Back in 2016 we started a series here that looked at the best and worst about companies in the domain industry. Over the last 30 months a lot has changed at many companies so we are revisiting the good, the bad and the ugly.
Each post will deal with just one company, readers are encouraged to share their positive and negative experiences. Suggestions for improvement are also encouraged.
One of the goals of the column is that company representatives will see how their customers think of them. This can lead to a conversation on fixing problems.
What is not allowed:
- Personal attacks on individuals at the chosen company
- Promoting a competitor
- Posting domains for sale
The company in the spotlight today is GoDaddyAuctions your review should just pertain to the auction platform not the other parts of GoDaddy.
Oh man, this thread should be a fun ride! haha
Pro – Inventory
Cons – Everything else
The system is way too easy to game. It has been an issue for many years now.
It has been shown over and over again that you can’t trust the final bid price.
There is often a large gap between the winning bid and the price actually paid.
GoDaddy is my preferred registrar, but their expired auctions are a mess.
Brad
It’s out of control! Unfixable.
I’ve curtailed my buying at GoDaddy Auctions by about 90% because of the gaming and price levels. I go there only about twice a week now, on average.
Smart man, your being forced to overpay, hard to get money back, let the newbies pay up, then sell cheap when they need money, and can’t find any takers.
Cons Huge Domains bot bidder, bidding in every auction, don’t understand or trust their arrangement.
The bot bidder keeps resetting time clock to 5 mins with min bid going on hours sometimes, time is being wasted, go back to 2 min increments.
Shill bidders, non paying bidders probably cost us over midsized figure in overbids.
Double login, quick logouts, buggy.
True…huge domains pumping up prices.
What can stop GoDaddy from creating a side company like Huge Domains to bid on their own GoDaddy auctions pumping up prices.
Here is a story.
I outbid Huge Domains and won an auction for $600…they bid $550 or something.
Then I contacted huge domains and asked for $50 for this same domain and they said they are not interested.
Then I said you guys bid $550 and now i am asking only $50.
They did not want it.
I wonder why.
If you ever outbid Huge Domains.
Try and sell them this same domain for 90% off.
They will not be interested.
Try it.
We completely stopped buying at godaddy auctions. Not worth the time and headache as a majority of the good names get renewed and funds get tied up. Too many shenanigans.
They could learn a lot from HugeDomains.com,
SEDO and afternic, we don’t know who the inquirers/ buyers are ,could be fakers unlike Uni, I get email and IP of the buyers.
Afternic does not display the BIN ,brokers can jerk the prices up.
Scam
Clunky interface. Aftermarket sales and existing auctions would make more sense as a separate site. They could take some lessons from eBay on how to integrate BINs and auctions in same interface. Need to separate the maybe expireds from domains 100% available. Overall a PIA.
Most of the comments here seem to be about buying on GoDaddy auctions, my experiences are more about trying to sell on the platform. A couple of months ago I tried to sell 6 names of very decent quality (largely two-word .com’s) where I see similar quality names sellng for 4 and low 5 figures in GoDaddy expired auctions but I had zero (zilch, nada) bids on these names I even spent money listing the auctions on Namepros to drive traffic and even though I had 150 odd views on each, I had no bids.
GoDaddy gives complete info of a domain in their expired auctions inventory – traffic, valuations etc but nothing for private auctions. It seems to me, the auction platform doesn’t act as a true independent marketplace but serves to favor it’s own inventory and does nothing to help private sellers.
” It seems to me, the auction platform doesn’t act as a true independent marketplace but serves to favor it’s own inventory and does nothing to help private sellers.”
Sad part is you have to pay to be at the top but they don’t!
Bob Parsons use to say ” I will not compete with my customers”
Guess that got lost somewhere along the way.
Godaddy? they are corrupted and crooks! in fact, there is 42 accredited registrars plus ICANN involved in porn money laundering scheme. I had been exposing this since 2011. I even know what and who’s behind the Hillary Clinton’s servers , the Wikileaks hacking and much more. Bottom line , the industry is a disgrace starting with ICANN. You all should visit my website http://www.bdq.ca
Domain sales dashboard very low level layout design, when you try to add some domains for sales, very difficult to add, last time i added some domains for the sale, i add one of domains wrongly beautician.store to beautician.com, i wrongly select the extension, i fount this error after added the domains, i try to remove that domain from my listing, but i can’t did that. at the time my office closing time so i leave from my office and i thought i will change tomorrow, same day night i got an email from Go daddy my domain beautician.com sold , immediately i inform to Godaddy support nextday and told about the case, they are simply told to me your account is terminated from Domain Auctions and if you need to reactivate will pay $10 usd
this is not my case Godaddy Auctions dashboard is very old desing. 2000 year design very bad
otherwise i deal with Godaddy domains sales and hosting after sale support very fine, also trusted biggest platform
thanks f or your time
I would have left domaining years ago if not for Godaddy Auctions. Yes I’ve experienced the frustration around bidding against bots with deeper pockets than mine, but still, I am able to occasionally acquire a name I want for a great price. I appreciate that Godaddy let’s each and every expiring name drop into the auction process. And that their employees are forbidden to be domainers. Compare that to the shenanigans that go on in other marketplaces. It’s not perfect, but they keep trying to improve. They listen. My sense is that the bot-driven market is unsustainable and that the companies behind them will fall by the wayside like so many before them. I look forward to seeing their names in my Godaddy expiring lists.
Funny you say “And that their employees are forbidden to be domainers”
Yet Godaddy itself competes against you with their owned inventory.
Too bad they do not have a buy service where they would buy your domains. I would sell my portfolio (around 800) to them for 20% of what their Godaddy Value Tool states they are worth!
HugeDomains is a huge problem for small size domain name investers.