Circumventing GoDaddy Expiry Auctions

[411domains]

Has anyone noticed the thousands upon thousands of Godaddy expired auctions ending without bids that never return to the market as a closeout?

Someone has discovered a way to circumvent the regular expired auction process.

They appear to be using an API that places backorders within seconds of auction close. Thus eliminating all competition, auction extensions and closeout conversion times for the cost of a backorder. (In their case, thousands of backorders.)

Although the auctions are already closed, these after the fact backorders are being counted as bids.

In my opinion, any bid that comes in after the auction closes should be automatically canceled and refunded.

What are your thoughts?

BTW, this has been a known issue for awhile.

 

[Joe Styler]

Good questions. There are multiple things happening here which have been stated in the thread already. There are times where domains are renewed by 3rd party registrars and pulled from the auction and do not make it to closeouts. There is also currently time where placing a backorder on a domain if timed right can grab that name before it hits closeouts. This is always how it has worked and it is by design and pretty well known by people who use the auction a lot as some have pointed out in the thread already. It is something we have always been very forthright on and something I have answered in PMs on here countless times. It is used by people who are savvy API and non API customers do it. HOWEVER this is changing within the next 7 days. So I will give you the run down of how it works today and how it will work.
The beginning of auctions to today work like this:
Expired auction day 26-36 of expiration.
Closeouts (BIN) are day 37-41.
Backorders can be placed any time before during or after the auctions.
Placed before or during the Expired auction they show up with a $10 opening bid. Multiple Backorders placed = first person to place it gets the $10 high bid.
Backorders placed during the Closeout BIN auction do nothing during the auction.
There are currently (and again this is changing) 4 times where we check for active backorders on the domain that is at auction.
1. Before the auction - we check to see if there are any and if so we place an opening bid for the first person to place the Backorder. All backorder holders on the domain are alerted that the domain is at auction. Only the 1rst Backorder (BO from now on) gets the bid.
2. BO placed during the expired auction. Auctions checks and applies BO in pretty close to real time for a $10 bid if there are no bids currently. If there are bids BO is still applied but you are not winning and you wont see that show up publicly.
3. BO is checked for after the expired auction ends and before the domain goes to Closeout Auctions. This was by design as a way to make certain if someone had a BO on the domain with no other bids they get the domain and someone else does not buy it from them.
4. Closeout auction ends - BO is checked after the closeout BIN auction is completed on day 41 of expiration. The BO is not checked for during any days of the closeout auction.

People who use our auction regularly know this and can try to place a backorder on a domain with seconds or so left on the expired auction hoping that the databases and calls etc do not act fast enough to place a bid and extend the auction for five minutes but do act fast enough to have that backorder showing as active when we check for any active BO before moving to closeout. So if you time it just right you can get a backorder in that the system awards the domain name to before moving to closeouts. But you're not the only person doing this so it comes down to a race too early and you tip your hand the system sees it and extends the auction with a bid, too late and you are not the first person to place that backorder or you miss the window and the domain hits closeouts.

The system was designed like this not to give people a way to do this, this is a unintended consequence of a feature we have always had which is intended to be sure that anyone who wanted the domain and paid for a backorder on it got it. As we discovered more users taking advantage of this lately, even though we have always been very public about how the system worked when asked we felt that it was creating a harder time for people who do not use the auctions so much that they understand all the ins and outs as well as others who do.

So we decided to make a change. The system will no longer check for BO on step 3 above. This change is happening soon, within the next week. I was planning on announcing it in here then publicly because as I said a lot of people know how it works now and use it that way and it would be good for them to know the change. But since I was asked about it that's the answer. Very soon we will no longer check for a BO before moving the domain from expired auction to closeout auction.

Do keep in mind though that as soon as it hits closeout anyone who is fast can buy it. Whoever clicks buy first will have the ability to check it out and it will disappear from anyone else seeing it. So yeah a bot can still grab it fast and that is also likely part of what is happening today and that will be unlikely to change in the future. Fastest buyer on BIN wins.

