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GoDaddy Auctions is pulling back some expired domains that were at Endurance

by — Expired Domains 3 Comments

Domains from partner registrar were mistakenly sent to GoDaddy for auctioning.

Over the weekend, a Domain Name Wire reader noticed that expired domain names from some domain name registrars had been pulled from GoDaddy Auctions. This included domain names that already had bids. When I looked the domains up, it seemed that some of them had previously been renewed by their owners.

All four of the registrars that this reader noticed–BigRock, Domain, FastDomain and Public Domain Registry–are owned by Endurance International Group.

Now at least one GoDaddy Auctions customer has received an email explaining that some of the domains they won are going to be pulled back due to a mistake. The domains should not have been sent to GoDaddy auctions from the partner registrar.

While it doesn’t name names, all of the domains I’ve seen are at Endurance registrars.

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Namecheap starts sending expired domains to GoDaddy Auctions

by — Expired Domains 4 Comments

GoDaddy Auctions increases its expired domain footprint.

Namecheap is the latest domain name registrar to send its expired domain name inventory to GoDaddy Auctions.

A Domain Name Wire reader noticed a domain in the GoDaddy Auctions expiry stream today that is for a domain registered at Namecheap. I subsequently ran searches uncovering many more.

Namecheap joins Tucows and Endurance International Group, which have been sending their domains to GoDaddy for a while. This means that GoDaddy Auctions has the expired domain inventory from the #1, #2, #3, and #6 largest domain registration companies (based on their .com registration base).

I predicted that Namecheap would end up in GoDaddy’s stable. Namecheap just had a nasty divorce with Tucows, which operates the competing website NameJet where Namecheap names were previously auctioned off.

(Yes, Tucows sends its expired domain inventory to GoDaddy despite owning 50% of a competing expired domain service. That speaks volumes.)

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Mining Available Domains via GoDaddy’s Watching List

by — Expired Domains 4 Comments

Alvin Brown shares a way to find hand-reg domains to register.

I shared 3 tips to Discover Expired Domains Available at Hand-Registration Fee at the end of last year.  As a follow up, I’m sharing another method to discover available domains using GoDaddy’ Watching feature.

It’s not really a “new” feature as some of you may recall a brief experiment by GoDaddy to display Watcher data on auction landing pages. Nevertheless, you may discover a profitable opportunity exists using Watching export data as a method to bulk search for available domains.

In addition to providing a daily list of GoDaddy expiring domain auctions for the general public to peruse, I “watch” quite a large number of GoDaddy expiring domains each day. Prior to providing a daily list for the general public, I never used the export feature for Watching domains.

But for the last two years and counting, I download this list of expiring domains daily as I strategize about which domains I’m going to actively bid and at what cost — via GoDaddy’s Watching download (see image below). [Read more…]

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Park.io starts drop catching .AI domains

by — Expired Domains 1 Comment

Service known for ccTLDs adds .ai domains.

Park.io has begun offering drop catching services for .AI domain names. .AI is the country code for Anguilla but has become popular for artificial intelligence companies.

Park.io is known for helping domain investors get popular country code domain names that are good for domain hacks or have taken on a meaning of their own, such as .io, .me and .ly.

The addition of .ai domains was made possible by the registry moving to EPP.

As with all domain names at Park.io, catch fees are $99 and include a year registration. If there’s more than one interested party there will be an auction.

One of the first featured .ai domains coming up is eat.ai.

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A simple way to make GoDaddy Closeout auctions more fair

by — Expired Domains 15 Comments

A win-win for GoDaddy and most bidders.

A lot of people are frustrated with the bidding process at GoDaddy when it comes to closeout auctions.

The idea behind closeout auctions is smart. If no one bids at least $12 for a name during the regular GoDaddy expired domain auction, the domain goes to a Dutch auction where the price starts at $11 and decreases by a dollar a day until it hits $5.

Closeouts allow GoDaddy and its expired domain partners to get something for a domain even if it’s not worth the $12 starting bid price.

But how things work in reality is very different from how they work conceptually.

People don’t want to get into bidding wars in auctions. If no one else has bid on an expired domain as the clock winds down, they (or their computers) stand ready to ping GoDaddy the minute the domain goes into closeouts so they can get it for $11 rather than what is likely hundreds if they place a bid during the regular auction.

Think about what’s happening here. An auction will expire with no bids at even $12, but there are sometimes 5 or more ready buyers who would be willing to spend $100+ on the domain. The point of auctions is to sell things for the market price, but that’s no longer happening in these auctions.

That’s bad for people that don’t have automated means to snipe the closeouts. It’s also bad for GoDaddy and its partners because they are leaving money on the table.

The solution is fairly simple: raise the starting bid for closeout auctions.

Instead of setting a buy now price below $12, set it much higher. I’m not sure what the right number is. Maybe it starts at $75, drops to $50, then $25, then $10 and drops a few bucks after that. I know that I’d be willing to pay $75 or more for many domains that close with no bids.

Raising the price will have two effects.

First, people will be more willing to bid in the regular auctions rather than wait for closeouts. The potential savings of waiting won’t be as great.

Second, GoDaddy and its partners will make more money.

The only people who will lose out are those that have perfected their systems for sniping closeouts.

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