Ridiculous GoDaddy Auctions

[Ostrados]

I rarely participate in Godaddy auctions, because I am aware of auto bidders using GD API such as Huge Domains, there are many threads on this already like this one:

HUGE DOMAINS SNIPING GODADDY CLOSEOUTS

For testing I just tried Godaddy auctions, I found a domain name i n c e p t u a l . c o m with no bidders and less than 1 min left, so I placed a bid and then I was immediately outbid in matter of seconds!

Here is a screenshot:

• Notice that my bid ($12) and next bid ($17) were placed both at 10:39 PM
• When I placed the bid the timer was 40 seconds, after my bid the timer was reset to 5 min
• Bidder 2 placed a bid ($17) exactly 2-5 seconds after my bid!!
• Bidders IDs are not shown in the auctions so there is no way to tell by comparing with other auctions.

There are 2 possibilities here:

• The auto bidder was a client using GD API (Such as Huge Domains): in this case this is totally unfare advantage for those clients and is against any ethics in this industry!
• The auto bidder was Godaddy system itself to inflate prices: which would be the ultimate scandal if it was true (I hope it is not)

Both cases are disgraceful..

@Joe Styler domainers community deserve explanation from you!

 

[Ja Kai]

I rarely participate in Godaddy auctions, because I am aware of auto bidders using GD API such as Huge Domains, there are many threads on this already like this one:

HUGE DOMAINS SNIPING GODADDY CLOSEOUTS

For testing I just tried Godaddy auctions, I found a domain name inceptual.com with no bidders and less than 30 seconds left, so I placed a bid and then I was immediately outbid in matter of seconds!

Here is a screenshot:
Show attachment 139824

• Notice that my bid ($12) and next bid ($17) were placed both at 10:39 PM
• When I placed the bid the timer was 40 seconds, after my bid the timer was reset to 5 min
• Bidder 2 placed a bid ($17) exactly 2-5 seconds after my bid!!
• Bidders IDs are not shown in the auctions so there is no way to tell by comparing with other auctions.

There are 2 possibilities here:

• The auto bidder was a client using GD API (Such as Huge Domains): in this case this is totally unfare advantage for those clients and is against any ethics in this industry!
• The auto bidder was Godaddy system itself to inflate prices: which would be the ultimate scandal if it was true (I hope it is not)

Both cases are disgraceful..

@Joe Styler domainers community deserve explanation from you!

Was it Bidder 913932?

 

[Ostrados]

Was it Bidder 913932?

Bidders IDs were not shown in the auction!

 

[Ja Kai]

Bidders IDs were not shown in the auction!

they will show now - since you were a bidder. Go to "didn't win" auctions and the bidder numbers will now populate.

 

[Ostrados]

they will show now - since you were a bidder. Go to "didn't win" auctions and the bidder numbers will now populate.

Oh didnt know thank.. I checked:
Bidder 2 ID: 4000365

After that bidder 913932 joined the auction.

It was battle between those 2 auto bidders and the auction ended at $345 by 4000365

I only placed the first bid of $12.

 

[blank]

It was me this time and it was me working manually.

I do sometimes use "artificial intelligence" advantages (bot, script, convenient point of connection, etc.) - it was not the case now. I wanted this name so I did the work manually.

 

[blank]

@Ostrados - I would really appreciate it if you could edit your initial post to mask the domain name both in the post and in the image.

 

[Ostrados]

It was me this time and it was me working manually.

I do sometimes use "artificial intelligence" advantages (bot, script, convenient point of connection, etc.) - it was not the case now. I wanted this name so I did the work manually.

Interesting! but how did you bid only 5 seconds after my bid? was it just coincidence?

Also your bid was an autobid as shown in screenshot, did you use API?

 

[Ostrados]

@Ostrados - I would really appreciate it if you could edit your initial post to mask the domain name both in the post and in the image.

Cant edit the post please ask mods to edit it using report button.

 

[blank]

Interesting! but how did you bid only 5 seconds after my bid? was it just coincidence?

Also your bid was an autobid as shown in screenshot, did you use API?

It was more or less a coincidence.
I bid as late as possible to avoid extending the time. You probably observe the same strategy.

Autobid meant that I used a proxy bid - significantly higher than the amount it ended for.

Cant edit the post please ask mods to edit it using report button.

I’ll do that. Please also self report so that the mods understand that it is your wish too to change it - non only mine.

 

[lock]

Wonders why it jumps so vast quickly always suspicious.

 

[blank]

@lock - I don't really understand what you mean. However, I'll try to explain what I think you mean.

This is how auctions work. It jumped "fast" because 2 proxy bids were up against each other. It doesn't need to always increment by the minimum amount.

 

[wwwweb]

Wow usually huge does bid so high on a low appraisal, if people keep paying these kind of prices without a diverse existing portfolio, only a matter of time before they will bleed out unless they are adding significant capital to fund their buys.

