information Where do GoDaddy Expired Auctions end up?

[Michael M]

I have been doing a little research to satisfy my curiosity on where Godaddy Expired Auctions end up, and also what big players may be contributing to the bulk of the bids.


I will be as transparent as possible on the process. The data from the sample can be made available via PM for anyone wanting to do their own due diligence. This is a work in progress and I am open to be corrected if anything is wrong.

To explain my methodology: I generate keyword domain list daily to comb through by using a software program I wrote to identify names with potential. Potential is gauged by using sales and inventory data and an algorithm. This is similar to what the big guys are using. I used this list as a "random" sample.

I had to do some special work to figure out what domains some people purchased since they don't seem to be changing their nameservers and since I can't access the GD whois. But this method I found is reliable.

So, in a nutshell - I picked my 2/26 list as the first to report on in this thread. My intention is to post at least a week of activity in all so we can extrapolate the results through days with varying quality/quantity of domains.

Keyword Domain Sample: 449 domains
Sold Domains: 119

Other 45
HugeDomains 20
DomainMarket 10
Above 8
Uniregistry 8
Sedo 5
InternetTraffic.com 4
ParkLogic 4
Afternic 3
BrandBucket 3
CashParking.com 3
Efty 2
Bodis 1
Brandpa 1
ParkingCrew 1
Undeveloped 1

 

[Michael M]

2/27 Results

Keyword Domain Sample: 490 domains
Sold Domains: 129

HugeDomains - 23 - 17.83%
Uniregistry - 15 - 11.63%
Above - 8 - 6.20%
CashParking.com - 7 - 5.43%
Efty - 6 - 4.65%
Bodis - 5 - 3.88%
DomainMarket - 4 - 3.10%
InternetTraffic.com - 3 - 2.33%
Afternic - 2 - 1.55%
ParkLogic - 2 - 1.55%
Undeveloped - 2 - 1.55%
BrandBucket - 1 - 0.78%
ParkingCrew - 1 - 0.78%
Sedo - 1 - 0.78%
Voodoo - 1 - 0.78%
Other - 48 - 37.21%

 

[keltron72]

Do you have specific keywords you search for, or do you search for what's currently trending?

Ps. Very impressive work done above! It is appreciated!

 

[Michael M]

Do you have specific keywords you search for, or do you search for what's currently trending?

Ps. Very impressive work done above! It is appreciated!

Hello,

To explain a little more how the list is curated...

I wrote a program for my own use to keep me from needing to comb through the entire auction list each day. My program uses an algorithm which uses sales and inventory data as variables. Names included in the list will always be of one of the types of categories:
Keyword
Keyword + Keyword
Keyword + Suffix
Prefix + Keyword

So for example if the words "Smart" and "Tech" are seen as having potential then the domain "SmartTech(.)com" (or TechSmart(.)com) would be included in the list if it were on the auction block. I have of course loosened the algorithm enough to pick up on names with questionable quality as the human eye can see things that AI can not. But, another example were the words "Tree" and "Pretzel" where the words were deemed low quality the list would exclude them. Now, if the domain was TechTree(.)com ("Tech" and "Tree") it would be included in the list due to the height weight of the word "Tech" and the fact "tree" has decent weight.

FYI: It does not take Bids or GD value into consideration.

I have put a decent amount of work into this program to make sure it includes as many of the higher quality domains as possible while limiting the list to where it is easily digestible for me to review daily.

I decided to use this list as the sample to run this test as I felt it would contain a good majority of the domains people would choose to go after.

And thank you very much for the kind words.

 

[Michael M]

To add there is no specific keyword list used. It utilizes the entire English dictionary and then uses sales and inventory data to rank each word. (and word position)

 

[keltron72]

To add there is no specific keyword list used. It utilizes the entire English dictionary and then uses sales and inventory data to rank each word. (and word position)

Very Clever mate!! I've got a similar technique, but i'm still manually selecting keywords (on a daily basis) and doing the research behind what % of profitability they'll likely have. But I like your system though mate! Very efficient! I'll likely have a few more questions to ask you later, after I finish work- so i'll either PM you or post back on here.. Cheers tho mate. I appreciate the effort and input!

 

[Michael M]

Very Clever mate!! I've got a similar technique, but i'm still manually selecting keywords (on a daily basis) and doing the research behind what % of profitability they'll likely have. But I like your system though mate! Very efficient! I'll likely have a few more questions to ask you later, after I finish work- so i'll either PM you or post back on here.. Cheers tho mate. I appreciate the effort and input!

