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

---

Related: HUGE DOMAINS SNIPING GODADDY CLOSEOUTS

 

[Michael M]

I mentioned in another topic that godaddy is getting too big, we have to keep expiring domains away from them. I have a topic here where we are discussing giving expiries to other domainers instead of letting them drop to godaddy.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/id...ains-take-one-for-free-give-one-away.1076008/

If it weren't godaddy running them through expired auctions then they would all be picked up by HugeDomains & DropCatch on the drop.

I have no problems with Godaddy, their practices, or their size - myself.

 

[MapleDots]

If it weren't godaddy running them through expired auctions then they would all be picked up by HugeDomains & DropCatch on the drop.

I have no problems with Godaddy, their practices, or their size - myself.

I do have a problem with godaddy/afternic, how long before they buy out the next company and we have the biggest monopoly?

They won't get ANY of my expires because I will give them away before they drop. That does not mean I hate godaddy, that just means I am worried about competition and the fact that godaddy is getting too big. They got afternic, now what happens if they get Sedo?

Competition is good, it keeps things honest and giving too much power to one company will eventually cost us all. It will be do it the godaddy way or the highway!

 

[MapleDots]

I personally hate both Godaddy and HugeDomains, because they are the cartels of this industry.
The change of a getting a profitable business as a domainer is getting smaller each day because of them. Maybe, domaining is already finished if we don't count some lucky shot sales.

So make sure you don't let any of your old domains expire, if we give them to someone else on namepros and they will stay off expiring auction at godaddy. No profits for them.... so sad... too bad.

 

[aheiven]

good

 

[GeorgeQuang]

80% this year.

 

[Croissant]

I lost against HugeDomains =)

I feel like I am fighting with Gods

 

[wwwweb]

HeHe

No, you are fighting against computer algorithms, and trust me they only go so high. I had to go up over $800 before they stopped bidding on a domain.

You think after owning 6 million domains, and having multiple drop catching registers they need to pay $800 per domain anymore? Probably not, most likely killing two birds with one stone, and getting a kickback at the same time.

 

[MapleDots]

You think after owning 6 million domains, and having multiple drop catching registers they need to pay $800 per domain anymore? Probably not, most likely killing two birds with one stone, and getting a kickback at the same time.

I have lost a few where I've placed some pretty high bids, afterwards I checked and they were at Huge Domains. I don't think they get any discounts once they place a bid. If I bid $450 and they bid $500 then I'm pretty sure they're paying $500.

That is why some domains cost about 1k more than the average. I bet they were bid up on some of those.

 

[wwwulff]

I lost against HugeDomains =)

I feel like I am fighting with Gods

Besides that they now get most of the best closeout´s, they bid on 80-90% of all names on expired auctions, so if you want a name that way, you have to pay

 

[wwwweb]

Besides that they now get most of the best closeout´s, they bid on 80-90% of all names on expired auctions, so if you want a name that way, you have to pay

If that name is on their list, they will engage their proxy on it, so you will pay $xxx either way.

 

[cuni.co]

Yes they are, I was bidding on icenroll.com and I lost to them on the name.

 

[wwwweb]

Besides that they now get most of the best closeout´s, they bid on 80-90% of all names on expired auctions, so if you want a name that way, you have to pay

Joe Styler refutes this fact that they are gaming the closeouts, but I have seen what you have seen, and totally agree.

 

[Fadi H]

Looks like they rise the price after each renewal, CakeMart is now at $8k, CrabLab at $6k .etc

 

[werty]

I think they don't mind overpaying at GD because they average down their acquisition prices with all the drops they get on the cheap with their dropcatching system.... But better to make them overpay so their profit margins shrink and they get more conservative at GD. They are the biggest bully these days so lets make them pay!

 

[wwwweb]

I think they don't mind overpaying at GD because they average down their acquisition prices with all the drops they get on the cheap with their dropcatching system.... But better to make them overpay so their profit margins shrink and they get more conservative at GD. They are the biggest bully these days so lets make them pay!

They end up losing more than they win, but they push prices higher. Agree with the average down scenario, thing with huge names most of their names are like in a $1500 - $3500, don't think they are hitting many 5 figure outliers like the likes of Mike M. Their payment plan model probably serves them very well, with probably high default rates, which isn't exactly a bad thing, as they still get to keep the name. It just doesn't add up why they are on every decent auction. Even some off beat auctions that you bid on at the last 5 minutes, their hound bot seems to get a scent, and attacks with a mid $xxx proxy for a name someone would throw $20 at? It takes long enough to sell 6 million names, enough for many lifetimes, why spend all your profits acquiring more. People that think they are going to bid up Huge Domains usually get stuck with one bid to many, and end up overpaying themselves if you are chasing their proxy.

 

[wwwweb]

In my opinion, they are not "theoretically" using their own money... They are using domainers money funneled from dropcatch imo. They let you overpay at dropcatch so they can then overpay at godaddy. They weren't that big before on godaddy auctions until they started their dropcatch service but at the same time huge domains grew a lot so not sure if it's a combination of both (probably). I believe that if all domainers stopped using DropCatch, their empire will crumble down fast as they have a lot of overhead. But that's not going to happen, unless the whole industry crashes down, and that would be bad for all of us not just them. In summary, domainers are funding their own competition...

I dunno about the funding but dropcatch has a lot of crazy Asian bidders who just keep bidding. If you ever see a domain that is dropping, and previously sold at dropcatch, it usually yields like 50
Percent less on most cases.

Yes, dropcatch people overpay, as they stumble against each other over 8-12 top auctions. Still can’t get over fivenines.com at $36k, Sitting parked at afternic, I bet that bidder wishes he can get his money back.

Agreed, domainers need to stop feeding the eco system that uses their own money to outbid then, as silly as it sounds, people are lining up to overpay.

 

[The Rover]

Thanks for the advice. Appreciate it. Anyway, even if that's the case the closeout period for this name ended hours ago, so it is gone anyway whatever I do now. Tough luck.

And back to the main subject, I think the expired domain auction needs far more transparency regarding process, bidders and conditions depending original registrar. As I said in my previous post, it's all quite shady.

As long as this transparency is lacking the shadow of doubt will always be there.

100% agree. This industry's lack of transparency combined with ratio of potential profits has always been unprecedented when compared to other markets. (Perhaps with the exception of crypto)

 

[xyo]

it seems like they have set their goal to buy any hardly to low-value domain.
Checking my history for GD Auctions this year, I lost every .com which was not 4L to HugeDomains

No idea how high they would have gone on this, but at least I cost them a few bucks on these nsXX.com which ended today, which they all took.

 

[wwwweb]

it seems like they have set their goal to buy any hardly to low-value domain.
Checking my history for GD Auctions this year, I lost every .com which was not 4L to HugeDomains

No idea how high they would have gone on this, but at least I cost them a few bucks on these nsXX.com which ended today, which they all took.

Show attachment 125342

I’m sure their proxy was much higher, probably about 10 percent of the appraised value. Sometimes I just bid once on random names, willing to buy if I win, which I never do, but bidder 91932 is on every auction. It’s like a halvarez bot.

 

[Fadi H]

NameJet is down now.

How is it down?

 

[werty]

Another big shark in this game is AwesomeDomains.
They have snapped many domains in Close Out and then forwarded them to DAN.com
Surely 100% they use bots to snap.

Start putting the min $12 bids on all so Awesome and Huge bots fight. We will then bet on who wins each auction and make money that way lol.