It’s time for GoDaddy to initiate bidder id’s to GoDaddy auctions

[equity78]

A lot of info is coming to light on Namepros and to a lesser degree on TheDomains where people are commenting on NameJet bidding practices. It seems to me that another company should also be working to get their act together, GoDaddy. At least at NameJet we have bidder id's, and I think it's very important that GoDaddy introduces them. If people are possibly engaging in shady activity where you can … [Read more...]

 

[Silentptnr]

Not only should there be bidder id's but I almost feel there should be set bid increments. It's really bad and makes little sense when an individual comes along and makes a bid sometimes 4-5 times the highest bid at the time. I never bid when I see this happen.

 

[JB Lions]

Not only should there be bidder id's but I almost feel there should be set bid increments. It's really bad and makes little sense when an individual comes along and makes a bid sometimes 4-5 times the highest bid at the time. I never bid when I see this happen.

That's exactly why they do it. Somebody posted or I read it somewhere else, some Harvard bidding strategy paper on auctions. Conclusion was they get it cheaper, verses the back and forth, small increment bidding. Competitive juices get flowing, the bidding war we all like to have if we're sellers.

 

[CJ6]

If & when I bid, I usually just bid a larger amount... or up to my max. A lot of time, I don't bother dealing with the back & forth.

 

[platey]

The domain industry at the mo is all over the place but I don't see that changing anytime in fact it could get a lot worse yet

 

[SpareDomains]

I'm out of all third party aftermarkets/auction sites until stool samples are required for all sellers/bidders.

 

[Josytal]

I'm out of all third party aftermarkets/auction sites until stool samples are required for all sellers/bidders.

I've always said it that the first POS (point of sale) for your domains should be your website. It costs less than $10/month. Third party marketplace should be supplementary. Why most domainers are neglecting this simple axiom baffles me.

 

[urlurl]

i haven't bid on any reseller auction platform in a loooooooooong time, for these reasons

 

[SpareDomains]

I've always said it that the first POS (point of sale) for your domains should be your website. It costs less than $10/month. Third party marketplace should be supplementary. Why most domainers are neglecting this simple axiom baffles me.

Agreed, been doing my own sales pages for 14 years and the majority of my sales 90%+ come direct as that's where the domains point to my own pages. Third party market disadvantages...

1) They need to create an account to submit an offer
2) Offer information may be anonymous which doesn't help in negotiations
3) Third party can read all of your domain offers, do ya trust them
4) The account they created to submit their offer is now a license for that third party aftermarket to divert your buyer to another domainers domain, or one of their own domains if the buyers budget doesn't match your domain price and they can email market your leads for life so lot of recurring income given to the third party from your own leads

etc...

Free
http://blog.bodis.com/improved-domain-sale-landing-pages/
Cheap
http://www.efty.com
Do Your Own..
http://themeforest.net
http://codecanyon.net
http://codester.com
etc...

 

[anantj]

Tagging @Joe Styler

 

[SuperDudePro]

Not only should there be bidder id's but I almost feel there should be set bid increments. It's really bad and makes little sense when an individual comes along and makes a bid sometimes 4-5 times the highest bid at the time. I never bid when I see this happen.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding GoDaddy auctions. I think that there is a difference between the owner auctions and the expiring auctions. I only deal with the expiring auctions. In that case, GoDaddy is the only one who would benefit from shill bidding, and I don't think that they are doing it. There is no benefit to anyone else to try to raise the sale price.

For the increments, on expired auctions, it does go in increments. If the current bid is $25 and I'm willing to pay $100, I bid $100, but the amount only goes above $30 if someone else also bids. So it doesn't put it all in at once.

Can you tell me which part I'm not getting? Or is it just the difference between regular auctions, where it would be possible to shill, vs. expired domain auctions?

 

[iAchilles]

It's possible to bid on one's expired domain auctions at Godaddy. So it's very plausible that a few might try to inflate the perceived value of any domain via shill bidding. Transfer/renew the domain and put a BIN price around the high bid price.