 

[Arca]

Tracked a bunch of domains today and yesterday with certain valuations, just for the sake of seeing what would happen to them. Worthless domains to domainers, but the kinds of domains that these automated buyers have been picking up based purely on valuations. They all followed the same pattern.

Every single domain I've checked that has a valuation of $1300+ and ends with no bidders immediately changes the WHOIS from the former registrant to Afternic in WHOIS (indicating that somebody bought the domain). They never show up in closeouts.

Every single domain I've checked with a valuation of less tha $1300 that ends with no bids retains the former WHOIS record post auctions (indicating that nobody bought the domain). They show up in closeouts.

The only difference from before is that the domains with a $1300+ valuation that end don't seem to get a backorder post auction anymore. At least the $12-->$10 minimum bid conversion in the registrar path that revealed the backorder does not reveal it anymore. Yet as per WHOIS updates, one company seems to be able to secure their purchase of any domain that doesn't get a bid before the auction ends, within seconds after auction end, without placing an actual bid in the auction. Not sure if they still place backorders and the GD reg path just doesn't reveal it anymore, or if they have another way to simply buy any domain they want at GD that doesn't get bids.

 

[Ategy]

Why wait for the chance to buy at closeout for $11 (and risk losing it) when you can buy it in the GoDaddy auction for $12?

Because by placing a $12 you draw attention to the domain and it could climb significantly higher.

I think the common thinking is that you will draw particular attention by automated bots who can check multiple listings and actions all at the same time.

I do grab some at $12 if I definitely want a specific domain and don't mind paying more .. but most of my domain strategy is to get domains even below what I consider wholesale .. so for me it's a numbers game .. I have X number of domains I really want per day ... but 90% of them go well out of my "super value" range .. often going significantly higher. The remaining 10% names I risk getting at closeout .. I definitely don't get them all .. but from time to time I get some at $11 .. or even down at $5!

It's often dumb luck .. I get names with just as much quality or better at $11 than some that go into 3 figures .. but that's only because I go very deep into the expiration lists to find potential gems ..
https://www.namepros.com/threads/at...closeout-domains.1006428/page-12#post-6665183

It's important to note that while the domain market is liquid-ish .. there are still ways to find good names for cheap. A large amounts of the names I've shared in the "Domains You've Won at Auction or Closeout" thread were indeed closeouts at $11 down to even $5.
https://www.namepros.com/threads/domains-you-won-at-auction-or-closeout-in-your-account.1050374/

So yeah .. definitely bid $12 if it's a MUST HAVE domain and you're ok risking that it goes higher .. but if you're ok playing the numbers game and accepting only having an about 25% chance of getting the domain .. then let it go to closeout. After you've been doing it for a while you'll get an idea of which are riskier than others.

 

[urlurl]

Pay the goReaper...

 

[Arca]

No. I don't use backorders.

To my knowledge, based on my own experience as well as that of other domainers who have attempted this, it's not possible to win GD Auctions domain by placing a backorder post-auction and pre-closeout. I've never talked to anyone who actually go this to work, though many have tried. If this was possible everyone would be doing this rather than trying to "snipe" domains as closeouts.

Has anyone here successfully placed a backorder after an auction has ended and won a GD auctions domain in this way? With a zero percent success rate I haven't tried this for some time as it's just a waste of time, so I wouldn't be aware if it has recently started working. If you ask GoDaddy support they will say that it works, but GoDaddy support is often clueless about how their platform works, especially auctions, and there is nothing from my own and others first hand experience that indicates that it actually works.

The only way to get a backorder to work on an auction name, to my knowledge, is to place the backorder while the auction is still going on, which will then show up as a $10 bid in the auction (and extend the auction if you place it last moment when there is 1-10 seconds left). That's practically the same as placing a $12 bid, only difference is that you pay slightly less. In terms of visibility/not attracting competition there are no benefits to doing so.

