Sometime last week I was researching a domain name and according to DomainTools whois, the domain was listed for sale via “source 6” which in turn is GoDaddy. I stopped in at Bob’s old home to see what the domain was listed for and see the action. The following is what was displayed:
Clearly I typed AirWriter.com in the search box, so why the domain is listed on the bottom of the page and not a “Best Match” on the top is another story.
Well, GoDaddy didn’t say the domains were “Available”, as I added that into the graphic for your viewing pleasure but upon further looking, the top two domains that are listed on GoDaddy Auction with a minimum offer of $250 each, AirWriter.org and AirWriter.info are not even registered. They were registered before, but were allowed to expire and currently anybody can register them.
To make you feel even more warm and fuzzy! Both AirWriter.org and AirWriter.info have just been extended and the auctions are available again for 79 more days!
This is very likely just a sloppy inventory control issue at GoDaddy, which many domain aftermarket services have serious issues with, but since this is “in-house” GoDaddy should do a lot better. There is no reason an available domain name should be listed on auction. There should be safe marks in place that if A.) registered domain expires and is removed from the registry, any GoDaddy Auctions listing should be removed B.) Any Premium Domains listing should be removed.
So the next time you are considering on bidding on a member listed domain (Status: Open) you may want to check to see if the domain is even registered.
I did reach out to Paul Nicks, head of GD Auctions some 11 days ago but haven’t heard back.
When I saw the $250 minimum offer I assumed both are Afternic inventory but none of them is listed on Afternic however I see both on Sedo (.org with 680 EUR asking price, .info with 299 EUR).
Actually if you checked GoDaddy again you will see both listings have been restarted (89 days left) with $500 minimum offer! 🙂
Your screenshot shows $250 minimum offer.
I wonder why they would have been upped again.. The screenshot was taken a good 10+ days before I wrote about it but when I wrote the story, I had checked again, and maybe I missed the $500 min offer instead of the $250. I did mention in the article ” Both AirWriter.org and AirWriter.info have just been extended and the auctions are available again for 79 more days!” but now like you said, show 89 days…. interesting stuff and we likely will never have an answer why.