 

[Arca]

This idea has been brought up over and over again, and ignored or shut down by GD reps each time it was brought up. Maybe they will respond differently in view of the NameJet situation? I would absolutely welcome GD bidding handles!

 

[domain hacks]

I dont think we need handles at GD expired auctions. I am regularly buying domains there and never saw anything suspicious , compared to NJ. It is different type of auction.

 

[Arca]

I dont think we need handles at GD expired auctions. I am regularly buying domains there and never saw anything suspicious , compared to NJ. It is different type of auction.

Would bidding handles negatively affect GD expired auctions?

 

[Start]

I think bidder handles/usernames are unnecessary, and would cause problems.

1) Some people will use fake names, or they will use names that are the actual names of other people/companies. And it's not fair for other people/companies to have their name used like that.

2) Even if you just assign each account a number, then eventually some bidders will have an idea of who is who. And let's say you do a lot of buying, but aren't a "big fish". But if some "big fish" notices you are bidding on some domains, they may try to push you in auctions to try and force you to pay extra... to basically deplete your funds, so you have less to spend in other auctions (so that big fish will have less competition in the other auctions).

3) Also, big companies like HugeDomains, BuyDomains, etc. are sophisticated enough that if they notice certain people are good at finding gems, they could use software scripts to scour auctions and see what those people bid on... and then enter the auctions to outbid them.

People already say that big companies like that already do a lot of bidding using software (artificial intelligence to some extent) and bidder IDs will make it even easier for them, at the expense of "the little guys" who do the work to find the gems... and that's not fair.


If bidding isn't anonymous, then people can be targeted like that.

 

[Arca]

@Start - NameJet, SnapNames, DropCatch, and Pheenix all use bidding handles for a good reason. GoDaddy is the only big domain auction platform that doesn't use them.

 

[Start]

GoDaddy is a better auction platform than all of those other ones, and I think the lack of bidder IDs is partly why.

Bidder IDs just create too many problems, and it will make it easier for big companies to beat out the little guy.

I thnk all this "artificial intelligence" that is coming about nowadays will make the problems of bidder IDs even worse.

 

[Arca]

GoDaddy is a better auction platform than all of those other ones, and I think the lack of bidder IDs is partly why.

Bidder IDs just create too many problems, and it will make it easier for big companies to beat out the little guy.

I thnk all this "artificial intelligence" that is coming about nowadays will make the problems of bidder IDs even worse.

The big companies already beat out the little guys in GoDaddy auctions whenever they want. Bids place are publicly available to everyone in real time, and certain companies already use this information to automatically place bids for all domains that get bids by regular domainers. If bidding handles are added, it will have no effect, because GoDaddy already provides APIs to the big bidders, and they know whenever names get bids. I posted about Huge Domains activity here a while back:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/hu...50-of-expiring-domains-at-godaddy-com.988898/

Bidding handles are not going to hurt anyone. The issue you worry about is in fact widespread already. Bidding handles would actually help smaller domainers, because you can make more informed bidding decisions when you KNOW that you are bidding against the like of HugeDomains, Mike Mann and BuyDomains.

 

[Start]

Oh, I had that thread partly in mind (thanks for starting it)

But bidder IDs add another factor, because instead of the big companies seeing various domains got a bid, they can do more targeting, which is very useful.

I'm sure they can figure out which bidders are good at finding gems, and so they can search for those IDs, and then bid more on those auctions... it's a useful datapoint for them to know a domain was bid on by a certain bidder, compared to it being anonymous.

I don't know how their software works, but I'm sure they could set their algorithms/formulas to basically "bid higher if certain bidders bid on this domain"... because they know it's an indicator that the domain is good (compared to if it's anonymous, they don't know if it's just some random person making a bad bid).

 

[anantj]

Oh, I had that thread partly in mind (thanks for starting it)

But bidder IDs add another factor, because instead of the big companies seeing various domains got a bid, they can do more targeting, which is very useful.

