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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.
As a full-time domainer like me, i'm seriously thinking about moving my capital into other industry. Of course will continue domaining in part-time.
Nowaday, i only buy 1-2 names/day, due to HugeDomain 's strategy and domaining skyrocket pricing.
Worse than last year.
Maybe you could try crypto, but beware, it's still a wild west but full of surprise...
 
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Maybe you could try crypto, but beware, it's still a wild west but full of surprise...
Seriously, i think mining crypto is a real biz, but it has more risks.
Trading and Investing in Crypto is nearly playing gamble ( the game is controlled by a few guys, whom we call "Whale" or "Shark" - The ones who hold a huge number of a specific tokens/coins).
My friends lost their money, their jobs because of investing all they had in crypto.
 
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As a full-time domainer like me, i'm seriously thinking about moving my capital into other industry. Of course will continue domaining in part-time.
Nowaday, i only buy 1-2 names/day, due to HugeDomain 's strategy and domaining skyrocket pricing.
Worse than last year.
I started making moves since 2017 and it is not wise to make domaining your main source of income, IMO. There are many other niches that will give you better returns. If you are in a country that spend heavily on imported products, you will make so much money in Importation business as a mini operator and the cash flow will be more than what domaining can offer you in a year.
also strike huge contract deals , supplying products that you buy from manufacturers and China makes all these very possible!
 
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As a full-time domainer like me, i'm seriously thinking about moving my capital into other industry.
It may be one of the reasons of why Huge Domains are doing what they do. Investing, but not in domains by itself (as the long- or short- time profitability of their current portfolio is not obvious). Investing in _elimination_ of competition, not important how large or small their competitors (we all here) are.
 
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It may be one of the reasons of why Huge Domains are doing what they do. Investing, but not in domains by itself (as the long- or short- time profitability of their current portfolio is not obvious). Investing in _elimination_ of competition, not important how large or small their competitors (we all here) are.
You may be right but let's see how far they can go with such method... what I know is that it is not sustainable on long term
 
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You may be right but let's see how far they can go with such method... what I know is that it is not sustainable on long term

Long term can be l o n g t e r m when you have serious money, willing to wait for the real payoff. We don’t. Advantage: industrial scale domaining atrocity.
 
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It may be one of the reasons of why Huge Domains are doing what they do. Investing, but not in domains by itself (as the long- or short- time profitability of their current portfolio is not obvious). Investing in _elimination_ of competition, not important how large or small their competitors (we all here) are.
Ironically, said investment (if it is the case) is funded by ourselves at least in part, as many of us do participate and actively in their dropcatch.com auctions
 
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Holy smokes have aftermarket prices gone bat sh*t crazy or what. I dabbled on a few today, and had a few on the radar, the prices are insane.

Names like cropmarketing.com used to be $12 specials, maybe $25-100 if you got another bidder in there, it closed at $675

Another one I didn't bid on branddocs.com which would be a clouseout buy for me if that, sold for like $700.

There is a few others that I bid $7xx, $8xx range, and I got outbid without a doubt, nothing special, but good long term holds, maybe in the $2-3K sweet spot range down the road with the right buyer, but to spend $1K to find out, nah.

Time to take a vacation.
 
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Holy smokes have aftermarket prices gone bat sh*t crazy or what. I dabbled on a few today, and had a few on the radar, the prices are insane.

Names like cropmarketing.com used to be $12 specials, maybe $25-100 if you got another bidder in there, it closed at $675

Another one I didn't bid on branddocs.com which would be a clouseout buy for me if that, sold for like $700.

There is a few others that I bid $7xx, $8xx range, and I got outbid without a doubt, nothing special, but good long term holds, maybe in the $2-3K sweet spot range down the road with the right buyer, but to spend $1K to find out, nah.

Time to take a vacation.
lol... domaining is no longer fun...
 
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lol... domaining is no longer fun...
To expensive, and drawn out, it is going to take some time for these people to realize they are just paying to much for these domains. End users have more options than ever, some step up, some take the another route. There is only so many domains people can keep paying up for, before they max out their CC, or hit a rut.
 
