Afternic Closed Their Marketplace

scithe · Feb 23, 2024

When you go to Afternic.com there's no option to search for domains. There is a link to GoDaddy where you can search but it doesn't show every name that's available on Afternic.

Interesting.

GoDaddy · Feb 23, 2024

411domains said:
Same here.

Show attachment 253122

Thanks for sharing, @411domains and @Dane. We'll take a look at what's causing this error.

Bannen · Feb 23, 2024

GoDaddy said:
Hi everyone,
We appreciate the feedback on Afternic search. As Afternic mentioned on X, we're transitioning search from Afternic.com to GoDaddy. The strong buyer connection to GoDaddy, along with the multi-currency, global checkout process, and the trusted brand name mean that we chose to direct Afternic searches to GoDaddy.

This move allows Afternic to remain focused on giving sellers the best tools and resources to sell their domain names through Afternic's vast distribution network (85 million searches/month across 100+ partners and resellers for the Premium Network), and the range of optimized landers, all backed by an expert team of brokers. This consistent work will continue to help sellers at Afternic to produce a high sales velocity through the entire network.

For anyone separately looking to take a deeper dive into Afternic's inventory, Domain Academy's toolkit contains an advanced search tool to connect you with inventory.

Again, we thank you all for your feedback on Afternic.com's search directing to GoDaddy.

Thanks; I'm trying to wrap my head around this in simple terms, because you're double-speaking what you say.

When you mention that you are transitioning search from Afternic over to Godaddy, that's not accurate;

Afternic visitors come to Afternic to LOOK FOR AN AFTERMARKET DOMAIN ON THE MARKETPLACE. That's been the entire business plan behind Afternic, for as long as it's been operating. That's what the Afternic search field was for.

The Godaddy search isn't a search for aftermarket domains on the marketplace; it's a simple search field to show whether a domain is registered or not. It's the same search field all visitors who are looking for a NEW domain to register, see when they go to any registrar. It's not a marketplace search.

So those are two different search fields.

Now, instead of letting every single visitor do what they came to Afternic to do, which is search through the inventory, each visitor is being sent to TWO DIFFERENT THINGS THEY DO NOT WANT TO USE:

1 - to a different site, from Afternic (marketplace) over to its parent Godaddy (registrar);

and:

2 - straight to Godaddy's search field, which does not show keyword inventory at Afternic, rather it - tadaah - just searches to see if that domain is available. Just like every other registrar.

In other words: it looks like you're phasing out any need for Afternic, other than using it to send all traffic to Godaddy's domain search field?

And in future, we probably won't even need Afternic anymore?

This seems to be an obvious conclusion, since the inventory has been entirely removed from easy access -- you've made it so difficult to access, now it's just a random link that doesn't even work, on a website most visitors have never even heard of and do not want to visit - Domain Academy - and, even worse, it's on a vague link that's even hidden somewhere on that site. On the main page of Afternic, it does not even give any directions to find the Afternic domain inventory... which is what the visitors came there looking for in the first place!

So GD does not want visitors to easily access the Afternic marketplace inventory. And, since Afternic is a marketplace, its entire reason for being is now useless. The only conclusion can be: GD now only wants to use Afternic as a traffic-forwarding tool to the Godaddy new-domain search field.

GD does not even need for people to list at Afternic anymore; you can set it up so we list all domains for sale at GD (this is already done, when we list them on Afternic), have GD landing pages (this is already done, all my landing pages - made through Afternic - show only Godaddy, no mention of Afternic on them), and complete the payments through GD services (which is already done, all my 'Afternic' payments for domains sold actually come from Godaddy).

Clear question: looks like Godaddy's plan is to entirely let go of Afternic's marketplace - and 'marketplace' is the entire word that describes what Afternic is - and now just use Afternic's traffic to steer visitors to Godaddy's search;

Is that an accurate assessment of what Godaddy intends? -- I know that it's an accurate assessment of what has already happened; I was just asking if you know whether that is GD's intent.

