HUGE DOMAINS SNIPING GODADDY CLOSEOUTS

[wwwweb]

So annoying Godaddy hasn't stopped Huge Domains from sniping Godaddy Closeouts with their automated tools, no way a human bidder can win a even closeout.

First they were sniping with the backorders, now you cut that out, and you are letting them snipe via automated tools.

So what do you say @Joe Styler , you want to even the playing field a bit, as your partners are bidding everything in a split second, from $12, to $11, and bidding everything else into the hundreds from a simple bid. I would rather pay a Huge Domains surcharge at checkout.


Huge Domains has an unfair advantage on the auction platform, essentially taxing every user for using it with their automated access advantages given to them thru the house.

 

[CDM]

On a somewhat unrelated note, but havnt seen anyone mention it yet, GD will not be the only benefactor of HD driving auction prices up on low-grade inventory. Who else benefits? Affiliates pimping daily drop lists. Does it incentivize them to expand their list of suggested names to include more names that don’t neccessarily have great retail value, or at the very least lead them to overestimate the value of the names they are pimping due to the false market signals of the now several years worth of HD auction pumping? I bet it does. How does that impact newbie and fledgling domain investors who feed off these lists for intel and don’t yet have the hard skills to evaluate for themselves? People are always saying they don’t understand how investors can pay these inflated prices and it be sustainable. Maybe they can’t and it is the greener ones who are being inadvertently lead down the garden path.

 

[tonyk2000]

Last time I checked, GD affiliate program did not pay for aftermarket sales. At least as per public T&C. They should probably pay for non-discounted ($14.99?) renewals occuring with each expired purchase though...

 

[CDM]

Last time I checked, GD affiliate program did not pay for aftermarket sales. At least as per public T&C. They should probably pay for non-discounted ($14.99?) renewals occuring with each expired purchase though...

They don’t pay out on auctions? Pretty sure they do. Why would so many bother to post these daily lists? Can’t be just for traffic alone.

 

[tonyk2000]

They don’t pay out on auctions? Pretty sure they do. Why would so many bother to post these daily lists? Can’t be just for traffic alone.

As per https://www.godaddy.com/affiliate-programs :

(disclaimers) The following items do not qualify for commission: premium domains; Sunrise/Landrush domain registrations, memberships or maintenance plans; additional disk space and bandwidth renewals; custom page layouts; GoDaddy branded merchandise products; photos or photo-related products; posters; die-cast cars; or gift cards

Are expired purchases "premium"? Who knows...

 

[CDM]

No I would think premium refers to Premium Listings that sell through the registration path

 

[tonyk2000]

Yes, indeed. May also be new gtlds registry premium priced domains...

 

[wwwweb]

Since huge domains sells alot of their already owned domains their godaddy, I bet you they get a real nice rebate on those commissions based on overall customer value, and spend. This could be a way to reward them for the over active spending on the system, with a low 5% commission on sold domains etc...instead of the typical 20%.

 

[wwwweb]

Huge Names on a year end run, looks like most other bidders tap out under $100, these guys have some steep proxies set, I just cost these guys $500 on 2 auctions, and didn’t tap their proxies out. Looks like they have some bank to spend before year end. Most people seem to have given up in bidding as it seems they are not going to play their game.

 

[urlurl]

what were the GD appraisals on those 2 names

 

[7363824]

You can do the same thing if you want. You can enter a proxy bid if you want or you can use the app to be alerted and re-bid, or you can hire programmers to create a program to bid in your account if certain rules are met that you make up in the code. We provide a platform that is available to everyone. We do limit the amount of times someone can ping us or try and place bids etc so that the auctions run smoothly and everyone gets a chance to participate. No one is doing anything anyone else cannot do.

What are the rules that a script must follow? How would I request API access for myself?

 

[Joe Styler]

You can email [email protected] for answers to both.

