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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.
The solution is for all domainers to unite and bid them up to their max. It would eventually hurt their bottom line.
 
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The solution is for all domainers to unite and bid them up to their max. It would eventually hurt their bottom line.
Reassustance bids would cost them a lot of money based on the volume they are bidding on. That is probably what is happening.
 
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I think their problem is they have too much money and they are willing to take lower ROI on many sales just to get a yield on their money vs sitting at the bank and taking nothing. However, long term, I think they are going to start losing. But yes, they are an annoying parasite.
 
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The solution is for all domainers to unite and bid them up to their max. It would eventually hurt their bottom line.
I agree that sounds like a good idea in theory - but the end result would be us bidding each other up as well.

But you are correct that is about the only thing anyone could do to lower their presence in GD auctions.

They are running a numbers game. They don't care about any domain in particular - they are just looking to get x # of decent domains for x number of dollars. If people could identify which names they were bidding on and what their max bid structure is - then you could theoretically force them to make the decision that GD auctions are too expensive.

But I doubt that anything is going to tame the HD beast except for their own business decisions. So long as they are making the right ones to bring in cash flow they are going to continue to dominate this market.
 
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People need to stop using dropcatch... Using dropcatch is funding them to beat us. They have a lot of overhead. Just a few months of less funding is all that is needed for them to have to start dropping registrar connections. Then would like to see them renew their 4 million domain names -> about 32 million in renewals.

Bidding them up at GD would definitely dent them. But the real solution is to go to the funding source, dropcatch. HD by itself wouldn't thrive as much without dropcatch imo.
 
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Edit: Confused with another thread.
 
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I think their problem is they have too much money and they are willing to take lower ROI on many sales just to get a yield on their money vs sitting at the bank and taking nothing. However, long term, I think they are going to start losing. But yes, they are an annoying parasite.
Well if they make inventory, and domains more expensive by pushing up prices, they will reap the benefits as the largest portfolio holders.

Reminds me a lot of market makers on stock exchanges.
 
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People need to stop using dropcatch... Using dropcatch is funding them to beat us. They have a lot of overhead. Just a few months of less funding is all that is needed for them to have to start dropping registrar connections. Then would like to see them renew their 4 million domain names -> about 32 million in renewals.

Bidding them up at GD would definitely dent them. But the real solution is to go to the funding source, dropcatch. HD by itself wouldn't thrive as much without dropcatch imo.
Dropcatch has been golden for them, they have 2-3 buyers there that will just bid like dogs in anything into the tens of thousands, they get end user prices, and most of the bidders pay a bit to much and end up holding the bag on most of the auctions. They realize way down the road when they have under offered inventory that they paid to much for, that maybe they shouldn’t have gotten into all those bidding wars.
 
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What amazes me is how this huge dinosaur is not dying out with such outdated practices while also incurring such high acquisition costs?!

Their index page took few seconds to load. It still uses http, so probably punished by search engines/browsers, seach is awful etc.
 
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Yeah the thing is end users aren't paying higher prices. They are just shrinking the profit margins. Reseller prices have been steadily increasing the last 2-3 years while end user prices have not.
 
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Yeah the thing is end users aren't paying higher prices. They are just shrinking the profit margins. Reseller prices have been steadily increasing the last 2-3 years while end user prices have not.
The middle man has effectively partnered with their lower level comp. to increase their profit margins from their customer base, and it's working like a charm.

Exactly what you said is right, godaddy started buying portfolios because they saw this opportunity, but why pay a premium for others portfolios when you are giving your domains away at auction for less than you are paying. They needed to plug this HOLE somewhat, and hugedomains is the perfect partner, and the api connection, to toll every auction customer a right of passage. Even if their name is not on their radar, one or two bids in, it can be. It's like trying to sneak out of the house, without getting that floorboard to squeak, because once it does, you are going to get outbid to the moon, as they say in the crypto world.

It worked out really well because people just keep bidding, and outbidding.

Don't you love the formula where it takes weeks to get paid, but you are expected to make payment within 72 hours.