I'm sure they can figure out which bidders are good at finding gems, and so they can search for those IDs, and then bid more on those auctions... it's a useful datapoint for them to know a domain was bid on by a certain bidder, compared to it being anonymous.

I don't know how their software works, but I'm sure they could set their algorithms/formulas to basically "bid higher if certain bidders bid on this domain"... because they know it's an indicator that the domain is good (compared to if it's anonymous, they don't know if it's just some random person making a bad bid).

I highly disagree. If they are so big to be such a threat, imo, they will have a much more nuanced strategy when bidding for names than simply who else is bidding. There can be a variety of reasons why a domain investor might bid including different perspectives, metrics in consideration and gut instinct. If you're going to go around bidding on based on who else is bidding on a given auction, you're in deep trouble.

The chance of a bidding war in an auction with multiple deep pocket investors participating is potentially higher which means people tend to throw logic and reason out of the window

ETA:

@Start you have also not proposed an alternative to preventing (or better identifying) shill bidding activity which is suspected to be quite rampant on GD auctions.

 

[SuperDudePro]

It's possible to bid on one's expired domain auctions at Godaddy. So it's very plausible that a few might try to inflate the perceived value of any domain via shill bidding. Transfer/renew the domain and put a BIN price around the high bid price.

Why would they bid on their expired auction? If they win, then instead of just renewing it, they also have to buy it. If they drive up the price, but don't win. GoDaddy gets the money, not them. The only reason I've heard of letting a domain drop and then redeeming it after the bidding is to test the waters and see what their domain might bring without actually putting it at auction. In that case, if you'd won and they redeem it, you get your money back. While it does happen, it happens rarely for me.

 

[domain hacks]

Would bidding handles negatively affect GD expired auctions?

I prefer GD expired auctions to continue with anonymous bidding. I am used to that at GD and I like it. Thats just my opinion.

 

[equity78]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding GoDaddy auctions. I think that there is a difference between the owner auctions and the expiring auctions. I only deal with the expiring auctions. In that case, GoDaddy is the only one who would benefit from shill bidding, and I don't think that they are doing it. There is no benefit to anyone else to try to raise the sale price.

For the increments, on expired auctions, it does go in increments. If the current bid is $25 and I'm willing to pay $100, I bid $100, but the amount only goes above $30 if someone else also bids. So it doesn't put it all in at once.

Can you tell me which part I'm not getting? Or is it just the difference between regular auctions, where it would be possible to shill, vs. expired domain auctions?

Sure I can tell you, before I had a chance to write it Jamie from DotWeekly left a comment on TLDinvestors explaining it succinctly.

Paul,

One thing to consider and a reason the bidder’s ID should be required even for expired domain auctions:

Bidder 1 places a bid
Bidder 2 places a bid

Bidder 2 drives the auction way up (using a fake account of sorts) off a proxy bid from bidder 1 and nobody else bids

Bidder 2 doesn’t pay, bidder 1 gets the domain for it’s initial bid due to the NPB. (from my understanding, GD does not re-auction domains)

I’m sure this happens and to what scale, I’m not sure. I’m sure it’s twisted more than just 1 & 2 bidders and could include 3 or 4 bidders, where the bid price isn’t always very low to throw flags.

There is no way to associate if the winning bidder got the domain after the auction. If it was renewed, second bidder got it etc. Since that is the case, it creates questions. If I can see I was bidding again a specific bidder ID and later whois records make sense, then I wouldn’t question it. Bidder 1 doesn’t help me with that.

That was a reply to Paul Nicks from GoDaddy who left a comment on the blog.

http://tldinvestors.com/2017/07/its-time-for-godaddy-to-initiate-bidder-ids-to-godaddy-auctions.html

 

[Addison]

It’s time for GoDaddy to initiate bidder id’s to GoDaddy auctions

More eminently, Sedo needs to do it. I won't damage their reputation with evidence, but it's time for Sedo to initiate bidder names ASAP before a whistleblower whispers it to a blogger.