registrars New display on GoDaddy when searching for names that are in Afternic

[campout]

It looks like GoDaddy has rolled out a new display when you search for names in their search bar. I think it only applies to names that are in Afternic, and maybe GD Premium.

I think I like it. They're trying to sell the name by quoting their own estimated value and making some automated points about the name on the right.

They should be able to tell real quick if it's helping or hurting sales rate.

 

[wwwweb]

There is a huge flaw, if you have any set with make offer, it is giving an appraisal
which has no bearing.

So if o had cryptorate.com set with make offer, and $1000 min at afternic, it would show $1000 min make offer, and appraisal
say $1900. Given this name sold for $99000, if a buyer saw this they would
never want to pay $99000.

@Joe Styler get rid of appraisals on make offer domains, you are implying something that is inaccurate. Trying to fill in the blank, with an untrue number.

 

[Arca]

BIN is more than 10,000% higher than average sales prices for these keywords - how does that make it "great"? ("why it's great" doesn't seem fitting here). It's also makes $194,888 seem very overpriced.

Same as above. If BIN vastly exceeds average sales prices these "comps" are of no help.

This domain has a BIN of $94,888 off GD, so the estimated value of $4,325 and "consumerfinancing.com: (same name, different extension) sold for over $6,600" is not going to be of much help.

Also, if consumerfinancing.com sold for over $6,600 in another extension, why is GoDaddy's estimated value of the .com just $4,325? Shouldn't the .com have an estimated value higher than what the same domain sold for in another extension? The info given here is contradictory from a domain value standpoint.

GD probably shouldn't indicate "why" trademark infringing domains are great.

 

[anantj]

I actually think this is a bad idea. This will cause end users to quote this and lowball domains that are worth more than the random automated (and opaquely generated) valuation. For example, a domain that is valued at ~$1600 has received offers much more than that. Now, an end user can very easily and naively come back and point out to this number and try to lowball the domain

 

[Arca]

Estimated values and sales prices lower than BIN should not be displayed. The lowest number should always be the buy now price.

The aim should only be to build value, not to detract value by providing numbers that suggest that the domain is priced "above average".

Indicating that "Smart" and "Nut" have average sales prices of $2,082 and $1,879 respectively makes it seem like a reasonable price (in line with market value established by past sales) for this domain would be $1,999, so $4,999 appears to be about 150% above the market average for a domain with these keywords.

The value of one keyword in a domain often has little implication for the value of a two keyword domain. A great keyword paired with a mismatching or low-quality one has no value at all, while a great two keyword combination can have a value that vastly exceeds the average sales price for either keyword.

 

[Arca]

GoDaddy's BIN prices are pretty consistently way higher than the GoDaddy domain appraisal tool. They believe in the appraisal tool to the extent of using it, or parts of it, to present premium domains, but they don't believe in it enough to price their own domains accordingly. Some examples from GoDaddy's portfolio:

All these domains are owned by GoDaddy. I don't think showing end-users that they price their own domains way above their estimated value is going to help them sell. If anything, this tool just shows end users that these domains are overpriced.

 

[campout]

Well I kind of like it. I price the majority of my names in that $1,000 to $2,000 range, though. I think it could contribute to a higher sell-through rate for names in that range. I would imagine there are a lot of potential end-users who are immediately turned off when they see a $1,500 price tag on a name, and in those cases if GoDaddy "the authority" is there to ease the shock by showing similar sales and a similar appraisal, it could have the effect of negating the feeling that those prices are crazy in the mind of the buyer.

So I think for someone like me this should have a net positive effect.

For you guys who have more of your names priced higher ($4K, $10K, whatever), I can see how this would be problematic.

 

[SuperBrander]

@Joe Styler I can understand the logic behind educating buyers and think that if implemented smartly this could be beneficial to everybody, however I think with the current format- Godaddy is indeed doing a disservice to sellers.

I think Godaddy should add to each valuation a text that explains that Godaddy's valuation is only a guideline and that ultimately each domain is unique, has its own history and will be sold for the amount that its seller is willing to accept for it. If you're going to educate buyers- do it right.

 

[Acroplex]

Do you think the upcoming WHOIS masking by GoDaddy is a coincidence? Of course not.

GoDaddy wants those interested in domains registered with them to use their brokerage services to acquire them. Good luck, especially for a novice, to find out the contact info of a domain using third party tools, eventually, now that DomainTools - an industry standard - will suffer in that respect.

Domain owners that value their portfolio should seek better options, both for registering and selling their domains through.

