Should GoDaddy Auctions display bidder handles?

[Arca]

NameJet, SnapNames, DropCatch and Pheenix show bidder handles in auctions, so that you know who you are bidding against, while GoDaddy only shows Bidder 1, Bidder 2, Bidder 3, Bidder 4, Bidder 5 etc.

What are the pros and cons of showing bidder handles? Do you want GoDaddy to introduce bidder handles? Or would you prefer NameJet, SnapName, DropCatch and Pheenix to switch to only showing Bidder 1, Bidder 2, Bidder 3, instead?

 

[mr-x]

You mean GoDaddy's motivation behind keeping bidding anonymous is to hide shill bidding and inside bidding? Not sure I follow, but I assume they want to eliminate, not facilitate, such bidding activity. And if they want to fight off such bidding, transparency in the form of bidder handles goes a long way in terms of achieving that goal (presumably a win for GoDaddy, unless I've misunderstood your post...).

My opinion. Consider the checkout process / ux when you buy a domain. It's improved since Parson retired but it was designed to add as much friction as possible for the up-sell.

Same people made the auctions. It wasn't designed for the consumer. Like betting at Vegas, the odds are with the house.

 

[mr-x]

Why not to watch dozens/hundreds of nonsense domains (but good looking, such as without dashes and not typos) then? If watchlists are reported to api customers or to preferred customers - let them have it all

Why waste my time?

 

[Arca]

My opinion. Consider the checkout process / ux when you buy a domain. It's improved since Parson retired but it was designed to add as much friction as possible for the up-sell.

Same people made the auctions. It wasn't designed for the consumer. Like betting at Vegas, the odds are with the house.

I agree - but I'm not sure how not showing bidder handles corresponds with this business model?

 

[mr-x]

I agree - but I'm not sure how not showing bidder handles corresponds with this business model?

Bidder handles don't. Anonymous bids do.

 

[tonyk2000]

Why waste my time?

(hypothetically speaking) if somebody starts grabbing nonsense domains as the result of buying what one has in a watchlist - then they'll understand it, and may possibly stop making (automated) decisions based on the content of a watchlist, which would allow genuine users to use watchlist normally

 

[Arca]

Bidder handles don't. Anonymous bids do.

Only if they have something to hide.

 

[garptrader]

With bidding handles domainers could rather quickly identify Huge Domains and Buy Domains and DNS as bidders. We all know that industry turn is low single digit and end users are often reluctant to pay up even for very good domains - opting instead for reg fee junk. How is that HD makes money with so many crappy domains in their portfolio? And outbidding other investors on marginal-quality domains. Is there a back end agreement with Godaddy that GD discounts any winning auction bid which effectively reduces HD's acquisition cost? I have seen such back end discounts in other industries where the invoice amount is not the net amount the buyer actually pays. However, this could be a violation of the Robinson Patman act.

 

[MapleDots]

I bid fairly substantial amounts in the .ca industry and I'm not sure if I would want my handle displayed. I much prefer to stay low key because if someone knows I am bidding they may hold out for more.

So seller knows that I pay up to xxxxx amount for domains. Seller is willing to take 2k but sees me bidding and he has seen me bid up to 10 times that. He is for sure not going to sell to me at 2k.

Thank you but I prefer it the way it is, unless I can make multiple handles or change it on the fly.

 

[Arca]

I bid fairly substantial amounts in the .ca industry and I'm not sure if I would want my handle displayed. I much prefer to stay low key because if someone knows I am bidding they may hold out for more.

So seller knows that I pay up to xxxxx amount for domains. Seller is willing to take 2k but sees me bidding and he has seen me bid up to 10 times that. He is for sure not going to sell to me at 2k.

Thank you but I prefer it the way it is, unless I can make multiple handles or change it on the fly.

So you don't bid on NameJet, SnapNames and DropCatch where bidder handles are obligatory and unchangeable?

 

[MapleDots]

So you don't bid on NameJet, SnapNames and DropCatch where bidder handles are obligatory and unchangeable?

Sure do but it does not mean I cannot prefer the way godaddy handles it

 

[tonyk2000]

Their platform is old and buggy, they don't want to make in-depth changes

We really should not underestimate this. We all know that GD platform is full of bugs, also afternic, and also auctions support and service@afternic are the same people who in many cases showed pure incompetence (which means that they do not receive enough training, nothing personal). GD is also aware of these issues. Which may the reason of why they are not willing / unable to make any changes, bidding aliases or not...

 

[mr-x]

I think Godaddy support has greatly improved over the last year+

 

[mr-x]

I agree - but I'm not sure how not showing bidder handles corresponds with this business model?

Then you don't understand shill / inside / anonymous biding.