There is one party at GoDaddy auctions that on some days place backorders on thousands of domains while they are still in auction. These backorders are placed around 5 minutes before the end of the auction. As a result, they "open" bidding on all of these names, and those that are decent will get other bids, while they get the garbage ones for their $10 opening bid. What happens in this scenario is that human domainers will cherrypick/bid on the best of these domains after bidding has started, while leaving the scraps to be won by these automated $10 backorders, unless "bidder 1" enters the fray and bids too (which they do at times, though seemingly not most of the time). Overall I think this is a very inefficient approach, as by opening bidding you bring attention to these names, and as a result other domainers will only let you have the worthless ones for $10 as they will bid up those with value. From what I have seen, both HugeDomains and another party that uses WHOIS privacy have used this method of placing a backorder while the auction is still live.

A far more effective approach for them (if it was possible) would be to delay the backorders by 5 minutes, let the domain auctions just end, and then place the backorder a second after auction end, and get them before they reach closeouts. That way they would be able to win far more domains, and of better quality, than they currently do by placing backorders 5 minutes before auction end. I think the fact that they place backorders 5 minutes before auction end, rather than 1 second after auction end, is another indication that you can't win domains by placing a backorder post-auction pre-closeout. If the latter was possible, the strategy of placing a backorder 5 minutes before auction end would be completely counterproductive and self-defeating, and there would be no reason for anyone to place thousands of backorders on any given day before auction end.

That doesn't answer your question of what is happening to domains that don't seem to reach closeouts, but at least I doubt that the answer is that these domains are backordered after auction end.

On my end I have not seen any domains I liked with a valuation of $1300+ hit closeouts for some time. Though I see that there are about 250 .COM domains in closeouts right now with a valuation of $1300+, but in contrast, there are 165,00+ .COM domains with a valuation below $1300. It's pretty obvious that someone is buying practically all .COM domains at GoDaddy with a valuation of $1300+. I don't know how they get the domains with $1300+ valuations that end with zero bids, but I assume that they perhaps use the GoDaddy API or other automated methods to buy these domains as soon as they become available in the system as $11 closeouts. Since domains that do reach closeouts are seriously delayed, maybe API users get the closeout availability info slightly faster than site users do, and so they can easily buy them before us regular users ever even see them? I don't have API access so I have no idea about that. But I at least I really don't think they place backorders to achieve this.

On my end I am seeing sub $1300 valuation domains go to closeouts just like before, pretty much all such domains I'm following reach closeouts, only difference is that they tend to take hours, rather than minutes, to hit the closeouts.

 

[411domains]

Just one of many today...
Watch as the auction ends without bids, pending conversion to closeout.
When refreshed moments later...gone...auction ended.
Regpath search screenshots also show that it was secured with a backorder.
Screenshot 1: Taken at auction end.
Screenshot 2: Taken moments after auction end.

Please no comments on video quality. If you demand better, do your own research.

 

[wwwweb]

This has long been known as a backdoor loophole, big domain investors have been sniping domains that expired with no bids into closeout for years. The poor domainer sat there for hours hitting refresh, and pulling their hair out. I am surprised this is only coming out now? AKA HugeNames and many others.

It is not so effective anymore as most of the good domains are getting picked off before they hit closeout. There are so many bots with a hit list, and if one of their names gets a last minute bid it jumps in etc. You can literally find dozens of threads here of people thinking that others are crazy because there closeouts are gone, many assuring them they are slow on the draw, that was never the case, you never really stood a chance if you didn't understand the process.

The common domainer gets screwed anyways, because the bots will still beat you, you just have the advantage of thinking you have a chance. Even Elon Musk admitted on Twitter:

Yes, excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated.



12:54 PM - 13 Apr 2018


Godaddy needs to get rid of the bots, make it a roll up your sleeves, and bid exchange, not an exchange for a few big domain companies to game.