Thanks for any honest answer you feel you can provide...

rh2000 · Feb 23, 2024

Domainkingpal said:
Maybe , I should redirect all Nameservers to Dan , Squadhelp or Sedo.

I am trying to find out who has the best conversion rates on these marketplaces. I will keep researching until I find a marketplace I am happy with. They haven't been looking good lately.

internext · Feb 23, 2024

Bannen said:
any honest answer you feel you can provide

Here's one... and it's about as honest as it gets!!
Look where this domain name takes you >>>> GoDaddySucks.com

22 years old. Registered at GD.
If they own this name it's a very accurate admission and refreshing truth-in-advertising!

411domains · Feb 23, 2024

GoDaddy said:
Thanks for sharing, @411domains and @Dane. We'll take a look at what's causing this error.

@GoDaddy - I sent it up earlier today. The developers are working on it.

johnn · Feb 23, 2024

Just changed my DNS.
I can't afford losing a sale because GD playing games.

LoveCatchyDomains · Feb 23, 2024

Do any of these changes have anything to do with the alleged ban of Afternic in India? Or is it completely unrelated?

Jim Holleran · Feb 23, 2024

GoDaddy said:
Hi everyone,
We appreciate the feedback on Afternic search. As Afternic mentioned on X, we're transitioning search from Afternic.com to GoDaddy. The strong buyer connection to GoDaddy, along with the multi-currency, global checkout process, and the trusted brand name mean that we chose to direct Afternic searches to GoDaddy.

This move allows Afternic to remain focused on giving sellers the best tools and resources to sell their domain names through Afternic's vast distribution network (85 million searches/month across 100+ partners and resellers for the Premium Network), and the range of optimized landers, all backed by an expert team of brokers. This consistent work will continue to help sellers at Afternic to produce a high sales velocity through the entire network.

For anyone separately looking to take a deeper dive into Afternic's inventory, Domain Academy's toolkit contains an advanced search tool to connect you with inventory.

Again, we thank you all for your feedback on Afternic.com's search directing to GoDaddy.

lol

hawkeye · Feb 23, 2024

@GoDaddy
Would love to hear your justification/response to this -

Bannen said:
Thanks; I'm trying to wrap my head around this in simple terms, because you're double-speaking what you say.

When you mention that you are transitioning search from Afternic over to Godaddy, that's not accurate;

Afternic visitors come to Afternic to LOOK FOR AN AFTERMARKET DOMAIN ON THE MARKETPLACE. That's been the entire business plan behind Afternic, for as long as it's been operating. That's what the Afternic search field was for.

The Godaddy search isn't a search for aftermarket domains on the marketplace; it's a simple search field to show whether a domain is registered or not. It's the same search field all visitors who are looking for a NEW domain to register, see when they go to any registrar. It's not a marketplace search.

So those are two different search fields.

Now, instead of letting every single visitor do what they came to Afternic to do, which is search through the inventory, each visitor is being sent to TWO DIFFERENT THINGS THEY DO NOT WANT TO USE:

1 - to a different site, from Afternic (marketplace) over to its parent Godaddy (registrar);

and:

2 - straight to Godaddy's search field, which does not show keyword inventory at Afternic, rather it - tadaah - just searches to see if that domain is available. Just like every other registrar.

In other words: it looks like you're phasing out any need for Afternic, other than using it to send all traffic to Godaddy's domain search field?

And in future, we probably won't even need Afternic anymore?

This seems to be an obvious conclusion, since the inventory has been entirely removed from easy access -- you've made it so difficult to access, now it's just a random link that doesn't even work, on a website most visitors have never even heard of and do not want to visit - Domain Academy - and, even worse, it's on a vague link that's even hidden somewhere on that site. On the main page of Afternic, it does not even give any directions to find the Afternic domain inventory... which is what the visitors came there looking for in the first place!

So GD does not want visitors to easily access the Afternic marketplace inventory. And, since Afternic is a marketplace, its entire reason for being is now useless. The only conclusion can be: GD now only wants to use Afternic as a traffic-forwarding tool to the Godaddy new-domain search field.

