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Wanted Domain Liquidation Platform - Seeking input for new Epik project

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Dear Namepros,

The team at Epik is exploring the development of a project that aims to shift the painful domain name expiration process into a more profitable experience for domainers. Perhaps you have read my opinions about registrars selling expired domains and refusing to help registrants in recovery. The time to disrupt this with action has come!

In the meantime, since joining Epik last month, I decided to do something about it with the help of some amazing engineers. The goal of this "name liquidate" idea is to sell domains directly to buyers that may otherwise wait to acquire these domains at expired auctions or being filled as registrar backorders which pays zero to the registrant.

The planned solution addresses two domainer pain points,
1. Liquidation of expiring inventory brings much needed capital, meaning you can renew more of your portfolio.
2. Buyers get clear title and dont waste time bidding on names that can be recovered post-expiry.

Here is the process,
1. Submit your domains: you unlock your domains, provide auth codes.
2. Seller acknowledges that a fast-transfer of the domain will occur once domain has a bid.
3. Bidders agree to non-revocable change of ownership if their bid prevails.
4. Sellers receive a large portion (80%?) of auction proceeds.

The process begins with a 7 day reverse auction counting down hourly/daily, down to $1 plus renewal/transfer for delivery. The domain doesn't have to be expired or expiring. You can submit the name multiple times during the life of the name but not more than once per year. Once the auth code is verified:
β€’ Epik parks the domain with auction template with Make Offer pricing so retail bids can come in.
β€’ Wholesale buyers are informed of expired auction inventory update.
β€’ Domain goes through reverse auction in 7 days
β€’ Domains are fast transferred to Epik as soon as one bid is made.
β€’ If seller locks name, all domains will be removed and no further listings will be accepted from seller.
β€’ Domains already at Epik are pre-qualified for "name liquidate" services, but you must opt in manually.
β€’ External domains are eligible once auth codes are verified.
β€’ Data will include number of views, expiration date, and expected delivery.
β€’ Pre-set domain buys will give you the ability to buy any name when a price hits a certain target.
β€’ Once a bid is submitted, it cannot be revoked. All purchases a final non-refundable.
As for brand name, we are considering NameLiquidate.com β€” very descriptive name and targeted at a very specific audience. That said, open to considering other names. A separate brand naming project is coming shortly for what Rob describes as the β€œUltimate Digital Brand Marketplace”. This is separate.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Great to see NameLiquidate showing more inventory and bids. Two questions:

- noticed there is an option to cancel the auction. Is that a permanent feature? I have some names that I may list so long as I can bail well above $9.
- glad to see option of placing a bid. I'm surprised that a bid is public. Problem with making bid public is that invites someone to snipe you. If I see a domain I like I'd be inclined to wait for it decline to my price where I can I do a Buy-Now rather than creating a potential auction. Maybe disclose number of bids instead of value of bids?
 
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I have started a thread in expiring names for anyone to highlight either their own or other names that they want to give a shoutout to, provided they are at NameLiquidate.

My plan is NOT for me to post daily, but hope it will be a community thread where various people will post some of the more interesting names at NameLiquidate.

Here is a link to the thread.

Bob
 
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Great to see NameLiquidate showing more inventory and bids. Two questions:

- noticed there is an option to cancel the auction. Is that a permanent feature? I have some names that I may list so long as I can bail well above $9.
- glad to see option of placing a bid. I'm surprised that a bid is public. Problem with making bid public is that invites someone to snipe you. If I see a domain I like I'd be inclined to wait for it decline to my price where I can I do a Buy-Now rather than creating a potential auction. Maybe disclose number of bids instead of value of bids?
I actually like it that the bid is public, as names with bids will generate more interest. I suppose it depends whether the platform is optimized for buyers or for sellers. My vote is to optimize for sellers to fetch the best price. Would be nice also to filter on names with bids.
 
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I think I tend to agree that the high bid should not be publicly shown, just the number of bids. It still shows a measure of interest but without giving away how little you can get away with bidding which would optimize more for sellers IMO.

