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HUGE DOMAINS SNIPING GODADDY CLOSEOUTS

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So annoying Godaddy hasn't stopped Huge Domains from sniping Godaddy Closeouts with their automated tools, no way a human bidder can win a even closeout.

First they were sniping with the backorders, now you cut that out, and you are letting them snipe via automated tools.

So what do you say @Joe Styler , you want to even the playing field a bit, as your partners are bidding everything in a split second, from $12, to $11, and bidding everything else into the hundreds from a simple bid. I would rather pay a Huge Domains surcharge at checkout.


Huge Domains has an unfair advantage on the auction platform, essentially taxing every user for using it with their automated access advantages given to them thru the house.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
The closeouts aren’t a big cash draw, sure the good $11 ones are being gamed by their API advantage.

The big score is getting those $12 domains into the hundreds, that is the big score for the house.

I don’t know their current ownership count, but it looks like their headed to holding 7 million domains, at this point would be be wise to continue to spend $15-20M a year acquiring names via another platform.

I saw domaining in 2007-2008 when the markets crashed, and things dried up pretty bad, it was probably the best time to acquire premium names as people had to balance other debts, and had to sell fast. So of such a day came, the cost to carry huge domains portfolio, alongside slowing sales will be a huge cash burn. A lot of their payment plans would default also.

I can’t see a company owning 7 million domains, continue to spend so heavily into one space, without hedging for some kind of downturn. There has to be something more there for them.

It wasn’t so bad when they came in late 2015, but at this point I’m ok taking a step back, and playing their bidding strategy and letting them have it, but as I saw today they were heavily involved in pushing prices into mid hundreds, but did not win even 1 of the 8 auctions I saw. So effectively from the house point of view they must have made about an extra $2000, that the eventual winner had to pay based on their particpation.
 
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7 million names means 56$MM in renewals, plus $4MM, let's say, in admin and overhead. Total $60MM.

At average $2,000 price, they need to sell 30,000 names a year to cover those or 0.43% to break even. Not hard to achieve even in crisis time. And if they are anywhere near 1%, then that is over $30-35 MM in profit annually that they are probably trying to reinvest.
 
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7 million names means 56$MM in renewals, plus $4MM, let's say, in admin and overhead. Total $60MM.

At average $2,000 price, they need to sell 30,000 names a year to cover those or 0.43% to break even. Not hard to achieve even in crisis time. And if they are anywhere near 1%, then that is over $30-35 MM in profit annually that they are probably trying to reinvest.
Personally I think the sell through rate is much higher than 1% when the majority of names are priced at the very sweet spot of $2,500.
 
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HD bid on so many of the names I go for (and are usually the only other bidded) that when I go for a name and get if for 12 bucks, instead of being happy I think "oh no it's not as good a name as I thought" lol.
 
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It's pretty obvious now when the Huge Domains bot comes into the picture.

I noticed one pattern, if there is a last second bid, and I guess it's not on their radar, and it another bidder comes in that is not Huge Domains, it will alert something, and they will put a proxy of 10-12% of the godaddy appraised value.

So take a $50-60 small $5 bidding war, BANG, it will just swoop in, and put a $201 proxy, on a domain appraised at roughly $2K, and it's game over for those guys, or maybe one of them will chase it.

I think most of the regulars here kind of know when huge domains is on the other side of the bid, with that proxy wall that swoops in late to the party.
 
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Huge Names very active in Godaddy auctions today winning, many mid to high $xxx auctions, and sniping a lot of closeouts within 1 second of them opening up.

Godaddy has still not closed the closeout advantage for them.
 
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Not much point using G̶̶o̶̶d̶̶a̶̶d̶̶d̶̶y̶̶ ̶̶A̶̶u̶̶c̶̶t̶̶i̶̶o̶̶n̶̶s̶ Huge Domain auctions anymore.
 
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Not much point using G̶̶o̶̶d̶̶a̶̶d̶̶d̶̶y̶̶ ̶̶A̶̶u̶̶c̶̶t̶̶i̶̶o̶̶n̶̶s̶ Huge Domain auctions anymore.
You pretty much said it, just playing into their bids. It is basically a proxy wall, either you pay thru the nose breaking it down, or otherwise you lay down, and let them have it.
 