Sure... Feel free to ask away either in this thread on PM.

 

[Arfy]

what language have you written your program in and how which APIs are you using/ data sources are you querying? If you don't mind sharing

 

[Michael M]

what language have you written your program in and how which APIs are you using/ data sources are you querying? If you don't mind sharing

I originally wrote the program in VB.NET as the rough draft. I am currently recreating the final project in C#. No APIs are used though I am looking at possibly incorporating a couple to add some more variables to increase accuracy. (such as archive.org to examine the past history/use of the domains). I am using a MSSQL database containing the complete English dictionary and sales and inventory data that I have continually aggregated over the years.

 

[Michael M]

As far as my program to create the statistics of where GD domains end up...

I take my generated list from a certain date. (generated before names have sold)
1. Compare this list to the zone file and identify nameservers.
2. Identify names that sold and didn't (sold includes closeouts)
3. Run a second pass to identify forwarded urls
4. Run a third pass to identify buyers who seem to be trying to stay hidden (cant disclose)
5. Generate results

FYI: 2/28's results should be posted today.

 

[Michael M]

2/28 Results

Keyword Domain Sample: 499 domains
Sold Domains: 148

HugeDomains - 17 - 11.49%
Efty - 13 - 8.78%
Uniregistry - 10 - 6.76%
Bodis - 6 - 4.05%
Undeveloped - 6 - 4.05%
CashParking - 5 - 3.38%
Above - 4 - 2.70%
Afternic - 3 - 2.03%
BrandRoot - 3 - 2.03%
Sedo - 3 - 2.03%
BrandBucket - 2 - 1.35%
ParkLogic - 2 - 1.35%
BuyDomains - 1 - 0.68%
InternetTraffic - 1 - 0.68%
Other - 72 - 48.65%

 

[Name Trader]

That Others is almost half the total. I think it warrants deeper analysis to pinpoint anything you might not be identifying.

 

[Michael M]

That Others is almost half the total. I think it warrants deeper analysis to pinpoint anything you might not be identifying.

Others almost always resolve to themselves. So they could be site specific landers, the godaddy parking page, or someone developing a website.

This is checked during this processes mentioned above:
3. Run a second pass to identify forwarded urls
4. Run a third pass to identify buyers who seem to be trying to stay hidden (cant disclose)

They are confirmed to be in none of the other categories in these lists. I could supply the list of domains classified as Other (or entire lists) if you would like to research further and let us know the results. PM me if interested.

 

[Michael M]

Ok, so through discussions in other threads some people have helped me to clean up the results a little.

There were 2 issues:
1. Some names identified as HugeDomains were incorrect
2. InternetTraffic and Uniregistry are the same company

Both of these issues have been corrected, and all of the charts have been corrected. Below are the corrected charts for 2/26-2/28 and a new chart for 3/1. Once we get up to a full week I will combine stats to get a 1 week view of where Godaddy Expired Domain Auctions end up.

3/1:

Keyword Domain Sample: 503 domains
Sold Domains: 151

HugeDomains - 16 - 10.60%
Uniregistry - 16 - 10.60%
Undeveloped - 9 - 5.96%
Efty - 8 - 5.30%
Above - 7 - 4.64%
Afternic - 7 - 4.64%
Sedo - 7 - 4.64%
CashParking - 5 - 3.31%
ParkingCrew - 3 - 1.99%
Voodoo - 3 - 1.99%
BrandRoot - 2 - 1.32%
Bodis - 1 - 0.66%
BrandBucket - 1 - 0.66%
BuyDomains - 1 - 0.66%
ParkLogic - 1 - 0.66%
Other - 64 - 42.38%

 

[Michael M]

Very interesting results coming up in my research for 3/2. I am going to take a while to verify my findings... I will post results as soon as I can.

 

[Michael M]

Ok guys... So 3/2 gets much more interesting. HugeDomains stepped up their purchasing by over 3x the normal rate from my sample. But, it doesn't end there.... Another player stepped into the game on 3/2 and purchased over 3x what HugeDomains did. This is definitely a pretty big deal. I imagine 3/2 was a tough day at auctions to pickup a name.

Keyword Domain Sample: 540
Sold Domains: 371 (about 69% of my sample sold!)

