GoDaddy Auction Seller Backing Out

[clarkemarketing]

Anyone ever won a GD auction just to have the seller claim they no longer own the domain? I won BlockchainLegal.com BlockchainTrust.com and BlockchainStack.com on GoDaddy a few weeks ago, paid, and then had the seller contact me to see if I received the domains yet (which I had not). I noticed that one of the domains was developed in the meantime, and wouldn't you know it today the seller contacts me to say he made a mistake and no longer owns all 3 of them. They are all still registered at GoDaddy btw (doesn't GD verify ownership of domains that are being auctioned?). Seems to me like I was "freerolled"... auction a name on GoDaddy, if it goes for a high amount sell it, if it doesn't just claim you no longer own the domain. Anyone have any thoughts on this? I've got to be one of the biggest buyers on GoDaddy auctions lately and other than never buying on that platform again I'm not sure what recourse I really have? I know people make mistakes, and I have overlooked such situations many times before, but this involves multiple names that quite frankly sold for significantly less than I was expecting to pay and now the seller is clearly trying to back out.

 

[MapleDots]

Anyone ever won a GD auction just to have the seller claim they no longer own the domain? I won BlockchainLegal.com BlockchainTrust.com and BlockchainStack.com on GoDaddy a few weeks ago, paid, and then had the seller contact me to see if I received the domains yet (which I had not). I noticed that one of the domains was developed in the meantime, and wouldn't you know it today the seller contacts me to say he made a mistake and no longer owns all 3 of them. They are all still registered at GoDaddy btw (doesn't GD verify ownership of domains that are being auctioned?). Seems to me like I was "freerolled"... auction a name on GoDaddy, if it goes for a high amount sell it, if it doesn't just claim you no longer own the domain. Anyone have any thoughts on this? I've got to be one of the biggest buyers on GoDaddy auctions lately and other than never buying on that platform again I'm not sure what recourse I really have? I know people make mistakes, and I have overlooked such situations many times before, but this involves multiple names that quite frankly sold for significantly less than I was expecting to pay and now the seller is clearly trying to back out.

I bought a few domains in the 1k range and they ended not hitting my account.
It was a joke.

Now I just contact owners via whois and make my offer directly. It gives me an advantage over auctions because the seller saves the 20% auction fees.

Nothing says you can't look at auctions and make a few private deals with a couple of strategic whois inquiries.

As far as your situation goes..... if the domains have left the sellers hands there is very little you can do but move on. You have no recourse, godaddy has all the fine print stacked in their favor.

 

[wwwweb]

I don't think they are in the owners account at godaddy, as they would auto lock with payment verification, and godaddy will transfer automatically, so most likely they are not in the same account that listed them for sale.

 

[pokainc]

I was very annoyed by this plague on Godaddy also.. several times I bought a domain (buy now's in my case), was asked to pay, then to not get any response, then to have the same type of response by Godaddy that unfortunately the seller doesn't own the domain or didn't have the rights to sell it..

Another was an offer I had made, the "owner" sent it to 7 a day auction.. I won it.. and he never answered, then Godaddy notified me saying they will cancel the transaction and that they will supposedly take action or wtv...

 

[equity78]

I don't think they are in the owners account at godaddy, as they would auto lock with payment verification, and godaddy will transfer automatically, so most likely they are not in the same account that listed them for sale.

Wasn't that name being mentioned here, like checkout NameJet for Blockchainbet.com?

 

[BrandMart]

@Joe Styler
We would like to hear from GD itself. Isn't the seller liable to honor the deal?

 

[bluemeteor]

I don't think they are in the owners account at godaddy, as they would auto lock with payment verification, and godaddy will transfer automatically, so most likely they are not in the same account that listed them for sale.

So I can put my Namesilo and Namecheap domain into Godaddy auction?

 

[pokainc]

@BrandMart liable I think yes; Godaddy bans the account, but if you want to take legal action.. it pretty much has to go to court.. and will cost thousands... most of the time it's not worth to go that route.. especially if the owner lives in another country... but again.. Joe I'm sure will have a more precise answer

 

[equity78]

Anyone ever won a GD auction just to have the seller claim they no longer own the domain? I won BlockchainLegal.com BlockchainTrust.com and BlockchainStack.com on GoDaddy a few weeks ago, paid, and then had the seller contact me to see if I received the domains yet (which I had not). I noticed that one of the domains was developed in the meantime, and wouldn't you know it today the seller contacts me to say he made a mistake and no longer owns all 3 of them. They are all still registered at GoDaddy btw (doesn't GD verify ownership of domains that are being auctioned?). Seems to me like I was "freerolled"... auction a name on GoDaddy, if it goes for a high amount sell it, if it doesn't just claim you no longer own the domain. Anyone have any thoughts on this? I've got to be one of the biggest buyers on GoDaddy auctions lately and other than never buying on that platform again I'm not sure what recourse I really have? I know people make mistakes, and I have overlooked such situations many times before, but this involves multiple names that quite frankly sold for significantly less than I was expecting to pay and now the seller is clearly trying to back out.

