question Got price request from Afternic. Should I move BIN over to them now?

[golan]

Sometimes Afternic sends me price requests for my domains. Today i got one as well. They say:

Set a Floor Price and Buy Now price in the next 48 hour
To remain a robust marketplace of premium domain names for both buyers and sellers, we require that every domain have a Floor Price and Buy Now Price within 48 hours of receiving a sales lead.

Now as i understand i need to set the BIN there. Usually my BIN's are at Sedo and Undeveloped, and at Afternic all domains are with Make an offer.

If i set BIN there now, how long should i keep it there? All the previous times ended without any outcome.

 

[Joe Styler]

Correct

Yes that is from the video. We share a lot of actual stats and data around what we found works best to sell domains and make the most money. It is how we manage our own portfolio for sales.

 

[golan]

What I am suggesting is what we have seen as best practices.
If you don't have a price or a floor set we have no idea what your expectation is and cannot speak to it.

This makes a lot of sense. However, i started this thread about situation when the inquiry was AN OFFER FROM GODADDY, as i believe. How can i set "a price or a floor" if i don't know what the offer was??

I think i'm not the only one asking this very question in this thread. But you, Joe, keep answering with your own agenda.

 

[Joe Styler]

You don't have to set a floor price. I am saying you can sell however you want. What we find sells the most names is settling a floor and getting a price quickly to the buyer. We understand not every name should sell that way (high value domains) and not every investor wants to price their domains. What I am saying is simply what we find offers the best sales for our customers and ourselves.

 

[Name Trader]

@Joe Styler - OK. This is simple to resolve. If the potential buyer refuses to make an offer on a Make Offer domain, you should be telling the buyer to go take a hike (politely). Otherwise, why is there even a Make Offer feature? Why are they even talking to you about a Make Offer domain if they are refusing to make an offer? By bowing to this pressure, you are completely undermining the Make Offer process. And it shows what you really think about Make Offer settings. Completely useless (as you keep pushing BIN/Floors on us, as the better alternative). If you cannot operate within this Make Offer process. You should remove it as an option.

We have made our domains Make Offer on Afternic, for 1 reason only. We want to receive offers, before we set the selling price. If you can't do this, and by your silence, you are not willing to address the fundamental flaw in your Make Offer system, by automatically notifying us of offers prices. Then the Afternic Make Offer features are fundamentally flawed, and essentially dead.

As an addendum: If you are not willing to respond about these concerns. I for one will have to consider Afternic's Make Offer option as fundamentally flawed. And will remove all my Make Offer domains from Afternic. Because, you have not assured us, that it is not fundamentally flawed. You have convinced me, at least, that it is fundamentally flawed. So this should make your Brokers happier. Because they will have less friction with potential customers over my Make Offer domains. (Another nail in the coffin for Afternic's broken Make Offer features).

 

[golan]

You don't have to set a floor price.

Joe, how's that?? It's from your Afternic email:

In order to proceed with this buyer, please take the following steps now:

1. Set a Floor Price and Buy Now price in the next 48 hours.

???

 

[Joe Styler]

@Joe Styler - OK. This is simple to resolve. If the potential buyer refuses to make an offer on a Make Offer domain, you should be telling the buyer to go take a hike (politely). Otherwise, why is there even a Make Offer feature? Why are they even talking to you about a Make Offer domain if they are refusing to make an offer? By bowing to this pressure, you are completely undermining the Make Offer process. And it shows what you really think about Make Offer settings. Completely useless (as you keep pushing BIN/Floors on us, as the better alternative). If you cannot operate within this Make Offer process. You should remove it as an option.

We have made our domains Make Offer on Afternic, for 1 reason only. We want to receive offers, before we set the selling price. If you can't do this, and by your silence, you are not willing to address the fundamental flaw in your Make Offer system, by automatically notifying us of offers prices. Then the Afternic Make Offer features are fundamentally flawed, and essentially dead.

As an addendum: If you are not willing to respond about these concerns. I for one will have to consider Afternic's Make Offer option as fundamentally flawed. And will remove all my Make Offer domains from Afternic. Because, you have not assured us, that it is not fundamentally flawed. You have convinced me, at least, that it is fundamentally flawed. So this should make your Brokers happier. Because they will have less friction with potential customers over my Make Offer domains. (Another nail in the coffin for Afternic's broken Make Offer features).

We have a way built in to the system to do exactly what you are asking. Simply place a number in the minimum offer space for your domains rather than leaving it blank. If you do this then we look at it and insist on an offer greater than that amount or we tell the buyer to "take a hike" in your words although we are nicer and try to get them to continue to engage and come to the table.
We are already set up to accommodate all types of sales and user preferences with the structure we have in place now. That's why we have 3 spots for pricing. There are many different types of sellers all with different ideas on how to sell their domains and varying business models. Not everyone would find an inquiry without a price pointless. Some people want that engagement no matter what the offer or non offer. Others only want to entertain high value opening offers, some want to sell priced inventory only, etc. The beauty of Afternic is how versatile it is. You can customize it to suit your personal preferences and we take those into consideration and list your name accordingly in various registrars and partners around the World.
Again the videos lay these options out in detail with more information around data behind different pricing strategies.

 

[Joe Styler]

Joe, how's that?? It's from your Afternic email:



???

You don't have to set a floor price. You can simply respond back to the email or email [email protected] or call the brokers directly on the phone and have a conversation about it, ask them about the buyer etc, or if you have a price you want you can put in the same price for both floor and BIN. You have many options with our service.

 

[anantj]

You don't have to set a floor price. You can simply respond back to the email or email [email protected] or call the brokers directly on the phone and have a conversation about it, ask them about the buyer etc, or if you have a price you want you can put in the same price for both floor and BIN. You have many options with our service.

Yet you will not include this in the e-mail that we're asking. The process you're recommending works well for those in the Americas or perhaps Western Europe. Are you saying that the rest of world, especially those in the opposite timezone are not important? It's near damn late in the night for me to call (and others like me) and not to mention an International call to call the afternic support line to get this information. And e-mail, as much as you might insist they respond quickly, I can guarantee and wager with you that they will not respond back for us to use that information and perhaps set a price within the magical 24 hours recommended by the video you shared and by you!

 

[Name Trader]

We have a way built in to the system to do exactly what you are asking. Simply place a number in the minimum offer space for your domains rather than leaving it blank. If you do this then we look at it and insist on an offer greater than that amount or we tell the buyer to "take a hike" in your words although we are nicer and try to get them to continue to engage and come to the table.
We are already set up to accommodate all types of sales and user preferences with the structure we have in place now. That's why we have 3 spots for pricing. There are many different types of sellers all with different ideas on how to sell their domains and varying business models. Not everyone would find an inquiry without a price pointless. Some people want that engagement no matter what the offer or non offer. Others only want to entertain high value opening offers, some want to sell priced inventory only, etc. The beauty of Afternic is how versatile it is. You can customize it to suit your personal preferences and we take those into consideration and list your name accordingly in various registrars and partners around the World.
Again the videos lay these options out in detail with more information around data behind different pricing strategies.

All my Afternic domains have Min Offer set (but not BuyNow or Floor prices) . But I am never informed what the bid is when I get an email from your brokers asking to set Bin/Floor prices. So something must be broken?

I shouldn't have to ask for the potential customers bid. That just builds in more delays. Especially when were are in opposite timezones, as @anantj has been mentioning. It would be absolutely impossible to turn around the brokers request for Bin/Floor pricing within 24hrs, if we have to ask every time what the offer was, wait for the broker's reply, before responding with the Bin/Floor pricing. You are probably looking at a MINIMUM of 48hrs.

I just don't get this reluctance on your part to include the offer with this Bin/Floor request? It makes absolute sense to me. And as I've said in previous posts. Afternic are not fulfilling their responsibilities as a Broker, by not informing us. This is so fundamental. To have a free flow of information between the seller and the broker. Unless, of course, you don't have an offer, for every Bin/Floor pricing request.

 

[golan]

We have a way built in to the system to do exactly what you are asking. Simply place a number in the minimum offer space for your domains rather than leaving it blank. If you do this then we look at it and insist on an offer greater than that amount or we tell the buyer to "take a hike" in your words although we are nicer and try to get them to continue to engage and come to the table.

All (or almost all) my domains at Afternic has a minimum $100. Are you going to tell me that that offer at Dynadot was higher than $100??

 

[pokainc]

@Joe Styler At different points in time I have bins, I have make offers and I have a mix of both. I understand the benefit vs deterrent of each.. So let's not go into a lecture on those.

Let's say I have a name at "make offer".
- In my head I would probably take $3000 for,
- but the buyer perhaps has an opening offer in their head at $5000 but can go higher is playing strategically by asking the price.
-If I put a floor price at $3000, then the Rep is going to anchor the price I'm asking for at around the 3k range. Then I just left $2000+ on the table

tow of the main reasons Godaddy has bins set up logically also are:
1) You make money on volume since you own so many names, you don't need to maximize each one
2) You don't have the time to cater to 700k names one by one and entertain offers all day long

For us who have a few hundreds to a few thousand names, maximizing the sales are crucial

 

[Joe Styler]

All my Afternic domains have Min Offer set (but not BuyNow or Floor prices) . But I am never informed what the bid is when I get an email from your brokers asking to set Bin/Floor prices. So something must be broken?

I shouldn't have to ask for the potential customers bid. That just builds in more delays. Especially when were are in opposite timezones, as @anantj has been mentioning. It would be absolutely impossible to turn around the brokers request for Bin/Floor pricing within 24hrs, if we have to ask every time what the offer was, wait for the broker's reply, before responding with the Bin/Floor pricing. You are probably looking at a MINIMUM of 48hrs.

I just don't get this reluctance on your part to include the offer with this Bin/Floor request? It makes absolute sense to me. And as I've said in previous posts. Afternic are not fulfilling their responsibilities as a Broker, by not informing us. This is so fundamental. To have a free flow of information between the seller and the broker. Unless, of course, you don't have an offer, for every Bin/Floor pricing request.

There is no reluctance. I am just letting you know how things work right now and how to accomplish what you are asking within the existing system. As always we look at everyone's feedback and make adjustments.

 

[Joe Styler]

All (or almost all) my domains at Afternic has a minimum $100. Are you going to tell me that that offer at Dynadot was higher than $100??

I'm not sure what you are saying here. If the name was listed for sale at Afternic and the lead came in because of that listing and you have a 100 dollar minimum offer on your names at Afternic then yes, the offer had to be greater than 100 dollars.

 

[xynames]

Set BIN and Floor, at what you would want to sell it at, why all this discussion over a simple matter. Update your other selling platforms to the same BIN as well if you wish, or just leave the others at Make Offer if you don't care to put in the work.

If you wish to change anything in the future or remove the BIN, do so.

If you wish info on whether you had any offers, contact Afternic they might put you in touch with the broker who was in charge, but I stopped worrying about all that long ago. I get many offers, many price requests, weekly, and as far as those coming from Afternic/Godaddy, I just assume that the Afternic brokers are doing their job. In most cases they get me the full BIN not the floor, in a couple cases they got me somewhere between the floor and the BIN, and once they got me the floor only. I might inquire occasionally as to whether any offers came in if the domain does not sell, and sometimes the broker will even contact me directly without my asking, but for the most part I just trust in the system.


Where I DO have issue with Afternic is in the difficulty with placing a domain into Fast Transfer at DynaDot once I set a BIN at Afternic. This almost never happens automatically lately and I have to send in an inquiry to Afternic via submission form, requesting the Fast Transfer status, and wait.
https://www.namepros.com/threads/pr...rt-problems-here.1006373/page-23#post-6547273

 

[Joe Styler]

@Joe Styler At different points in time I have bins, I have make offers and I have a mix of both. I understand the benefit vs deterrent of each.. So let's not go into a lecture on those.

Let's say I have a name at "make offer".
- In my head I would probably take $3000 for,
- but the buyer perhaps has an opening offer in their head at $5000 but can go higher is playing strategically by asking the price.
-If I put a floor price at $3000, then the Rep is going to anchor the price I'm asking for at around the 3k range. Then I just left $2000+ on the table

tow of the main reasons Godaddy has bins set up logically also are:
1) You make money on volume since you own so many names, you don't need to maximize each one
2) You don't have the time to cater to 700k names one by one and entertain offers all day long

For us who have a few hundreds to a few thousand names, maximizing the sales are crucial

Yes this exactly what I have pointed out. Different people have different business models, sales expectations, and ways of managing their domains. The great thing about Afternic and it's options for listing domains is that you can work within it to accomplish pretty much any strategy for selling domains that people use. So you can put a BIN or wait to take offers etc.

In your example above if there is a floor price and no BIN the broker would likely accept any offer over 3k and relay that to you. You would then decide what you want to counter with. If you only have a couple hundred domains you're very likely not getting so many inquiries that you cannot easily ask the broker for more information about the conversation they had with the buyer.

They do not automatically say, "Hey this seller has a minimum offer of $3k do you want to offer that?". They work for you trying to sell your domains. The more they sell and the more money they sell them for the better it is for everyone as they represent you. They do not approach it as a race to the bottom on pricing. They speak with the buyers and ask them what they want to do with the name, help instill value in the domain, seek a high price and offer and then relate that to you. They would not reveal the floor price unless someone in your example with the $3k floor offered say $500. They would then recap why this name is important to the buyer using the information they gleaned from the conversation. They would point out that names have value, why this name is good and then say and this particular seller is not interested in anything less than $3k as an opening offer and that does not mean they will accept that as a sale price it will likely be higher. At that point either the buyer says , not interested or ok lets make an offer of $3k.

You can then ask the broker how that call went and what they think of the buyer and the sale.

You can list the domain with a $100 min offer or no offer min as well. In that case you will get wildly different opening offers. But some people prefer this because then they can see which of their names get ANY interest at all. If a name has 3 inquires with very low offers over the course of a year vs a domain that hasn't had any for years it can help them prioritize names to renew or drop.

The thing is at some point the buyer is going to have to make an offer to buy the domain. You can choose to let them buyer be guided by an automated appraisal via our system, estibot, or checking comps on NameBio or wherever else they come up with a price, or you can provide a your own floor. If you provide a floor the flip side is the broker can then build value around your floor as an opening offer before accepting an offer from the buyer.

Again I am just trying to help with what we see working for most people across all levels of domain portfolio size and quality. Your brokers can help with individual questions. The beauty of Afternic is you can set things up to sell exactly how you want and within keeping with your business model.

 

[golan]

If the name was listed for sale at Afternic and the lead came in because of that listing

If you have read my posts, i believe that was an offer from Godaddy.

That's what we are discussing here: how offers become price queries.

 

[pokainc]

In your example above if there is a floor price and no BIN the broker would likely accept any offer over 3k and relay that to you. You would then decide what you want to counter with. If you only have a couple hundred domains you're very likely not getting so many inquiries that you cannot easily ask the broker for more information about the conversation they had with the buyer.

QUOTE FROM AFTERNIC EMAIL: The Floor Price is the absolute minimum price at which you are willing to sell your domain. It is a binding price.


@Joe Styler Do you see the discrepancy between your statement and the verbatim from the Afternic email? In your comment you say the offer which is equal or more than the floor would be relayed and we can counter if we decide to, therefore it's not binding, yet in the Afternic email it says it's a binding price...
*** I don't mean this is a derogatory way at all, just trying to get to the official position of Afternic on this ***

Which is it?

FYI, not that it really matters, I have over 2500 names and have thousands in sales through Afternic and my own site. Some of my sales show up on DNjournal. Also I get tons of price requests... hence my participation in this thread.

 

[Joe Styler]

If you have read my posts, i believe that was an offer from Godaddy.

That's what we are discussing here: how offers become price queries.

Right and Afternic lists in many places automatically, GoDaddy being one of them.

 

[Joe Styler]

QUOTE FROM AFTERNIC EMAIL: The Floor Price is the absolute minimum price at which you are willing to sell your domain. It is a binding price.