But I would like if I could see the actual high bid on my names as a seller. I know Rob mentioned in another thread a sellers dashboard coming soon, that would be nice to see everything I got listed in one place along with its current status including listing that are now ended either sold or unsold.
 
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I think I tend to agree that the high bid should not be publicly shown, just the number of bids. It still shows a measure of interest but without giving away how little you can get away with bidding which would optimize more for sellers IMO.

But I would like if I could see the actual high bid on my names as a seller. I know Rob mentioned in another thread a sellers dashboard coming soon, that would be nice to see everything I got listed in one place along with its current status including listing that are now ended either sold or unsold.
I think the high bid must be shown because buyers are required to bid a higher amount.
 
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I think the high bid must be shown because buyers are required to bid a higher amount.

But that's an arbitrary requirement. They could allow bids of any amount but only goes to the highest bid, if theres more than one then it goes to whoever's put it in first.
 
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I think I tend to agree that the high bid should not be publicly shown, just the number of bids. It still shows a measure of interest but without giving away how little you can get away with bidding which would optimize more for sellers IMO.
I agree also. A bidder will receive immediate feedback if their bid is lower than another anyway, so they can always increase their bid if they wish.
 
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High bid should not be shown. The number of bids should not be shown. What for? We are already too far from the original nameliquidate dutch auctions model. Nor is it exactly sealed bids auction. In a sealed bid auction and Dutch auction, the bidders act with the lack of knowledge of the other bids. Actually, it is exactly what increases the final sale prices in a long run. Any particular reason why NameLiquidate does not want this to happen?
 
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I've got several names listed but when I visit the domain(s) it doesnt take me to any sort of page, it just says

upload_2020-2-3_13-17-47.png
 
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I too got
names listed but when I visit the domain(s) it doesnt take me to any sort of page, it just
doesnt work.

( I used forwarding to NamesLiquidate.com/domain.tld ) but it fails
 
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Re getting pointers to work for NameLiquidate this is what I do. I only have 10 names listed there, or it would be too much work. And I like visually nice landers, even for names at liquidation :xf.wink:.
  • I use ns3.epik.com, ns4.epic.com for DNS to point domains held elsewhere to Epik.
  • I do a build (free) for the domain in my Epik portfolio (even though not registered at Epik - NamePros member feature).
  • On that description I put a link to the NameLiquidate listing.
You can see an example by entering funny.claims in a browser.

Yes, a bit of work but seems to work. If you change to old style of link you can have it go to a NameLiquidate showing hours (advantage).

Bob
 
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I was not able to add an .xyz domain from uniregistry and .science domains from bigrock. I receive the message "Unable to verify domain info." I verified that the auth code is valid and the domain is unlocked. Are there some extensions that are not supported?
 
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I was not able to add an .xyz domain from uniregistry and .science domains from bigrock. I receive the message "Unable to verify domain info." I verified that the auth code is valid and the domain is unlocked. Are there some extensions that are not supported?
It seems that certain extensions with certain registrars don't work. Refer to this post. I don't think there has been any official response from Epik about this. And don't know if @Bob Hawkes can shed any more light as to whether he got any more to work or not?...
 
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I was not able to add an .xyz domain from uniregistry and .science domains from bigrock. I receive the message "Unable to verify domain info." I verified that the auth code is valid and the domain is unlocked. Are there some extensions that are not supported?

I ran into the same thing with a .site
 
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And don't know if @Bob Hawkes can shed any more light as to whether he got any more to work or not?...
No I tried again but it seems to me that certain combinations never would get approved. Like I tried multiple .best from Porkbun and .online from GoDaddy, and even though I am sure I had the Auth Codes right and they were unlocked, all failed. I was successful in getting several other TLDs from Porkbun to work just fine though, so it seems to me that some registry-registrar combinations are problematics. Perhaps @DanSanchez can shed some light on this? I presume any name at Epik works (although have not wanted to liquidate any of my own Epik ones yet to try).
Bob
 
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Apologies guys I definitely missed that post on the official thread, Bob. Just escalated this to engineering. Can one of you send me a domain that failed and a valid auth code? Will try to replicate on our end and see why it is occurring.