GD does not even need for people to list at Afternic anymore; you can set it up so we list all domains for sale at GD (this is already done, when we list them on Afternic), have GD landing pages (this is already done, all my landing pages - made through Afternic - show only Godaddy, no mention of Afternic on them), and complete the payments through GD services (which is already done, all my 'Afternic' payments for domains sold actually come from Godaddy).

Clear question: looks like Godaddy's plan is to entirely let go of Afternic's marketplace - and 'marketplace' is the entire word that describes what Afternic is - and now just use Afternic's traffic to steer visitors to Godaddy's search;

Is that an accurate assessment of what Godaddy intends? -- I know that it's an accurate assessment of what has already happened; I was just asking if you know whether that is GD's intent.

Thanks for any honest answer you feel you can provide...

Jim Holleran · Feb 23, 2024

Godaddy went downhill as soon as Bob Parson left. I moved all my names out of Godaddy that I had there over 20 years. Greed and incompetence will be there downfall.

hawkeye · Feb 23, 2024

Jim Holleran said:
Godaddy went downhill as soon as Bob Parson left. I moved all my names out of Godaddy that I had there over 20 years. Greed and incompetence will be there downfall.

Once they went public, customers or quality service were/are no longer important to them. The only thing that matters to GD now is their stock price and how to just increase it. smh.

LoveCatchyDomains · Feb 23, 2024

Bannen said:
The Godaddy search isn't a search for aftermarket domains on the marketplace; it's a simple search field to show whether a domain is registered or not.

If they are propagatingAfternc and Dan listings to the Godaddy search, can we even be reassured that the domains presented fo sale at the higher prices are even registered?

Last year, I found 10-20% of .com Afternic domain listings were unregistered, doing various spot checks. Dan was even more shocking, with up to 60% of the .coms not registered. On my last spot checks this month , Afternic had no unregistered domains, but Dan was down to 1%.

So, is it clear that, at a minimum, that Godaddy is verifying that the domain prices being presented are actually legitimate, and not falsely elevated by some seller who didn't even bother with registering or renewiing it?

DrJacoby · Feb 23, 2024

Here's the link for searching Afternic: https://www.godaddy.com/domain-academy/tools/afternic-advanced-search

LoveCatchyDomains · Feb 23, 2024

DrJacoby said:
Here's the link for searching Afternic: https://www.godaddy.com/domain-academy/tools/afternic-advanced-search

If someone is not a Domain Academy customer, would they really want to an online training site to search for domain names? Is the focus here really to expand enrollment in their "academy?"

But thank you for sharing that information.

rh2000 · Feb 23, 2024

GoDaddy said:
Hi everyone,
We appreciate the feedback on Afternic search. As Afternic mentioned on X, we're transitioning search from Afternic.com to GoDaddy. The strong buyer connection to GoDaddy, along with the multi-currency, global checkout process, and the trusted brand name mean that we chose to direct Afternic searches to GoDaddy.

This move allows Afternic to remain focused on giving sellers the best tools and resources to sell their domain names through Afternic's vast distribution network (85 million searches/month across 100+ partners and resellers for the Premium Network), and the range of optimized landers, all backed by an expert team of brokers. This consistent work will continue to help sellers at Afternic to produce a high sales velocity through the entire network.

For anyone separately looking to take a deeper dive into Afternic's inventory, Domain Academy's toolkit contains an advanced search tool to connect you with inventory.

Again, we thank you all for your feedback on Afternic.com's search directing to GoDaddy.

Since Afternic is shutdown are there any other changes coming? I need a heads up so I can plan accordingly.

johnn · Feb 24, 2024

rh2000 said:
Since Afternic is shutdown are there any other changes coming? I need a heads up so I can plan accordingly.

Just move your DNS somewhere for the time being so you don't lose any sale.

Bannen · Feb 24, 2024

DrJacoby said:
Here's the link for searching Afternic: https://www.godaddy.com/domain-academy/tools/afternic-advanced-search

When I click that link it takes me to Godaddy, to the LOGIN page. So it no longer seems to be affiliated with an 'Afternic Marketplace' as such. Now, even to just look at the inventory, we (and new searchers) have to sign in to Godaddy?

