Higher starting bids will go into effect for auctions starting Monday, October 30.
GoDaddy Auctions will raise the minimum bid in expired domain auctions from $12 to $25 on October 30. The increase will apply to auctions that begin on that day and won’t affect auctions already underway.
GoDaddy tacks on a domain renewal or transfer charge, making its effective minimum bid around $35.
The change begs the question, “Wait, you can win a domain name with an initial $12 bid?” My experience has been that many other people pile on after I place a bid.
But clearly, many people are winning auctions for less than $25; otherwise, GoDaddy wouldn’t make this change. It ran the calculations.
GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) has cited softness in the aftermarket for declining revenue growth, and expiry registry partner Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX) has also noted declining revenues from expired domains. This change will should increase the revenue per expired domain for GoDaddy and its partners.
While nobody likes higher prices, it’s worth pointing out that GoDaddy’s starting bids are lower than SnapNames/Namejet (typically $69) and DropCatch ($59 if more than one person is interested, although lower prices are available for uncontested backorders).
Dynadot, Sav, and Namecheap offer lower start prices but have fewer exclusive partnerships than GoDaddy and Snap/Jet.
Importantly, the change will not impact GoDaddy Closeouts. Those will continue to start at $50 and go down to as little as $5 on the last day.
Customers with legacy $10 backorder credits can continue to use them to place initial bids. If they win, the credit will count toward the final price, so a $25 winning bid will be charged at $15 ($25 minus $10) plus the renewal/transfer charge.
Namecheap auctions partially to blame for this price increase IMO.
More investors at Namecheap now.
Some investors left Godaddy auctions to bid at Namecheap auctions instead.
To be fair, Snap/Jet and Dropcatch include the domain registration fee and GoDaddy doesn’t. GD already charges $25 as a minimum if we include the fee.
And let’s not forget how they put a blind eye on the bidding scams. Like raising the min bid to $25 is their main concern ffs
True. It’s still about double the cost at snapjet
That’s precisely what I was going to say – “And let’s not forget how they put a blind eye on the bidding scams. Like raising the min bid to $25 is their main concern ffs”.
They don’t care about bidding scams IMO because they’re the insiders doing it – probably going off to some godaddy subsidiary to be sold at big $$ and then back into godaddy’s balance sheet and/or executive’s pockets. My opinion only, no evidence to back that up. BUT it is such an easy fix but they remain totally silent on it and have known for some time about the problem but never fix it, I just wonder why that problem is not being solved. Perhaps ScamDaddy is a better name? I should check to see if it’s available!
And now it will ~ double the cost at GD compared to Namecheap. ♂️
And if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck…