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?

 

[equity78]

I think it is always good to discuss this and there are strong feelings on both sides but it is not something we are looking at changing any time soon.

Yeah Joe one side is at 86% the other at 14% pretty close.

 

[Name Trader]

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.

I think GD are not interested in for several reasons (pure speculation on my end):

• Their platform is old and buggy, they don't want to make in-depth changes
• That's the reality of IT systems, they almost never get rewritten from scratch, developers just patch and keep adding features, and you end up with a big ball of mud
  
• You don't fix what is not broken
• When it is broken, you don't break it further unless you want to take the blame for things that go wrong. Change is dangerous.
  
• If they introduce bidder handles, then other bidders can start tracking auctions and GD will become more accountable, people will start asking questions, request a review of certain accounts. GD don't want that.

So I think it is a mix of inertia and not wanting increased scrutiny when you can have plausible deniability

Which is in complete contrast to their Control Panel. I keep seeing minor updates/changes all the time.

 

[Name Trader]

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

I think they have completely different development teams between the Control Panel and the Auctions. From the beginning.

 

[garptrader]

Complaints about suspected fraudulent auction activity can be made to the Federal Trade Commission's stie... FTCcomplaintassistant.gov

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/Information#crnt&panel1-1

 

[SuperDudePro]

Personally, I don't care if they reveal the names/userids or not. I know the max amount i'll pay for anything that I'm planning to bid on and I stick to that.

 

[D Haynes]

We left the EU on a 52% yes vote. 87 seems fairly conclusive.

 

[Hater]

You are so naive to think that Godaddy would change this according to this poll.
It would be against their profit plans of course.

Also now they are collecting expired domains with no bids from auctions to for sell just like HugeDomains.
They don't want us, they want to reach end users by themselves. Bad news for us.

Read this for further information;
namepros.com/threads/hugedomains-com-is-buying-50-of-expiring-domains-at-godaddy-com.988898/page-36#post-6661693

 

[Joe Styler]

GoDaddy does not keep, bid on etc any names on the expired auctions. Customers buy them not us.

 

[imadoer]

We would like to see the bidders!!!!!!!!!

Shill bidders like things to be private

 

[Hater]

GoDaddy does not keep, bid on etc any names on the expired auctions. Customers buy them not us.

You say this same thing over and over again but it doesn't make it real.
I'm not saying that you bid, I'm saying you get these names when there is no bid.

We have spotted hundreds of expired names that closes with no bids and never show as closeout. And then suddenly all of them are gone to private whois, directed to afternic nameservers, for sale only at afternic with similar low prices. (@Arca also stated a pattern which most of these names valued over $1,300 by your valuation tool. It seems to be correct.)

Like recently auctioned;
beawareof.com - now for sale at Afternic for just $50 and with min. offer of $25.
(I have a lot more names like this, now for sale and ranged between $50 up to $10k)

Who on earth get an expired domain for $19 and put $9 privacy and try to sell for $50 with min offer of $25?

Admit it, this is your new business model, if something valued over $1,300 you get and try to sell them like HugeDomains does. Because they are gaining strength if those domains gets deleted almost 75% of them are catched by DropCatch and listed for sale at HugeDomains.

So, you must have been thought if they catch these names and manage to convert into a profitable business, Godaddy must try this model by getting them after auctioned but before gets ot the closeouts or gets deleted.

It is okay, they are your domains but you should do this after the closeout period ends for a domain.
Or just close the entire closeout section so we would know if we don't bid an expired domain is not ours.

I hope HugeDomains would surpass you in the future as a registrar and as a portfolio holder like they did in backorders. So, you would be consumed by the monster you had created.

 

[Arca]

We left the EU on a 52% yes vote. 87 seems fairly conclusive.

The UK left due to being a representative democracy though. No matter how conclusive the wishes of the GD auctions user base represented here at NP, GD doesn't have to act on it as they are a public company.

 

[D Haynes]

The UK left due to being a representative democracy though. No matter how conclusive the wishes of the GD auctions user base represented here at NP, GD doesn't have to act on it as they are a public company.

Very true.

Not listening to your customers is not a good way to keep them your customers though, although when it's the little guy it doesn't matter to them. If HD said show bidder aliases or we leave, GD would be falling over themselves to get it done.

It's great being a second class customer eh?

Still, what can ya do?

 

[Arca]

Dispute.com sold at GoDaddy Auctions last week for $65,000.

The winning bidder did not pay.