Now if we can get usernames, oh boy that will blow the doors wide open.

 

[411domains]

Congratulations 411Domains!!!!!

You just ruined this for pretty much everyone who knew this was going on (including myself). I've snatched so many domains in the void between closeout and end of auction it was silly.

Instead of just doing the research for yourself and figuring it out you had to come to forum and cry about it.

You my friend are the worst. In my opinion.

Everyone that was able to do this will now take joy that you just completely crapped on a perfectly good advantage.

Thumbs down, bad thread.

How long did you think it was going to last, many times people questioned it, but everyone kind of kept quiet about it. I agree it does suck, because it was the only advantage the human bidder had, which will now be gone.

I agree 411 domains would have been just better to keep his mouth shut, and bid away, these kind of guys just don't know when to quit.

jaja I don't know, forever! I was doing it for well over a year, and some others longer for sure.

I only caught on when the closeout system didn't seem to be behaving 'normally', so I tested BO's. I couldn't get it to work, and it took me about 8 tries before I cracked the process.

It was nice while it lasted, GD has to make their money after all.

You are being right 100% @wwwweb !
It was rather kind that they allowed it at all.

Still, thumbs down to @411domains know your business.

I know my business and I do very well.

It's one thing if it's being done manually. It's another if it's being done by an API...hundreds...thousands at a time each day.

This had become a problem that was cutting into everyone's business.

If you're not a part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

I'm a problem solver.

For the record, I'm not the only one to bring this up.

Before you start shedding your domainer tears, why don't you ask @Joe Styler how many complaints they've received on this?

 

[Arca]

And I'm almost certain that these domains will show up under WHOIS privacy, listed exclusively for sale at Afternic, and at low prices.

The thousands of domains that just disappear post auction at GD each day all seem to follow this same fate.

Maybe there is really something to the "conspiracy theories" posted by @Hater, @RozasMD... Because:

WHOIS privacy: why would you pay $9.99 extra per domain for WHOIS privacy at GoDaddy? Even with a discount, it would incur a huge additional cost if you buy thousands of domains per day. And if they pay full price for WHOIS privacy, it would add nearly a million dollar extra in acquisition cost per month (!) based on the quantities they seem to be buying. This makes no sense to do so unless you're GoDaddy and WHOIS privacy is free to you. Also, by applying WHOIS privacy there is one less way for buyers to find you, so WHOIS in this case seems to be only for the purpose of hiding something.

Listed for sale at Afternic only: The large retail domain sellers/marketplaces all list on both Afternic and Sedo. Yet this large buyer does not list with GoDaddy's competitor, Sedo, even though Sedo has a lower commission fee and reach certain markets that Afternic don't. Doesn't make any sense to do so unless you are GoDaddy and don't want to give business to your main competing market.

Listed for sale at ridiculously low prices: Many of these domains get listed for sale at $XX to low $XXX prices. How can you buy a domain, presumably for $16+ dollars each at least + WHOIS privacy + pay 20% commission on a sale, with a minimum commission of $15?

They are making no more than a $1-9 net profit on many of these domain sales, if you look at each individual sale alone. That doesn't take into account that they buy thousands of domains each day, most of which will not sell at all. So if you take into consideration the cost of buying thousands of domains each day that won't sell, this strategy is 100% unprofitable, as the acquisition costs surely dwarf sales. The portfolio of this buyer on the whole is not profitable at all. Whoever is doing this is is losing a huge amount of money every single day, with no hopes of ever making a profit.

It seems that the only company that could profitably follow this strategy is GoDaddy themselves, as they would not have to pay for the domain, they can grab it pre-closeout at cost, the WHOIS privacy would be free, and they wouldn't have to pay the Afternic commission. I am not saying that it is GoDaddy, I have NO evidence that GoDaddy is doing this. I'm just saying that they seem to be the only party that could do this profitably. And while an increasing number of NP users have beguns suggesting, or outright accusing, GoDaddy of being behind this, nobody has presented any real evidence yet. So that GoDaddy is behind this is nothing more than a conspiracy theory, there are currently no facts supporting it, and GoDaddy themselves have stated that they are not doing this. I sure wish somebody could figure out the identity of this mystery buyer though.

