I look at most of my GoDaddy Auction buys as a means of adding inventory to my portfolio. What I mean is that I don’t typically acquire gems from GoDaddy Auctions that I plan to keep until I get the right offer. They are names I can generally buy inexpensively – from around $20/each to $2k +/-. I spend more when necessary, but the idea is that I will price the names I buy anywhere from around $1k to the low five figures, depending on the name, and then regularly sell enough of these names to make the effort worthwhile.
I thought I would share 25 domain names I have acquired via GoDaddy Auctions in approximately the last 6 months. I regularly read comments and forum posts about how companies with API access are winning everything, but I don’t really agree with that assessment. Quite a few of the $50 or less domain names were closeout buys or only had one bidder.
Some of these domain names may never sell and others will sell for a nice ROI. Almost all are listed on GoDaddy/Afternic with a reasonable buy it now price. I don’t think there are any gems on the list, but I do think a decent percentage will profitably sell in the next 5 years:
$50 or less:
- ExteriorBeauty.com
- RewardBooster.com
- ChildrensOutfitters.com
- ChaseTheThrill.com
- BarcelonaBlog.com
- ItsCurrent.com
- FirstRevolution.com
- BetterPlanners.com
- HighImpacts.com
- AvalancheBeacon.com
- AlternativeSpin.com
- BankFromHome.com
- MomSavers.com
- PoweringEverything.com
- ExplorePortland.com
$50 – $150:
- YouSimply.com
- UltraDefender.com
- GrillMedics.com
- CompleteResults.com
- ThinkConservative.com
$150+
- Russet.com
- BocaChica.com
- Generates.com
- DiscoverBarcelona.com
- MekongRiver.com
Did you receive offer for any of them?
I have snugglyrobots.com and snugglyrobot.com
Robots going to play a big role in aiding seniors or the disable living in their homes
or u could have bought one good liquid domain name for $2500 and flipped it for sure definitely within 5 years or got your money back with no loss.
Or I could keep on doing both. Why would it have to be one or the other?
There have been several buys in the last year that have already been sold.
Case in point, I bought VirginGorda for $1,590 via GoDaddy Auctions late last year and sold it for five figures last month.
When I first started reading your blog many years I started at page one of your blog. I read that back then you would deal in lower value names but as I advanced in pages I noticed you stopped dealing in lower value names. Is this something new that you have come back to in the last couple of years?
Good question.
I have always bought names at auction (mostly NameJet), but I am probably buying more now than before because I have had decent luck selling them profitably. When I am able to buy names for $50 or less on GoDaddy, it feels like a better deal than buying on NameJet for $70 for similar quality names.
With the ease of listing on Afternic with BIN prices and the exposure given to these names by GoDaddy, I have been buying more of the inventory types of names lately. I still spend much, much less on auction inventory than on private buys each year. For instance, I probably spent more buying HappyEnding.com privately a couple of weeks ago than I have spent on all auctions in the last several months.
I have never discussed my strategy with auction buys (and don’t plan to either) because the auctions are very competitive.
I still don’t really deal with anything below $1k. On the cheap $988 types of names, I only do those deals via fast transfer so it’s not really much work beyond setting the prices and setting up forwarding.
Thanks for the info.
I like ThinkConservative.com
excellent catches, Elliot. You’ll do well with a nice ROI.
I sure do miss the GD 99cent coupons, I hand reg those and sell them at $50-$200…easy peasy
Nice Catch
Thank you for the transparent info and comments
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and names acquired based on those thoughts.
Good of Huge Names to let you have them so cheap, surprised their proxy bid lets you have anything under $100
I think there is a misconception that HugeDomains is buying everything of value or bidding up other buyers who bid before a name goes to closeout, and I disagree. Yes, they are buying and bidding on many names but it’s definitely not everything of value.
These aren’t *great* names, but they are the types of names I have sold for a nice return on a regular enough basis to spend the time and money on them.
Russet.com I think you will flip it soon.
Why don’t you send this list to D-sherpa show “experts”?
I don’t see what the point of that would be.
Totally impressive. Thanks for sharing Elliott.
I have had my best luck on godaddy auctions as well, but i focus on the lower end, buy for less than $150.00, retail back out for less than $2k. Seems to be working for me so far.
Nice job – keep it up!