Last second backorders will no longer circumvent closeout process.
Auctions for expired domain names at GoDaddy can get competitive. With no backorders required, domain names can go from $0 to hundreds of dollars even when no bids are placed until the last few minutes.
This is complicated by the closeout process. If you bid on a domain in the live auction it will likely be bid up to over $100. If you can snag it when it goes into closeouts then it’s only $12 plus the renewal fee.
Unfortunately, there are lots of people with API access and computing power who treat the closeout like a drop. They start sending calls to buy the domain as soon as the regular auction closes.
But there has been a loophole that has helped people like me. If you place a backorder the second an auction closes, you can win the domain for the cost of a backorder before it gets placed in closeouts.
For the past year or so, I will closely watch auctions and be ready to bid if someone jumps in at the last minute. If the auction ends with no bids, I’ll place a backorder at the second the auction ends.
Historically, this has helped me scoop up a lot of domain names. About 95% of the domains that make it through the auction with no bids. But it’s gotten tougher this year.
Starting in January I noticed a lot of people placing backorders with a few minutes left in the auction. I’m not sure why they were doing this because it triggers a $10 bid and then everyone can pile in.
Then a few weeks ago I noticed that many of the domains I was backordering at the last second were getting scooped up by other people. My success rate went from 95% to about 25%. My guess is that they automated the process for backordering to get the timing just right.
While the backorder loophole was nice while it lasted, GoDaddy is about to eliminate it.
Joe Styler explained this change in a post on NamePros this week.
So now the options are either bid regularly and fight with everyone else, or program a system to snipe domains the minute they hit closeouts.
Well, it was fun while it lasted. At least now I won’t log into GoDaddy to place a backorder, only to be frustrated when someone places a last minute bid.
I was wondering how you grabbed domains at GoDaddy. I was waiting for a chance to grab so many names at GoDaddy in the closeouts, but they never showed up. And then your name showed up in WHOIS later on. Looks like I was wasting my time as you and others were exploiting this glitch.
Personally I’m glad GoDaddy is closing this loophole. I’m sure the people who were exploiting it are of another mind though:)
It just means that rather than me getting the name, someone who set up an automated sniper will grab it the second it goes into closeouts. So I don’t think it will help you that much.
Right. They can change the mechanism for grabbing a domain, but timing still matters. It sounds like the mechanism has been made harder for individual actors. But those with big computational resources, who are buying a lot of domains, can afford to upgrade their snipers as necessary to grab domains in bulk during the split second they become available.
Paradoxically, GoDaddy’s attempt s to curb this behavior may only raise the bar high enough to give MORE advantage to the biggest snipers.
C.K. That’s reality of competitive field. In stocks it the same. There is no low hanging fruit, and if its there, it wont be there for long. If you find yourself waiting for that low hanging fruit and keep not getting it, you might want to re-evaluate your strategy.
The problem is we don’t have level playing field here. There are bots definitely operating now, gone wild. As soon as I add a domain to the checkout from closeout, the thing is “snapped” up by someone if I can use that word.
Most definitely, it isn’t a level playing field:
– Some people work manually. Others write code to perform tasks 100,000 times more efficiently.
– Some people have small budgets. Others have vast budgets.
And the established players outgun the new arrivals.
– Individuals working part time are competing against streamlined companies with investor backup and a division of labor. Multiple people working full time.
It’s not a fair fight. But is that necessarily unfair?
Mining for copper or diamonds or gold isn’t a level playing field in 2018. Big corporations do all of it. It’s no longer a bunch of bearded individualists panning for gold in the rivers.
I’m not an apologist for the big players necessarily. The frustrations of being a (relatively) late arrival with a (relatively) small budget aren’t just something I sympathize with. I’ve experienced those frustrations first hand.
Point is: Any emerging industry with end up concentrating tools and resources in a few dominant companies. No industry remains a level playing field for long. Sooner or later, part-time individuals find themselves at a disadvantage competing with larger organizations.
This is inevitable. In some respects, it can be reformed. If companies earn more by leveling the playing field for their customers, then they will attempt to do so.
If existing companies don’t want to, maybe new companies will come along promising a more level playing field for buyers / sellers. But it remains to be seen if those companies can attract enough business from domainers to gain market share and be self-sustaining.
But Joe it’s using the private data. A closeout is not an auction, it’s a personal bid. A script is not appropriate here.
I have no problem with scripts on the main auction, in general, as long as the means to create them are not withheld from the market.
I just can’t figure out what they are doing with the duds or how they make this work.
I believe it’s simply a matter of timing. Another person or bot has finished checkout by the time you add the domain to your shopping cart.
So there wouldn’t be any private data involved. I highly doubt the bots can detect that you are attempting to buy.
I see no evidence that GoDaddy is sharing that data with other buyers. Nor would GoDaddy be buying the domains themselves in closeout.
Ok, but these bots are taking their cue from the person adding the domain to their cart.
They are not acting independently as it were. The data process is being shared by the data controller, imo.
@Alan Dodd,
I think there is probably another explanation.
If it were really true that placing an item in your shopping cart causes someone else to buy it right away before you can check out, then that would imply GoDaddy is sharing this data – data about your checkout behavior – with another customer. Or else buying the domain out from underneath your nose.
That would be a HUGE scandal. Given the number of people that would need to be involved – GoDaddy management, developers, et al. – I think it’s very very unlikely.
Most likely this is just a case of another buyer beating you to the punch.
maybe look for a niche that the bots aren’t looking at.
Just tried to buy a domain I have zero interest in, “aaicreations.com”. I add it to the checkout from closeout.
I delete the domain from closeout.
Then I go and search for – gone!
It will be gone for a few minutes and then re-appear if you removed it from your cart. Good domains will get scooped up my someone else pretty quick.
But aaicreations… Yep, just checked it & it’s back and available at $8.
Ah ok — Ian what do you think is happening here?
Hi Alan – In your situation, my guess is that GoDaddy designed the system to be the lesser of two evils. Either prioritize the availability of a closeout based on who successfully adds it to their cart first and then let everyone else click on it and see a ‘sorry this domain is no longer available through GoDaddy auctions’ message.
Or, as checkout can take seconds to minutes depending on the person… let everyone who was refreshing their browser over and over until the domain showed up add it to their cart, but only allow the first person who places the order to be the one who gets it. If a bunch of people have it in their cart, the likelihood of multiple simultaneous orders and thus more refunds & “what is going on” phone calls to GoDaddy.
In both situations the customer is let down, but the further along a customer gets in the checkout process for a closeout domain that they fail to get, the more irate they become and the more calls GoDaddy gets, imo. Therefore GoDaddy chose the first option.
They have been doing it this way for quite a few years years and their mo is to make the domain unavailable for xx number of minutes after someone successfully places it in their cart. If that person fails to follow through with the purchase it shows back up on the board several minutes later.
Andrew,
What i used to do is as soon as name left the action i went to “domain tools” and click on the for sale link and it would appear at some point in my Godaddy chart before it would appear in the closeouts.
If the “playing field” has become so “unfair,” then why is it made to be exponentially unfair by not allowing anyone new to have access to this GoDaddy API anymore, except those who already have it and the “unfair” advantage that confers? Or is that mistaken and no longer the case? Or was that never the case despite seeing that mentioned somewhere?
everyone has access to the api. you just pay for it.