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services Some Afternic partners are marking up your domain prices

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When you list your domain names for sale through Afternic’s Premium Network, 100 resellers and registrars list your domain names for sale on their sites. Many of these partners allow customers to instantly purchase your domains by taking advantage of the Afternic Fast Transfer system.

You, the domain seller, pay a commission of up to 20% to Afternic.

But the total delta between what the buyer pays and you get might be much bigger. It turns out that some Afternic partners are marking up the price of your domains...

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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
To be honest I agree with this. It gives you more exposure.
Now, it depends on how much it costs to sell through the premium network. It is by default, or ?
 
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oh great.. just when you thought you heard it all on the namejet thread today......

so how does it really happen then @Joe Styler ?

and how about no bins.. with price requests.. so when I get price request... and I put then my bin and floor.. does it mean the broker can sell/offer it to buyer for more than my bin too??
 
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Thanks for sharing this. Had absolutely no idea of this happening - seems like they should show to the seller the actual price the domain will be listed at on different platforms.
 
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This is BS!!! Another scam hitting the industry. Lot's of sales are getting lost because of this.
 
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This has been an eventful couple of months. Lol.
 
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and how about no bins.. with price requests.. so when I get price request... and I put then my bin and floor.. does it mean the broker can sell/offer it to buyer for more than my bin too??

I do most of mine make offer and have asked and wondered this for quite a while. If ya put a buy it now on a domain then that should be locked they shouldn't be allowed to go over your buy it now as it's not their domain so curious to hear an answer on this one. Main reason I hate anonymous offers as it involves trusting the third party aftermarket. Glad 90%+ of my sales come to my own sales landing pages as I trust myself. :ROFL:

All of the markup registrars should be added at Afternic in a checkbox that says...

"Don't list my domains at registrars that add 15% to your pricing"

shouldn't have to email to get them removed, put all the markup registrars in a checkbox category so one click and we can remove our listings from them. Let the domainer decide if their cool with 15% more being added since they don't receive a cut of that extra 15%. Once they lose the majority of the listings then maybe the 15% goes away.

I feel August will be class action or DDOS payback month as were on a roll this week. :ROFL:
 
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Hey Andrew,

Sorry, but I was commenting at TheDomains about this and giving Ray all of the credit for bringing this out. I glanced over the part where he definitely did give credit to you for the story. I wrote a kinda long winded reply over there only because it bothered me but will post it here and put your name in there. My bad for speed reading. Thank you for the info and story.

Andrew
As everyone here has said, Thank you for bringing this up. Unfortunately this is something I have only checked on w/GoDaddy. I usually add my domains to Afternic and then after a bulk upload I will double check at GoDaddy to see if they are listed. Seems many times they are all not listed and I have to contact Afternic for help on trying to list my domains that did not add during bulk upload for one reason or another. That is time consuming itself right there. Matter of fact I had about 10 domains that happened to this week and spent more time w/Afternic getting them into platform. I know there are a ton more Markets that Afternic has given my domains exposure to, but I really never checked those other Markets Registrars. I dont even know where they all are. Maybe it is my laziness, Or maybe it is my blind trust. I just figured they were at all the places they said they were adding them to along w/the CORRECT pricing. Either way, It is not up to them on our pricing since we already agreed to their commission. You are 100% right. They should not be re-pricing our domains at all. We already know the commission we are paying and we are good with that if we list at Afternic. Here is more time involved… It takes me a lot of time to price my domains. Sometimes I go over them twice or even 3x as I am pricing them. That is with a lot of homework that I come up with my own pricing most of the time. I do not want anyone else F-ing up a potential sale of mine because they are adding another 15-20% to a price I most likely put a lot of time into. Spending so much time listing, pricing, submitting, then double checking that all were listed, is already tons of time put into domain management. I cant imagine having to double check that the correct price was put on there at each and every location they are using. Forget it. I already don’t have enough time to do as much as I have been doing for domain management to now double that time confirming pricing everywhere. Insane. Thanks for shedding some light on this Andrew. I hope it gets changed because it seems like most others agree here. This is not cool at all.