GoDaddy offered the domain to the next highest bidder. If that buyer opts to not purchase the domain name, the opportunity goes to the next high bidder. This continues until a bidder accepts the price and purchases the domain name.

Highest bidder didn’t pay for dispute.com.
Second highest bidder didn’t pay.
Third highest bidder didn’t pay.
Fourth highest bidder didn’t pay.
Fifth higest bidder didn’t pay.
SIXTH highest bidder paid for the domain.

Eventually, the sixth highest bidder paid $38,000 to buy the domain. So they had to go through 5 bidders from $65,000 down to $38,000 to find a legitimate bidder willing to pay.

How can we believe that the highest bidders 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 were legitimate if NONE of them were willing to pay for the domain?

If I was a legitimate bidder, and I could get the domain for the highest price I was willing to pay, I would jump on the opportunity to buy it. If I was not, I would not pay, like bidder 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

So all bidding above $38,000 was basically fraudulent.

How is it even possible that the top 5 highest bidders in an auction did not intend to pay for the domain? And yet, GoDaddy insist that we should trust them and that we don’t need to see who we’re bidding against?

GoDaddy needs to introduce bidder handles so that we can protect ourselves from all these fraudulent bidders that bid without the intention of paying. When the top 5 highest bidders in an auction are not willing to pay, GoDaddy clearly does not have good enough precautions in place from preventing this sort of thing, and more transparency is needed so that we can look out for ourselves.

GoDaddy, please introduce bidder handles. NameJet/DropCatch/SnapNames/Pheenix already have them.

 

[MapleDots]

Dispute.com sold at GoDaddy Auctions last week for $65,000.

The winning bidder did not pay.

GoDaddy offered the domain to the next highest bidder. If that buyer opts to not purchase the domain name, the opportunity goes to the next high bidder. This continues until a bidder accepts the price and purchases the domain name.

Highest bidder didn’t pay for dispute.com.
Second highest bidder didn’t pay.
Third highest bidder didn’t pay.
Fourth highest bidder didn’t pay.
Fifth higest bidder didn’t pay.
SIXTH highest bidder paid for the domain.

Eventually, the sixth highest bidder paid $38,000 to buy the domain. So they had to go through 5 bidders from $65,000 down to $38,000 to find a legitimate bidder willing to pay.

How can we believe that the highest bidders 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 were legitimate if NONE of them were willing to pay for the domain?

If I was a legitimate bidder, and I could get the domain for the highest price I was willing to pay, I would jump on the opportunity to buy it. If I was not, I would not pay, like bidder 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

So all bidding above $38,000 was basically fraudulent.

How is it even possible that the top 5 highest bidders in an auction did not intend to pay for the domain? And yet, GoDaddy insist that we should trust them and that we don’t need to see who we’re bidding against?

GoDaddy needs to introduce bidder handles so that we can protect ourselves from all these fraudulent bidders that bid without the intention of paying. When the top 5 highest bidders in an auction are not willing to pay, GoDaddy clearly does not have good enough precautions in place from preventing this sort of thing, and more transparency is needed so that we can look out for ourselves.

GoDaddy, please introduce bidder handles. NameJet/DropCatch/SnapNames/Pheenix already have them.

I don't really bother looking at what other people bid, I will put in my maximum and if it surpasses that I move on to a different domain.

That said if I offered 20k and someone else bid 23k then I would move on to my next acquisition. It would not be a given that if godaddy approached me later and offered it to me at 20k. In some instances I could have already spent my budget on something else and I would have to pass on this domain.

So you see, it's not necessarily fraud when previous bidders pass after the fact.

 

[Arca]

I don't really bother looking at what other people bid, I will put in my maximum and if it surpasses that I move on to a different domain.

That said if I offered 20k and someone else bid 23k then I would move on to my next acquisition. It would not be a given that if godaddy approached me later and offered it to me at 20k. In some instances I could have already spent my budget on something else and I would have to pass on this domain.

So you see, it's not necessarily fraud when previous bidders pass after the fact.

Something is off when the 5 highest bidders passes on the opportunity to buy a domain after they consciously bid the domain up to the price they were later offered to buy it for.

You may not care about who is bidding you up, but personally I would have more trust in the auction process if bidder handles were shown.

You put your maximum and leave it at that. The introduction of bidder handles would not prevent you from continuing that strategy.

More transparency is better for everyone, imo. There's a reason why NameJet/SnapNames/DropCatch have them. GoDaddy is the only main auction house resisting what is otherwise standard in the domain industry.