I do not believe they verify ownership for public auctions, I could be wrong but know plenty of people who bought a name to be told the seller doesn't own the name anymore.

Sedo has plenty of 3L.coms listed that are not owned by that seller account anymore.

 

[equity78]

So I can put my Namesilo and Namecheap domain into Godaddy auction?

Yes you can auction names not registered at GoDaddy, Premium Listings must be at GoDaddy.

 

[tonyk2000]

Nothing says you can't look at auctions and make a few private deals with a couple of strategic whois inquiries.

Depends on the price imho. If I have lets say 3 figures fixed BIN price on afternic/sedo/GD, I'll normally set instant transfer, and, if I am asked to sell directly or using other channels - I will, but the price will be higher - not 20% lower, as staff time (manual pushes, tracking payments etc) is costly. In other words, in some cases it is cheaper to outsource sale processing to marketplaces.

As for the situation with the seller backing out, nothing unusual. Last time I checked, GD listed also unregistered domains - so they do not bother to verify ownership changes or domain status. While contacting an owner directly with any inquiry is not always optimal (some may increase prices after any inquiry arrives), checking domain history and available dates (such as is there a sedo listing, or afternic listing, and, if so, listing dates etc) may give extra info about actual domain status

 

[clarkemarketing]

I was very annoyed by this plague on Godaddy also.. several times I bought a domain (buy now's in my case), was asked to pay, then to not get any response, then to have the same type of response by Godaddy that unfortunately the seller doesn't own the domain or didn't have the rights to sell it..

Another was an offer I had made, the "owner" sent it to 7 a day auction.. I won it.. and he never answered, then Godaddy notified me saying they will cancel the transaction and that they will supposedly take action or wtv...

How can you auction off a domain name that is in a different GD account tho? Would this not set off some sort of red flag or does GD just not care about the integrity of their platform?

 

[MapleDots]

Sedo has plenty of 3L.coms listed that are not owned by that seller account anymore.

I just listed 555 domains on sedo and a ton of them were already listed there by the previous owner. So yes the auctions do not verify ownership because those domains obviously belong to me and I had not listed them.

I'll be listing another 500 in the next few days because I'm really liking Sedo.

I'll have to keep an eye open to see if I get as many domains not hitting my account when I purchase them. I got some serious offers there right now.

I intend to do a full Sedo vs Godaddy review in the near future.

 

[equity78]

Anyone ever won a GD auction just to have the seller claim they no longer own the domain? I won BlockchainLegal.com BlockchainTrust.com and BlockchainStack.com on GoDaddy a few weeks ago, paid, and then had the seller contact me to see if I received the domains yet (which I had not). I noticed that one of the domains was developed in the meantime, and wouldn't you know it today the seller contacts me to say he made a mistake and no longer owns all 3 of them. They are all still registered at GoDaddy btw (doesn't GD verify ownership of domains that are being auctioned?). Seems to me like I was "freerolled"... auction a name on GoDaddy, if it goes for a high amount sell it, if it doesn't just claim you no longer own the domain. Anyone have any thoughts on this? I've got to be one of the biggest buyers on GoDaddy auctions lately and other than never buying on that platform again I'm not sure what recourse I really have? I know people make mistakes, and I have overlooked such situations many times before, but this involves multiple names that quite frankly sold for significantly less than I was expecting to pay and now the seller is clearly trying to back out.

These three names were all the names owned by Jane Both the lady who sadly passed away and a lot of her names were sold at GoDaddy auction, expiring.

BlockchainStack.com is in her name still
BlockchainLegal.com is owned by an Ira Rothken
BlockchainTrust.com under privacy

 

[clarkemarketing]

I do not believe they verify ownership for public auctions, I could be wrong but know plenty of people who bought a name to be told the seller doesn't own the name anymore.

Sedo has plenty of 3L.coms listed that are not owned by that seller account anymore.