 

[wwwweb]

It is portfolio specific, if you are selling recent reg names it helps, ages keyword types it hurts. No clear path to victory here, but they should not have an estimated appraisal beside make offer domains, as they are implying fill in the blank with the given number.

Many of you have sold those afternic $2-5k domains, most of those are coming in the $1-2k range, last thing you want is an end user second guessing their buy.

 

[wwwweb]

Show attachment 77890 BIN is more than 10,000% higher than average sales prices for these keywords - how does that make it "great"? ("why it's great" doesn't seem fitting here). It's also makes $194,888 seem very overpriced.

Show attachment 77895
Same as above. If BIN vastly exceeds average sales prices these "comps" are of no help.

Show attachment 77886
This domain has a BIN of $94,888 off GD, so the estimated value of $4,325 and "consumerfinancing.com: (same name, different extension) sold for over $6,600" is not going to be of much help.

Also, if consumerfinancing.com sold for over $6,600 in another extension, why is GoDaddy's estimated value of the .com just $4,325? Shouldn't the .com have an estimated value higher than what the same domain sold for in another extension? The info given here is contradictory from a domain value standpoint.

Show attachment 77888 GD probably shouldn't indicate "why" trademark infringing domains are great.

Basically they are saying every domain is worth $1-$2k.

Valuations when it comes to domains is one of the hardest commodities in the world to put a price on. I know many godaddy afternic buyers are already taking a leap of faith when they decide to upgrade, this is not going to give them the confidence to spend, if you are telling them they are paying more than the estimated value.

If I went to buy a lawnmower at Home Depot for $5000, and they said it’s worth $1500, why would I buy it?

Somebody dropped the ball here, a few simple lines of code can fix this, otherwise it will cost clients sales, and godaddy commission revenue.

 

[tonyk2000]

Endusers do trust GoDaddy. In other words, enduser trust anything what GoDaddy says. Proof: once I had a sale on non-GoDaddy/Afternic markeplace, the buyer had issues with his credit card being rejected and wrote an angry email to myself and the marketplace stating that he will soon complain to ICANN and(!) GoDaddy. The domain was not regged with GoDaddy btw.

Now, how will enduser react if their trusted supplier (GoDaddy) shows them 2 different prices on the same domain? I bet the user will be "lost". He will then start asking questions.... to whom? To first line chat support that is trained to copypaste only? HOW WILL THIS HELP TO HAVE MORE SALES???

GD should shut this experiment down and ASAP.

As a curiosity, I checked a number of GoDaddy-owned domains that are presented on the first page of their namefind dot com portfolio. All domains I checked so far are either "appraised" with higher values in godaddy.com search results or not appraised at all (an output is almost identical as before).
I am wondering why is GoDaddy so shy to show appraisals on some domains THEY own, if searched on godaddy.com?

 

[imadoer]

Totally hating this! This is totally going to make end-users want to pay less then the purchase price. if the name is priced higher than the estimated value. It may work for guys that hand register domain names that price their domains cheaper or in this range. But for real names that have value THIS DOES NOT WORK!

 

[Haroon Basha]

Godaddy estimates are unreliable one and one should not take it seriously. For example a vague name like foodxpq it gives an estimate of

foodxpq.com

Estimated Value: $979

Do you think any sane person will buy it for $ 979?

 

[Arca]

All domains I checked so far are either "appraised" with higher values in godaddy.com search results or not appraised at all (an output is almost identical as before).
I am wondering why is GoDaddy so shy to show appraisals on some domains THEY own, if searched on godaddy.com?

Most of GoDaddy's portfolio seems to be priced above GoDaddy appraisal values, hence the appraisal value is not shown. If they thought their own appraisal tool was accurate they would price their own portfolio accordingly, to a T. By pricing their own portfolio significantly higher than their own appraisal tool indeed indicates that it is worth they indicate that their domain value tool is undervaluing domains.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

I actually think this is a bad idea. This will cause end users to quote this and lowball domains that are worth more than the random automated (and opaquely generated) valuation. For example, a domain that is valued at ~$1600 has received offers much more than that. Now, an end user can very easily and naively come back and point out to this number and try to lowball the domain

What I have noticed is that if I have BIN of more than their valuation (which is usually in low 4 figs), then they don’t display their “estimated value” which is good sign for domain sellers. If it was going to show the estimated value for all domains, then for sure the sales would have been going down for all of us.

 

[Joe Styler]

I cannot give any specific numbers we don't disclose numbers outside of our quarterly earnings reports (which you can follow via gddy.com)

I can say the sales have improved but it is really not enough time to tell. In the short term sales can improve or not for various reasons which are easier to factor out the longer the period of data you have for it.