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Godaddy has still not closed the closeout advantage for them.

They don't necessarily have an advantage. I've been investigating a little bit.

First thing I needed to find out whether 60 calls per minute meant 1 call per second or no. If it did, hugedomains should absolutely not have an advantage due to the entire second of delay if they fail their millisecond, during which time someone else should snatch it.

However, I contacted godaddy auctions and asked them that question. They said that one can fire off as many requests as they like, then they need to cool down until the next minute.

Then I remembered your post where you said that they share offices in the same building. Theoretically, if they had servers close to each other, no one should have a chance, due to HD having the least lag out of anyone competing.

No matter how fast your bot is, if you've got 5 ms lag and HD have below 1 ms lag, they will snatch any name they like within that 5 ms before you even start firing off requests. It's like racing 1 ferrari vs 1000 golf carts. Doesn't matter how many golf carts are racing, the ferrari will always win.

Now, I can't verify that this is what's happening but it would be the most reasonable explanation to me at this point. GD and HD would have a perfectly symbiotic relationship in this scenario.

I'm no expert on servers and this may not be how it works, but I DO KNOW that proximity to servers plays a large role in auction sniping bots, for example. It's still an open question tho.

The only way to get a better understanding would be if I built a sniping bot myself but that would require too much time and resources for a cause that's lost anyway.

So, if my theory is true, HugeDomains have a perfect setup and it's all fair and square. Godaddy are not cheating anyone and they do give everyone equal opportunity; it's just that HD have grabbed that opportunity long ago.

One thing that's weird tho: Joe Styler, when asked how HD are able to snipe all the names before other botters, said that ''maybe HD are using multiple computers'' earlier in this thread.

However, I messaged him and asked whether API allocation was limited per account or per device. He gave a strict ''per account'' reply, which would mean that using multiple computers would not increase your chances in the slightest. So he gave two conflicting answers there.
It might just be due to the fact that he is just a GD representative and doesn't have a clue how the auctions work from a technical perspective.
 
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I can attest to any any closeout I go for, they always win, others have said the same.

I don’t know the technical side of it, but they do have an advantage, because they win everytime I try.
 
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I hate Huge Domains they took my name hydrocoats.com
 
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I have not participated in one auction today where bidder 91932 Huge Domains did not have a bid in. In 90% of the auctions they were top, or second bidder.
 
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I doubt that. They are not targeting one or two, they are targeting tens/hundreds and those auctions are all ending close to each other.

But even if that was true, then GD changed their closeout structure to benefit them. Because, it used to be that you couldn't predict at what second the name will drop into closeouts. From few seconds to few minutes a name would reside in no-where-land after no one would bid at $12. So, you'd fire your 60 requests effectively for nothing, if you were targeting the first seconds.

GD apparently has moved away from that, probably at HD's request, as they'd be the only party benefitting HUGELY (pun intended) from this.

They don't necessarily have an advantage. I've been investigating a little bit.

First thing I needed to find out whether 60 calls per minute meant 1 call per second or no. If it did, hugedomains should absolutely not have an advantage due to the entire second of delay if they fail their millisecond, during which time someone else should snatch it.

However, I contacted godaddy auctions and asked them that question. They said that one can fire off as many requests as they like, then they need to cool down until the next minute.

Then I remembered your post where you said that they share offices in the same building. Theoretically, if they had servers close to each other, no one should have a chance, due to HD having the least lag out of anyone competing.

No matter how fast your bot is, if you've got 5 ms lag and HD have below 1 ms lag, they will snatch any name they like within that 5 ms before you even start firing off requests. It's like racing 1 ferrari vs 1000 golf carts. Doesn't matter how many golf carts are racing, the ferrari will always win.

Now, I can't verify that this is what's happening but it would be the most reasonable explanation to me at this point. GD and HD would have a perfectly symbiotic relationship in this scenario.

I'm no expert on servers and this may not be how it works, but I DO KNOW that proximity to servers plays a large role in auction sniping bots, for example. It's still an open question tho.

The only way to get a better understanding would be if I built a sniping bot myself but that would require too much time and resources for a cause that's lost anyway.