Yes but Sedo is a sales platform not register! These domains are registered at GoDaddy!!! How can you allow someone to sell a domain name on your auction platform, that is registered at your company, and then allow them to break the agreement because the final price was too low? It just seems ridiculous!

 

[equity78]

I just listed 555 domains on sedo and a ton of them were already listed there by the previous owner. So yes the auctions do not verify ownership because those domains obviously belong to me and I had not listed them.

I'll be listing another 500 in the next few days because I'm really liking Sedo.

I'll have to keep an eye open to see if I get as many domains not hitting my account when I purchase them. I got some serious offers there right now.

I intend to do a full Sedo vs Godaddy review in the near future.

Yeah it gets frustrating, Sedo really needs to do something about the old listings, now they verify new names added better, but there is some old names that are developed still showing $1,999 for a 3L.com.

 

[MapleDots]

Depends on the price imho. If I have lets say 3 figures fixed BIN price on afternic/sedo/GD, I'll normally set instant transfer, and, if I am asked to sell directly or using other channels - I will, but the price will be higher - not 20% lower, as staff time (manual pushes, tracking payments etc) is costly. In other words, in some cases it is cheaper to outsource sale processing to marketplaces.

Maybe but on a 20k transaction there is 4k worth of wiggle room when dealing directly. That allowed me to get one of my best domains. That 4k made all the difference, the owner got the same price he wanted and I got what I wanted. Previously the domain was for sale for a number of years and the owner had a price in his head that he wanted. I told him his yield after commission was what I was offering. The deal was done and both of us are happy.

So I understand your point on administration and such but I'm sure on a 20k transaction you would not mind the little extra work to do it manually.

 

[MapleDots]

So I can put my Namesilo and Namecheap domain into Godaddy auction?

They do verify ownership of the domain to whois as far as I know.

If you are the owner you can list

 

[equity78]

They do verify ownership of the domain to whois as far as I know.

If you are the owner you can list

Well if you look at one of the three names Clarke won, it was under privacy so no real way to verify. It looks like all 3 names have different owners.

 

[bluemeteor]

I realize those godaddy auction domains come from afternic

 

[wwwweb]

Yes but Sedo is a sales platform not register! These domains are registered at GoDaddy!!! How can you allow someone to sell a domain name on your auction platform, that is registered at your company, and then allow them to break the agreement because the final price was too low? It just seems ridiculous!

Names might have been added when they owned them, at somepoint they moved, and were never removed by the owner. The one still in her name, if in the same matching account should have a lock, and move when payment verification is completed. Unless they were pushed into a different account.

I purchased a $2,700 domain thru godaddy auctions, that was owned by huge domains, huge domains claimed they repriced, and the update failed, and they wanted $3,300, godaddy said there was nothing they could do to get them to move the domain to me, even though I bought it at bin, and paid. They cannot force them to hand over the domain, they will either warn, or ban them. Not sure what you paid, but sure their inbox has some nice offers, so maybe some are sold, and the ones they still own they want to keep for a bigger payday. Given they own the foresight to own such names going back they must have some insight into the space.

Godaddy domains linked to the same selling account, are supposed to auto lock, and transfer once payment verification is completed. Your best is to get godaddy to contact them.

 

[tonyk2000]

they will either warn, or ban them

GoDaddy banning hugedomains, this would be great

 

[wwwweb]

GoDaddy banning hugedomains, this would be great

They got a mulligan, and then some.

It was amazing, supposedly they did a big price update, and it did not go as planned, I guess maybe it was slow, or delayed, but over a few hundred bucks, they wouldn't honor a sale on a name they had maybe a few hundred into. The value of their relationship must be into 8 figures by now. In terms of auction buying, and commission on their listed inventory.

They effectively found a cop out for not allowing them to honor a listed BIN purchase, it was a thing of beauty.

 

[MapleDots]

GoDaddy banning hugedomains, this would be great

Not a chance, trust me they are in bed together.

If I get time I'll pm you some links to read about all the shenanigans.

 

[equity78]

They got a mulligan, and then some.

It was amazing, supposedly they did a big price update, and it did not go as planned, I guess maybe it was slow, or delayed, but over a few hundred bucks, they wouldn't honor a sale on a name they had maybe a few hundred into. The value of their relationship must be into 8 figures by now. In terms of auction buying, and commission on their listed inventory.

They effectively found a cop out for not allowing them to honor a listed BIN purchase, it was a thing of beauty.

@Joe Styler @Paul Nicks would love to hear your comments on that.