@Joe Styler Do you see the discrepancy between your statement and the verbatim from the Afternic email? In your comment you say the offer which is equal or more than the floor would be relayed and we can counter if we decide to, therefore it's not binding, yet in the Afternic email it says it's a binding price...
*** I don't mean this is a derogatory way at all, just trying to get to the official position of Afternic on this ***

Which is it?

FYI, not that it really matters, I have over 2500 names and have thousands in sales through Afternic and my own site. Some of my sales show up on DNjournal. Also I get tons of price requests... hence my participation in this thread.

You can use the Minimum offer price if you are only interested in gaining offers and not having a price to close the domain sale on. You can leave the floor blank if you wish.

 

[pokainc]

that doesn't answer my question about the floor price at all. I don't know why you just fully ignored my clear point....

**Also minimum offer shows up on the Afternic page,
**The floor price doesn't show up on the Afternic page

If I don't want a public price anchoring to take place.. what you suggested simply doesn't help at all..

Anyway.. I'm trying to be constructive here, but I feel I'm getting the run-around..
There's no shame in acknowledging a fact from a seller who has payed thousands in commission to Afternic this year alone.. let alone all the money I've dished on Godaddy regs and renewals year after year.


I want the AFTERNIC REP to know what my minimum closing may be without it being binding.. how hard is that? According to the Afternic email.. it is binding.

If the answer again is going to be dismissive and pivoting.. then I'll stop trying to be constructive here for myself and my fellow namepros members who are Afternic sellers as well.

Collaboration between sellers and Afternic is what makes the success for both sides.. or else the vision is short-sided.

 

[Joe Styler]

I'm not sure what you are asking then. If you want to have a price where you are not committed to accept an offer and weed out low offers that is a minimum offer. It doesn't say that you are willing to accept that offer.

 

[pokainc]

Joe I know your smarter than that and what you're writing right now is not indicative of your high and respectable position at godaddy / afternic.

Hopefully one day we can meet face to face at Comicon and discuss properly.

As far as this thread goes. I'm sure most domainers / sellers who read this fully understand what I'm saying.

 

[Bertrell]

or if you have a price you want you can put in the same price for both floor and BIN.

This is pretty much what I'd consider doing for all of my Afternic BINs, based on what I've seen here.

For the longest, I've set floor prices at ~75% of BIN. But then again, I've done that for maybe only 1/3 of the domains I have listed on Afternic (the other 2/3, floor was blank).

 

[pokainc]

***edit.. I meant Namescon not comicon haha

 

[Name Trader]

There is no reluctance. I am just letting you know how things work right now and how to accomplish what you are asking within the existing system. As always we look at everyone's feedback and make adjustments.

You mentioned in an earlier post that the Afternic system was doing what their customers were expecting it to do. But when I point out to you this is not the case, you correct yourself and say that you are only telling us how things work right now. So finally you got around to saying it, after previously overlooking to answer the question.

As I've said before. Afternic are abrogating their serious responsibilities as our Broker. Because they are refusing to tell us how much the offer is that they have received, unless we specifically ask for it, putting any chance of a sale outside of their urgency window of 24 hours.

This is "Looney Toons" thinking on Afternic's part. The only reason we put our domains as Make Offer, is so we can receive offers, which Afternic are refusing to do in a timely manner. The most obvious time for us to be told what the offer is, is when the broker contacts us asking asking for BIN/Floor pricing. Any Looney Tooner can see that, except for our broker, Afternic.

And judging from your replies, this situation doesn't look like it's going to change anytime soon, So I'm pulling all my domains off Afternic's Marketplace, because I'm sick and tired of this inflexibility on behalf of Afternic's ability to take on any obvious sensible advice. I EXPECT my broker to tell me in a timely manner the offer they have received. Which is at the time they ask for BIN/Floor pricing. Which Afternic are refusing to do.

As I've also said already. This is only going to please your brokers because they will have less points of friction between them and potential customers who refuse to make an offer on Make Offer domains (sic).

Make Offer settings at Afternic are just a joke. They do not fulfill our expectations of our Broker.