GoDaddy sunsets backorders

GoDaddy ends its backorder product, which lost its purpose many years ago.

In a long overdue move, GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) is killing its backorder service.

GoDaddy never competed well with dropcatching services like SnapNames and DropCatch, which use lots of registrar credentials to acquire domains. The firm has mostly focused on direct-transfer backorders, in which domains registered at GoDaddy or its partners are auctioned ahead of they go through the full deletion process.

There was, still, a technical loophole that made backorders worthwhile. For a time, if you placed a backorder the second a domain moved from auctions to closeouts, you could acquire the domain for the backorder fee. That loophole has been closed for a while.

Since of this, I still have a handful of backorder credits sitting in my account for years. GoDaddy is giving people like me one year to use these backorders as auction credits.

Essentially, you can use a backorder credit for a $10 discount plus the renewal fee in an auction. If you place a backorder on a domain with no bids in auction, the system will place an initial $25 bid for you. If no one else bids, you pay an additional $15 fee and get the domain.