Quickly - Bidder handles no. I have addressed this several times in depth. We prefer to have a domain stand on its own value, not be bid on because of who else is bidding on it. Some agree, some don't that is fine but this is our stance at this time.
If GoDaddy actually wants a domain to "stand on its own value, not be bid on because of who else is bidding on it" then why are you providing real-time access through your API about what we are bidding on to companies like HugeDomains, so that they can auto-bid because of somebody else bidding on it?
Facilitated by GoDaddy, various companies have set their bots up to bid on a domain because somebody else bids on it, how is that letting a domain stand on its own value? It's thanks to the system that you have set up for them that they are able to systematically bid on certain domains, not because of the value they see in them, but because somebody else is bidding on them. The widespread and systematic scale this takes place on would not be possible without GoDaddy aiding these API user to do so.
The current status quo with API users contradicts the reason why you are against introducing bidder handles.
If you are actually committed to let domains stand on their own value, please remove data about all domains that get bid on to API users, so that domains will get bids due to the value somebody sees in them, and not purely be bid on because someone else is bidding on them. Otherwise, I don't see how you can use this to justify why bidder handles can't be introduced.
While we have no doubts the bidders immediately following him could afford to pay for the domain name, there were logistical issues. Friday after noon PST means most banks won’t wire money until Monday, which is too late. Most credit cards won’t allow that big of a transaction, so that’s not an option. Even if someone had cash, it would have been difficult to get the cash to us in the amount of time needed.
How can you have "no doubts" when the bidder you let win wasn't able to pay and defaulted?
The top five bidders of an auction being unable to pay strikes me as very strange. Just one week ago they bid the domain up to the price they then were offered to buy it for. And suddenly, the top five bidders were unable to pay for the domain at that price? It's not like they wouldn't have the same logistical issues had they been the original winner, in other words, if they couldn't even pay when they got a discount off the auction close price, it's highly likely they would not have paid had they been the original winner one week prior. Don't you see how five people like that bidding up the price tens of thousands above what it eventually sold for to the sixth highest bidder being an issue? Don't you see any reason why we would want more transparency into this process, and make our own judgment about whether or not the bidders we bid against are legit?
You had full confidence in these top five bidders, but the fact that none of them were able to pay in a real world scenario calls into question GoDadd's ability to judge their actual ability to pay within the terms set out by GD and the banking regulations that affect them. Having $65,000 or being willing to pay does
not make you a legit bidder if various reasons prevent you from paying! Having $65K and a method to pay for the domain within the terms required by GoDaddy, within the banking regulations imposed by your country, is what makes you a legit bidder. Because the top five bidders were unable to pay within the real-world scenario of this auction, they were not legitimate bidders in the context of this auction, and they unnaturally drove up the final auction price for a domain that they in reality could not have paid for according to GoDaddy's auction membership agreement and the banking restrictions imposed on them.
The top bidder has had action taken against their bidding account, to prevent things like this from happening in the future.
Can you please clarify what "action taken against" mean? Did the person who defaulted on a $65,000 payment get perma-banned from participating in GoDaddy Auctions again or not? Will this person be bidding against us in GoDaddy's auctions again or not?