 

[Name Trader]

GoDaddy have addressed this several times in recent months. Hell is going to freeze over before they adopt bidder handles..

 

[RozasMD]

GoDaddy Expired auctions are completely useless nowadays.

It's always the same. No bids. No bids at all. Place your bid 10 to 1 minute before the auction ends. You're the highest bidder for about 1 minute. Then suddenly, boom. Another bidder comes in. Automatic bid. Raise your bid. Automatic bid. Raise. Automatic. Raise. Automatic.

A domain with no bids and no views is suddenly a domain with a bidding war.

It might happen once. It might happen twice. But t happens every f-ing time I'm in that situation. Time and again.

To me as customer this is fraudulent, no matter what Joe Styler says -sorry, nothing personal, I know it's your job-. I feel I'm spotting domain names for someone. I absolutely mistrust their system. Absolutely.

I'm done with this. It's a joke.

 

[MapleDots]

GoDaddy Expired auctions are completely useless nowadays.

It's always the same. No bids. No bids at all. Place your bid 10 to 1 minute before the auction ends. You're the highest bidder for about 1 minute. Then suddenly, boom. Another bidder comes in. Automatic bid. Raise your bid. Automatic bid. Raise. Automatic. Raise. Automatic.

A domain with no bids and no views is suddenly a domain with a bidding war.

It might happen once. It might happen twice. But t happens every f-ing time I'm in that situation. Time and again.

To me as customer this is fraudulent, no matter what Joe Styler says -sorry, nothing personal, I know it's your job-. I feel I'm spotting domain names for someone. I absolutely mistrust their system. Absolutely.

I'm done with this. It's a joke.

I'm also not the biggest godaddy fan in the world but the auto bids are quite normal. I put in my maximum value of what I will pay for the domain. If you are at 1k and I put in 5k as my max it will keep outbidding you until it hits my maximum price.

There is really nothing untoward happening here, as far as I can see the whole process works as designed.

 

[Name Trader]

I'm also not the biggest godaddy fan in the world but the auto bids are quite normal. I put in my maximum value of what I will pay for the domain. If you are at 1k and I put in 5k as my max it will keep outbidding you until it hits my maximum price.

There is really nothing untoward happening here, as far as I can see the whole process works as designed.

What is your approx success to failure rate with this strategy?

 

[MapleDots]

What is your approx success to failure rate with this strategy?

It depends on what the bids are, I will usually go in the 800-1,200 range if I want the domain badly enough. Anything that goes higher than that I take on a case by case basis but you need to put in your maximum amount because if anyone else beat your highest bid the auto bid process will outbid you.

It's all about how badly do you want it.

There is another strategy I often use and that is to record the sale on my spreadsheet and contact the new owner a year or two later. I cannot tell you how many times a domainer will sell at a loss if they cannot move a domain.

 

[RozasMD]

I'm also not the biggest godaddy fan in the world but the auto bids are quite normal. I put in my maximum value of what I will pay for the domain. If you are at 1k and I put in 5k as my max it will keep outbidding you until it hits my maximum price.

There is really nothing untoward happening here, as far as I can see the whole process works as designed.

The point is not the Auto itself. It's the new bidder entering in the very last minute and setting an apparently high proxy bid (+$100) for a domain name with no bids and no views til that very last moment. Every single time.

 

[tonyk2000]

GoDaddy does not keep, bid on etc any names on the expired auctions. Customers buy them not us.

Joe, can you please clarify (if you have this info and can share it) the meaning of term "GoDaddy" in this context. Are you speaking about GoDaddy.com, LLC (a Delaware limited liability company) only? Can the same statement be applied to lets say THE GO DADDY GROUP, INC.? Or to GO DADDY OPERATING COMPANY, LLC? To any and all GD sister companies, subsidaries, etc?

And, even more generally, in the following aspects:
(wikipedia quote begin)
The arm's length principle (ALP) is the condition or the fact that the parties to a transaction are independent and on an equal footing. Such a transaction is known as an "arm's-length transaction". An arm's length relationship is distinguished from a fiduciary relationship, where the parties are not on an equal footing, but rather, power and information asymmetries exist.
(wikipedia quote end)

 

[Kate]

When the highest bidder (and the subsequent bidders) do not pay, the whole auction should be restarted because it was tainted in the first place.
Not to mention that in the frenzy of the auction, the legitimate bidders were led into bidding more than they would/should have. Of course the auction house is happy with that.

 

[Arca]

GoDaddy Expired auctions are completely useless nowadays.