Thanks,
Vito
 
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Who.is (operated by name.com I believe) is doing this which kind of sucks because A LOT of availability checks are done there.

Got a domain listed for $2,299 @ Afnic. Who.is price: $2643.85. Come on...
 
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Read the terms and conditions and see if they snuck in a new clause that allows this. I am sure it is buried deep.
 
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I get what you guys are saying.
But I have had sales via afternic network at higher prices then the price on parking page. I mean at least 3 times. Buyer dosen´t even check the parking page (sedo, I have price a little lower)
So I get what you are saying, that there should e option to allow this or not.
 
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This explains a lot, and makes me feel a lot less crazy when I notice price difference on my listings.
 
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This has been going on for some time now, the partner wants their cut, the original lister wants their cut, so they have to mark in 2 commissions. I am sure some domains sell, and many others are passed by.

Usually I thought if it was a partner sale it would be 20% commission, and solely afternic 15%, but I guess 5% is not enough.
 
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I think this problem existed always, and also with SedoMLS since most registrars in question are also working with Sedo. My experience with both networks , while of course statistically insignificant on the whole networks level, shows that there is higher %%% of sales through registrars that do not increase prices (Netsol and registercom in particular. Also GoDaddy, but it is obvious). I've seen less sales through registrars that are playing with prices, but I saw such sales. Recently I had a domain sold through Tucows (they likely increase prices because they work through own resellers network - one more middleman). I also had a sale through some Russian registrar (reg.ru I think, or something similar like "noc"-dot-ru) who - last time I checked using currency converter - routinely adds about 30% to our listed prices.

It is in fact hard to tell exactly who increases the prices and how, since in many cases non-U.S. registrars are required to add sales tax or VAT to begin with, and it requires further investigation (tax rates, are taxes included into the prices displayed initially or not, etc).

Why Sedo/Afternic allows price increases above adding taxes where necessary? I'd say that more correct question would be why they do not prohibit it. And the answer is obvious for me - if Sedo elects to prohibit it, registrars will switch to Afternic exclusively. If Afternic elects to prohibit it - registrars will start switching to Sedo exclusively. Will Sedo and Afternic join forces one day to prohibit it together? Very unlikely. Not only because they are direct competitors. More importantly, there is one thing that registrars may not realize - but at least Sedo does. When an endusers are presented with an oportunity to purchase existing premium domain based on their keyword- or domain- search, many will visit the domain in question as a curiosity at least. And they will be pleasantly surprised, as, most notably in Sedo case with the domain also parked with Sedo, the price would be shown and would be better. So they will purchase through Sedo directly.

It also appears that both networks pay enough from 20% commission to the registrars, as at least some registrars (Namecheap, Netsol, RegisterCom) are able to sell without increasing prices. So it is a matter of time (or possibly complaining to registrars directly will help?) for registrars to realize that, by increasing prices, they are not only gaining less in a long run and messing-up the things in endusers eyes, but, most notably, provide free advertising services Sedo and Afternic, helping them to sell more domains directly.
 
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Domain priced at $2000 may equal a sale where a distribution partner testing adding their own cut to the top of your price and not sharing the revenue from that extra cut they added point blank is bullshit. The domains don't belong to them so their inflating your prices to pocket more for themselves at the risk of losing a sale for ya due to the price increase. Let's say your price is $2000 and an end user is willing to pay that. Distribution partner adds another chunk on top of that and then end user says let's just take legal action it's cheaper. It's a distribution network not let's assume ownership and inflate prices network like they own the domains. When they say some are testing price points does that mean all are at 15% or are some going 20% 25% 100% etc...

