HugeDomains.com is Buying 50%+ of Expiring Domains at GoDaddy.com

[Arca]

I've been wondering about the competition in auctions for expiring domains over at GoDaddy.com, because somebody is paying hundreds for seemingly every domain that gets a few bidders.

I’ve also noticed a clear pattern, with the last bidder (or one of the last bidders) entering the auction winning most of the time, which made me think that there is one large corporate buyer piggybacking of whatever domains other people find and bid on. Turns out that is the case: HugeDomains.com is buying most domains over at GoDaddy.com expired auctions. I looked up the WHOIS of the past 150 auctions I have lost at GoDaddy.com, and 84 of those are now owned by HugeDomains.com and listed for sale on HugeDomains.com.

While 50%+ may not be representative of overall domains bought at GoDaddy, they do seem to buy far more domains than anyone else. The 66 names not bought by HugeDomains.com were bought by a number of different individuals and companies (BuyDomains.com bought 6 of those 66, for example), so 50%+ were taken by HugeDomains, while "the rest" of the auction wins were by a number of different individual domainers and companies.

This might not be news to some, but I've never seen anyone mention that HugeDomains is this active over at GD expired auctions, so I thought it might be interesting for some people to know who is outbidding everyone in the lower range over at GoDaddy. I've read people mentioning that HugeDomains buy names in close-out status over at GoDaddy, but never that they buy most of the domains in auctions too.

HugeDomains absolutely dominates all auctions below $5XX, and they only picked up a single name above $5XX (cakemart.com) in my sample of 150 names, so $5XX seems to be a self-imposed limit for them. If I only checked domains sold below $5XX, the percentage bought by them would be even higher. I've been the second highest bidder in lots of auctions that HugeDomains.com won, and in my experience they will keep bidding until you give up or until the price passes $5XX. By outbidding most bidders in the lower end, and acquiring more than half of the domains other people also have interest, it leaves a far smaller pool of names for the rest of the domainers to compete for, so I guess that's part of the reason why the reseller prices for names keep increasing so much for names in this range.

The only way to buy cheap domains at GoDaddy auctions now seems to be to let domains expire with 0 bids, so that they go to close-out status, and then try to snipe them as soon as that happens. However, some domainers seem to think it's smart to bid $12 on any decent name when there is 1-15 minutes left, hoping that nobody else is going to place a bid, so fewer and fewer decent names are let to expire with 0 bids. However, that strategy never seems to work (I've tried it myself lots of names, and it did not work even one time), because there are always other people watching and waiting for the name to go to close-out, and they jump in and bid if you make a $12 bid, and most of those names are eventually won by HugeDomains.com. What experiences do other people have at GD recently? Anyone else have any good strategies for buying expiring domains @ GoDaddy.com these days?

Some examples of expired domains bought at GoDaddy.com auctions by HugeDomains:
Domain: skillsharing.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $540
Asking price (at HugeDomains): $2995

Domain: ledmaster.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $537
BIN price (at HugeDomains): $2195

Domain: cyberstrategies.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $262
Asking price (at HugeDomains): $2895

Domain: crablab.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $320
Asking price (at HugeDomains): $1895

Domain: dailyportal.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $560
Asking price (at HugeDomains): $2895

Domain: fivesecondrule.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $42
Asking price (at HugeDomains): $2695

Domain: deltacloud.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $365
BIN price (at HugeDomains): $1795

Domain: itace.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $499
BIN price (at HugeDomains): $2595

Domain: sunnykitchen.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $200
BIN price (at HugeDomains): $2595

Domain: baristaschool.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $449
BIN price (at HugeDomains): $2895

Domain: cakemart.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $695
BIN price (at HugeDomains): $3495

Domain: visuala.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $315
BIN price (at HugeDomains): $2795

Domain: massanalytics.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $130
BIN price (at HugeDomains): $2095

Domain: edusport.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $535
BIN price (at HugeDomains): $2995

Domain: acneguru.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $52
Asking price (at HugeDomains): $2495

Domain: stylefolio.com
Purchase price (at GoDaddy): $195
Asking price (at HugeDomains): $1995

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Related: HUGE DOMAINS SNIPING GODADDY CLOSEOUTS

 

[Fuadiansyah]

i agree with it being over priced, seems like a small micro niche info site/blog abount warning people on insider trading - IMO.