 

[MapleDots]

Yup.... the godaddy machine and it's only going to get worse.

We need to do more business outside of their services.

When you're considering bidding on a domain you really want remember that godaddy takes about 20%.

Contact the domain owner directly and you immediately have a 20% advantage over doing business through godaddy. I picked up few like this in the last little while.

I saw a domain for 5k on godaddy and felt I did not want to spend more than 4k. I made a bid for 4k directly to the owner and he rejected the offer saying he wanted 5k. At that point I reminded him he only gets 4k from auction and I would not be offering there. He saw the logic and took my 4k, the deal was done and we kept the money out of the godaddy machine.

afternic/godaddy will eventually buy huge domains, I predict this will happen

Our options will become less and less unless we are careful. Remember to not let your godaddy domains expire either, give them away on namepros if you don't want them. Don't let them become part of the godaddy machine. Don't let them profit on your expiries! Support your fellow domainers and give them away here instead of letting godaddy have them.

Unfortunately with expiries we have no choice but to bid on them at godaddy but as you can see the system is not stacked in our favor.

 

[411domains]

I just sold a domain on Afternic for $99 - and so I cleared $79 - that was a $69 profit over the $10 registration cost. You do this a thousand times you can make decent money. Of course, not all domains sell - but for that ratio, 1 selling for every 7 listed is break-even. Whoever is putting the domains won on backorder onto Afternic are playing such a numbers game.

If you think pennies, you get pennies.

 

[wwwweb]

There is very little point to even look at the closeouts anymore. Whether it be the bots or users using the API. Or in the future, passing the torch to the bots. But we should face the fact that there isn't much quality in the domains that go to closeouts. You might find a handful of average domains out of the thousands which drop to closeout each day. Most of the meat has been eaten already in the expiring auctions. I'm actually surprised this thread has created so much controversy. I would forgo every domain I've ever bought at closeout (which has been many over the years) to have won a handful of domains in the expiring auctions. But I get frightened off with the bots bidding everything up. But hopefully this will at sometime reflect in increased retail prices. Let's hope so. I still think the jury is out about Huge Domains business model, though Even though they keep doubling down with their registrars, activities in GD Auctions, et al.

Huge domains is doing pretty good right now, as times are good, buyers are buying that sweet spot they service, and they have stock piled a diverse and extensive inventory, so things are looking good for them. It is in times where the economy takes a turn for the worse, and they are stuck renewing that $35M portfolio, and dropcatch is not making the kind of money it is churning right now with a few crazy bidders who don't know the meaning of backing down. They are doubling down, and spending up, they are making godaddy a lot of money as their bot is countering a lot of last min bids on names that deserve to go to closeout and pushing them up $50-$100, over tens of thousands of domains a year that is a lot of money. They don't even have to win the auction, but I recommend anyone who is getting burned by this strategy not to support the huge domain brands as you are essentially just giving them money to outbid you.

 

[Name Trader]

but I recommend anyone who is getting burned by this strategy not to support the huge domain brands as you are essentially just giving them money to outbid you.

I do certainly use DC for my backorders. Let's face it. They are the biggest dropcatcher on the planet by far. Placing an order anywhere else is simply reducing your chances. I get a kick if it goes to auction (that my thinking was correct) and I get I kick when they capture it exclusively for me (because I beat every other dropcatcher on the planet)

I'm not ashamed to admit to using DC for my dropcatching. It makes absolutely perfect sense to me. The amount I spend isn't going to matter in their big picture, and I'm "cutting off my nose to spite my face" if I go anywhere else.

 

[Page Howe]

reply to earlier message

Because by placing a $12 you draw attention to the domain and it could climb significantly higher.