It's the equivalent of me posting a thread here saying send me a list of any priced .com domains and I'll let ya know which domains I'll add to my sites and broker for ya. Then I send that list to everyone I know and say see what ya can do. They sell one of your 1k domains for 2k, they pocket 1k, you get 1k minus my commission. How many more domains are ya gonna send me to broker when you read all the domains sold for more than we agreed to and you saw no percentage from those markups.

Only 3 options I see...

A) Prohibit distribution partners from marking domainers prices above their set prices as they don't own the damn names which can blow sales or possibly bring legal issues if the price point reaches the cheaper to take a gamble than paying this inflated price that the domain owner didn't even set.

B) Take all your distribution partners that inflate prices like they own the domains and put them in a checkbox option...

1) Distribute my domains through all distribution partners at the standard 20% commission rate
2) Also distribute my domains through all distribution partners that inflate your prices 15% and pocket 100% of that additional 15%

If this isn't a priority I'll be opting for option C along with pulling the many thousands I spend with GoDaddy yearly...

C) Pull all of your domains out of distribution networks that feel they have the authority to let distribution partners do whatever they want with a domainers domains with no prior notice/transparency to the domain owner.

Shouldn't have to contact anyone at Afternic to remove your listings from markup partners make it a visible option inside of Afternic and be transparent.

Until then I'd say retweet in motion...

http://domainnamewire.com/2017/07/19/afternic-partners-marking-domain-prices/

@Joe Styler
 
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I do most of mine make offer and have asked and wondered this for quite a while. If ya put a buy it now on a domain then that should be locked they shouldn't be allowed to go over your buy it now as it's not their domain so curious to hear an answer on this one. Main reason I hate anonymous offers as it involves trusting the third party aftermarket. Glad 90%+ of my sales come to my own sales landing pages as I trust myself. :ROFL:

All of the markup registrars should be added at Afternic in a checkbox that says...

"Don't list my domains at registrars that add 15% to your pricing"

shouldn't have to email to get them removed, put all the markup registrars in a checkbox category so one click and we can remove our listings from them. Let the domainer decide if their cool with 15% more being added since they don't receive a cut of that extra 15%. Once they lose the majority of the listings then maybe the 15% goes away.

I feel August will be class action or DDOS payback month as were on a roll this week. :ROFL:

yes... well.. it doesn't look like we'll be getting our aanswer though... but let's give it a last try @Joe Styler
 
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yes... well.. it doesn't look like we'll be getting our aanswer though... but let's give it a last try @Joe Styler

Don't like the lack of transparency? Every domainer should be re-tweeting...

http://domainnamewire.com/2017/07/19/afternic-partners-marking-domain-prices/

Add @GoDaddy @Afternic to the bottom of the tweet.

Domainers built most of these companies by their parking pages supplying them with the end users for their databases. Power in numbers, changes aren't made we can pull our listings and break them just as easy. Myself alone is worth 500ish Afternic listings and 5k+ a year to GoDaddy, multiply that by 100, 200, 300 domainers etc... and it has an effect. Transparency needs to happen across the board distribution networks, auction sites etc...
 
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What might allow this and other problems in this industry to end is an independent classified market place for end users to buy direct from.

All domain owners interested in participating list, and these sellers pay to list inventory they own and price accordingly. No commissions. Buyers get better pricing.
 
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What might allow this and other problems in this industry to end is an independent classified market place for end users to buy direct from.

All domain owners interested in participating list, and these sellers pay to list inventory they own and price accordingly. No commissions. Buyers get better pricing.

Agreed, Bodis sales pages free with no conflict of interest, Efty monthly fee with no conflict of interest, your own sales pages with no conflict of interest their just missing the distribution network or universal market place aspect. Sedo, Afternic, Uniregistry etc... are all are large portfolio owners so all the leads domainers domains drive in build their end user databases where they can pitch their own domains, pitch another domainers domains, let distribution partners modify a domainers pricing for their own gain, email market for life etc... as they profit no matter who's domain sells. It's the equivalent of trying to sell your car at a dealership on a percentage basis when the dealership owns 50% of the cars on the lot. Which cars ya think they will push harder 100% or 20% of the profits. So a lead your domain drove in may be deflected to one of their listings=conflict of interest.
 
