Winning GoDaddy Auctions When You're NOT the Highest Bidder

[Ms Domainer]

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IMPORTANT: If you are bidding on Godaddy auctions, be sure to keep up on your auctions, even if you are not winning them, BECAUSE...

If you are the second-highest bidder in a closed Godaddy auction, you may end up being the winning bidder; this can happen when the highest bidder fails to pay.

This just happened to me, with a 3-character .com.

I'm quite happy, of course, because I ended up paying only high $XX, including the reg fee (for which I used a coupon, thanks to Namepros :hearts.

BUT I'm telling you this because I hadn't checked my email or auction account for a few days (too busy preparing for and fretting about GREAT BIG BAD Irene, ha!), and I could have lost the domain to another bidder! (There were 18 bids, 6 or 7 bidders, if you count the non-payer).

So do keep on top of your auctions even if you decide not to place a higher bid or think you don't have the highest bid.

As soon as the name is safely tucked into my account, I'll reveal it. It's not a top quality 3-character, but I have not been able to even get a whiff of a ccc dot com, let alone buy one.




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[Fadi H]

Old post just caught my eye. Talking about - shill bidding! which is a no no.

Could be if he had a domain auctioned, I thought they were talking about expiring auctions so i didnt get what he means by a "tactic"

 

[xynames]

OP was talking about how the second highest bidder sometimes wins, then DU came in and mused that could use multiple accounts shill bidding to win the auction for less by having the winner not pay, where the winner and second highest bidder are your own "multiple accounts." Doesn't take much to understand what he meant and that this would be shill bidding.

 

[Fadi H]

OP was talking about how the second highest bidder sometimes wins, then DU came in and mused that could use multiple accounts shill bidding to win the auction for less by having the winner not pay, where the winner and second highest bidder are your own "multiple accounts." Doesn't take much to understand what he meant and that this would be shill bidding.

Exactly, How he could be winning the auction for less when he is the same bidder with multiple accounts ?

 

[xynames]

Well the end game of shill bidding isn't necessarily to win an auction, it's also to jack up the price, but yes I agree that the "tactic" isn't well thought out as to what the benefit might be, but any bid placed with no intention to perform is a form of shill bidding.

 

[Fadi H]

Well the end game of shill bidding isn't necessarily to win an auction, it's also to jack up the price, but yes I agree that the "tactic" isn't well thought out as to what the benefit might be, but any bid placed with no intention to perform is a form of shill bidding.

I know it's shill bidding, What confused me is the term he used, If that wasn't his own domain auction then there is no point.

 

[Jay Ha]

I know it's shill bidding, What confused me is the term he used, If that wasn't his own domain auction then there is no point.

Yes there is a point and this is a problem that GD is trying to figure out how to tackle.

Let's say there is an expired name with 9 bidders. 2 of them are for the same person (call him Shill). The bid reaches $1,000. Shill sets a proxy bid on 2 accounts where he's sure no one would outbid. One proxy is 5 bucks more than the other. From $1,000 to $10,000 there was bidding war from 2 accounts (both are for Shill). Auction ends at $10,000 but the payment isn't fulfilled. 2nd highest bidder wins the auction which means Shill gets the name for $1,000 although other people may have won it for more, if it wasn't for that fake bidding war. This explains all the inflated auction wins where in fact the maximum bidder didn't pay.

Hope you got the idea and hope no one exploits it (more than it already is).

 

[Fadi H]

Yes there is a point and this is a problem that GD is trying to figure out how to tackle.

Let's say there is an expired name with 9 bidders. 2 of them are for the same person (call him Shill). The bid reaches $1,000. Shill sets a proxy bid on 2 accounts where he's sure no one would outbid. One proxy is 5 bucks more than the other. From $1,000 to $10,000 there was bidding war from 2 accounts (both are for Shill). Auction ends at $10,000 but the payment isn't fulfilled. 2nd highest bidder wins the auction which means Shill gets the name for $1,000 although other people may have won it for more, if it wasn't for that fake bidding war. This explains all the inflated auction wins where in fact the maximum bidder didn't pay.

Hope you got the idea and hope no one exploits it (more than it already is).

I think this could work if you early jack up the price of a valuable domain auction.

For example you are the current lead bidder for something like $500 and then run the two fake accounts with high proxy bids so that would get the price to a point where probably real bidders won't get in. And then when payment is not made by the fake accounts you get the price drop from something like 5 figures to your real bid amount of $500.

I now understand what the guy meant with "tactic"

Thanks for explanation.

 

[Ostrados]

How it is possible that GD will not catch the fake shill account?!
The shill user will use same info for the credit card, even if he has 2 cards the same name appears on both.

 

[Fadi H]

How it is possible that GD will not catch the fake shill account?!
The shill user will use same info for the credit card, even if he has 2 cards the same name appears on both.

Payment method is the easiest thing to fake. He could easily get other payment methods with different names. You can take virtual visa cards as an example, Anyone can create a lot with different info.

 

[DN_Hunter]

I think when there are shill bids to shutout other bidders, GD should re-open the auction instead of just giving it to the 2nd highest bidder. I know there's timeline concerns as far as expired auctions, but for the larger dollar auctions, GD should just re-open an auction and not worry about date deadlines and/or nobody wanting the name -- they already know there's major interest in the name...

 

[Jay Ha]

Or they can restrict bidding to users who already have funds that can cover their bids in their GD accounts. Like how you can fund your account at namecheap.