It's always the same. No bids. No bids at all. Place your bid 10 to 1 minute before the auction ends. You're the highest bidder for about 1 minute. Then suddenly, boom. Another bidder comes in. Automatic bid. Raise your bid. Automatic bid. Raise. Automatic. Raise. Automatic.

A domain with no bids and no views is suddenly a domain with a bidding war.

It might happen once. It might happen twice. But t happens every f-ing time I'm in that situation. Time and again.

To me as customer this is fraudulent, no matter what Joe Styler says -sorry, nothing personal, I know it's your job-. I feel I'm spotting domain names for someone. I absolutely mistrust their system. Absolutely.

I'm done with this. It's a joke.

Those bidders are usually bots that bid because you bid. If you had not placed your last moment opening bid, there most likely wouldn't have been a bidding war, or even an opening bid on the domain. GoDaddy's system notifies API users (like Huge Domains) real-time whenever users place bids, and they have automated bots that then bid as a "response" to your bid. They use our bids as an indicator of value. So your feeling is correct, you are spotting domains for someone. To win a domain at GD, you often have no choice but to outbid whatever amount these bots are set to bid up to. Sometimes when it's bot against bot, you see the price drive up to the maximum of one of them, which is often a ridiculous price in the eyes of regular domain investors.

This is systematic and widespread, and Joe previously mentioned that it makes it extremely unlikely for GoDaddy to introduce bidder handles. If there were bidder handles, we would be able to see when we're bidding against humans and when we're bidding against automated bots (over time, it would be easy to figure out who the bot bidder handles belong to). Some normal users would intentionally bid up the bots by companies like Huge Domains, as they have stated in this thread, and Joe mentioned that because people want to target bot bidders in this way, bidder handles shouldn't be introduced in order to protect these users from being targeted.

So in other words, GoDaddy actively facilitates and supports bots to target all us regular users, by providing certain users with API access that gives these privileged users real-time info about all our bidding so that they can automate bidding against us (because we are humans that see value in certain names and place bids accordingly). But for us regular users to know when the automated bots are bidding against us, and target them in the same manner they are targeting us, that would be completely unacceptable for some reason. That's GoDaddy's most recent position on bidder handles. To be honest, I'm not able to follow their logic. They earn more when the bots systematically bid against us (hence why they welcome it). They would earn even more if regular users bid against bots in order to make the companies that use them pay more. So for bot to bid up the prices for regular users is fine, but for regular users to bid up the prices for bots/corporate bidders is not acceptable, and GoDaddy intends to continue to "protect" them with a complete lack of transparency in the auctions.

 

[RozasMD]

Those bidders are usually bots that bid because you bid. If you had not placed your last moment opening bid, there most likely wouldn't have been a bidding war, or even an opening bid on the domain. GoDaddy's system notifies API users (like Huge Domains) real-time whenever users place bids, and they have automated bots that then bid as a "response" to your bid. They use our bids as an indicator of value. So your feeling is correct, you are spotting domains for someone. To win a domain at GD, you often have no choice but to outbid whatever amount these bots are set to bid up to. Sometimes when it's bot against bot, you see the price drive up to the maximum of one of them, which is often a ridiculous price in the eyes of regular domain investors.

This is systematic and widespread, and Joe previously mentioned that it makes it extremely unlikely for GoDaddy to introduce bidder handles. If there were bidder handles, we would be able to see when we're bidding against humans and when we're bidding against automated bots (over time, it would be easy to figure out who the bot bidder handles belong to). Some normal users would intentionally bid up the bots by companies like Huge Domains, as they have stated in this thread, and Joe mentioned that because people want to target bot bidders in this way, bidder handles shouldn't be introduced in order to protect these users from being targeted.

So in other words, GoDaddy actively facilitates and supports bots to target all us regular users, by providing certain users with API access that gives these privileged users real-time info about all our bidding so that they can automate bidding against us (because we are humans that see value in certain names and place bids accordingly). But for us regular users to know when the automated bots are bidding against us, and target them in the same manner they are targeting us, that would be completely unacceptable for some reason. That's GoDaddy's most recent position on bidder handles. To be honest, I'm not able to follow their logic. They earn more when the bots systematically bid against us (hence why they welcome it). They would earn even more if regular users bid against bots in order to make the companies that use them pay more. So for bot to bid up the prices for regular users is fine, but for regular users to bid up the prices for bots/corporate bidders is not acceptable, and GoDaddy intends to continue to "protect" them with a complete lack of transparency in the auctions.

Such a lovely scenario.