auctions Is HugeDomains dominating brandable domain auctions at GoDaddy?

Dimitris · Apr 10, 2019

Since the beginning of last month I am bidding in quite a few brandable domain name auctions at GoDaddy.
When I check the whois for the ones I did not win, I find that in 8 out of 10 brandable domains, HugeDomains is the registrant.

They must be currently working on a strategy to acquire as many as possible brandable names while setting some other - mostly keyword names - that were previously for sale at HugeDomains for "Auction Type: Pre-Release" at their DropCatch platform.

I found one such keyword name which was for sale ($2995) and now it shows a changed whois : "This domain was caught by DropCatch.com".

Some names HugeDomains won in GD auctions include:

They are using proxy bids and I cannot tell the budget they have per name as they even spent $720, $670 and more than $100 to acquire some of the brandable names.

They won some really nice names for their inventory and they make this game more competitive and as such it is harder for individual investor to acquire expired brandable names within a reasonable budget.

We are competing with the big guns.

WhoaDomain.com · Apr 11, 2019

I contacted Hugedomains and asked if they would be interested in me giving them a list of my domain auctions just so I can get them to bid.

They said NO.

Why though when it in the end it helps them see my domains that I think are at least worth a $100 bid. Looking at the list above on domains I see no reason they would not bid on my domain auctions if they look like the ones they have bid on already.

Why they say "NO" flat out?

Should I just do my auctions and send them my list anyway?

I just want to make sure someone bids on my domains. Really hated it when my auctions got no bids.

alcy · Apr 11, 2019

Avtar629 said:
I contacted Hugedomains and asked if they would be interested in me giving them a list of my domain auctions just so I can get them to bid.

They said NO.

Why though when it in the end it helps them see my domains that I think are at least worth a $100 bid. Looking at the list above on domains I see no reason they would not bid on my domain auctions if they look like the ones they have bid on already.

Why they say "NO" flat out?

Should I just do my auctions and send them my list anyway?

I just want to make sure someone bids on my domains. Really hated it when my auctions got no bids.

I think very few people would expect them to say yes if they did that with their folios.
so may just be the most suprised by this outcome of all of us here

WhoaDomain.com · Apr 11, 2019

alcy said:
I think very few people would expect them to say yes if they did that with their folios.
so may just be the most suprised by this outcome of all of us here

Nothing really surprises me about anything in domaining anymore. A day without surprises in domaining would be a real surprise.

JayT · Apr 11, 2019

Of course they are not going to bid $100 on individual domains. maybe you should of offered the whole portfoilo for a set amount

WhoaDomain.com · Apr 11, 2019

JayT said:
uhh, of course they are not going to bid $100 on all your domains.``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````.,`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` bnv`````````````````````````.`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

The point was that they are NOT in the habit of receiving domain auction lists from any domainers. They said they would not bid on them. At least that was the "take away" from their reply.

Obviously it's stupid to think they would bid on all.

They mean no matter how good or bad. They won't bother.

I guess they don't want to be flooded by domainers sending them lists.

Would they really not "take a look"?

domainer111 · Apr 11, 2019

They are dropping a few names as well, I'm not sure if it's because they can't control those particular domains, or a deliberate decision that the particular domain has to go.

At least I picked up BoogieBot.com in a closeout :D

Recons.Com · Apr 11, 2019

alcy said:
maybe a large initial investment when they started.. like you say.. and big loss.. and now they are just trying to chase their investment with "minimal" annual profits...

a bit like how it works for many domainers who started in recent years... or even a bit earlier.. with big initial investment/losses and then spending years trying to return to zero.. and then hopefully start making some profit after that if all goes well..

except of course on a bigger pretty much industrial scale.. with hugedomains.
hmmm.

Here is the thing though.

If they achieve 0.6%, which is possible given that they might have 2 million decent names that do 1% and higher and subsidize the bad ones, and they have installment plans, then they sell 30000 names at 2500 or 75 million$ minus 40 million netting 35 million before other expenses.

That is now not bad return when if they had to spend $200 million to amass the collection.

lock · Apr 15, 2019

It is everything including generic mostly good choices some crap but we all hold a bit of that.

MapleDots · Apr 16, 2019

Dimitris said:
Totally agree. Well, despite the fact that I missed some good names to HugeDomains, I found some similar brandable ones to compensate for the loss, lol.

When I'm bidding I understand half the time I am up against Huge Domains.
I get great satisfaction bidding up a 16 dollar name to 800 bucks and then letting Huge Domain win it.

I have a sixth sense of when to stop and I always check to see who the new owner is. Literally half to 3/4 of the time the domain ends up forwarding to huge domains.

I have cost them tens of thousands of dollars going after maple domains. The funny part is I always end up getting an email asking me if I am interested in maple domains that are currently at huge domains.

I just chuckle to myself and hope they never realize I am a big contributor to their HUGE overheads.

So you see.... the battles can be won.... just not the way you think.

jideofor · Apr 16, 2019

MapleDots said:
When I'm bidding I understand half the time I am up against Huge Domains.
I get great satisfaction bidding up a 16 dollar name to 800 bucks and then letting Huge Domain win it.

I have a sixth sense of when to stop and I always check to see who the new owner is. Literally half to 3/4 of the time the domain ends up forwarding to huge domains.

I have cost them tens of thousands of dollars going after maple domains. The funny part is I always end up getting an email asking me if I am interested in maple domains that are currently at huge domains.

I just chuckle to myself and hope they never realize I am a big contributor to their HUGE overheads.

