Problems with Domains when Pushed to Auction

[untitled]

This is probably the second time I've pushed a domain to auction at GoDaddy.

Both times, I cannot see the domain in the listings when I sort it by price, bids or anything else.

Why is the domain not visible to the public? I've tried logging out/in, same result. It only appears if you type in the name in the search box.

The domain is Janzy.com with starting bid of 150.00.

Thanks.

 

[ImageAuthors]

I've experienced the same problem, but I have no idea which particular GoDaddy glitch is responsible. Good luck!

 

[untitled]

I've contacted them about the issue but have not received a response.

Can someone confirm that the domain is indeed not visible?

 

[ImageAuthors]

I searched for all listing types, .COM only, 5-characters, between $100 and $400, with more than 0 bids. And Janzy.com DID appear.

 

[untitled]

But if you simply sort the initial list on TDNAM by # of bids or price, it does not, correct?

 

[ImageAuthors]

You are correct. When I sort by price, Janzy.com at $150 does not appear. For that matter, neither does my own current GoDaddy auction for LP.biz at $500.

Welcome to the dysfunctionality that is TDNAM / GoDaddy Auctions!

 

[untitled]

I wonder what the reasoning behind this is. Unless you have two or more bidders on a leash via e-mail, there is no point in pushing a domain name to auction.

 

[ImageAuthors]

Reasoning? I doubt GoDaddy has done this on purpose. It would benefit GoDaddy to highlight all auctions with bids already because they are poised for a bidding war, which has the potential to drive up commissions for GoDaddy. By burying auctions that already have at least one bidder, GoDaddy is shooting itself in the foot.

The TDNAM / GoDaddy Auctions system is full of glitches and functions in all sorts of counter-productive ways. And they're amazingly slow to implement changes. Often I feel certain that I could make GoDaddy a lot more money if they'd just implement 5-10 suggestions. But I think that their management and employee structure has basically put nobody in charge of process improvement; so with no employees incentivized to push for progress, the organization languishes at some acceptable moderate level of success. With size comes complacency. (Take it from an ex-military officer.)

 

[Varlin]

Maybe some advanced search variable is set in a manner that excludes it (i.e. only expiring domains)

 

[untitled]

Other public auctions are visible though. Only the auctions where I have "pushed to auction" are not visible.

 

[ImageAuthors]

Maybe some advanced search variable is set in a manner that excludes it (i.e. only expiring domains)

Well, these auctions appear when the filters are used to bring them to the surface. The problem is that they don't appear when simply browsing the most active auctions, as measured by price or bids. So a feeding frenzy / bidding war is very unlikely.

@ untitled,

Maybe that is the root of this particular GoDaddy glitch -- i.e. "pushed to auction" auctions are semi-hidden. If enough DNForum members pay attention to this thread and test that hypothesis with their own "pushed to auction" auctions, we'd be able to test that. Then we could do half of GoDaddy's job -- the trouble shooting. The other half -- fixing the problem -- is another story!

 

[untitled]

Here's the response, which actually makes sense

Thank you for email, I have confirmed with our developers, your listing has not elected to be "Featured" on the home page. In addition, listings require a minimum of two bids to be displayed in the "Most Active" search, your's only has one.

So if your name happens to be a brandable domain, not one that someone would generally search for, it may not be wise to push it to auction. As most likely, it will not get any good exposure, even if the initial bid happens to be $1000 let's say.

 

[ImageAuthors]

That's interesting -- that GoDaddy consciously adopted a policy to suppress auctions with 1 bid while displaying all those featured auctions, which typically have 0 bids.

Doesn't GoDaddy know that the difference between 1 bidder and 2 bidders might mean the difference between $100 and over $1,000? In my experience, that's generally true. For example, I once made the mistake of listing 5 domains as part of Sedo's "Great Domains" auction. The Sedo employee was pressuring domain owners to list with no reserve (i.e. $100 minimum). And the end result was that 4 of my domains sold for $100 (with 1 bid each), and the 5th domain -- which had 2 bidders -- sold for $1,000. So the second bidder multiplied the final price by a factor of 10.

Sedo, of course, uses a commission price structure where they make MORE from 4 $100 sales ($50 x 4 = $200) compared to a single $1,000 sale ($150). So they have negligible incentive to market the auction to buyers, and a huge incentive to convince domain owners to list their stuff cheap. But GoDaddy's commission structure (which is a strict percentage without that $50 minimum) SHOULD incentivize them differently. It is in GoDaddy's interests to draw attention to every auction with bids -- even just 1 bid.

I don't know why I continually propose improvements for GoDaddy in the forums. Maybe some day, they'll wake up enough to ask themselves how they can increase profits and find some of our suggestions.