Domainers are on the wrong side of every equation, I just hope many of the newbies get smart, and know when they are getting bidded on, inventory adds up quick, and is very expensive to carry. A few $xxx domains, plus renewals, on no sales, adds up to disruption very quickly. Every dollar you pay over, is every dollar more you have to quote to a user, and every % less chance you have to sell in such a case. Most people spend hours scouring the auctions daily, maybe to come away with 1 name, give back 20% commission on it, a few weeks to get paid, at the end of the day are most better off, or not?
 
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The middle man has effectively partnered with their lower level comp. to increase their profit margins from their customer base, and it's working like a charm.

Exactly what you said is right, godaddy started buying portfolios because they saw this opportunity, but why pay a premium for others portfolios when you are giving your domains away at auction for less than you are paying. They needed to plug this HOLE somewhat, and hugedomains is the perfect partner, and the api connection, to toll every auction customer a right of passage. Even if their name is not on their radar, one or two bids in, it can be. It's like trying to sneak out of the house, without getting that floorboard to squeak, because once it does, you are going to get outbid to the moon, as they say in the crypto world.

It worked out really well because people just keep bidding, and outbidding.

This is the reason I'd rather miss on some names I want but not bid and see if I can pick up at $11, because even the names no one but me would want would get second bid right away once I bid $12 almost 100% of the time. I figured I have higher chances getting the name without bidding for it. Cheaper too.
 
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This is the reason I'd rather miss on some names I want but not bid and see if I can pick up at $11, because even the names no one but me would want would get second bid right away once I bid $12 almost 100% of the time. I figured I have higher chances getting the name without bidding for it. Cheaper too.
Yes, that is the right move, and that second bid usually comes with a $1xx-$2xx proxy bid, not just a simple $5 outbid, so all you can do is gamble that way, instead of paying $200, for a whatever domain.
 
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Yes, that is the right move, and that second bid usually comes with a $1xx-$2xx proxy bid, not just a simple $5 outbid, so all you can do is gamble that way, instead of paying $200, for a whatever domain.

As you said, I refuse to sponsor someone who is working against me and others like me.

Instead of hiring their own staff to do their own research, they use our hours of research for free and use that saving against us by employing algorithms.

It is two-prone: either the name is good enough for resell or the name is desirable for a potential end user.

And who knows, maybe they have their own kick-back arrangement with the auction house and they get xx% back based on the trade volume for the period and then suddenly their bids are not as costly for them and allows the auction house to maximize their returns by bringing the price of each auction closer to the max budget of someone.

Just to clarify, this is not an accusation and mere speculation indicating that a potential conflict of interest exists. And would love to get a clear response on this.

@Joe Styler could you tell us for sure that no one participating at auctions gets any kick-back %? And also is it technically possible for HD or similar to use your API and tweak settings to specify something like "if GD appraised value is above $xxx and if someone bid on it, then automatically place proxy bid up to $zzz"?
 
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hugedomains AKA Massive Junk dropcatcher :smuggrin::hilarious::ROFL::xf.laugh::xf.grin:
 
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hugedomains AKA Massive Junk dropcatcher :smuggrin::hilarious::ROFL::xf.laugh::xf.grin:

Massive junk until you need one of their domains, the numbers are on their side.
 
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No one is getting a kick back bidding on our auctions. Everyone has the same opportunity to bid on a domain on our platform. I am not a great coder but I think even I could write a program to do what you said above so I don't think it would be that hard for anyone with money to hire someone to do exactly what you said. It's really pretty simple programming. If X and X then bid X. Anyone could do it API or not.
 
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No one is getting a kick back bidding on our auctions. Everyone has the same opportunity to bid on a domain on our platform. I am not a great coder but I think even I could write a program to do what you said above so I don't think it would be that hard for anyone with money to hire someone to do exactly what you said. It's really pretty simple programming. If X and X then bid X. Anyone could do it API or not.
Thanks @Joe Styler ... I had actually been curious about that. Can you confirm that Godaddy will not penalize an account holder for running an automated bid system via the website since API access is not readily available?

Edit: Of course it would be responsible and not constantly send requests. But that does bring up the question of where GD would draw the line?
 
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@Joe Styler could you tell us for sure that no one participating at auctions gets any kick-back %?

