$31,200 for bcfq.com? GoDaddy Certified Appraisal Scam

[Cronus]

I was glad to see Sedo take (somewhat) quick action when the fake-IDN
scams started popping up (e.g. fìx.com). And to Sedo's credit, they
didn't develop the scam themselves. Sedo just needed to deal with
abuse from others. What I find worse is the GoDaddy "Certified
Appraisal" scam. People keep registering crap names at GoDaddy for
$7. Then a day or two later they pay GoDaddy $15 for a "Certified
Appraisal" claiming the domain is worth $thousands. Then they list
the domain on GoDaddy's sales site (TDNAM) in the hope that some
sucker will trust GoDaddy enough to believe the "certified appraisal"
and pay a huge amount for a worthless domain. Then GoDaddy takes a
commission based on the sale generated by their bogus appraisal, and
the seller keeps the rest.

And absurd appraisals aren't an isolated incident. Almost all of
them are ridiculously high. The "Today's Featured" box currently
shows 4 domains with certified appraisals (the list may change by the
time you read this). Let's look at two of those "premium" domains:

1) bcfq.com

This domain was registered two months ago. Google gives less than a
thousand hits for the string on the whole Internet.

Do you think this was worth the $7 registration fee? I don't. But
what a fool I am! GoDaddy's paid experts have concluded that
it is worth between $31,200 and $81,120! You can view the certified
appraisal (dated 6 days after domain creation) here:

https://www.tdnam.com/trpAppraisalDetail.aspx?miid=5545000

If the GoDaddy appraisers actually believe this nonsense, maybe they
should go register the remaining 40,000 LLLL.Com names fast before
someone else does!

2) myspacegirlss.com

What do you get if you take the trademark "myspace", add on "girls",
then add an extra "s" to the end for good measure? You get this
crappy domain, which was registered 2 months ago (12/22). The next
day (12/23), the registrant paid GoDaddy for a "certified appraisal"
valuing it at "$4,800 - $13,440". And now it is listed for sale on
TDNAN. Here is the appraisal:

https://www.tdnam.com/trpAppraisalDetail.aspx?miid=5545376

If these were rare valuations blunders by GoDaddy, that would be one
thing. But 90% of the "appraisals" I see on the site are absurd.
Just visit tdnam.com, click on the yellow "a" icons by names, and be amazed!
The "Featured" box is currently showing a30.org appraised
at "$4,700 - $12,220". It was registered 3 months ago and appraised
at that amount 2 days later. Here is the appraisal:

https://www.tdnam.com/trpAppraisalDetail.aspx?miid=5356407

I hate to see newbie buyers (who maybe saw just the SuperBowl
commercial) lose thousands of dollars from this. Yes, the buyer
should beware and deserves much of the blame. But for GoDaddy to set
up a sham "certified appraisal" service to take advantage of users
dumb enough to trust their appraisals is truly reprehensible. I fail
to believe how anyone whose paid job it is to appraise domains can
believe in good faith that bcfq.com is worth more than $30K.

I have sent GoDaddy many examples of their ridiculous appraisals,
but they have never responded.

 

[Sam]

A Smart TDNAM seller might make a featured auction + a "certified appraisal" = $$$

 

[Spade]

Bottom line is that no company right now offers a competent appraisal. Especially GoDaddy. Their system is based on a simple formula and is unfortunately very innacurate. Is it a scam? No. Just like leapfish they offer an appraisal based on a formula. The problem is simply that its not accurate.

Is it rediculous and silly? Yes. Will someone believe this domain is worth that amount? Probably. But hopefully they will do their homework before placing an obscene bid on a domain that is worth pennies.

The truth is, if your not willing to do research before investing your money, you dont deserve your money. I have no pitty for people who may fall victim to this.

Justin

 

[vinodkv]

good reply domainspade...thats true no one offering competent appraisal, they all are only for making money, nothing else than that..

i dont like godaddy, i dont know why

 

[IAmAllanShore]

There's a huge difference between what leapfish is doing and what GoDaddy is doing - GoDaddy is in the BUSINESS of selling domain names to NEW domain name owners. That is their target market - they aren't making the real money off of domainers buying the cheapo-domains without buying any of their add-on products. Where they are now making money is selling, basically, snake-oil.
"Certified Domain Appraisal" on a sales site? Not kosher.
True, "Let the Buyer Beware" - but I can still call a scam a scam, even if the buyer should have known better.

-Allan

 

[Spade]

Allan -

You do bring up an interesting thought. Is a worthless product that is sold and marketed through a larger company a scam? Well... depends how you look at it.

I personally dont feel that Appraisals are scams. I simply feel that all appraisal services do not take into consideration many factors which we as domainers would use to judge value. Do I think that GoDaddy does a poor job? Yes. But the issue is not over quality.

GoDaddy does infact create an appraisal, the problem with it is its accuracy. They are not comming back with randomly generated numnbers. they are comming back with a BAD accessment. A scam is where the intended result is to defraud someone, this is not the case at GoDaddy.