Huge did their job, and made the high bidder pay, otherwise it would have sold for a fraction. It’s really to bad they keep playing with people’s bids like this.

 

[blank]

@wwwweb - oh, so the GoDaddy appraisal price is what I should consider when bidding?

 

[ArielT]

Then the fair would be that these proxy bids wouldn't be allowed

One makes the hard work for others to jump in

 

[blank]

@ArielT - what exactly are you talking about?
Do you understand the “proxy bid” concept?

I understand everyone hates GoDaddy for unethical practices but it was not the case here at all.

 

[ArielT]

@blank ok probably I misunderstood

Can someone create an script to auto bid on domains with bids?

 

[blank]

Yes - it is actually quite simple.
However, it would be a very superficial strategy.

...compare it to deciding your purchases based on GD bot or EstiBot appraisals

 

[ArielT]

Yes - it is actually quite simple.
However, it would be a very superficial strategy.

...compare it to deciding your purchases based on GD bot or EstiBot appraisals

Ok, thank you for the explanation

 

[Ategy]

@wwwweb - oh, so the GoDaddy appraisal price is what I should consider when bidding?

Some people seem to think the HugeDomains Bot(s) bids up to a certain % of the GD valuation. I honestly don't follow things that closely so couldn't say for sure .. but I'm extremely doubtful it's just that .. they likely have multiple tiers as well as manual adjustments.

I wouldn't have paid that much for the domain, but it's certainly not worthless. It's a nice brandable.

There are 2 possibilities here:

• The auto bidder was a client using GD API (Such as Huge Domains): in this case this is totally unfare advantage for those clients and is against any ethics in this industry!
• The auto bidder was Godaddy system itself to inflate prices: which would be the ultimate scandal if it was true (I hope it is not)

Both cases are disgraceful..

@Joe Styler domainers community deserve explanation from you!

There probably isn't anybody who complains about GoDaddy more than I do because of their buggy platform. But all these repeated calls of GoDaddy deliberately trying to cheat the system I feel is a bit much.

They used to have a back door bug that had the same effect which actually did potentially cost domainers millions of dollars (that could have been millions of dollars in 100% GoDaddy profit), but while the amounts of money we're talking about are relatively large to us as individuals, it's important to realise that GD is a multi-billion dollar company. They aren't going to deliberately set up a fraudulent auction system and risk losing everything. If you're going to attack anything, then I suppose fight for more transparency .. but unless you have evidence, then the constant claims of fraud really need to stop.

Could there be fraud on either enterprise level or individual employee level? Yes .. 100% there definitely could be. But it's pretty much impossible to prove. I don't think the upper management is doing anything deliberately illegal. At the same time .. like in all large companies .. there is always the possibility individual employees are trying to scam the system. Unfortunately these are just the risks you're going to take when dealing with large online companies. You take the same risk having a bank account at just about every bank in the world these days. Unfortunately I doubt GoDaddy (or any bank) is about to let you or anyone else come in and audit their code .. so it's just a decision people need to make. I personally deal with volume .. so using GoDaddy works for me because even if I lose out on some domains to bots, I still am able to make some fantastic value acquisitions.

That being said .. I totally do understand how it could be vastly more frustrating if you're only targeting 1 domain a week.

If you're going to bid on a domain, then I suggest you do not wait until the last second .. make your bid at 5 and a half minutes before the end so that at least your bid does not trigger an extension.

Also .. if you truly want the domain cheap .. then just take the risk of losing it and wait for it to go to close out. There's most certainly a chance you'll lose the closeout race to a bot or another domainer (likely @blank in this specific case), but when building my portfolio, it makes much more longer term sense to have a 1/2 or 1/3 chance of getting a domain at $11, than bidding up domains into the hundreds. Particularly when you're dealing with volume (and I'm not talking hundreds of domains a week, I simply mean if you track 10 domains a day and end up with 2 or 3 good ones at $11, then that is a good business model).

As for the automated bidding .. again .. I don't see anything wrong with that .. but .. with the following 2 exceptions that 100% DO need to be fixed/changed/addressed:

1 - Bots waiting 5 minutes between bids effectively extending auctions indefinitely.
In my opinion, if you're using a bot it's to act as a proxy .. so you should be using it as such. I'm not saying that a bot owner should not allowed to increase their proxy bid at all in the middle of an auction. But increasing it $10 every 5 minutes indefinitely should be stopped.

2 - Bots being allowed to closeout snipe. Unlike bidding which doesn't really matter because everyone has 5 minutes to respond, closeout snipping by bots *IS* an unfair advantage. Feel free to complain about that all you'd like .. because it is indeed a very legitimate complaint!

ADDED: 3 - Bots should be identified as bot accounts DURING the auction. Even if the auction account number does not show up until the end, auction bid listings should show "Bidder 2 (Bot)" if it's an account with API/bot access.