For such a thing to happen anywhere, the parties WILL sign a non-disclosure agreement. So, any party - if asked on a public forum - will either prefer not to respond or respond negatively. It would be their legal obligation to do so. I do not mean to say that there is a special agreement between GoDaddy and hugedomains, but a definite answer is something that only the contracting parties know for sure, and it would be between them, and on appropriate management level. Imho.
 
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We don't say where we draw the line it's part of our security. You can script the site to a certain extent. If you start hammering us we are going to block you like a DDOS. If you are looking at several names and are not hitting them like crazy you will be fine. If you are checking a million domains as fast as you can that may be a problem. If you are checking the same 100 domains once a second that might be ok but really do you need to do that? The auto extend will extend an auction you are outbid on for 5 minutes you don't need to hit the domain once a second. Use some common sense and program accordingly and you should be fine. And you If we do block you, you can contact support to get unblocked and they will probably say look you're doing too much scale it back a bit and we will unblock you. Most of the time we wind up blocking people they have an error on their script and it makes them hit us more than they thought so check that out first before you turn it on.
Also the investor app we have available will give you push notifications on domains you are watching or bidding on in case you want to have that monitor names you are interested in.
 
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For such a thing to happen anywhere, the parties WILL sign a non-disclosure agreement. So, any party - if asked on a public forum - will either prefer not to respond or respond negatively. It would be their legal obligation to do so. I do not mean to say that there is a special agreement between GoDaddy and hugedomains, but a definite answer is something that only the contracting parties know for sure, and it would be between them, and on appropriate management level. Imho.
you're entitled to your opinion. I am gonna say its wrong though ;)
 
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We don't say where we draw the line it's part of our security. You can script the site to a certain extent. If you start hammering us we are going to block you like a DDOS. If you are looking at several names and are not hitting them like crazy you will be fine. If you are checking a million domains as fast as you can that may be a problem. If you are checking the same 100 domains once a second that might be ok but really do you need to do that? The auto extend will extend an auction you are outbid on for 5 minutes you don't need to hit the domain once a second. Use some common sense and program accordingly and you should be fine. And you If we do block you, you can contact support to get unblocked and they will probably say look you're doing too much scale it back a bit and we will unblock you. Most of the time we wind up blocking people they have an error on their script and it makes them hit us more than they thought so check that out first before you turn it on.
Also the investor app we have available will give you push notifications on domains you are watching or bidding on in case you want to have that monitor names you are interested in.

I wonder if some economic analysis was made to see if the benefits of raised bids on some names do outweigh the loss of no bids on many or some stopping participating in auctions? And also some reputation risk analysis?

For example, I was willing to pay for 1/2/a/y/.com up to $100, but instead took the risk that someone will snatch it before it reemerges into closeout and grabbed it at $11. I would have actually preferred the first option, but believed the second gives me better odds based on my experience of doing this hundreds of times.

There are also many other names that I would have participated at $xx to low $xxx, but I don't, because I don't want to be a tool in someone else's game and I don't trust those bot bids as legitimate (meaning, with real human input, someone would have stopped earlier in few instances, but with bot, you are wasting time bringing the name to someone's automated floor).
 
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I ”purchased” a GD closeout 9 days ago. Today it was snatched from my account. According to GD reps the name was renewed. That wasn’t supposed to be able to happen with the new auction setup. The reason I’m posting this here? The name is with NameBright. Private registration. @joestyler
 
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I ”purchased” a GD closeout 9 days ago. Today it was snatched from my account. According to GD reps the name was renewed. That wasn’t supposed to be able to happen with the new auction setup. The reason I’m posting this here? The name is with NameBright. Private registration. @joestyler

Happened twice in a row to me, I was so disgusted I did not renew my auction account.
 
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I ”purchased” a GD closeout 9 days ago. Today it was snatched from my account. According to GD reps the name was renewed. That wasn’t supposed to be able to happen with the new auction setup. The reason I’m posting this here? The name is with NameBright. Private registration. @joestyler

It can still happen with names that are registered at GD partner registrars. eg: They list names from Tucows/Wild West Domains and many others, and they’re still bound by those registrars renewal rules. If the name *was* with Godaddy before it went to auction, then that shouldn’t have happened and you have been wronged - otherwise it can still happen.
 
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