GoDaddy

I received an email from Dan.com announcing three changes to the platform. At least two of these changes will impact most sellers and attention should be paid to them. The email I received is below, but in short, the changes are:

• Sellers can choose a payout currency
• All listing prices will be converted to USD
• All domain names with BIN prices on Dan.com will be added to Afternic and its network

The first change is not important to me. I have always been paid out in USD and that will continue for me. I assume sellers outside of the US may be happy with this change.

The currency change to listings is probably not going to have much impact on the perceived value of the domain name, but sellers may wish to update the gross price to reflect preferred “charm pricing.” Some sellers prefer to have prices that end in -888, -999, or even -111. When EUR or other currency is converted to USD, the charm pricing will likely be lost and need to be updated.

I don’t see much of a downside for domain names to be added to Afternic’s network, but sellers should be aware of this change.

Email received from Dan.com this morning:

It is apparent that GoDaddy has been in the process of revamping its domain name appraisal tool. This became most obvious when expiry auctions in GoDaddy Auctions were missing their estimated values. Recently, domain investor Bob Hawkes noticed what appeared to be a change in the appraisal tool:

I have not seen formal announcement, but the GoDaddy domain appraisal instrument has clearly changed. Many com, org up significantly, but unregistered, non-words generally way down to low $$$ range.

— Bob Hawkes (@AGreatDomain) April 18, 2023

GoDaddy’s Paul Nicks replied that the algorithm hadn’t changed but GoDaddy added more sales data:

The values aren't meant to be static. No algorithm change was made, but we did add a lot more data to improve the recency

— Paul Nicks (@PaulENicks) April 18, 2023

One thing that seems to have gone unnoticed is a tweak to what GoDaddy shows on appraisals for high value domain names. Instead of reporting the value as more than $25,000, the tool now says the value is “too high to estimate.” GoDaddy’s Michael Cyger – who is departing soon – shared this on Twitter this morning:

Nobody else has noticed the "too high to estimate" on the GoDaddy GoValue tool?https://t.co/XxKT6JSn7u

The tools is not 100% accurate for every domain name, but this makes it clear it's not useful for high-value domain names. pic.twitter.com/LhIBFIvmzH

— Michael Cyger (@MichaelCyger) April 23, 2023

I actually think this is a very good change. Instead of putting that $25,000 number on valuable domain names – which can be very confusing unless the disclaimer is carefully read – it emphasizes the high value of the domain name.

With many prospective buyers trying to use the GoDaddy Appraisal as a means of getting a lower price on a domain name they don’t wish to buy, I have come to look unfavorably on this automated tool. That said, I think this new language is helpful.

The largest domain name sale of the day yesterday was AirPlay.com. The domain name sold for $202,000 in an expiry auction at GoDaddy Auctions. I wasn’t following the auction closely, but NameBio reported the auction result this morning:

Yesterday saw $473k in #DomainName sales including:

$202,000 AirPlay․com
$10,000 iWebTool․com
$5,650 EZ․to
$5,450 GrayMatters․com
$4,588 KindWater․com

AirPlay․com last sold publicly in 2010 for $4,576 📈

Full list 👉 https://t.co/THd3GIIule#Domains

— NameBio (@NameBio) March 31, 2023

Originally created back in 1996, AirPlay.com is currently registered at GoDaddy Online Services Cayman Islands Ltd (formerly Uniregistry).