Afternic - 229 - 68.15%
HugeDomains - 64 - 19.05%
Sedo - 8 - 2.38%
Uniregistry - 7 - 2.08%
Above - 6 - 1.79%
Efty - 6 - 1.79%
BrandBucket - 5 - 1.49%
CashParking - 4 - 1.19%
Undeveloped - 3 - 0.89%
Bodis - 2 - 0.60%
BuyDomains - 2 - 0.60%
Other - 35 - 10.42%

If we take out this "new" buyer that is parking at Afternic, then here is the landscape:

 

[Michael M]

Ok, so the trend continues on 3/3. There is a new buyer on the scene since I started watching and they are grabbing an astonishing number of domains in my sample. HugeDomains has also stepped up purchasing for a second day in a row.

An interesting point on the Afternic buyer - they seem to be pricing the bulk of the names in the $100-$500 range, and they are using Godaddy Whois Privacy.

Keyword Domain Sample: 557
Sold Domains: 385 (about 69% of my sample sold again!)

Afternic - 232 - 60.26%
HugeDomains - 69 - 17.92%
Above - 10 - 2.60%
Efty - 9 - 2.34%
Uniregistry - 7 - 1.82%
CashParking - 4 - 1.04%
ParkLogic - 3 - 0.78%
BrandRoot - 2 - 0.52%
Sedo - 2 - 0.52%
Undeveloped - 2 - 0.52%
BrandBucket - 1 - 0.26%
Voodoo - 1 - 0.26%
Other - 43 - 11.17%

 

[Michael M]

Not sure if anyone is actually following this, but if so I wanted to give an update...

It appears the "Afternic Buyer" continues their streak on 3/4.

This new (since I started watching) player has changed the landscape drastically halfway through my sample - and I have not quite figured out how to handle that yet...

#1. I believe I am going to step back and expand my sample size since this lines up with the timing of a new algorithm I have written.
#2: I am going to rerun previous reports with the larger sample size.
#3: Decide how to deal with the "Afternic buyer." Should I separate them (the best I can) from the rest of Afternic?
#4: Possibly reset the timeframe to start on 3/1 and work towards a month of analysis.
#5: Maybe include 4Ls and other liquid domains in sample?
#6: Work towards consistent colors on all charts to make it easier to see what is going on

Any input is appreciated!

 

[1Darko]

Not sure if anyone is actually following this, but if so I wanted to give an update...

It appears the "Afternic Buyer" continues their streak on 3/4.

This new (since I started watching) player has changed the landscape drastically halfway through my sample - and I have not quite figured out how to handle that yet...

#1. I believe I am going to step back and expand my sample size since this lines up with the timing of a new algorithm I have written.
#2: I am going to rerun previous reports with the larger sample size.
#3: Decide how to deal with the "Afternic buyer." Should I separate them (the best I can) from the rest of Afternic?
#4: Possibly reset the timeframe to start on 3/1 and work towards a month of analysis.
#5: Maybe include 4Ls and other liquid domains in sample?
#6: Work towards consistent colors on all charts to make it easier to see what is going on

Any input is appreciated!

Interesting - can you find out who the "afternic buyer" is?

 

[Michael M]

I doubt it... They are using Godaddy Privacy and no seller name is listed on the Afternic pages. Maybe in time I can identify them with some extensive research if they alter that pattern.

 

[anantj]

I doubt it... They are using Godaddy Privacy and no seller name is listed on the Afternic pages. Maybe in time I can identify them with some extensive research if they alter that pattern.

Can you share a few names currently owned by the Afternic buyer? I'd like to investigate a bit. More names will help more

 

[Michael M]

Can you share a few names currently owned by the Afternic buyer? I'd like to investigate a bit. More names will help more

Sure... No problem. Here are the domains from 3/2 that seem to be the "Afternic Buyer."
There can certainly be a few domains in the list that are attributed to other buyers as I can not automate whois on Godaddy - but I suspect a vast majority of these names are the same person/company. Let us know if you find anything interesting!

