GoDaddy expired auctions as a free appraisal tool for domainers?

[tonyk2000]

I am so sick of "Your Auction Has Ended" godaddys email informing me that "This message is to notify you that the current registrant of ... has renewed their domain name and we have ended the auction per the terms of the legal agreement (Universal Terms of Service) that you acknowledged at the time of bidding. If you have already paid for this domain name, you will automatically receive a refund within the next 6 days."
It happens so frequently that I bothered to check whois of "renewed" domains. In most cases it showed on and the same domainer who transferred their "appraised" domains away from godaddy to another registrar. What a good method to receive free appraisals, isn't it? Just let godaddy auction your expired domain, receive a free appraisal, transfer away.
Auction winner will receive a refund. But is it really free appraisal? Not only winners spent time and freezed some money for 6 days, as the result some winners who paid by non-USD credit card LOST money due to different buy/sell currency exchange rates.
While there is nothing formally illegal in such domainers activities, I already started checking whois records for domains in my expired auctions watchlist, and, if I see a particular name in "Registrant Name" field and a particular "Registrant Organization" in organization field, I would not bother bidding or watching this domain... Just removed 5 of 25 domains I was currently "watching" with this criteria. Since I still respect domainers (unlike the domainer doing this "free appraisals" auction test on daily basis), I would not disclose his identity on public forum though

 

[Kate]

People need to realize that just because a reseller is willing to spend $20 or more on an auction, doesn't mean there will be an end user willing to pay a lot more down the road

Almost every name I let drop at Dynadot gets bids. Names that I have usually held for years. I don't look back.
Maybe the next owner will have more luck - it's not my problem anymore.

 

[NameOmnia]

Yes it has happened to me more than once and it's frustrating because you are " pretasting " the domain and already thinking about what you could do with that, where to park it..and then PUFF the name disappears together with the dreams of a relaxed and wealthy life on a white sandy beach...

Yes you get a refund but that bitter aftertaste remains, untouched, in your mouth.

 

[FPForum]

It does suck, but I have to agree with @sdsinc here. If we're talking about letting your domain go into GD closeouts then it's not really a fair (or even accurate) appraisal.

Good luck with your testing and maybe you will find one or two culprits who are doing this. At the same time, I think you're going to find some instances where the person wasn't really trying to fish for an appraisal.

 

[GoKaizen]

This has happened to me MANY times.

It is annoying but I look at it on a registrant side. One day you might need to renew a domain name you forgot about and you built a good site on.

Still... GD is basically the butthole of the domaining business.

 

[bhawk91.com]

If you want a free GoDaddy appraisal, use TuckTail(.)com. A quick review of their website makes it obvious that they're affiliated with GoDaddy... I've checked domains I have registered with GoDaddy and compared those appraised values to tucktail's appraisals for the same domains and they're identical.

 

[Atomic Domains]

If you want a free GoDaddy appraisal, use TuckTail(.)com. A quick review of their website makes it obvious that they're affiliated with GoDaddy... I've checked domains I have registered with GoDaddy and compared those appraised values to tucktail's appraisals for the same domains and they're identical.

That's a GoDaddy reseller...