stated above they are a beast, and they are not afraid to go up against their own customers, and cross lines to get even more names, or make sure they don't go to domainers to cheap, so it is impossible for you to compete with them, albeit at the same time you feed their businesses cash flow.

I think many companies not them included need to pick a segment, and domainers need to be smarter also, and not feed their competition.
 
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I'm glad people are finally starting to open their eyes (slowly) to DropCatch & HugeDomains. Though I do believe it is most likely too late to lessen their growth and dominance.

You need to understand they are *using* you to feed them valuable metrics, and then they are cherry picking the gems for themselves. This is why I will not place a backorder on DropCatch. I don't want to feed their wallet or metrics. Both will ultimately be supplying your main competition with much needed assets and superior data/analytics.

The money can be used to buy more registrars (which they do constantly) which increases their reach and ability to catch more and more drops - therefore locking you into their platform if you want a drop. The data is used to decide what names HugeDomains will add to their portfolio by using domainer demand as one metric. So they will either gain data or money from you when you use their services, which will continue to be used to stack the deck against you moving forward.

Also they are getting the added advantage of raising reseller prices and draining the hobby domainer's bank account so they can no longer compete with HugeDomains in the future. They have the money in hand to weather a temporary (or even extended) rise in acquisition cost, while most domainers can only sustain a high acquisition cost for a very limited time.

Once the beast has grown to a certain point there will be no competing with them. This will only leave crumbs for us other domainers to fight against among ourselves - which will continue to lower in quantity and quality. This has already started, but finding the gems missed in the drop list will more and more be a thing of the past as time goes on.

If your assets have been drained by inflated auction costs - and you can not acquire any drops that will produce a decent return - That will most likely push you out of this market with a bad taste in your mouth. Now there is less competition for the big boys - which DC/HD is poising themselves to stand in the top of this group.

Great comments.

I have lost many backorders to HugeDomains. They cherry pick from our backorder requests.
 
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Well they pissed this guy off so much he makes animated videos about it.

 
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Well they pissed this guy off so much he makes animated videos about it.


they go after generics mostly not tm as suggested by the video
 
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you have to wonder, maybe their strategy is to discourage and squeeze out the competition (us) in order to capture more market share. Maybe they are complaining about us bidding up names too, lol
 
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I'm glad people are finally starting to open their eyes (slowly) to DropCatch & HugeDomains. Though I do believe it is most likely too late to lessen their growth and dominance.

You need to understand they are *using* you to feed them valuable metrics, and then they are cherry picking the gems for themselves. This is why I will not place a backorder on DropCatch. I don't want to feed their wallet or metrics. Both will ultimately be supplying your main competition with much needed assets and superior data/analytics.

The money can be used to buy more registrars (which they do constantly) which increases their reach and ability to catch more and more drops - therefore locking you into their platform if you want a drop. The data is used to decide what names HugeDomains will add to their portfolio by using domainer demand as one metric. So they will either gain data or money from you when you use their services, which will continue to be used to stack the deck against you moving forward.

Also they are getting the added advantage of raising reseller prices and draining the hobby domainer's bank account so they can no longer compete with HugeDomains in the future. They have the money in hand to weather a temporary (or even extended) rise in acquisition cost, while most domainers can only sustain a high acquisition cost for a very limited time.

Once the beast has grown to a certain point there will be no competing with them. This will only leave crumbs for us other domainers to fight against among ourselves - which will continue to lower in quantity and quality. This has already started, but finding the gems missed in the drop list will more and more be a thing of the past as time goes on.

If your assets have been drained by inflated auction costs - and you can not acquire any drops that will produce a decent return - That will most likely push you out of this market with a bad taste in your mouth. Now there is less competition for the big boys - which DC/HD is poising themselves to stand in the top of this group.

Boycott Dropcatch for life! Stop using their services!
BURN THEM IN HELL!
 
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They didn't get gardenlife.com !!!
 
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The winner is Altman Specialty Plants Inc.
Maybe they're the previous owner and decide to renewed the name...
They are the previous owners. They are the end user for their domain.
 
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They own 3290 domains with the word Garden in them, I think they will be ok.
Shocked.jpg
 
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Well they pissed this guy off so much he makes animated videos about it.

I would love to read comments on that video. I wish they weren't disabled.
 
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Well they pissed this guy off so much he makes animated videos about it.


The video is unfair. I do not like the fact that HD takes a lot of domains but they do not steal them nor do they scam anybody. They do not cherry pick either, I have tried not ordering from them for weeks at a time and/or splitting my back orders over several registrars, the amount of domains HD takes is constant. They could not have possibly known that I wanted to back order them because I never placed the back order with them on those days. The experiment lasted for weeks and I would have been more than happy to report cherry picking and show detailed proof.
 
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Just watched DigitalAwards.com at godaddy go from a 2 way bidding war from $500 to $1K, then another 2 way bidding war from $1K to $3K.

Sure google brings up matching search reults, but these results hold no value in owning this specific domain at a cost of $3K. Hope a user with a plan got it.
 
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Just watched DigitalAwards.com at godaddy go from a 2 way bidding war from $500 to $1K, then another 2 way bidding war from $1K to $3K.

Sure google brings up matching search reults, but these results hold no value in owning this specific domain at a cost of $3K. Hope a user with a plan got it.

I was watching that as well...

One thing of note is that it previously sold for ~1.3K in 2014 at namejet.

Wonder if that drove the price up? Still seems high for this name at a Godaddy auction.
 
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I was watching that as well...

One thing of note is that it previously sold for ~1.3K in 2014 at namejet.

Wonder if that drove the price up? Still seems high for this name at a Godaddy auction.

This one is going to get renewed, so I guess it is just one for the history books.
 
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What is the rational with Godaddy allowing post-auction renewals? That seems like bad business for them as well..
 
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What is the rational with Godaddy allowing post-auction renewals? That seems like bad business for them as well..

and very frustrating, i picked up a nice brandable a few years ago from a GD auction, few days later it was renewed and taken away from me. rrrrg>:(
 
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recently i won an auction after paying next day i got cancellation email. :/ not so good for both side
 
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i have heard of some domainers letting it go to expired auctions to test the waters, they watch to see how far its bid up, renew it and hope the previous auction buyers approach them.
 
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