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Lost a GoDaddy auction, then the winner defaulted. How do I find who the bidder was?

A few day ago I lost an auction for a domain name at Godaddy. I made a proxy bid early in the day the auction was ending as I was not going to be available at the time of the auction end.

I lost the auction. I thought the price went too high. I was mad but not only because the auction went for too much. Most domains are sold in auctions for what seems to be above the wholesale value.

I mean they go for more than I what I consider wholesale prices and will allow me for a healthy ROI. That was before the coronavirus pandemic and the trend still continues…

I was mad I lost the auction because the domain was in a niche that I consider “mine”. I have a lot of domains in this niche and I also do a lot of work in this field in the past few years.

I was the 2nd bidder so I had some hope inside me that the winner will default and I will get the domain. It was a long shot but that was all I had.

Guess what happened 3 days after the auction ended? I got and email that I has won the domain. That was for about $340 less that the winning bid. I paid immediately as I think the 2nd bidder only has about 24 hours to pay before loosing the domain. I have to mention that I got no other email explaining what happened. I assumed the winning bidder defaulted because I know how GoDaddy domain name auctions work. Anyone that is not familiar with the GoDaddy auctions would be really puzzled.

I was happy I got the domain but I was curious who the winning bidder that defaulted on payment was.

Well guess what? You can’t see the bidder id of the bidder that defaulted on GoDaddy.

Here is what the auction looks like now:

The bidder that defaulted has disappeared. And yes I could have made a screenshot when I lost the auction but I can’t be a damn lunatic going around saving all the info of auctions I lost!

So I want to ask GoDaddy what happened to this bidder. Was he/she banned? Why can’t I see who it was? Seems like GoDaddy is rewarding the bidder by hiding his/hers id while everyone else is shown.

Sold.Domains

About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

15 comments

  1. It is an inside job or a bot to bid up to get as much money as possible. They know who you are and your threshold.
    There is no transparency .
    Unlike ebay,you know the bidders.

  2. That why Amazon is so powerful because they know which items are selling and they can manufacture their own brand to compete against you.
    Just like blind bidding, an inside bidder runs by AI can do the bidding.
    They know who you are but you don’t know the insider bidder.

  3. The reason you got the domain was because you lost the auction. If you had continued bidding you would had paid more.

    There will be another paid bidder to bid up.
    It is an organized crime bidders.

  4. GD is not like Christie’s or Sotheby’s where the bidders are known and the stakes are higher..

    Since you are a small fart, you will get no answers.

  5. Disclaimer…
    I used to be part of the auction business loooog ago and the business has not changed but thanks to the internet…less transparency.

  6. i’d look to what BS has to say about the situation.

  7. BullS your a douche bag also who doesn’t honor his sold auctions at Epik, lie about them being sold, so who you trash talking Chris Goh is a BIG NO!

  8. I dare tell you, godaddy auctions is a mess. I had kept away from it for years only to return when I thought I had an opportunity. There was this domain, zero bids, small reserve, ending a few days away. So I bid and won. 7 days later nothing. So I get on chat with godaddy customer services and they say “all is well, you’re the winner just give it a few days” I wait 2 more, email auctions@ godaddy and days later I get a message saying among other things

    “Regarding the auction for the domain Hybridmanufacturing.com, it has been cancelled due to our Partner Registrar’s policy of renewal or delivery. Typically what that means is that the prior registrant exercised their contractual option to redeem the domain. ” so is godaddy autions a big waste of time for all of us? I sure will stay away from it. By the way, not to confuse Bul with the Bulls who posted 3 times, i am not related to that guys.

  9. Normally the one that spends many millions in acquisitions, gets a lot of profitability from his own most common services.
    Now give an example of one of many that years ago working for important companies such as: Marketing Director specializing in sales strategy advertising and distribution, Company buying from another company for $ 500 million, a week I am in charge of a sales strategy for product only customers capitalists, the domino effect is multiplied by many incomes, the highest of all in the stock market, profitability assured.

  10. I received email this after I lost auction…i purchased name within 1 hour !

    Sat, May 23, 2020 6:22 pm
    GoDaddy (auctions@godaddy.com)

    This message is to notify you that the winning bidder of Item Number 324640136, cor,,,,,ding.com, did not complete this transaction. You had the second highest bid of 380.00 and now this domain auction has been moved to the “Won” section of your GoDaddy Auctions account. You must complete the purchase of the cor…ding.com within 24 hours of this notification or the domain may be offered to others for purchase.

  11. PART 2……

    Bid Date Bid Expires Bidder Bid Amount
    2020/05/19 11:52 AM (PDT) 2020/05/19 12:45 PM (PDT) My Bid $561
    Comment:
    2020/05/19 11:52 AM (PDT) 2020/05/19 12:45 PM (PDT) My Bid $380

  12. I believe a heavy bidder did not complete their payments as it seems a lot of second chance offers went out on Saturday.. bidder 149X

  13. Selling someone else’s expired domain name and keeping the profit… is it legal?

    This is not ethical. GD should share the profit (50/50)with the person(owner) that didn’t renewed the name!

  14. Ask which online domain auction company is great not to have problems like this or false bids from third parties at the last moment?

  15. Why does all shady news have it’s root at godaddy? Everything shady I hear ALWAYS goes back to them. I’m glad I have never used them and will never ever use them. It’s news like this that I hear on a regular basis that reinforces this. I have also made it a policy never to respond to broker requests coming from godaddy.

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