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

 

[urlurl]

i think the new extensions did nothing more than to help boost the .com. Its become the standard when there are to many other extensions to pick from.

now i do think it has hurt the other original extensions especially, net, org, etc.

 

[Mister Funsky]

Yes, the new extensions helped us by bringing new blood into the business...there are alot of 'beginners' that need to jump in at the low end of the com/net/org so they learn...as you all must know, there is a 'sixth sense' that a successful domain broker has. Sometimes out of the gate and often it is learned by trial and error.

The new extensions will have their bubble burst just like the coms did back in the day, then they will rebound with alot of the chaff names being dropped in the process. I tip my hat to those making money in newer extensions...I have not fared so well.

However, there seems to be something big on the horizon...a shake up of sorts in the way things have been operating in the last several years...there are many people with way more money than I possess that are trying to figure ways to 'reset' things. In my mind I have determined things will either get very difficult for us in the future (months to 2 years) or things will get popping again. My guess is that huge is gambling on the latter...so am I.

 

[urlurl]

my best advice.

"Buy when people are selling and sell when people are buying"

 

[Wass]

my best advice.

"Buy when people are selling and sell when people are buying"

Stock market...

 

[campout]

"Buy when people are selling and sell when people are buying"

It's good advice only problem is we don't have access to the sales channels where these things are getting bid up: mainly GD Expiring and drop auctions.

 

[urlurl]

i was lucky when i acquired some nice names 5-7 years ago, back then there wasn't any/as much competition. I sold a bunch in $x,xxx range that i picked up on auction for $5-$30 - i just wished i had bought more

 

[Fuadiansyah]

my best advice.
"Buy when people are selling and sell when people are buying"

Warren Buffet's quote

 

[joro001]

Still crazy, worse than ever, I bid on around 7/8 names yesterday and was outbid on every single one, and for some of them wasn't even remotely close to the final price either. It was so bad that one of the names went huge and you can buy it right now on Afternic for less than it went to on auction lol. This is a domainers name as well, this just about sums it up.

 

[End Game]

Still crazy, worse than ever, I bid on around 7/8 names yesterday and was outbid on every single one, and for some of them wasn't even remotely close to the final price either. It was so bad that one of the names went huge and you can buy it right now on Afternic for less than it went to on auction lol. This is a domainers name as well, this just about sums it up.

Hope it works for me. Decided to test my theory, that our names have risen in value too, because of the extra bidding. Listed it on godaddy 7 day auction, that expires tomorrow. Only $20 reserve. My name is listed on the "External Domain and Website Sales" link. If it does OK, I'll list another the same way.

 

[canswift]

what is godaddy "auctionMerge"?
some of my won auction he/she placed bid three times extend the listing for extra 15 min!

I have this question too. I'm looking at some bidding lists and I'm used to seeing "Automatic bid", but I've just started seeing this "auctionMerge" notation as well. Anyone any idea??

 

[Kazi]

May be godday auto bid from system when no other bidding on some good domains so that it bring more bids to come and will not go to closeout too. I bought some domain where this happened.

 

[wwwweb]

irrational insanity, I can't even explain it, reached tulipmania

It's at namejet and snap also, people just keep bidding, without thinking whose going to buy this, and when? The numbers don't support the bids.

 

[wwwweb]

You want any random stupid name with more than 2 bids it will cost you over $2xx now.

 

[Asfas1000]

Rick Schwarz said in a recent tweet that he's not buying because domainers overbid these days.

 

[wwwweb]

Rick Schwarz said in a recent tweet that he's not buying because domainers overbid these days.

Well at least he can afford to overpay, but he might not even be able to afford some of the recent crazy prices I have seen for subpar names.

I don't know whoaw behind it, huge names?

 

[Asfas1000]

Well at least he can afford to overpay, but he might not even be able to afford some of the recent crazy prices I have seen for subpar names.

I don't know whoaw behind it, huge names?

Sure he can afford anything, but why buy a losing stock ?

Not sure who is behind it, but it looks like only GD benefits from those overpriced items, those who belong to domainers don't get too much love.

 

[urlurl]

Again, a little update about my watch on GoDaddy expired auction of mediocre to quite good quality domain which still doesn't get bid at last 2 hours or bought as soon as the domain entered Closeout.

I found Mike Mann! And the domain is LandToRent.com. Good name obviously. I don't know whether it's him who own the name previously, accidentally slip to GD expired auction and renew it asap. I forgot to check the whois when it's still on auction.

And it's Wenjie Jiang who bid for mirrorly.com @dotbay. He bid and win another good names too...

an updated chart would be awesome if anyone knows how to get the info,

 

[Recons.Com]

@wwwweb

Am I understanding correctly that HD is not doing its own work to choose the name to bid, but rather "snipes" at other peoples' selections, increasing its acquisition cost, but saving on filtering and looking through thousands of names?

If that is true, it would mean that they are crowd sourcing the names, against the crowds interests, of course.

 

[wwwweb]

@wwwweb

Am I understanding correctly that HD is not doing its own work to choose the name to bid, but rather "snipes" at other peoples' selections, increasing its acquisition cost, but saving on filtering and looking through thousands of names?

If that is true, it would mean that they are crowd sourcing the names, against the crowds interests, of course.

They are running some kind of script, and they are buying in volume, I think they are figuring out what works for them best also, but they have a lot of money to play with. That is why you are seeing people like domain shane giving advice on his blog today about getting caught up in these kind of auctions, because they are just to expensive for the day to day domainer. You will just eat up all your resources fighting these deep pockets for names. Since you paid so much, it will be hard to let go of them, and the higher your asking price, the lower your sell thru. All your profits will be expensed into renewals, and you are simply working for the house.

When you see names like stooorage.com sell for $4100 and change in auctions, it's time to take a step back. BeautyFlashBlog.com $1500 and change etc.

The market has a way of correcting itself. This industry is a bit weird as many people support the same competition that bids against them.

Anytime you see someone late bid a 5-6 letter brandable, it is gone to $200-$500 in minutes. These names take a long time to sell, maybe newbies bidding don't understand that, but they will come to one way or another.

 

[urlurl]

im with you, i really couldn't understand stooorage auction price either. does it have a lot of back links or something - because the name sucks on its own.

 

[wwwweb]

im with you, i really couldn't understand stooorage auction price either. does it have a lot of back links or something - because the name sucks on its own.

It does have some traffic, and a 50% bounce rate, but in a few months it will be back to nothing, I don't understand it either.

 

[urlurl]

does this look right to anyone else?

stooorage.com 4,106 USD 2017-04-04 DropCatch
stooorage.com 4,050 USD 2017-03-22 DropCatch

 

[campout]

@urlurl Maybe the original winning bidder didn't pay, so they auctioned it off again?

That name has a huge amount of links pointing at it. It wasn't bid up like that for its end-user promise.

 

[urlurl]

lets wait another week to see its replaced on auction, lol

 

[wwwweb]

does this look right to anyone else?

stooorage.com 4,106 USD 2017-04-04 DropCatch
stooorage.com 4,050 USD 2017-03-22 DropCatch

They actually made more money the second time around, I have seen a few auctions get relisted for non payment in the past month. I don't know who these users who are not paying, and bidding like crazy are, but they are a threat to all of us, the house doesn't care they like having them in the mix stirring shi% up.