I think the common thinking is that you will draw particular attention by automated bots who can check multiple listings and actions all at the same time.

I do grab some at $12 if I definitely want a specific domain and don't mind paying more .. but most of my domain strategy is to get domains even below what I consider wholesale .. so for me it's a numbers game .. I have X number of domains I really want per day ... but 90% of them go well out of my "super value" range .. often going significantly higher. The remaining 10% names I risk getting at closeout .. I definitely don't get them all .. but from time to time I get some at $11 .. or even down at $5!

It's often dumb luck .. I get names with just as much quality or better at $11 than some that go into 3 figures .. but that's only because I go very deep into the expiration lists to find potential gems ..
https://www.namepros.com/threads/ategy-com-best-expiration-auction-and-closeout-domains.1006428/page-12#post-6665183

It's important to note that while the domain market is liquid-ish .. there are still ways to find good names for cheap. A large amounts of the names I've shared in the "Domains You've Won at Auction or Closeout" thread were indeed closeouts at $11 down to even $5.
https://www.namepros.com/threads/domains-you-won-at-auction-or-closeout-in-your-account.1050374/

So yeah .. definitely bid $12 if it's a MUST HAVE domain and you're ok risking that it goes higher .. but if you're ok playing the numbers game and accepting only having an about 25% chance of getting the domain .. then let it go to closeout. After you've been doing it for a while you'll get an idea of which are riskier than others.

couldnt have said it better, well summarized

Don't be angry, don't be sad
And don't sit crying over good times you had
There's a girl right next to you
And she's just waiting for something to do

And there's a rose in a fisted glove
And eagle flies with the dove
And if you can't be with the one you love, honey
Love the one you're with
Love the one you're with
Love the one you're with

Do-do, do do, do do, do-do

page

 

[Joe Styler]

I technically meant _number_ of watchers. It may well be that the system actually allowed to see a list of watching parties. @Joe Styler can you please clarify the response in aspects of "see watchers" or "see total number of watchers". Thank you.

I dont know what you are asking. I never heard of any way for people to see the actual people who are watching the auction. If you follow this thread or several others you can even see that people are upset that we do not show the bidder handle of a person bidding we anonymize it, so it would be a pretty giant leap to get to somehow seeing who is bidding on a domain or watching a domain or doing anything on a domain that could be tied to an individual, our system isn't set up to do anything like that. The only way I am aware of ever being able to see who was bidding on a domain is to watch who shows up in the WHOIS after the auction is over and awarded, assuming they are not using privacy.
So if you are asking that I don't know of any way that anyone could see watchers. # of watchers was released for a while publicly, that was changed due to public opinion from our customers including threads on here. We thought we had removed that completely but there was still one way to see it that was removed a couple weeks back.

 

[DrJacoby]

Why wait for the chance to buy at closeout for $11 (and risk losing it) when you can buy it in the GoDaddy auction for $12?

 

[creataweb]

I just sold a domain on Afternic for $99 - and so I cleared $79 - that was a $69 profit over the $10 registration cost. You do this a thousand times you can make decent money. Of course, not all domains sell - but for that ratio, 1 selling for every 7 listed is break-even. Whoever is putting the domains won on backorder onto Afternic are playing such a numbers game.

Yeah but if you're backordering or paying over $10 you're not making a hell of a lot! Especially if you're selling for $35-75 moreso.

I've had lowball offers as low as $15 to $20 from GD / AN

 

[urlurl]

the bot machines seem to buying up mostly names valued over $1300. based of a sample of 2400 names in closeouts - only 13 names were valued over $1300 (or about 0.5%) I don't think the valuations are accurate in 99% of the time - so they are just blowing good money on names that may never sell. the big guys cant hand pick names so they need to rely on numbers associated with the names.

the advantage we have is being able to pick, judge and cherry pick the quality names.

I've seen so many sub par names getting crazy bids its like watching lemmings jumping off a cliff.