So you see.... the battles can be won.... just not the way you think.

hahahah... i love this. You always have a way around things.

If every Namepros member embark on this, it will really screw them...

MapleDots · Apr 16, 2019

jideofor said:
hahahah... i love this. You always have a way around things.

If every Namepros member embark on this, it will really screw them...

I waited for 3 years on a domain that I bid up against Huge Domains, they eventually dropped it and I picked it up for almost nothing. Once I know the domain is at Huge Domain I make sure never to visit it again because they log every hit. If they see even a morsel of interest they will not drop the domain.

I look at whois when it comes up for renewal but make sure to give them none of my traffic.

Yes you can pick up a drop from them if you have patience and don't let them know you are interested.

alcy · Apr 17, 2019

do you ever wonder why HD would bother to bid big bucks on domains regularly.. whether against you or others... only to drop the names later? shouldn't they be renewing their hardly won names forever?

or maybe they are so rich they do not care about bidding wars etc... like a rich robot with billion$ budget and without any feelings...

their whattodrop strategy looks just about as random as their whattobuy strategy.
heck for all we know maybe they let a name go only to bid on it again in a week at $1000.
that would sound like something that rich robots with billions and no heart would do.

jideofor · Apr 17, 2019

MapleDots said:
I waited for 3 years on a domain that I bid up against Huge Domains, they eventually dropped it and I picked it up for almost nothing. Once I know the domain is at Huge Domain I make sure never to visit it again because they log every hit. If they see even a morsel of interest they will not drop the domain.

I look at whois when it comes up for renewal but make sure to give them none of my traffic.

Yes you can pick up a drop from them if you have patience and don't let them know you are interested.

yeah, I could understand. I had a name sold and gave one for free. the buyer didnt renew the free one and so, It sold at Afternic about a year later. I checked and saw HD had it. I tried to make a bargain but they refused lol. I have since left the domain name. AFTERNIC had to refund.

D Haynes · Apr 27, 2019

So can we assume they are bidder 913932? Does knowing this help us against them in any way? They auto bid on every name I bid on and have differing bid limits on each name. If everyone pooled information would it be possible to work out their algorithm I wonder.

MapleDots · Apr 27, 2019

D Haynes said:
So can we assume they are bidder 913932? Does knowing this help us against them in any way? They auto bid on every name I bid on and have differing bid limits on each name. If everyone pooled information would it be possible to work out their algorithm I wonder.

So if we all bid up the domains where bidder 913932 bids we can effectively cost them millions of dollars they would not have spent before.

ie: I would normally stop at 400, I see it bidder 913932 so for fun I'll take it a couple hundred bucks higher before I bow out.

Multiply by thousands of domainers and huge domains has a huge problem on their hands.

I'm actually quite surprised how high they are now going with their bids.

D Haynes · Apr 27, 2019

MapleDots said:
So if we all bid up the domains where bidder 913932 bids we can effectively cost them millions of dollars they would not have spent before.

ie: I would normally stop at 400, I see it bidder 913932 so for fun I'll take it a couple hundred bucks higher before I bow out.

Multiply by thousands of domainers and huge domains has a huge problem on their hands.

I'm actually quite surprised how high they are now going with their bids.

This wouldn't be possible as you only get to see the bidder ID number when the auction has ended (I assume to stop such bidding strategies).

Some of the auctions Ive been in they have stopped bidding at 159 bucks and some have been 280 etc with no noticeable pattern. I wonder if its set to a percentage of the GD appraisal. It can't be completely random.

Bidding on a name in the last 5 min seems to make them bid instantly with the proxy limit but bidding the day before doesn't prompt an instant bid (although I don't know if they still bid in the last 5 mins).

Would be fun to try and crack their code though so to speak.

D Haynes · Apr 27, 2019

I'm guessing it would take a lot of bidding on a lot of names with a lot of variables to figure out the system but if you knew what to expect it might save you time and also allow you to bid up to just below their limit.

Variables would include...

TLD,
GD appraisal,
Domain age,
Domain length,
Other extensions registered,
Google searches,
Auction page views,

Other information required might include...

Highest bid/winning bid,
If a backorder triggers a bid,
If bidding at different remaining times triggers a bid,
If a name being watched puts in on HDs "radar" (don't know if a "watched" status is available through GD api)

Etc etc you get the idea

wwwweb · Apr 28, 2019

MapleDots said:
So if we all bid up the domains where bidder 913932 bids we can effectively cost them millions of dollars they would not have spent before.

ie: I would normally stop at 400, I see it bidder 913932 so for fun I'll take it a couple hundred bucks higher before I bow out.

Multiply by thousands of domainers and huge domains has a huge problem on their hands.

I'm actually quite surprised how high they are now going with their bids.

On the reverse huge domains makes godaddy many millions per week, now I see the bidder number thru are effectively on every good auction like clockwork, essentially they are a sales tax or a right of passage tax, like a toll to use the system.

Kind of how scalpers use bots to buy up all the tickets, if these automated systems were not allowed to be used there is no way they would be able to bid on every auction, and tax every user using the system. It is a transfer of wealth from users to the auction house, by having this one entity simply scripting bids into the majority of auctions. Go back to all your winning bids against that bidder, how much have they caused you to overpay?

I understand you make them overpay also, but it seems they are not playing with the same set of rules as everyone else. How many hours of a day do they take from you with all their 5 minute min bid resets, money and time , two of life’s most complicated assets, stop supporting this company and giving them more money, to make you pay more.

D Haynes · Jul 28, 2019

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