GoDaddy Auction closeouts now start at $50.
It’s February, and that means GoDaddy has changed the pricing for closeout domain name auctions.
Expired domain names that don’t receive bids move to closeouts, where a Dutch auction begins. Previously, these auctions began at $11 and dropped by $1 a day until they hit $5.
Now, auctions begin at $50, then $40, $30, $11, and $5. Buyers also pay the domain renewal fee.
The new pricing should better capture the value of domains, as many buyers avoid bidding in the regular auctions because it attracts the attention of other bidders. In theory, it could also give those without API access and development resources a better chance of getting domains if bulk buyers wait until the price drops.
But that might not happen. On our Domain Name Wire Live Clubhouse chat yesterday, Shane Cultra said he doesn’t think it will change behavior. He thinks the same people who buy at $11 will now buy at $50.
Only time will tell.
Gregg says
Godaddy optimizes for themselves and not for who’s gonna buy. If they can make more they’ll make the changes required.
JZ says
I think people will be more picky which will just make it even harder as you’ll have more people going for the same fewer names. In the end only godaddy wins really.
Steve says
Again; great move, but starting at $99 would have been better. More profitable for GD and more opportunity for the little guys and gals.
JohnH says
I think this is a mistake. It will discourage newbies, especially those from places where $50 is a lot of money, from getting involved long enough to figure out how to buy decent names. Myself I’m already not getting a lot of value out of the time I’m spending looking for names. The occasional $11 win on a marginally decent name still had a little fun in it. At $50 I think not so much.
Andrew Allemann says
To be clear, you can still get them at $11. Just if no one wants them at $30.
JohnH says
I get that.. The reason for not bidding was to not alert the HD and BD bots. Placing a bid often led to being sniped by the bots and bid up way over the (IMO) wholesale value price. The only way to escape that scenario was to wait patiently for the domain (key point here) you found by spending YOUR time combing over lists of thousands of names, to cross over the line into Buy Now territory. What GD is doing here is forcing you to bid, i.e. provide more data to to the bots so they can know what to buy using your time, expertise and intelligence. GD probably got tired of seeing those domains being picked up for $11 + renewal. So in their corporate wisdom decided to squeeze their auction customers just that little bit more. And for me that’s too much. I am not going to work for the bots. I have my own scripts that surface names I can either hope to pick up for reg fee at expiry, or decide they’re worth a $79 bet at Namejet. That will bring me down from about an hour and half (including expireddomains and GD auctions) to about 20 minutes a day. I’m sure that extra hour will be better spent developing names, and doing sales optimization experiments like checking out DAN etc.
Andrew Allemann says
Right, but the bots were also snapping up domains the second they went to $11 closeout. So you couldn’t pick up domains that way, either. I’d argue that anything you were finding for $11 in closeouts and actually being able to buy is probably something that the bot bidders are going to pass on.
JohnH says
Were the bots sniping domains that wouldn’t otherwise have been on their radar because you placed a bid? That’s my sense of it. I could still find a domain of marginal value… I saw it with my own eyes and recognized value a bot wouldn’t, and wait for it to cross over into Buy Now. Sometimes I wouldn’t get the name because someone else was doing exactly what I was and got to it first (sure, could also have been a bot). But that it had value (IMO) and I was able to get it at a Buy Now of $11 implies that it was my time, effort and intelligence that earned me that win. I’m not about to hand that over to HD or BD for free. And I’m not saying I would never buy a $50 Buy Now domain. I’m just saying that this was the last straw for me as far as spending hours on the GD platform looking for these kinds of names. I’m done. I will not be logging into Godaddy Auctions today.