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Agreed, Bodis sales pages free with no conflict of interest, Efty monthly fee with no conflict of interest, your own sales pages with no conflict of interest their just missing the distribution network or universal market place aspect. Sedo, Afternic, Uniregistry etc... are all are large portfolio owners so all the leads domainers domains drive in build their end user databases where they can pitch their own domains, pitch another domainers domains, let distribution partners modify a domainers pricing for their own gain, email market for life etc... as they profit no matter who's domain sells. It's the equivalent of trying to sell your car at a dealership on a percentage basis when the dealership owns 50% of the cars on the lot. Which cars ya think they will push harder 100% or 20% of the profits. So a lead your domain drove in may be deflected to one of their listings=conflict of interest.

I like Bodis too because you can choose the options such as: Escrow lander, Offer lander or redirect to any lander. Agreed on the need for a nice central place with 1 fee to list and nothing more.
 
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I feel that by switching namesevers to these sites you mention is key in the SEO.
But who benefits? The sites do, as you point out. Why not have a data collection of visitors where everybody Who lists gets the data independently but all at one website?

I am tired of the distrust that is in all these recent developments, as well as in past history I have been reading. This would not be intended as a wholesale market, but a retail one. Namepros here is a wholesale market only, and should be that respected and used in that way.

Therefore, if that my idea is correct if as I suggested on another thread about a certain famous brandables insiders marketplace, a coop or other thing independent is put together. No leaders, no owners, no conflicts, no nameservers pointing to 3rd parties websites. Taking and achieving a customer direct marketplace. Oh, important. The marketplace is nonprofit. It sustains itself on sellers splitting the costs. That way no platform CEO's or controlling interests by individuals or groups.

I dont know what to do when I go off in these tangents. Maybe I need to start another thread?
 
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As a domainer, I do not like it. But for endusers eyes, they already see different prices on handreg registrations at different registrars. They also see different prices on one and the same registry "premium" domain in new gtld at different registrars. So why should enduser necessary expect the same price on dotcom premium in all places? They are likely not surpirsed at all with different prices, considering this to be something normal. For us the domain owners, it is not normal. But for endusers - may be, so they will simply check different registrars and maybe domainpage directly.
So the problem will disappear by itself as soon as the registrars in question realize that instead of selling premium afternic- or sedo-based domain @ its real price they provide free promotion and advertising to somebody else.
 
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As a domainer, I do not like it. But for endusers eyes, they already see different prices on handreg registrations at different registrars. They also see different prices on one and the same registry "premium" domain in new gtld at different registrars. So why should enduser necessary expect the same price on dotcom premium in all places? They are likely not surpirsed at all with different prices, considering this to be something normal. For us the domain owners, it is not normal. But for endusers - may be, so they will simply check different registrars and maybe domainpage directly.
So the problem will disappear by itself as soon as the registrars in question realize that instead of selling premium domain @ its real price they provide free promotion and advertising to somebody else.

Not so much about different prices being shown more about authorizing distribution partners to adjust a domainers pricing without the doman owners approval which can blow a sale or bring possible legal issues if the end user feels the margin they added on their own hits the point of lets take a gamble with legal as their price point fell over our max buy it now price point they were comfortable with. Nobody should be adjusting a domainers buy it now price without prior approval from the domainer. Should be opt in do I want that extra distribution and my prices jacked 15% more etc... of which I receive nothing, not do what they want add 15% or possibly more like they own our domains. Should be a distribution partner not a price adjuster. Give me the option to eliminate all partners that go above the standard 20%. When enough domainers opt out of those partners that mark above 20% then they will reconsider when they have no inventory left to distribute.
 
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