Dynadot

Unfair practices at GoDaddy auctions!

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okmachan

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I think Godaddy is favoring expired domains heavily in their auction platform. They shows estimated values of those expired domains to potential buyers but not for regular listings. By doing so those expired domains get an unfair advantage over regular listings. All these expired domain earnings goes to godaddy themselves. And they charge an auction fee from the regular sellers at the same time and they do not get this advantage. If you check auctions with bids, you will see that more than 99% are expired domains. And not to mention they make it really hard to find regular listings in their platform. And for regular sellers don't get the same views to their auctions like expired domains get and resulting no sales sales to undervalued sales most of the time. And if there's a sale they'll happily take 20% of the final sale value.

The Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC) bans "unfair methods of competition" and "unfair or deceptive acts or practices."

I think we should not keep our mouths shut just because they have a monopoly. Why do they charge you an auction fee to list your domain (and also take 20% if they ever sells) but favor their own expired domains in their platform? I think every domain should get a fair shot at selling whether its godaddy's expired or regular seller's listing.

Please share your view of this matter.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
The easiest answer is they will continue to do whatever they damn well please as long as people continue to make the expired auctions lucrative for them.

In all fairness, if you don’t like their policies don’t list your names there. Simple. You have other choices and are not being forced to conduct business there.
 
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The easiest answer is they will continue to do whatever they damn well please as long as people continue to make the expired auctions lucrative for them.

In all fairness, if you don’t like their policies don’t list your names there. Simple. You have other choices and are not being forced to conduct business there.
It’s true. I get what you’re saying. But what if they are doing something against the law? (Antitrust/FTC) These laws are there to keep those big companies in control. Maybe they are keep doing it cos the sellers don’t/can’t do anything about it.
 
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When it comes to selling domains, both regular sellers and godaddy should be considered as sellers.(expired domains revenue goes to godaddy company themselves, making them similar to domain sellers) So why one party gets an unfair advantage on their platform?
 
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does GoDaddy charge a fee to list domains at auction? I spoke to a GoDaddy auctions rep and was told just yesterday it's free to list a domain.

The reason I asked them was because I do recall GoDaddy did charge a fee to list in the seven day auction.

Am I missing something ?

Also Karmaco is right. If you don't like them go somewhere else. Unfortunately, that's the point of a monopoly/mob.

You could always get yourself an eBay auction script and create your own amateurish auction site with no users and pay to promote your auctions everywhere just to get bidder(How much would that cost?) Or just list on eBay. ( Cheaper commission) but of course the audience is not Lazer targetted to domainers.

The problem with all the other ones is the history of rampant shill bidding that may or may not be still happening today.

Best of luck.
 
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They shows estimated values of those expired domains to potential buyers but not for regular listings. By doing so those expired domains get an unfair advantage over regular listings.

Hi

suppose they did put estimated values on regular listings, and then those sellers complained that the estimates are unfair, because they are not in-line with sellers opinion?

then what?

puff, puff, ahhh

imo...
 
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Hi

suppose they did put estimated values on regular listings, and then those sellers complained that the estimates are unfair, because they are not in-line with sellers opinion?

then what?

puff, puff, ahhh

imo...
Well for start how about not showing estimated values for expired domains! Will they do that? I don’t think so.
 
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does GoDaddy charge a fee to list domains at auction? I spoke to a GoDaddy auctions rep and was told just yesterday it's free to list a domain.

The reason I asked them was because I do recall GoDaddy did charge a fee to list in the seven day auction.

Am I missing something ?

Also Karmaco is right. If you don't like them go somewhere else. Unfortunately, that's the point of a monopoly/mob.

You could always get yourself an eBay auction script and create your own amateurish auction site with no users and pay to promote your auctions everywhere just to get bidder(How much would that cost?) Or just list on eBay. ( Cheaper commission) but of course the audience is not Lazer targetted to domainers.

The problem with all the other ones is the history of rampant shill bidding that may or may not be still happening today.

Best of luck.
If you’re a first time buyer/seller you have to pay for auction membership subscription to buy/list domains.
 
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The truth of the matter is they don't have to let you sell on their auction platform.

Secondly domainers don't for the most part like buying from other domainers.

I have sent friends a link to a name saying here is one in a niche I know you are buying up and I get back a text, "Hey idiot that's a public auction, I don't buy from other domainers!"

People can't have it both ways GoDaddy appraisals are stupid, wrong, worthless but then why don't you put it on mine. But they will tell you they don't control public listings so they don't have the mechanism in place to add their valuation to each name. They place a disclaimer:

The Estimated Value is based on an algorithm utilizing data GoDaddy has available to it to help estimate predicted sale price of domains. However, we do not make any guarantee or other promises to any results that may be obtained from your purchase or sale of any domain, and this is not intended as a solicitation or offer to buy any domain. It is your responsibility to independently assess and determine the value of any domain you may purchase or sell. We shall not be liable for any losses you or anyone else suffers as a result of relying on the Estimated Value, which includes not being liable for any loss of profit, loss of bargain, loss of capital through over-payment or under-sale or for any indirect, special or consequential loss.