 

[garptrader]

Huge Domains and other large players are experts at acquiring expired domains. I do not believe they are acquiring aftermarket domains at least yet. I will admit that even for domains I do not renew there is a tendency to lower the price to maybe $299 but no further. Perhaps if domain investors dropped Godaddy Auction listed domains which they were not going to renew to say $49 or $35 or $25 etc other investors might pick them up - to bypass the auction process.

There is too much focus on acquiring expired domains (even though 99.9% are junk) rather than value-priced aftermarket domains. Yet the same investors who won't even look at low $XXX-priced aftermarket domains will turn around and price their newly-acquired backorders for five figures.

 

[MapleDots]

the only winner here is godaddy

Yup, way too much power for one organization

Hey they also bought afternic that technically makes them two organizations and since they are in bed with huge domains we will count that as three.

Registrar, Marketplace, Afternic etc.

And as domainers we are still letting our godaddy domains expire for them to make money on.

REMEMBER IF YOU'RE GOING TO LET A DOMAIN EXPIRE THAT SITS AT GODADDY PLEASE GIVE IT AWAY TO A FELLOW DOMAINER SO IT DOES NOT END UP ON THEGODADDY EXPIRING AUCTIONS.

Let a fellow domainer make a sale attempt and we might be able to tame the godaddy machine.

 

[411domains]

To my knowledge, based on my own experience as well as that of other domainers who have attempted this, it's not possible to win GD Auctions domain by placing a backorder post-auction and pre-closeout. I've never talked to anyone who actually go this to work, though many have tried. If this was possible everyone would be doing this rather than trying to "snipe" domains as closeouts.

Has anyone here successfully placed a backorder after an auction has ended and won a GD auctions domain in this way? With a zero percent success rate I haven't tried this for some time as it's just a waste of time, so I wouldn't be aware if it has recently started working. If you ask GoDaddy support they will say that it works, but GoDaddy support is often clueless about how their platform works, especially auctions, and there is nothing from my own and others first hand experience that indicates that it actually works.

The only way to get a backorder to work on an auction name, to my knowledge, is to place the backorder while the auction is still going on, which will then show up as a $10 bid in the auction (and extend the auction if you place it last moment when there is 1-10 seconds left). That's practically the same as placing a $12 bid, only difference is that you pay slightly less. In terms of visibility/not attracting competition there are no benefits to doing so.

There is one party at GoDaddy auctions that on some days place backorders on thousands of domains while they are still in auction. These backorders are placed around 5 minutes before the end of the auction. As a result, they "open" bidding on all of these names, and those that are decent will get other bids, while they get the garbage ones for their $10 opening bid. What happens in this scenario is that human domainers will cherrypick/bid on the best of these domains after bidding has started, while leaving the scraps to be won by these automated $10 backorders, unless "bidder 1" enters the fray and bids too (which they do at times, though seemingly not most of the time). Overall I think this is a very inefficient approach, as by opening bidding you bring attention to these names, and as a result other domainers will only let you have the worthless ones for $10 as they will bid up those with value. From what I have seen, both HugeDomains and another party that uses WHOIS privacy have used this method of placing a backorder while the auction is still live.

A far more effective approach for them (if it was possible) would be to delay the backorders by 5 minutes, let the domain auctions just end, and then place the backorder a second after auction end, and get them before they reach closeouts. That way they would be able to win far more domains, and of better quality, than they currently do by placing backorders 5 minutes before auction end. I think the fact that they place backorders 5 minutes before auction end, rather than 1 second after auction end, is another indication that you can't win domains by placing a backorder post-auction pre-closeout. If the latter was possible, the strategy of placing a backorder 5 minutes before auction end would be completely counterproductive and self-defeating, and there would be no reason for anyone to place thousands of backorders on any given day before auction end.

That doesn't answer your question of what is happening to domains that don't seem to reach closeouts, but at least I doubt that the answer is that these domains are backordered after auction end.