So, if my theory is true, HugeDomains have a perfect setup and it's all fair and square. Godaddy are not cheating anyone and they do give everyone equal opportunity; it's just that HD have grabbed that opportunity long ago.

One thing that's weird tho: Joe Styler, when asked how HD are able to snipe all the names before other botters, said that ''maybe HD are using multiple computers'' earlier in this thread.

However, I messaged him and asked whether API allocation was limited per account or per device. He gave a strict ''per account'' reply, which would mean that using multiple computers would not increase your chances in the slightest. So he gave two conflicting answers there.
It might just be due to the fact that he is just a GD representative and doesn't have a clue how the auctions work from a technical perspective.
 
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I doubt that. They are not targeting one or two, they are targeting tens/hundreds and those auctions are all ending close to each other.

But even if that was true, then GD changed their closeout structure to benefit them. Because, it used to be that you couldn't predict at what second the name will drop into closeouts. From few seconds to few minutes a name would reside in no-where-land after no one would bid at $12. So, you'd fire your 60 requests effectively for nothing, if you were targeting the first seconds.

GD apparently has moved away from that, probably at HD's request, as they'd be the only party benefitting HUGELY (pun intended) from this.
I'd totally forgotten about this! You're quite right, I remember that some names would go to closeout instantly and some would take 15 mins or so.

I'm not one for conspiracy theories but it's pretty obvious to me there's some sort of collusion here. If it's true that they share office blocks with their biggest customer I find it incredible that they are not under any kind of investigation. I'm sure they wouldn't get away with it here as it must break all kinds of monopoly rules and conflict of interest rules.
 
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Yesterday i was traping SmartFancy/dot/com and waiting when will go into closeout and refreshing page every second last from 1 hour but domain not drop to closeout. Any one catch it?
 
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Yesterday i was traping SmartFancy/dot/com and waiting when will go into closeout and refreshing page every second last from 1 hour but domain not drop to closeout. Any one catch it?
Wait a week then go to the URL. My money is on a Huge Domains landing page.
 
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Yesterday i was traping SmartFancy/dot/com and waiting when will go into closeout and refreshing page every second last from 1 hour but domain not drop to closeout. Any one catch it?
It probably got claimed faster than you could hit refresh from the time the $11 auction opened, and in the milli second huge domains took it.

Yes, before the drop time was random, now it happens within the first minute, pretty much like clockwork.
 
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It probably got claimed faster than you could hit refresh from the time the $11 auction opened, and in the milli second huge domains took it.

Yes, before the drop time was random, now it happens within the first minute, pretty much like clockwork.
How i can beat HD in Closeout?
 
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You can't.
Godaddy giving preference to HD! and godaddy should give equal preference to their customers. Its called monoply and i was not expecting this type of policy by the godaddy.
 
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Is that from the closeouts? Or one you forgot to renew?
I forgot to renew with NS, and I find out they gave it to Huge Domains or something.. and than they wouldnt give it back unless I bought it for their price.
 
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Godaddy giving preference to HD! and godaddy should give equal preference to their customers. Its called monoply and i was not expecting this type of policy by the godaddy.
I would suggest reading through this thread and reading GD replies etc before passing judgment. Technically there are equal opportunities to all customers but it makes a big difference if you are a multimillion dollar company with offices next to GD.
 
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I doubt that. They are not targeting one or two, they are targeting tens/hundreds and those auctions are all ending close to each other.

But even if that was true, then GD changed their closeout structure to benefit them. Because, it used to be that you couldn't predict at what second the name will drop into closeouts. From few seconds to few minutes a name would reside in no-where-land after no one would bid at $12. So, you'd fire your 60 requests effectively for nothing, if you were targeting the first seconds.

GD apparently has moved away from that, probably at HD's request, as they'd be the only party benefitting HUGELY (pun intended) from this.

But if they were given some sort of unfair advantage, why would they need to tinker with the closeout start times? It seems like the closeout times are tailored to match HD's bot.

If the closeout times now start a known time after the auction's end, you shouldn't theoretically be able to beat HD if their servers are next to gd. They only need 1 request per name. That's all highly theoretical tho and it assume perfect functionality on both of their parts.

One might only truly dig deeper if they made a bot of their own to try their hand at closeouts.
 
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