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

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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



Related: HUGE DOMAINS SNIPING GODADDY CLOSEOUTS
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Would that be a person with "TLD" in their business name?
No (according to WHOIS.) .


About 30-35,000 .COM names expire at GoDaddy com every day. ...
...An Estibot appraisal is a useless indicator of value,

Estibot may be not correct but it is useful to quick filter 2000 out of 30000 names daily, I think there is some reason a domain to have Estibot value, no matter how high - it may be aged, or have good keywords etc.

I checked my non-Estibot list for Oct - Nov (won GD expired domains auctions) - HD have 112 out of 2,300 .com names, w/o numbers or hyphens.
 
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In theory better quality names will attract more offers and as long as they are reasonably priced should sell at a higher rate than a portfolio of average drops. However acquisition costs do factor into the equation as end users get really picky when a domain is priced over $1500. One has to gauge what is a reasonable end user price for this caliber of name, what are the odds of this name selling over a period of five to ten years and how much can one spend to acquire such a name and still come out ahead given that sales ratios are typically around one percent while marketplace commissions are around twenty p e recent. I am not convinced the examples listed above are going to work for HD.
 
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some of those domains quoted in thread post bought by hd are still extremely cheap even at hd asking price and of very high quality to a .com investor of which there are many
 
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some of those domains quoted in thread post bought by hd are still extremely cheap even at hd asking price and of very high quality to a .com investor of which there are many

crablab @ $300+
motoled @ $200+
itace @ $500+
cbdfinder @ $271

No sir, I disagree with you wholeheartedly. That's $1200 in wasted purchased there alone.

Sure, you are going to give me justifications on why these are worth the money, but you are wrong.

HugeDomains has never been a real expert at picking targeted names, they mainly just pick wide swaths of domains based on certain loose criteria and have at it.

They must be spending $ on before the tax year is over, this nonsense won't continue. It would be extremely foolish on their part.
 
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cbdfinder @ $271

Not sure if this domain should have been included as a waste.

THCFinder.com & WeedFinder.com both developed.

When CBD has more of a medical user base who sometimes struggle to find the right CBD blends. Not to mention that you can purchase CBD (without THC) legally in every state. Time will tell if they get their $1,995 ask.
 
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Thanks for this info
Great job

But why even try to buy drop domains ?

There are thousands of good domains free to register

Cheap and easy ( 1£ )

I only once bought a domain ( nexusm.com ) at GD auction ( got it around 300$ )
in 2011 ( nexusm was a company in canada sold to asia )
love the combination ( nexus = connection / m = media )

since than i register only ❗️ ( 99.3 % )
 
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When CBD has more of a medical user base who sometimes struggle to find the right CBD blends. Not to mention that you can purchase CBD (without THC) legally in every state. Time will tell if they get their $1,995 ask.

As you said, you can purchase CBD (without THC) legally in every state, you don't need much of a finder because of that.

I'm, just not into the 'CBD' trend as most folk who are hoping that a recent high CBD sale will propel the namespace into some decent sales. Especially with the new guard coming in who loves the war on drugs just the way it is.
 
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May be we should get together and bid useless name and Hugedomain may bleed. I believe such bidding by them are automatic and not manual. They try to get good name without doing the hardwork of analyzing whether it good or not. Basically they get names on the hard work of domainers
 
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As a newbie I start to feel sick of them, but it's a free market...
They have huge capital, they could do whatever they wanna do...
Capitalism is really a toxic...

And you decided to join this capitalist business? :)
 
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I've noticed HD buying up.

On the other hand Namepros Auctions has some good opportunities that HD doesn't touch at least for the moment (y)

I hardly see anything worth buying here on NP :(
 
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[QUOTE="Doughmange, post: 5879348, member: 987522"So far I have only lost 1 auction to HD, and that was for "coffeeboys.com". It's such a crap name that they could have it for whatever price over $70 USD it finalized at.

The interesting thing about HD is that they still are picking garbage over quality. As an investor I would not pay what they are paying for names on the GD platform that would likely never sell to an end user.

They should stick to their model of paying almost nothing for drops and playing the averages; they aren't ready to handle this model.

It's likely an experiment.[/QUOTE]

I actually like coffeeboys.com. But I couldn't find it on HD.

It maybe. But I don't think it's an experiment.
 
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Of course we are the moms and pops in this analogy and HD is the Walmart.

In volume maybe, but not in price.
 
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And you decided to join this capitalist business? :)
Yap I decide to drink the toxic and let see if my body could adapt to it...
 
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In volume maybe, but not in price.
They're not squeezing us by lowering the retail price but by raising the wholesale price. Either way our profit margin shrinks.
 
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They're not squeezing us by lowering the retail price but by raising the wholesale price. Either way our profit margin shrinks.

I'm going to be making more money by raising my prices :)
 
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crablab @ $300+
motoled @ $200+
itace @ $500+
cbdfinder @ $271

No sir, I disagree with you wholeheartedly. That's $1200 in wasted purchased there alone.

Sure, you are going to give me justifications on why these are worth the money, but you are wrong.

HugeDomains has never been a real expert at picking targeted names, they mainly just pick wide swaths of domains based on certain loose criteria and have at it.

