Domain Auctions

Fiscal.com appeared to be destined for an expiry auction at GoDaddy earlier this week. The domain name auction was due to conclude on Monday afternoon, and bidding had surpassed the $30,000 mark. I was a participant in the auction (bidding over $30,000), and I was prepared to spend considerably more than the high bid. In fact, I had offered more for the domain name earlier this year.

The Fiscal.com auction disappeared from GoDaddy Auctions at some point between Sunday night and Monday. This was surprising because the domain name was registered at GoDaddy and there was less than 24 hours remaining in the auction. As far as I know, a 2017 change in how the expiry process works was supposed to ensure that GoDaddy-registered domain names that make it to 3 days or fewer in an auction with bids can no longer be renewed by the registrant since the redemption period had passed.

GoDaddy Auctions is the only domain name auction platform I use on a regular basis that does not show the static bidder nickname for auction participants. In lieu of this, GoDaddy assigns bidders individual Bidder #s in each auction, such as Bidder 1, Bidder 2, Bidder 3…etc. When an auction closes at GoDaddy, bidders can see the static bidder identification numbers of participants.

I have always been under the assumption that the Bidder # is based on the order the person places their bid. For instance, if Bill bids first with a $100 proxy, he would be Bidder 1. If Jane is the second bidder and her bid is $75, she would be outbid by Bill, and she would be Bidder 2. The next person to place a bid would be Bidder 3. If Bill bids again and takes the lead, it would show Bidder 1 as the top bidder. I never put much thought into it, but that is what I have always assumed when looking at the bid order at GoDaddy Auctions.

When I was bidding on the Academic.com auction in July, I noticed something peculiar as the auction was closing. The main auction page had a different leading bidder # than when I opened up the auction bids from the GoDaddy Auctions homepage. It did not really matter all that much to me because I had been outbid, and I have 100% confidence the auction was won fairly.

After the auction concluded, I shared this on Twitter and alerted GoDaddy to what I noticed: