DomainAgents.com just announced it has opened up it’s own marketplace with a sliding scale commission rates on negotiated sales, which I believe are the lowest in the industry and a 10% flat rate on Buy It Now Priced (BIN) domain names.
“”There are 2 separate commission scales depending on the type of sale: Negotiated or Buy It Now.
Negotiated sales (AKA Make an Offer) now have a sliding commission rate that the buyer pays:
$10,000 USD & Under = 10%
$10,001 – $50,000 = $1,000 + 7.5% on amount above $10,000
$50,001 – $100,000 = $4,000 + 5% on amount above $50,000
$100,001+ = $6,500 + 2.5% on amount above $100,000
A $1,000 purchase has a fee of $100
A $10,000 purchase has a fee of $1,000
A $100,000 purchase has a fee of $6,500
A $1,000,000 purchase has a fee of only $29,000!
This is a dramatic departure from alternatives. A buyer that is less concerned about fees is more comfortable going after the perfect name… whatever it takes.
On Buy It Now sales, the seller pays the commission which is set at a flat 10%.””
Well I have to say that I am disappointed with the commission charges of Afternic. Yes Afternic get good coverage but adding on the 25% commission does make it top heavy .
@JohnUK Afternic’s commission structure is also a sliding scale with the absolute max set to 20%, not sure where 25% is coming from
With the bad liquidity of domain names I am wondering why you care so much about sales commission, is not the most important to succeed to generate a fair sale?
More you advertise your names and more sales chances you have, it’s logical.
So while exclusivity is not required and the guys behind this marketplace move their ass to market it then it’s another place that worth listing your names.
Sorry dont know why I said 25% meant to say 20% . When I sell at Fabulous.com I pay 10% and have sold as many there as Afternic. I find with Afternic I do not get offers, I simply get requests to set a BuyNow price, and then nothing. I find it waste of time to be honest. As far as I can work out they are “fishing” see whether I will underprice one and then they will buy. What is point of having “Make Offer” if no one ever makes an offer then just ask set Buy Now ??
@JohnUK–totally agree with you, gets so many request for buy now offers at Afternic but nothing come thru and worst still can’t tell who/where the buyers come from. It is fake. So is Sedo.
when you can’t see who the buyers are, they play games with you.
Move them to DNS or Vodoo.
No WHOIS verification for listing domains *adds thedomains.com for sale there*. Or shall I block your portfolio by listing them there under my account?
We have background processes that run verification checks on domain names to identify problem accounts.
One unique aspect of our marketplace is that every domain name offer uses the live admin email address for verification, so even if you added Michaels domain to your account and an offer was made on it, Michael would receive the offer … and your account would be flagged for review 😉
That’s still dumb. What if I set a fixed price devaluing Mike’s names?
Like mentioned, we do have controls in place.
We’re rather familiar with whois and domain ownership information over here.
@JohnUK
Totally agree. Another thing about Afternic that disturbs me is they can ask me for prices all day long yet domains have been sittitng in my account pending verification for months and they never get approved even though whois matches the same as all my others. Need to shift some price request employees to actual customer service.
Why are all the comments about Afternic? I welcome another marketplace, and I think the competition will be good, but I already have my complaints about the DomainAgents marketplace.
-There should be an option for the sellers to absorb the commission instead of the buyers. Some of us would just rather price the commission into the price of the domain and make it easier for the buyers.
-The landing pages have WAY TOO MANY LINKS. There should only be one link on a landing page, and that’s to check out. The DomainNameSales landing pages are much better in this regard.
-I’m not so sure about requiring a 2.5% deposit. Especially the word 2.5% down is used, it makes it seem like the domain can be financed.
Exactly right there are plenty of buyers after paying you $50,000 certainly aren’t paying you a commission on top of that.
I like the idea of a deposit but it may turn buyers off.
Thanks for the feedback,
We do continuous testing of the landing pages on the site so what you see live on the site will without question evolve. Right now the marketplace has menu navigation links, but if you take a look at our landers for owner based traffic there are none:
https://domainagents.com/motioned.com-MG627
This page is currently in split tests at the moment with 10 other variations, so this also will change.
The deposits on buy it now domains were put in place to solve one of the major complaint of marketplace sellers, deadbeat buyers. It’s not a perfect solution, but we think that the 2.5% and $500 cap are low enough that it really shouldn’t cause a barrier to sales.
Our model of the buyer absorbing the commission on negotiated sales has been tested heavily on our core “make an offer” service, it does take a bit of an open mind on the sellers part to accept it at first, but buyers don’t often take issue with the costs associated with the purchases, it’s just calculated into the negotiation, the same way sellers calculate seller fees at other venues.
Thanks Phil.
-The lander you linked to is much better. Good to hear you are split testing for the best results.
-My problem isn’t as much with the 2.5% deposit, as it is with the wording “2.5% down.”
-Regarding who pays the commission, all I’m asking for as a seller is to have the choice. Let us decide.
We’ll take a look at the wording connected to the deposits.
With who pays the commission it’s tricky as the model is established on DomainAgents, best bet at the moment would be to discount it in the actual negotiation with the buyer and discuss it in the comments section.
Phil,
Once I list a domain name with you, do I have to point it to your name server and use your landing page instead of keeping mine?
We don’t have NS redirection set up at the moment, but if you redirect your domains at the registry level to your linking code (found on the main page after logging in) it would have the same effect.
If there is the user demand for it, we will build in NS redirection.
I hope domainagents.com will be able to compete with the big players in this business.
Unfortunately I dont think there is anyone better to list domains with than Afternic/GoDaddy simply because of the fact they show up on many Registrars. If it was not for that then would be worth considering others. That really is the only reason I would list them with them, coverage.
Almost all the time you are asked for a price on your name at Afternic it is because we got an inquiry on the name and are trying to sell it for you. We need to get better at the transparency part of this so that you can see that the offers are coming in through your own interface. We have some plans we are working through to improve things further.
@joe styler This is then way it goes. (1) I list the domain with an “Offer Above” price say $1,500 (2) I then may get an email from, Afternic saying “Please set a BuyNow and Floor Price” (3) I dont know who the inquirer is or anything. (4) I put BuyNow of say $10,000 (not wanting to under price) and wait and wait and wait and wait and nothing ever heard again. I am waiting for a Counter Offer or any murmur of life but there is nothing.
I would guess that 75% of these inquiries are from wind up merchants, domainers and general P’takers. NOT anyone wanting other than see whether they get BuyNow of $10.