And if you like you can place your valuation in your auction description, you can say according to the GoDaddy appraisal tool this name is valued at $$$$$$$.

It's frustrating and I said many years ago the greatest gift GoDaddy could give domain investors would be the option to show their name in every search side by side with expired, but GoDaddy can make no assertions you will get the name when it comes from a public auction, expired they control. They don't control your name at Dynadot that you don't like the price and don't transfer the name to the buyer.

You do not pay to list, that yearly membership is a right to access any part of the site, that's the benefit of owning a platform, you pay $4.99 for a reserve price, if they wanted they could say we will not allow reserves start your name at a price and if it gets even just one bid it sells. Domainers don't want that, GoDaddy knows people don't want to bid on names with high reserves so they make the juice worth the squeeze and get paid $4.99 each time, it's their platform and it's their right.

It's also not a monopoly people have many places to sell their names, and this is not a new complaint, people have written about this before and I had someone like 6 years ago think the FTC was a route to pursue, the FTC did not even reply back.

Look Namebio doesn't even track GoDaddy public auction results except for a period of time when I was tracking them on my own and sending them to Michael, and what Michael and I saw was many never actually got paid or transferred. So there is a lot to be examined when looking at GoDaddy public auctions. I do get the frustration but it's probably not going to change.

But I am sure @Paul Nicks can address this as well because I know he has spent many an hour with his legal department about what they can and can't do.
 
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The truth of the matter is they don't have to let you sell on their auction platform.

Secondly domainers don't for the most part like buying from other domainers.

I have sent friends a link to a name saying here is one in a niche I know you are buying up and I get back a text, "Hey idiot that's a public auction, I don't buy from other domainers!"

People can't have it both ways GoDaddy appraisals are stupid, wrong, worthless but then why don't you put it on mine. But they will tell you they don't control public listings so they don't have the mechanism in place to add their valuation to each name. They place a disclaimer:

The Estimated Value is based on an algorithm utilizing data GoDaddy has available to it to help estimate predicted sale price of domains. However, we do not make any guarantee or other promises to any results that may be obtained from your purchase or sale of any domain, and this is not intended as a solicitation or offer to buy any domain. It is your responsibility to independently assess and determine the value of any domain you may purchase or sell. We shall not be liable for any losses you or anyone else suffers as a result of relying on the Estimated Value, which includes not being liable for any loss of profit, loss of bargain, loss of capital through over-payment or under-sale or for any indirect, special or consequential loss.

And if you like you can place your valuation in your auction description, you can say according to the GoDaddy appraisal tool this name is valued at $$$$$$$.

It's frustrating and I said many years ago the greatest gift GoDaddy could give domain investors would be the option to show their name in every search side by side with expired, but GoDaddy can make no assertions you will get the name when it comes from a public auction, expired they control. They don't control your name at Dynadot that you don't like the price and don't transfer the name to the buyer.

You do not pay to list, that yearly membership is a right to access any part of the site, that's the benefit of owning a platform, you pay $4.99 for a reserve price, if they wanted they could say we will not allow reserves start your name at a price and if it gets even just one bid it sells. Domainers don't want that, GoDaddy knows people don't want to bid on names with high reserves so they make the juice worth the squeeze and get paid $4.99 each time, it's their platform and it's their right.

It's also not a monopoly people have many places to sell their names, and this is not a new complaint, people have written about this before and I had someone like 6 years ago think the FTC was a route to pursue, the FTC did not even reply back.

Look Namebio doesn't even track GoDaddy public auction results except for a period of time when I was tracking them on my own and sending them to Michael, and what Michael and I saw was many never actually got paid or transferred. So there is a lot to be examined when looking at GoDaddy public auctions. I do get the frustration but it's probably not going to change.

But I am sure @Paul Nicks can address this as well because I know he has spent many an hour with his legal department about what they can and can't do.
You’ve raised some great points.

And another unfair practice is when you click and go to an expired auction, they show you all the related past sales, its estimated value and also the age of the domain next to it. The potential buyer would think this type of domains could be resalable/valuable cos similar domains sold in the past. But when you click and goto a private seller’s auction they don’t show you anything. Just the name with uppercase and lower case characters. (No similar sales, estimated value or not even age) They are intentionally trying to deter sales by sellers. This is not a problem to domainers, as we have methods to check the age and past sales. But most of the godaddy customers are not domainers. These customers dont have time to research those stuff. Why do they treat differently? In fact why do they have two different landing pages in the first place where private seller’s one doesnt even show the age of the domain? By doing that they definitely get an unfair advantage.
 