Spoiler: Afternic Buyer domains - 3/2/18

acceloro.com
actsnap.com
adblack.com
advicety.com
arborjobs.com
arenaus.com
aspirewine.com
auctionmetal.com
babyslot.com
backasset.com
backupcanada.com
balletcapital.com
bandsway.com
barkinghome.com
beautifuleast.com
bikeslang.com
bitcoingrind.com
blacknext.com
blendvideo.com
bloomsafe.com
brokerchief.com
buckdeal.com
buildingyour.com
buzzdebate.com
campcarbon.com
caymanfunding.com
caymanglobal.com
caymanlending.com
chartous.com
cheffeed.com
chickenbroker.com
cloudgarrison.com
cobrook.com
cogcafe.com
cognitionmarketing.com
cognitivecafe.com
colourdeal.com
companyroof.com
concerntech.com
connectcrop.com
cooladviser.com
dataindian.com
datumbit.com
decisionu.com
degreeam.com
demandus.com
differentglobal.com
directadvocate.com
directniche.com
donorland.com
downfund.com
downfunder.com
downfunding.com
driftorder.com
dualfamily.com
edgesnow.com
empoweredplus.com
energybasis.com
energymoon.com
everbudget.com
exoclass.com
facemanual.com
fairmob.com
fanslaw.com
fansprout.com
farmercredit.com
findcount.com
flexadviser.com
flyingglobal.com
flyoption.com
flysponsor.com
foodboarding.com
foodthumb.com
friendlybuzz.com
fundduck.com
getretreat.com
giveassets.com
glamseek.com
goproducer.com
gorillamob.com
greeklondon.com
grubgrid.com
hairprofit.com
handmadecool.com
healthford.com
healthyfever.com
healthyguards.com
heartmortgage.com
heartsoap.com
helloclose.com
helpingcloud.com
homeeo.com
housesluxury.com
hoverbux.com
hoverdoctor.com
hybridaudit.com
indiaaccount.com
innovativewarranty.com
insuranceblue.com
insurevideo.com
justretreat.com
karttop.com
kickmanager.com
kidjamaica.com
kidturkey.com
kinorder.com
lapreview.com
leadglide.com
leadingrecovery.com
leadsection.com
learnignite.com
lettervillage.com
licenseindex.com
liveshut.com
loantester.com
loanvoice.com
luxecrown.com
magazinefast.com
mainbite.com
makebird.com
maxiclone.com
medicinenear.com
meetstack.com
metricscart.com
mittcasino.com
mixtureo.com
mobilityjob.com
mortgagereal.com
musclehop.com
musclesure.com
musicchicken.com
nearconstruction.com
neatscan.com
nutribucks.com
offbeer.com
officialex.com
openlower.com
openmuscle.com
optionready.com
oursurgery.com
outdoorscorp.com
outdoweb.com
palmangel.com
partnermen.com
partnerwoman.com
peakoption.com
pharmacyscore.com
planetray.com
pocketbreak.com
portfolioglobe.com
primerrealty.com
princesstop.com
profitmomentum.com
propertyic.com
prospectspark.com
qualityflip.com
quotesense.com
railsurf.com
rallyaid.com
ratingflow.com
reachvine.com
reactplay.com
readscreen.com
rechargealert.com
referralfocus.com
replacementcompany.com
retitan.com
rewardagent.com
rideinformation.com
rideoo.com
runmenu.com
savvycreek.com
schoolcharge.com
securityplayer.com
servicenova.com
shadenews.com
shopcope.com
simplehike.com
singlemountain.com
slimmethod.com
slipbank.com
smallstudent.com
snackconnect.com
socialcaravan.com
socialdiving.com
sourcerow.com
sparkshuttle.com
specbay.com
speedygrip.com
spiritualbin.com
stoparm.com
storyfitness.com
streetsingles.com
surgerun.com
surveyjoy.com
swisslevel.com
talkbowl.com
tappotential.com
targetsoon.com
taskstaff.com
tenpulse.com
textpaint.com
thinksymbol.com
thunderson.com
tradenice.com
tripamount.com
tripfling.com
trustedbio.com
turboleague.com
turbostay.com
tutorwith.com
venturecanyon.com
vestestate.com
vicetap.com
vieware.com
virtualrest.com
wandercrowd.com
warmfarm.com
waterfanatic.com
watteye.com
westcart.com
wingend.com
womantechnology.com
woodenequipment.com
youngoption.com
yourcapsule.com

 

[Michael M]

This thread and others have inspired me and I am now working on something new...

But if anyone would like me to keep going down this wormhole in one angle or another - let me know and I would not mind continuing to research and post here.

Otherwise I am shifting my focus to something new to bring everyone more information to their fingertips (including data like this). More information will most probably come soon in another thread if things keep progressing as they are. Stay tuned.