Likely 10′s of thousands of domain name listed at Sedo.com are actually not even for sale, because the domain names are available to hand register! With the help of the team over at DomainWhiz.net, we were able to come up with a list of domain names specificly listed for sale on Sedo, yet the domain names are available at any domain name registrar.
So why does this happen? A couple reasons:
- Somebody had owned the domain name, listed it for sale at Sedo and at some point let the domain name registration expire and didn’t remove the domain from their account at Sedo.
- Sedo "approves" domain names listed for sale but after they are listed… the quality checks of domain names still on the systems are clearly lacking.
In a way, it’s not all Sedo’s fault, but I still think it’s mainly all Sedo’s fault because they do not do the quality checks to remove available domain names listed for sale.
Not only domain names that were listed by a party and the domain name then followed the deletion process and became available (keep in mind that this process is 76 days) but think of the amount of domain names that were "sold" outside of Sedo and the seller never removed the domain name they sold from their account. Hard to say how many domains are listed for sale on Sedo like this! This is really a whole different type of scan that Sedo would need to do and verify if the owner that listed the domain for sale, still really owned the domain name!
Another interesting thing… when you do a domain name search at Sedo, they basically do an available domain search scan and if any domain names are available that match your search, Sedo displays the domain name is available and offers you to register any of the available domains.
AutoRepaira.com is listed for sale according to Sedo for $2,000 EUR and the other TLD’s of .org, .net and .us are "available to be registered" and you can order now. The problem, AutoRepaira.com is "Available To Be Registered" too!
Here is a quick look at a sample of some available domain names that are listed for sale at Sedo, yet available to hand register to show some proof.
ARCADEGAMESITES.COM
ARCADEGAMESPLUS.COM
ARTIFICIALINTELLIGENCEFX.COM
ARTMUSEUMMAP.COM
ARTMUSEUMUAE.COM
ASIAPACIFIC-SB.COM
ASIAPACIFICFLU.COM
ASIAPACIFICGRANTMAKERS.COM
ASIAPACIFICTWEET.COM
AUTOLOAN-QUOTES.COM
AUTOLOANADVANCE.COM
AUTOLOANAS.COM
AUTOLOANBIZ.COM
AUTOLOANBUREAU.COM
AUTOLOANCORP.COM
AUTOLOANDIGEST.COM
AUTOLOANE-Z.COM
AUTOLOANEXTREME.COM
AUTOREPAIRA.COM
AUTOREPAIRAPPRAISAL.COM
AUTOREPAIRCHRONICLE.COM
AUTOREPAIRCORALSPRINGS.COM
AUTOREPAIRDAILY.COM
AUTOREPAIRDEGREES.COM
AUTOREPAIRELMONTE.COM
AUTOREPAIRESTIMATING.COM
AVRILLAVIGNEBIOGRAPHY.COM
AVRILLAVIGNEMP3.COM
AVRILLAVIGNESITE.COM
BANKACCOUNTAN.COM
BANKACCOUNTGARNISHMENT.COM
BANKACCOUNTINAMERICA.COM
BANKACCOUNTINTERNET.COM
BANKACCOUNTIS.COM
BANKACCOUNTLOAN.COM
(These domain names were not selected due to any other reason than the fact that they are listed for sale at Sedo, but available to hand register)
Sedo needs to clean up their database of some "17 Million" domain names "for sale"! Not only does it look bad for the domain industry that Sedo is offering domain names for sale, that are really available to hand register, but think of the clutter that could be removed and maybe somebody could find your domain name that you have for sale and is actually registered!
As I said, I don’t fully see it as Sedo’s fault, but mainly Sedo’s fault. Keep in mind that if an interested party tries to purchase one of these "available domain" (or domain that is listed and not really for sale because it was already purchased by somebody else).. Sedo is the one that looks "bad" and not really the "seller". The reason is because most people don’t even know they are making an offer to an individual, they think they are placing the offer directly to Sedo.
Afternic had a similar problem, but they do WAY better at verification of domain name now than they did and way better than Sedo is doing now.
So you may ask yourself a new question before placing an offer on a domain name listed at Sedo, is it really for sale or could it be available!
TeenDomainer
Doing a huge list like that might not be a bad way to find some nice expired domain name to register because one upon a time someone had a reason to buy it.
Joe
The same happens to all huge domain markets: for example I was able to handregister (using a GoDaddy $0.99 coupon) a domain that was listed for sale at $1,700 on HugeDomains.com which dropped and for a weeks was still there, then it was deleted.
Joel
I was looking for an online arcade game domain the other day and passed over one of the domains on your list when I saw it on Sedo due to a five-figure price tag. I had no idea that it was available to hand register.
It’s not anymore, I when ahead and grabbed it.
Thanks!
Jamie Zoch
@Joel,
Now you know that dropping by DomainWhiz.net from time to time doesn’t hurt. I’m sure many have done just what you did while on Sedo. See a domain listed, the price is too high and you never think of checking to see if the domain is actually registered.
Jim
Great post Zochmeister.
Kind of similar to what I was trying to convey here
http://thefromainer.com/sedo-suggestion
BullS
Most of the domainers are using SEDO as tasting.
After 5 days of no clicks,they will just ask godaddy to get their money back and don’t bother to delete the domain from Sedo account, thinking someone will contact them.
DomainWhiz.net
Good for you, Joel!
I concur with TeenDomainer that a huge list like what Jamie has posted might be good for domainers, but I’m not sure if we can post tens of thousands of such domains all at once. We may end up posting a few hundred on a daily basis.
Stay tuned.
Neil
DomainWhiz.net
Another thing we’ll do is to flag these domains when you do a search at DomainWhiz.net
Ferg
Im glad someone finally wrote about this problem, I noticed this about a year ago but being new to Domaining I thought it was just me. Another thing I noticed with Sedo is that when your Domain Name recieves a Bid and you reject the Bid it still shows up as a Bid being placed on that Domain. ( Sedo never removes the fact that someone bid on your name.) Making it seem like there are more bidders on that Domain then there really are.
Louise
Here’s the point: it’s no crime for Sedo to do the work for you, of registering the name at fee, and transferring it to you for $69.00, or whatever the price is you are willing to pay! Welcome to the big jungle.
Louise
@BullS said: “Most of the domainers are using SEDO as tasting.”
It’s a good point that Sedo might be used as tasting, but not by individual domainers anymore. It’s the major Registrars.
Louise
It’s a racket.
Jp
And if u don’t realize this an buy the domain at Sedo for $5k does Sedo just register the domain then sell it for $5k. Can tha be considered front-running?
Joey Starkey
I list names that I have bought a various places from other domainers and when listing at SEDO am often told that I don’t own the domain. Just because owners didn’t remove their old listings.
What I don’t understand is why does SEDO list the domains that are not listed first before the names that are for sale at SEDO. Do they have their own registrar?
Mike
Shoddy programming. Not the worst though. If you want to see the absolute worst programming and online system even to be used, go to Afternic.com It absolutely sucks beyond words.
My name?
Great post Jamie Zoch, people should be more cautious when its going to buy
Neil
DomainWhiz is publishing a daily list of these domains here:
http://domainwhiz.net/upforgrabs