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They are intentionally trying to deter sales by sellers.
This is not a problem to domainers, as we have methods to check the age and past sales.
But most of the godaddy customers are not domainers. These customers dont have time to research those stuff.

Hi

I feel your agony,
but to deter sales by sellers, would reduce their commissions, because volume of sales would decrease.

and...
to assume how much time, non domainers have to research a domain, is a big assumption.

also, they may not have any interest in such things as "age or past sales" of the domain.

for them, when interested, it's mostly about price

as I've never had an enduser ask about age or previous sale of a name.

that's more of a domainer thing.

and.... maybe by including some stats on expired names, they are doing you a favor.
at least you don't have to go elsewhere to find age and previous sales, if any.

imo...
 
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I think Godaddy is favoring expired domains heavily in their auction platform. They shows estimated values of those expired domains to potential buyers but not for regular listings. By doing so those expired domains get an unfair advantage over regular listings. All these expired domain earnings goes to godaddy themselves. And they charge an auction fee from the regular sellers at the same time and they do not get this advantage. If you check auctions with bids, you will see that more than 99% are expired domains. And not to mention they make it really hard to find regular listings in their platform. And for regular sellers don't get the same views to their auctions like expired domains get and resulting no sales sales to undervalued sales most of the time. And if there's a sale they'll happily take 20% of the final sale value.

The Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC) bans "unfair methods of competition" and "unfair or deceptive acts or practices."

I think we should not keep our mouths shut just because they have a monopoly. Why do they charge you an auction fee to list your domain (and also take 20% if they ever sells) but favor their own expired domains in their platform? I think every domain should get a fair shot at selling whether its godaddy's expired or regular seller's listing.

Please share your view of this matter.

GoDaddy is becoming the giant for expired domain names, too late to fight it.

Learn how to use the system to your advantage and don't worry about the rest.
 
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GoDaddy is becoming the giant for expired domain names, too late to fight it.

Learn how to use the system to your advantage and don't worry about the rest.

Exactly. If only you can find contact info on those bidding on expired domains with matching keywords as yours? Then you would be gold.
 
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Hi

I feel your agony,
but to deter sales by sellers, would reduce their commissions, because volume of sales would decrease.
Nobody sells their ultra premium domains at godaddy. You don't need godaddy auctions to sell those type of domains. I'm talking about average domains. Of course they'd deter the sales of these. They wouldn't want 20% of an average sale. (Average sale as in 1k-2k) They'd rather take the whole profit when it drops to themselves.

This explains why godaddy appraisal are there. Even crappy names do have a godaddy appraisal at around 1k, just so when it drops, newbies would think there's some value in that name so they'll bid. Godaddy wins again. You know how many new people post "help" threads here asking why they can't sell their recently bought domains. I feel like the main reason for the godaddy appraisal tool to exist is to help boost their expired domain auction earnings.
 
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GoDaddy is becoming the giant for expired domain names, too late to fight it.

Learn how to use the system to your advantage and don't worry about the rest.
Its hard to watch how these big companies use tactics to gain unfair advantages for themselves and you as an individual can't do anything about it.
 
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I am pretty sure they are not trying not to sell regular auctions.. cause the 20% commisions make for good chunk of their revenues
 
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I am pretty sure they are not trying not to sell regular auctions.. cause the 20% commisions make for good chunk of their revenues

I wouldn't be that sure.... GD customers have a budget too...if they buy a domainer's domain (20% to GD), they may have to skip an expired auction (100% to GD).
 
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Hi

suppose they did put estimated values on regular listings, and then those sellers complained that the estimates are unfair, because they are not in-line with sellers opinion?

then what?

puff, puff, ahhh

imo...

Then they should not be allowed to list the appraisals period even for "Expired Auctions".
 
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Then they should not be allowed to list the appraisals period even for "Expired Auctions".

As long as the appraisals are automated and applied fairly across the board I don't see what the issue is. Appraisals are always to be taken with a grain of salt and to have an algorithm of some sort that looks at similar sales is actually a useful tool. As long as you use it as a tool and not the lone factor in your decision making process.
 
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Then they should not be allowed to list the appraisals period even for "Expired Auctions".


I not a regular participant at GD
but it's their platform, so they can do whatever they want.

namejet has appraisal bot for names in auction and DNS has appraisal bot available for seller to use

when you enter a name at sedo, you can get their appraisal value too

I don't know how long you've been domaining, but one should have been "fighting the bot" years ago, before it got a foothold in the mindset of the community.

it's the sign of the times now

imo...
 
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