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like this post if you hate hugedomains
 
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like this post if you hate hugedomains
Every domain should just come with a 37% HNT Huge Names Tax

By creating a higher overall selling price for all domains, they are simply just inflating their overall portfolio, risky gamble as long as they can sustain sales, if we hit a recession or something, it will get expensive for them.

Anyone win anything on dropcatch lately? It is just a gangbang fest in there trying to win a domain, everyone just piles on, and doesn't know when to stop.

Reyberry's momma never taught them to share
 
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Time to take a vacation.

I did so in 2017. Not 100% vacation, but was not actively bidding/preordering. Results - portfolio optimization, better parking configs, own forsale pages with all the features I wanted, better alternative monetization configs (non-parking), complete revision of potential tm issues on portfolio level, and, the last but not the least, more strict portfolio quality rules developed and applied. Those domains I knowingly dropped were later promptly grabbed mostly by hugedomains, well, good luck to them... these domains remained unsold for years including @ the latest prices - which I internally called liquidation prices - being some low-three-figures prices publicly visible everywhere including sedo/afternic. Yes I priced domains this way after internally marking them for non-renewal, why not - still >0 potential income if nonrenewal is planned. To my surprise, about 10% of these domains were sold before expiration (sedo and afternic mostly) so maybe they were not that bad - just overpriced :).
 
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Just Hit & Run.
Last year, bought 4-5 domains/day.
This year, 1 domain if i got luck.
:xf.laugh:
 
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i haven't picked up a name in 2 weeks

i'm not paying $xxx's for names that are subpar and may or may not sell ever, let some other idiot spend their money, lol

I'll will just wait it out, it seems to come and go in waves
 
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i haven't picked up a name in 2 weeks

i'm not paying $xxx's for names that are subpar and may or may not sell ever, let some other idiot spend their money, lol

I'll will just wait it out, it seems to come and go in waves
HugeDomain buys a name for 500$ and makes it "For Sale for the fixed- price at $2000".
Any private domainers here can do that ? :xf.grin:.
 
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HugeDomain buys a name for 500$ and makes it "For Sale for the fixed- price at $2000".
Any private domainers here can do that ? :xf.grin:.
Not with 3000 buys across the day, not likely.
 
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HugeDomain buys a name for 500$ and makes it "For Sale for the fixed- price at $2000".
Any private domainers here can do that ? :xf.grin:.

doesn't mean they will sell it for $2,000

if im going to spend $500 on a name i want it to be worth or have the potential to sell for high $x,xxx + at least
 
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They have been trimming down the pool and some days ago I check closeout but could HARDLY find anything decent, plus my settings only returned 1 page which used to be 3 pages in the past.
 
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im not sure if it huge domains or a bunch of newbies scraping the bottom of the barrel to pick up names.

you would need to save a good sample of names prior to closeouts and check to see who owns them a few weeks later
 
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im not sure if it huge domains or a bunch of newbies scraping the bottom of the barrel to pick up names.

you would need to save a good sample of names prior to closeouts and check to see who owns them a few weeks later
It’s huge domains they are buying thousands daily, and not much of anything decent is hitting closeouts, I tried a few weeks back, everything I was outbid on they won. They are using a bot, and just scraping everything. This is no coincidence newbies maybe pushing back in bidding, but huge names continues to spend, and win. Newbies would not be as consistent, and would quickly burn thru their bankrolls.

Increasing wholesale prices, while restricting inventory only helps huge names who own over 4 million domains.

I wish there was a better answer, but they have the budget, and the bots.
 
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There is one problem that hugedomains might not see...

With people bidding higher it is also costing hugedomains more because previously they could buy everything for pennies and now they too have to bid higher.

I bid on a few domains that I would ordinarily have gotten for 15 bucks and I put $200 in as a max bid. They still ended up at huge domains. I repeated at $250 and same thing. So the cost of acquisition has gone up exponentially at huge domains. That might hurt them and bite them in the ass in the end.
 
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The probably have more money then they could spend anyway. So if its $15 or $200, no difference to them
 
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Competition is getting fierce. There's becoming no more crumbs for the little guy. Cant even win a domain at a good reseller price. If you win you will be stuck waiting for a enduser.
 
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The probably have more money then they could spend anyway. So if its $15 or $200, no difference to them

Don't be too sure about that, as a group domainers can put a real dent on their profits.
 
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