They must be spending $ on before the tax year is over, this nonsense won't continue. It would be extremely foolish on their part.


cyberstrategies.com is worth a fortune as the internet is still fairly new in the grand scheme of things etc and cyber strategies will change over time as the internet continues to develop

the ideal buyer for cyber strategies .com won't much care what price they buy that domain for as money won't be an issue

plus the domain industry has a variety of different investment strategies eg some like to flip etc numbers gtlds but cyber strategies is perfect for a long term .com investor

skillsharing.com is great for a tech idea concept and could become the next big thing but if people started sharing skills there would be no need for universities etc as people would Lear for free and share their skills for free and the ad $'s would be considerable possibly in the billions

i am a tech ideas / tech concept guy and the domain has to be a self explanetary .com and skillsharing.com is perfect for such a concept and easy to do and the potential founder will get rounds of funding so the price paid for the domain won't matter as long as its the right .com and that is
 
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cyberstrategies.com is worth a fortune as the internet is still fairly new in the grand scheme of things etc and cyber strategies will change over time as the internet continues to develop

the ideal buyer for cyber strategies .com won't much care what price they buy that domain for as money won't be an issue

plus the domain industry has a variety of different investment strategies eg some like to flip etc numbers gtlds but cyber strategies is perfect for a long term .com investor

skillsharing.com is great for a tech idea concept and could become the next big thing but if people started sharing skills there would be no need for universities etc as people would Lear for free and share their skills for free and the ad $'s would be considerable possibly in the billions

i am a tech ideas / tech concept guy and the domain has to be a self explanetary .com and skillsharing.com is perfect for such a concept and easy to do and the potential founder will get rounds of funding so the price paid for the domain won't matter as long as its the right .com and that is


Thanks for that, but "cyber" is such an outdated term; only 3 sales this year with the term 'cyber' over $5k.

Also, SkillShare is much more desirable than SkillSharing.
 
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Well at least for now HD is only going after expiring .COM domains...
 
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Who is this Indian domainer? I think I know of 1 who is pretty active, can't remember his name. That is quite a big investment, unless it's all closeouts.
 
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They don t use just a script, they use AI. The input from bidders make them evaluate the domain name. They have a maximum price that they stop bidding of course.
Now about their strategy, no it is not profitable and it is not sustainable. Some said that they are profitable if we consider their dropcatch activity. But this is not business logic. Each sector is considered independently. No one wants to throw money out of the window, even if there is cash. And tax reasons isn t the cause also. Companies always prefer taxed profits from real losses.
I can find only three logical explanations. The first is that the management is messed up/miscalculated. Or it is an expirement as many mentioned, they try to improve their AI algorithms. If this is the case then they will see them stop this tactic soon.
The second is that they want to keep the oversaturation in .com. Because they have a large-better say huge-portfolio in this extension, they try to keep the extention as it is and keep or even drive the prices up.
Finally, there is a third, shady scenario. They have a special deal with GD. They are customers and at the same time brokers. GD pays them a very large fee of the profit(margin) of what they pay and the last bidder (the price that the domain would be sold if HG did not interfere). In the extreme , even almost all. In this case the HG buys the domain nearly where the last bidder would have bought it. And of course again keeps the market saturated and the prices for end users hight.
But why GD would agree on such a thing? Or why didn t do that himself, someone could argue. Well, GD surely would t risk doing that on his own, the risk is to high.If got caught it will ruin his fame. With the help of HD he keeps caching renewal fees, get fees if the domain is sold in the future from is platform and, most importantly, he keeps his large market share on registrar's pie. Of course the agreement has as a condition for HG to not change the registrar for these domains and also list them for selling to GD s platform (not exclusively).
Of course the last scenario is just a theory. But the numbers are large and the money big. Everything is possible in life and domaing industry.
 
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Of course the last scenario is just a theory. But the numbers are large and the money big. Everything is possible in life and domaing industry.

While this is a plausible scenario, I don't think the numbers are so big as to justify risking their reputation.
 
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With Huge Domains spending this much money on GoDaddy auctions, I think it is likely they have negotiated a deal. Maybe GoDaddy only charges them 50% on any auctions they win. Who knows? It seems likely there is some sort of deal worked out.

Pretty much any time one business does an abnormal amount of deals with another business, they are going to seek special accommodations.

Of course, I am just speculating but it seems likely to me anyway.
 
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if they are offering them a deal i don't think they would risk a discount on the sale price. More likely a kick back, rebate or a separate incentive. Then if it was ever discovered they could always come back and say it was just a loyalty incentive for a big client.
 
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Finally, there is a third, shady scenario. They have a special deal with GD. They are customers and at the same time brokers. GD pays them a very large fee of the profit(margin) of what they pay and the last bidder (the price that the domain would be sold if HG did not interfere). In the extreme , even almost all. In this case the HG buys the domain nearly where the last bidder would have bought it. And of course again keeps the market saturated and the prices for end users hight.

And people stupidly putting in an early first bid on a name attracts bids, as others have said in this thread. Be interesting to see if those early bidders ever actually buy.
 
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