 

[Randolph]

You can do the same thing if you want. You can enter a proxy bid if you want or you can use the app to be alerted and re-bid, or you can hire programmers to create a program to bid in your account if certain rules are met that you make up in the code. We provide a platform that is available to everyone. We do limit the amount of times someone can ping us or try and place bids etc so that the auctions run smoothly and everyone gets a chance to participate. No one is doing anything anyone else cannot do.

You can email [email protected] for answers to both.

Publicly, what are the extended API limits GoDaddy has given to HugeDomains?

 

[7363824]

Thanks @Joe Styler I will do that. Also out of curiosity any way to get API access to Afternic too?

 

[manpreet]

Thanks @Joe Styler I will do that. Also out of curiosity any way to get API access to Afternic too?

Afternic API available if you become their partner, you may apply here:

https://www.afternic.com/premium-partner-levels

 

[Lord Antares]

Publicly, what are the extended API limits GoDaddy has given to HugeDomains?

GD says they get the same API limits as anybody else, which is 60 requests per minute. Now, this is actually entirely possible. I could test this out and prove it by building a bot which would adhere to the same rules if I had an excess of time and resources.

It IS possible that HD are not cheating as far as API access goes, at least.

 

[7363824]

GD says they get the same API limits as anybody else, which is 60 requests per minute. Now, this is actually entirely possible. I could test this out and prove it by building a bot which would adhere to the same rules if I had an excess of time and resources.

It IS possible that HD are not cheating as far as API access goes, at least.

That also assumes they dont have multiple accounts that each have api access with their own limits.

 

[Lord Antares]

That also assumes they dont have multiple accounts that each have api access with their own limits.

If they had, the winner would come up as a variety of different pseudonyms but it's always the same bidder ID.

What I'm saying is there might not even be a need for them to cheat. First and foremost, I don't personally know of anyone else who uses bots specifically for closeout snatching. If there is no competition for them, then cheating is unnecessary.

Secondly, they have offices next door to godaddy. It is somewhat widely considered that these two have some under the table deals, which I'm inclined to believe, given what I've observed in the past. But this might also mean that their servers are very close together, and based on how this actually works intrinsically, might give them a natural (not unfair) advantage over anyone else.

I was investigating this for a short time but ultimately gave up as it got complicated.

 

[tonyk2000]

If they had, the winner would come up as a variety of different pseudonyms but it's always the same bidder ID

Not in case of closeouts... (?) unless I'm missing something. How to check what bidder ID (not whois) grabbed closeout?

First and foremost, I don't personally know of anyone else who uses bots specifically for closeout snatching

Bidder 2739899 and Bidder 3276427 - on a spot view. Their whois appears in many cases where *manual refresh* fails (could not add to cart, or buynow does not appear at all). They also tend to join too fast or too often in many cases after the 1st and only bid is placed minutes before auction end, on "low end" domains.

 

[7363824]

Afternic API available if you become their partner...

That's for registrars to sell Afternic names. I mean to automate listing my domains. AFAIK the closest option is the csv upload but that's still manual and because you have to reload your whole list to remove a name or change pricing it can take some time to process after upload. I'm writing my own script to keep track of all my names. Would be nice to have it use an api to automate listing my names, changing prices over time or removing names sold outside AN.

 

[wwwweb]

If they had, the winner would come up as a variety of different pseudonyms but it's always the same bidder ID.

What I'm saying is there might not even be a need for them to cheat. First and foremost, I don't personally know of anyone else who uses bots specifically for closeout snatching. If there is no competition for them, then cheating is unnecessary.

Secondly, they have offices next door to godaddy. It is somewhat widely considered that these two have some under the table deals, which I'm inclined to believe, given what I've observed in the past. But this might also mean that their servers are very close together, and based on how this actually works intrinsically, might give them a natural (not unfair) advantage over anyone else.

I was investigating this for a short time but ultimately gave up as it got complicated.

I notice 2 bidder id's, one ends in 32, the other 33

As Tony stated, could be another API for closeouts, we simply don't know as the whois is all the same.