Thank you everyone for letting us know.
 
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Apologies guys I definitely missed that post on the official thread, Bob. Just escalated this to engineering. Can one of you send me a domain that failed and a valid auth code? Will try to replicate on our end and see why it is occurring.

Thank you everyone for letting us know.

I sent you a number of names that failed from three different registrars and in several different new (and one country code) extension. Thanks for looking into it.

Bob
 
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For what it is worth, I personally think that NameLiquidate should be a place for expiring domain names only, rather than a mix of many expiring domain names along with some that are not expiring.

I like that NameLiquidate is limited to 7 days, and you are not allowing unsold to be listed again until a very long waiting period, but I think even this means that some brand confusion creeps in. Everyone knows that domainers value names at expiring auctions more than those at user auctions. Your all sales are final adds to what the other expiring auctions offer, and the count down is a good idea.

I think the mix of expiring with other types of liquidation is confusing the issue. Could not non-expiring be dealt with in your existing marketplace, or a new version of it with its own down auction, perhaps a slower one?

Just my opinion,

Bob
 
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For what it is worth, I personally think that NameLiquidate should be a place for expiring domain names only, rather than a mix of many expiring domain names along with some that are not expiring.

I like that NameLiquidate is limited to 7 days, and you are not allowing unsold to be listed again until a very long waiting period, but I think even this means that some brand confusion creeps in. Everyone knows that domainers value names at expiring auctions more than those at user auctions. Your all sales are final adds to what the other expiring auctions offer, and the count down is a good idea.

I think the mix of expiring with other types of liquidation is confusing the issue. Could not non-expiring be dealt with in your existing marketplace, or a new version of it with its own down auction, perhaps a slower one?

Just my opinion,

Bob

Bob - There are definite cases where people need to liquidate right now. For those cases, there is utility for the 7 day auction beyond expiry. In other words, the domain may not be "perishable" in terms of expiration but for the guy who needs money by Friday or else, it has a purpose.
 
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A suggestion perhaps: show the top 10 or 15 domains in the following categories: Newly Listed, Recent Sold, Closing Soon with each category showing two columns: DomainName, Amount. This way when you arrive at NameLiquidate.com buyers not only see the listing of domains, search/filter, etc you also have one click access to the top 10-15 names in those categories so buyers can go right to the name.
 
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A suggestion perhaps: show the top 10 or 15 domains in the following categories: Newly Listed, Recent Sold, Closing Soon with each category showing two columns: DomainName, Amount. This way when you arrive at NameLiquidate.com buyers not only see the listing of domains, search/filter, etc you also have one click access to the top 10-15 names in those categories so buyers can go right to the name.

Good input there. Will review with @DanSanchez, @Ala Dadan and @vitigo. NameLiquidate will have filters, post auction "Bargain Bin" and a seller dashboard very shortly. I like the idea of the tabs:

- Current auctions (i.e. home view)
- Closing Soon
- Available at Reserve Price (aka "Bargain Bin")
- Newly Listed
- Featured (editors picks)
- Active (e.g. high bid count)
- Popular (e.g. Numeric names)
- Recently Sold

Other input there?
 
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one click access
Spot ON!
One click for .com only , gtlds only and other quick filter / categories would really help.
 
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Good input there. Will review with @DanSanchez, @Ala Dadan and @vitigo. NameLiquidate will have filters, post auction "Bargain Bin" and a seller dashboard very shortly. I like the idea of the tabs:

- Current auctions (i.e. home view)
- Closing Soon
- Available at Reserve Price (aka "Bargain Bin")
- Newly Listed
- Featured (editors picks)
- Active (e.g. high bid count)
- Popular (e.g. Numeric names)
- Recently Sold

Other input there?

I am curious what the thinking behind showing thr high bid publically is. It would seem not showing it and just telling a buyer if their is or is not the highest would get more money out of names. Right now in many cases a buyer will just add $1 to the current bid. If they dont have that info it encourages them to assign a real value to what the name is worth to them. Thus optimizing for sellers. IMO.
 
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What do you think about having a feed to NameBio? That could do a lot to promote the platform.
 
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