Just my 2 Cents,
Justin

 

[Cronus]

Their system is based on a simple formula and is unfortunately very innacurate. Is it a scam? No. Just like leapfish they offer an appraisal based on a formula. The problem is simply that its not accurate.

On the Appraisal sales page they say $15 buys "review by industry experts" and say it takes "2 business days or less". If it is actually just a "simple formula", maybe they should say so. Maybe you know how it works, since you have posted that you used to work for GoDaddy, right?

You argue that GoDaddy is not intentionally misleading people with inflated appraisals, but they are just not competent enough to produce useful ones. In that case, the honest approach would be to stop selling the bogus appraisals.

It isn't really fair to compare Leapfish's free instant automated appraisal web page with GoDaddy's $15 2-day offering by "industry experts", but let's do it for fun just to see what happens:

BCFQ.COM - LeapFish says: $98; GoDaddy says: $31,200 - $81,120
MYSPACEGIRLSS.COM - LeapFish says: $20; GoDaddy says: $4,800 - $13,440
A30.ORG - LeapFish says: $98; GoDaddy says: $4,700 - $12,220

LeapFish isn't perfect, but their free instant checker beats the snot out of GoDaddy's paid "industry experts" in every case I have tried so far. The only possible value I can see in paying $15 for an "certified appraisal" is so you can scam buyers who might wrongly trust GoDaddy's "industry expert" appraisals. And GoDaddy profits mightily from this situation as well, as they get a cut of the domain registration, they get the appraisal fee, then they get a cut of the inflated price when it sells on tdnam.

 

[Spade]

On the Appraisal sales page they say $15 buys "review by industry experts" and say it takes "2 business days or less". If it is actually just a "simple formula", maybe they should say so. Maybe you know how it works, since you have posted that you used to work for GoDaddy, right?

You argue that GoDaddy is not intentionally misleading people with inflated appraisals, but they are just not competent enough to produce useful ones. In that case, the honest approach would be to stop selling the bogus appraisals.

From the GoDaddy Appraisals Section:

"The express Domain Appraisal algorithm is based on commercial use, brand recognition, name length, dot value, hyphen/numeric, and word count"

I agree, GoDaddy's formula is flawed and not even close to what I would consider accurate. I am not arguing that GoDaddy appraisals are valueable. I agree with everyone that they are a joke and very misleading for a first time domainer. What I am arguing is that its not a scam. Its simply a poor product.

Do I think that leapfish is a better indicator of value? God no. I can give you plenty of examples where leapfish delivers an equally unrealistic or off value. I personally feel the best indicator of value (as it currently stands) is right here on the namepros appraisals section. Who better to accurately evaluate a domains value then the people who are knee deep in this industry.

Your suggesting that GoDaddy inflates the value of a domain on the appraisal, to allow a seller to sell a domain name at a higher price, thus collecting more money. Although I cant prove or disprove this theory, I would like to point out that TDNAM makes more money on their expired domains (where they make 100% of the profit) then they would on someones listed domains.

Your entitled to your opinion, but the issue I believe is simple. GoDaddy does not offer their appraisal service with the intention of defrauding customers. They offer it with the intention of providing information, even if this information is poor and innacurate. Should they sell appraisals? No. If you cant do something right, dont do it. But thats not the question being raised.

Justin

 

[Cronus]

From the GoDaddy Appraisals Section:
I am not arguing that GoDaddy appraisals are valueable. I agree with everyone that they are a joke and very misleading for a first time domainer. What I am arguing is that its not a scam. Its simply a poor product.

I see your point, and I think we agree for the most part. Whether it is "a scam", or just "a joke" isn't all that material. I just hope GoDaddy will pull or improve the product.

Just to clarify: the product I'm complaining about is their supposedly human generated "certified appriasal" which they charge more for and list next to domains in the auction. The algorithm you quote is for their cheaper "express domain appraisal " product.

BTW, good work with NameBio! That is far more useful in domain valuation than any GoDaddy (or LeapFish) "appraisal".

 

[Spade]

]

BTW, good work with NameBio! That is far more useful in domain valuation than any GoDaddy (or LeapFish) "appraisal".

Cronus,

Thank you so much. Hopefully soon enough it will be a one stop resource for domain evaluations. In my mind, you cant realistically value domain names if you dont have a database of what other domains are selling for.

and just a heads up - GoDaddy's certified appraisals are the same appraisal (as their standard) only "reviewed" by a domain professional. In all honesty, the difference between the two is one tells you the price, the other tells you the price with a nice little "Certified" sticker.

When I worked at GDaddy, I checked on the difference. I did an express and then I went ahead and ordered a seperate certified for the same domain. Guess what? Same exact results. Needless to say I was rather dissapointed. Sometimes I wish I could just walk back in and say "What are you guys doing?" and just fix all the issues that domainers have with them. They could be such a complete system for domainers. Worse part is, they have the resources to do it, they just dont, or just dont know.

Justin