On my end I have not seen any domains I liked with a valuation of $1300+ hit closeouts for some time. Though I see that there are about 250 .COM domains in closeouts right now with a valuation of $1300+, but in contrast, there are 165,00+ .COM domains with a valuation below $1300. It's pretty obvious that someone is buying practically all .COM domains at GoDaddy with a valuation of $1300+. I don't know how they get the domains with $1300+ valuations that end with zero bids, but I assume that they perhaps use the GoDaddy API or other automated methods to buy these domains as soon as they become available in the system as $11 closeouts. Since domains that do reach closeouts are seriously delayed, maybe API users get the closeout availability info slightly faster than site users do, and so they can easily buy them before us regular users ever even see them? I don't have API access so I have no idea about that. But I at least I really don't think they place backorders to achieve this.

On my end I am seeing sub $1300 valuation domains go to closeouts just like before, pretty much all such domains I'm following reach closeouts, only difference is that they tend to take hours, rather than minutes, to hit the closeouts.

The team has confirmed that backorders are, in fact, being placed on expired domains after regular auction end.

As you know, they've been rolling out changes to the platform for quite some time. In doing so, they managed to open up a small window of opportunity that now makes it possible to place actually place a backorder on an expired domain after regular auction end and before closeout begins.

Given the number of domains that are being snatched up using this tactic, One must assume this is being done with an API.

I don't believe valuation plays a part as some do not have valuations attached.

The person/s doing this appears to have knowledge of the system and an unlimited supply of backorders & domain privacy.

 

[Arca]

Couldn't that scenario also apply to Godaddy Partners who don't participate in the Closeout Auctions, just like this example. It would be more interesting if this was a GoDaddy registered domain.

I observed the same pattern for GD registered domains today. No bids. Backorder added post-auction.

 

[411domains]

Some domains take 5-6 hours to reach closeout status these days.

And when a domain shows up as a close out no longer seems to bear any direct correlation with when the auction ended. A domain auction that ended in the last hour of the daily auctions period may show up as a closeout before a domain where the auction ended in the first hour of the daily auction window. Until recently they showed up chronologically in line with when an auction ended.

Anyone have any idea whether this is a permanent and deliberate move by GD to extend and randomize the auction to closeout period? Or is this just a temporary result of their system struggling to process a larger number of domains going through their auctions and closeouts?

To be honest, I don't believe it's the system struggling. I believe it the people working on the system who are struggling.

 

[Arca]

I talked to GoDaddy about this and they confirmed that a backorder placed after the auction will NOT get you the domain before it reaches closeouts.

I also tried to place a few backorders yesterday to see for myself, both before (but not so early that it showed up as a $10 bid) and after auction end, and GoDaddy told me that all of those backorders failed, even though all those auctions ended with 0 other bidders. So save your money, as I said previously, trying to grab domains post-auction pre-closeouts with a backorder is a waste of time. Their backorders don't work that way. You have to place a backorder so early that it shows up as a $10 bid, and that's no different than placing a $12 bid.

However, shortly after those auctions ended with no bidders at $12, their price changed to $10 in the reg path. So somebody else won them. And GoDaddy confirmed that somebody else won them, but they told me there was a single bidder (not backorder, live bidder) on each auction. I watched all of them and there were no other bidders. They all ended with 0 bidders. And their minimum bid changed to $10 right after auction end. So one party seems to be exploiting a glitch where they place backorders just at the right moment, too late for them to show up as $10 bids in the system, but just early enough for them to count as $10 bids in their system. They basically manage to get their backorders to work as $10 bids, but in a way that does not extend the auction/show up as a $10 bid in the auction interface. So while the auction ends with 0 bids, the GD back-end system considers the auction to end with a $10 bid. I do wonder how they managed to make this arrangement, and whether or not GoDaddy is assisting them in doing so. As long as they are able to do this they can keep winning auctions that close with zero bids uncontested, and any domains they want won't make it to closeouts.