I would just wait until he drops it, lol

The .org and .net redirect to aristotleinsight.com..
Looks like potential end user...

 

[urlurl]

nice thanks.

are you manually gathering the info or do you have a program you are pulling the data from

 

[Fuadiansyah]

nice thanks.
are you manually gathering the info or do you have a program you are pulling the data from

Manually...

 

[urlurl]

i was just curious to see if the splits have changed, but if its a lot of work i totaly understand

 

[urlurl]

I actually don't mind if the big players are picking up names - it even helps us smaller domainers because they are helping to keep the inventory of avail reg's down. This reduces the amount of alternatives to the end users and the prices up (simple supply and demand). Simply put; we need the big Whales to keep the population of fish balanced.

 

[garptrader]

Years ago I was interested in buying a .COM wedding-related domain in an attempt to develop a wedding guide website. I had just gotten married so I had some relevant experience and content. I submitted a low $XXX offer at SEDO and was countered with a $3000 offer. Sorry, I developed on a similar .Net. I decided to monitor the .COM name as Godaddy has a monitoring service. The .Net site never made much in Adsense and affiliate banners never worked either. Every niche where there is money is highly competitive and if your site does not rank at least in the middle of page one for decent search volume phrases, time and resources spent on development are wasted (now the top spots tend to be paid results which makes even organic ranking less valuable). I eventually dropped the .Net domain but was still monitoring the .COM. It looks like it dropped recently and Huge Domains picked it up - asking price over $2000. (wedding guide in Spanish Whois history back to 2001) It is a nice name but will someone pay that price for it?

 

[urlurl]

i was wondering "do these big buyers ever drop unsold inventory" or do they hold onto the name to the end of time

 

[hookbox]

Years ago I was interested in buying a .COM wedding-related domain in an attempt to develop a wedding guide website. I had just gotten married so I had some relevant experience and content. I submitted a low $XXX offer at SEDO and was countered with a $3000 offer. Sorry, I developed on a similar .Net. I decided to monitor the .COM name as Godaddy has a monitoring service. The .Net site never made much in Adsense and affiliate banners never worked either. Every niche where there is money is highly competitive and if your site does not rank at least in the middle of page one for decent search volume phrases, time and resources spent on development are wasted (now the top spots tend to be paid results which makes even organic ranking less valuable). I eventually dropped the .Net domain but was still monitoring the .COM. It looks like it dropped recently and Huge Domains picked it up - asking price over $2000. (wedding guide in Spanish Whois history back to 2001) It is a nice name but will someone pay that price for it?

With HugeDomains new payment plan option, I believe, they are going to sell a lot more names including this one. 166 bucks a month for 12 months and no interest is a no brainer for most. Secure the name with a payment plan and if you don't want it or find a better name you simply stop paying the monthly payment.

Payment plans are the future of domain sales and hopefully the big players will implement it for it's sellers.

 

[urlurl]

i've sold 'options' on a couple of my names. Just had one close last week

Example: Client buys a one year option on a name for lets say $700 and a strike/exercise price of $4,000.

I collect the $700 fee upfront and direct the name servers to their site (i still hold the name)

Then 1 of 2 things will happen;

1. If the client exercises the option they get the name and i keep the $700+$4000.

2. if they don't exercise the option in that year, i keep the name and the $700.

 

[Arca]

TurnCommerce, owner of HugeDomains, DropCatch, NameBright, is going to launch PremiumDomains.com - Maybe that's why they're paying up for more "premium" domains in auctions, to get inventory for their more "premium" domain platform?

 

[wwwweb]

TurnCommerce, owner of HugeDomains, DropCatch, NameBright, is going to launch PremiumDomains.com - Maybe that's why they're paying up for more "premium" domains in auctions, to get inventory for their more "premium" domain platform? Show attachment 51397

Could be rebranding Huge Domains just sounds less credible than premium domains

 

[Arca]

Could be rebranding Huge Domains just sounds less credible than premium domains

Yes, that's certainly another possibility.

