I was looking at NamePros this morning when I saw a thread started by Raymond Hackney that discussed changing GoDaddy Appraisals. You should have a look at Raymond’s article and the entire NamePros thread to get some background. Personally, I think automated appraisals should regularly change as comparable sales are indexed. Domain name values are dynamic in nature.
I was looking through GoDaddy Auctions this morning when I came across a domain name with estimated traffic statistics that stood out to me. According to the GoDaddy Auctions listing, SabaMovie.com reportedly has 5,068,713 “Estimated monthly pageviews.” The “Estimated monthly revenue” is listed at $4.00 USD. There have been over 600 visits to the auction listing, and it has a high bid of $510.
CodingSchool.com recently expired, and the auction for the domain name at GoDaddy Auctions concluded early this afternoon. The domain name sold for $43,000. There were a total of 164 bids were placed by 23 bidders during the course of the auction. A couple of weeks ago, Peter Askew mention this domain auction in a tweet, which is what drew my attention to the domain name:
💥Expiring Domain Development Opportunity💥
Want to buy an expiring domain & build a project?
CodingSchool .com
Build marketplace of coding schools
or
Teach your own coding schoolLow chance of clawback as GoDaddy = registrar#notanad #justsharinghttps://t.co/0IiYy7hOkA pic.twitter.com/mzCKF46wss
— Peter Askew (@searchbound) April 26, 2020
I think GDPR has made domain investing more challenging for the past few years. Despite the fact that GDPR regulations cover Europeans and European companies, some registrars have opted to block public WHOIS data across the board, while allowing registrants to opt out if they wish. Domain registrants in the US have been largely spared by this, but that is going to change in a couple of months.
As I shared on Friday evening, GoDaddy is planning to remove public Whois records in June. I am disappointed with this because Whois records offer valuable information about domain name registrants which can be used to inquire about domain name purchases, perform due diligence on a prospective purchase, and to do general research about domain registrants.
Yesterday morning, I was forwarded an ominous sounding email sent by GoDaddy to an industry colleague. The subject of the email was somewhat innocuous, “On May 18, 2020 we are retiring Privacy for Backorders.” The opening paragraph with details about the changes were concerning to me:
“We’re working on rolling out changes to better ensure your personal data is hidden in the public WHOIS database, for free. As part of that effort, we’re ending support for our Private Domain Backorder add-on product. We expect these changes to be live in early June.”
This sounded like GoDaddy was planning to make significant changes to how the company displays Whois records for domain names registered there, and that would have major implications for domain investors and GoDaddy customers.
I reached out to a representative from GoDaddy to ask about the email in order to get some clarity on what changes are being made to public Whois records. Paul Bindel, VP of Operations at GoDaddy Registrar, shared the following statement with me:
At the NamesCon live domain name auction in February of 2019, Frank Schilling acquired DomainNames.com for $370,000. The domain name was sold in the auction by Network Solutions, and it has been forwarding to Uniregistry’s website since the purchase was completed.
As you know, GoDaddy acquired Uniregistry and Name Administration from Frank Schilling. After speaking with a company spokesperson, I was able to confirm that GoDaddy has acquired DomainNames.com as a part of the Uniregistry acquisition.