 

[MapleDots]

I think displaying bidder handle could be a minor annoyance for a small number of bidders, because this would attract more competition from newbies. "Look, a big domainer is bidding on this name so it must be good, let's outbid him". I think this is pure theory though, good names will get dozens of bids anyway.

Good point @Kate

It would also impede the ability for a Mike Mann to purchase a domain because nobody would sell to him at a reasonable price. He would have to purchase under a made up handle but domainers would put that together when he announced the sale. I see "bigguy" buy a domain. He flips it, announces the sale. I go back see that "bigguy" was bidding on it. Now bigguy bids on one of my domains.... I will hike my price way up.

Now if bigguy could change his handle when he wanted to I'd be all for it.

There are strong arguments for both sides in this. As a buyer I personally don't like having my handle visible. As a seller... sure why not.

 

[tonyk2000]

Nothing prevents GD from separating expiring sales (where they are the seller) from non-expiring sales (where 3rd parties are sellers) in various aspects, including bidding handlers display. Moreover, they have no obligation to run both on the same platform/address auctions.godaddy.com ... Such a separation would not be too logical though. I guess many members voted in this poll with expiring sales in mind.

 

[Arca]

It would also impede the ability for a Mike Mann to purchase a domain[/USER]

The bidder handle belonging to the actual Mike Mann at NameJet is well known among bidders there, and it doesn't seem to impede his ability to buy the domains he wants there. Same goes for Frank Schilling

 

[Arca]

We really should not underestimate this. We all know that GD platform is full of bugs, also afternic, and also auctions support and service@afternic are the same people who in many cases showed pure incompetence (which means that they do not receive enough training, nothing personal). GD is also aware of these issues. Which may the reason of why they are not willing / unable to make any changes, bidding aliases or not...

Joe Styler noted in another thread that they are gradually updating and changing the GoDaddy auctions system. I've seen many new pages, for example auction pages appear and then disappear as they are testing out the new system. As they are in the process of updating the whole auctions platform anyway, it certainly seems like now is a fitting time to introduce bidder handles as part of this update (if they intend to ever do so, that is).

 

[MapleDots]

The bidder handle belonging to the actual Mike Mann at NameJet is well known among bidders there, and it doesn't seem to impede his ability to buy the domains he wants there. Same goes for Frank Schilling

You are correct there, I cannot argue that

 

[DnFolk]

They should for the transparency.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

They should display bidder handles but won't be doing especially after HD got aggressive in buying expiring domains from GD auctions.

 

[Arca]

They should display bidder handles but won't be doing especially after HD got aggressive in buying expiring domains from GD auctions.

Why do you think so? Assuming the business relationship and auction bidding arrangements between GD and HD are fully legitimate, then why do they have to hide HugeDomains's bidding activity?

 

[tonyk2000]

IF HugeDomains is receiving discounts or anything similar - then it is not in GoDaddys best interest to assist customers with making HugeDomains the winner with their highest bid amount on increased number of auctions, which may become the case should bidders identities be shown. To the contrary, in this case if would be logical for GD not to show bidder handles, as they will receive 100% only if somebody else outbids HugeDomains.

 

[garptrader]

What if HD were getting kickbacks just for participating in auctions and increasing the final bid amount ( HAlvarez generally did not win the auction but just made it more expensive for the eventual winner - to the benefit of the auction platform and detriment of domain investors )? Without transparency there is no assurance that bidders 2 or 3 are even real people / entities - could just be a bot.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Why do you think so? Assuming the business relationship and auction bidding arrangements between GD and HD are fully legitimate, then why do they have to hide HugeDomains's bidding activity?

The main reason I think is if GD starts displaying bidder handles and within few days most domainers will be aware of what HD bidding handle is and will track what price or price range their bots are set to give bids and surely domainers will try to pump up the bids up to the max level set for HD bots and back out where HD will ultimately end up paying lot more price for domains than in current state where the bidder handles are hidden. Since it's bots vs humans auction fight, it's HD loss and GD won't be doing that ever unless HD stops bidding at GD... IMO

 

[Arca]

The main reason I think is if GD starts displaying bidder handles and within few days most domainers will be aware of what HD bidding handle is and will track what price or price range their bots are set to give bids and surely domainers will try to pump up the bids up to the max level set for HD bots and back out where HD will ultimately end up paying lot more price for domains than in current state where the bidder handles are hidden. Since it's bots vs humans auction fight, it's HD loss and GD won't be doing that ever unless HD stops bidding at GD... IMO

But GoDaddy is already providing HugeDomains with real time info about every domain that get bids so that HugeDomains can bid on those names. So HD is already tracking what all domainers bid on and they are pumping up the bids on those domains. GoDaddy is clearly facilitating HD to bid up all other domainers, so why would they have a problem with domainers bidding up HD?