I can say this, we constantly change things around on our side and test them. If this does not result in more sales we will change it. We think it has and we think it will continue to do so.

We didn't do this blindly we have been talking about it and testing it with various teams and groups for about a year. We also tested it with some of our bigger sellers in beta and got direct feedback from customers. If you have a premier representative and want to be a part of future beta testing or feedback let your representative know. Of course we use NameFind our own portfolio of domains to test things on so we are in the same boat as far as sales results.

On a side note if you are attending Namescon @Paul Nicks is going to be sharing what we learned by running our own portfolio of domains and give some data insights that we use to manage our portfolio and some best practices we have developed to make the most money from our portfolio. He will be sharing things that can be utilized in your own portfolio to make more money. Part of our goal in owning our own portfolio is to use it to test things on and then share the results with our customers so they can leverage what we learn.

Bottom line we think it will help you sell more domains and our tests so far have borne that out. We always test things and change them with the goal of making more sales for your domains. We think that it is easier to close a sale to show someone that we think the domain is worth $1,800 dollars and you priced it at $9k, then for them to think all domains are worth $15. So even if the appraisal doesn't line up with your asking price we think it does help it to sell. There are going to be people who only want to pay $20 no matter what this won't help change their mind, we know that. There are also going to be people who say GoDaddy says the name is worth $1,800 and I am only going to pay $1,800. At the end of the day if the domain is at $9k it is still at $9k and if that is your asking price it won't sell but from our research we don't think it would have sold at $9k to that buyer in most cases anyway and now you have a $1,800 offer instead of an $18 offer that isn't going to move to $9k.

If there is a motivated buyer with the funds they are going to buy no matter what anyway. What we hope to help by this added information is someone who owns a small business or is a part of a team at a larger company and wants to buy a name to help their brand or project. If they can see that a domain is in fact an asset and that other very similar domains have been selling for a lot more than $15 then they have an easier time coming to buy it at $9k and a much easier time buying it at $2k, or explaining to their team or company that, "Hey this is an asset. Look I'm not crazy, see all the other names like this that have sold for thousands of dollars?".

We think this is working. We also think that showing more people that domains are worth more than a registration fee with real recent sales data will help to facilitate more domain sales for everyone who invests in domain names. We also closely watch any of our sales and any of our tests to make sure that they are working if not we change them.

 

[Acroplex]

What remains imprinted in the mind of anyone perusing that domain, is numbers in large bold print. Links to disclaimers and other such secondary legalese won't shift the onus away from the domain owner, who would have one more obstacle to clear before selling the domain.

Your valuations aren't welcome.

 

[campout]

Now if only you guys set up GoDaddy nameservers for direct buy now landing pages

Yeah this would be my #1 request for GoDaddy in my wish list.

 

[wwwweb]

Godaddy estimates are unreliable one and one should not take it seriously. For example a vague name like foodxpq it gives an estimate of

foodxpq.com

Estimated Value: $979

Do you think any sane person will buy it for $ 979?

I have sold worse for more

 

[MapleDots]

godaddy is getting too big now, it's almost scary how much control one company has over the domain resale market. Rick Schwartz was right to criticize them.

 

[Acroplex]

"We think that it is easier to close a sale to show someone that we think the domain is worth $1,800 dollars and you priced it at $9k, then for them to think all domains are worth $15."

At which price point will the domain sell, per your example?

Most end-user buyers that make offers "educated" by automatic tools, often arrive with a certain attitude, reassured that the tool gave them a legit answer.

So no, I'd rather negotiate on a clean slate, with a buyer that is open to receive my pricing justifications, than with someone who comes pumped from your valuation. As a domain aftermarket, you are doing us a disservice.

 

[capiche]

@Joe Styler

I recently had an auction close, and noticed that the estimated appraisal wasn't listed in the auction details for the domain, but if someone were to do a search for the domain on the Godaddy homepage, it was there.

This is no good. Godaddy should create a way for domainers to opt out of their "estimated appraisals" if they choose to.

You're going to lose a lot of customers, both on your auction platform and in general.

 

[DnFolk]

Don't like godaddy estimated value being visible with BIN. confusing buyers and can even influence them that we sellers are overpricing.

 

[anantj]

@Kuffy - I have seen you post a few times about this.

Why not setup an account at Afternic, add this name to you account, and then turn the "hidden" option on.

After the name gets reviewed and approved in your account - this should prevent the other user from listing on Afternic in the future.

Not entirely foolproof unfortunately. Afternic has supersellers who can override existing listings and list domains they do not own. Afternic is weird af