 

[urlurl]

well if they are offering millions of premium names they cant all be premium names, IMO

initially i thought they would separate names into the 2 sites, but now it looks like they are just going to rebrand

 

[wwwweb]

well if they are offering millions of premium names they cant all be premium names, IMO

initially i thought they would separate names into the 2 sites, but now it looks like they are just going to rebrand

It's perception, it's what you sell yourself as Huge Domains, as having a huge list of domains, or Premium Domains, I think it's about time, I never liked the name.

 

[urlurl]

i agree, i always figured with the money and portfolio they had, they would have come up with a better name than 'hugedomains'

 

[ValleyRock]

I would say let the newbies have their fun, spend their cash, credit card balances can only carry them so far, before they figure out it's not an easy buy/flip business as they think.

Panic buying

 

[168]

Years ago I was interested in buying a .COM wedding-related domain in an attempt to develop a wedding guide website. I had just gotten married so I had some relevant experience and content. I submitted a low $XXX offer at SEDO and was countered with a $3000 offer. Sorry, I developed on a similar .Net. I decided to monitor the .COM name as Godaddy has a monitoring service. The .Net site never made much in Adsense and affiliate banners never worked either. Every niche where there is money is highly competitive and if your site does not rank at least in the middle of page one for decent search volume phrases, time and resources spent on development are wasted (now the top spots tend to be paid results which makes even organic ranking less valuable). I eventually dropped the .Net domain but was still monitoring the .COM. It looks like it dropped recently and Huge Domains picked it up - asking price over $2000. (wedding guide in Spanish Whois history back to 2001) It is a nice name but will someone pay that price for it?

Spot on.
(now the top spots tend to be paid results which makes even organic ranking less valuable).

What concerns me about Huge Domains pricing is setting a low bar in the 2-3k range for volume.
I think it will sell for 2k as it is a "low risk" entry for just about anybody.
Would like to see decent domains in the 5-10k range for true value.

 

[carob]

i was wondering "do these big buyers ever drop unsold inventory" or do they hold onto the name to the end of time

I can confirm - they have picked up drops of mine and then dropped them.

So at least I can say I got there first, twice.

 

[urlurl]

there is only one of my names i would like them to drop so i can reg it back, they can have the rest of my sloppy seconds.

on a second note,

Just for jokes i checked to see if 'tech tech goose . com' was available (i was searching for tech names and my kids were mentioned the duckduckgoose game) - and holy crap some nut bar actually reg'd it. I thought who the hell (and why the hell) would anyone ever think to want or reg this name... i wont give it away, check the whois!

 

[carob]

Just for jokes i checked to see if 'tech tech goose . com' was available (i was searching for tech names and my kids were mentioned the duckduckgoose game) - and holy crap some nut bar actually reg'd it. I thought who the hell (and why the hell) would anyone ever think to want or reg this name... i wont give it away, check the whois!

http://creativegoose.com/main.html

... make effective use of technology, using some of the best tools in the world: Macs, iPads, iPhones, and the Internet!


Based out of San Rafael, CA we specialize in supporting users of all things Apple: Technology ideally suited to Home Office and Small Office / Home Office scale business.

Geese are actually used as watchdogs on the perimeter of military bases.

BTW hugdomains.com redirects to hugedomains.com

 

[urlurl]

creative goose . com is110% better than what i mentioned

even techgoose

im just blown away at some of the weird and terribly obscure names that are already reg'd

 

[carob]

creative goose . com is110% better than what i mentioned

even techgoose

im just blown away at some of the weird and terribly obscure names that are already reg'd

I think they can hope to sell it to the owner of techgoose.com which redirects to creativegoose.com. A goose that lays golden eggs.

 

[urlurl]

maybe if it was the other way around and HD had the shorter version - people don't usually type with a studder,

 

[selfmug]

wow can they do that?

why hugedomains not just acquired godaddy, lol

 

[Fuadiansyah]

wow can they do that?

why hugedomains not just acquired godaddy, lol

Because in reality, they're not as huge as GoDaddy.
GoDaddy is certainly HugeDaddy...