Looks like there is no longer any Afternic marketplace.

I already miss Afternic's marketplace. It was great. I know, people have had complaints, there are always some things that don't work the way we want them to, especially with a company that caters to international sales. I can only speak for myself, but they've always been great for my sales and for my research into domain values and to what others are asking for the same kinds of domains.

I actually just got another sale two days ago; in the evening I got the Afternic email that someone had paid using the BIN button for one of my domains (selling price was $12,500 usd). I did the transfer right away. When I woke up the next morning, payment was already in my account. Less than 12 hours from first email to payment being in my Paypal.

So I have no complaints about how Afternic/Godaddy has been working for my personal domain sales.

However, I really miss the 'marketplace'. You know, just going to the Afternic landing page, going to the 'search for a domain' link, and putting in my keyword/s and seeing the inventory of listings other sellers had listed there. That was a very valuable tool for my pricing strategies.

And I've also sold quite a few domains there, not to end user buyers but to other domain investors who would search through the inventory looking for domains they thought might be undervalued. At least a dozen of my sales last year turned out to be domain investors buying my low- or fairly-priced domains, and then they re-listed them at higher prices.

And I've bought a few (what I think are) undervalued domains via Afternic, also, and re-listed them in my own account for higher prices.

Now that buyer pool, of domain speculators searching through Afternic marketplace inventory, looking for potential deals to invest in, has instantly disappeared.

So I'll miss all that.

Still, I hope my other sales, through GD's domain partners and affiliates, continues to stay strong. Time will tell, I guess.

I, for one, miss you, Afternic marketplace!

SuperBrander · Feb 24, 2024

I think Afternic has always been a listing service for GD's aftermarket distribution that's been used mostly by domainers. I don't think it was ever advertised as a marketplace to the general public. Ask 10 random people who aren't domainers and no one will know what Afternic is. Some will very likely know @GoDaddy though.

The problem isn't the search at Afternic, IMO. The problem is the main search at Godaddy that hides the aftermarket results and promotes a billion random extensions. From Godaddy.com's landing page you can't filter any searches. Only after you search for something, on the next screen you can filter 3 things- industry (most people don't indicate that when listing), and rudimentary length and price filters.

If potential buyers visit auctions.godaddy.com there's a good filtering system there. People can filter and find aftermarket domains using filters like extension, beginning with, ending with, containing, age, with/without hyphen/number/special character, price range, length range. But people who visit Godaddy.com directly and search there (=most people) are limited to what @Bannen referred to (basically just a registry path type search) instead of getting access to a search that can scan the afternic inventory.

I'm aware that the afternic search at Domain Academy is meant for domainers. However, I don't understand the logic behind hiding the aftermarket inventory from potential buyers. I think Godaddy visitors should all be able to search the afternic inventory out in the open in a convenient way, using the site's main search and using a good filtering system. I hope GD will implement this, and better sooner than later.

internext · Feb 24, 2024

DrJacoby said:
Here's the link for searching Afternic: https://www.godaddy.com/domain-academy/tools/afternic-advanced-search

Don't forget to pay da' man first!!!

Sperry8 · Feb 24, 2024

hawkeye said:
So...now endusers must join Domain Academy so they can look for a domain they're interested in? Not sure how that is a wise move on GD's part.

I don't think that can be the case. I think buyers now search via GoDaddy. Doubt buyers are specifically looking for a name from Afternic they are simply looking for a name that meets their needs. As long as all names for sale are findable on GD not sure what the issue is

SuperBrander · Feb 24, 2024

@Sperry8 I think that's exactly the problem. The afternic inventory isn't easily findable on Godaddy. At least not in a straightforward way.

Head over to Godaddy.com and imagine that you're a buyer who wants a domain that starts with the word 'love' accompanied by an unknown second word. There's no filtering system so you just have to write 'love' in the search field. On the next screen you get the obvious message that Love.com is taken and you aren't given any decent filtering options that would allow you to look for all the names that start with 'love' and accompanied by a second word. So what are you supposed to do? There's a whole afternic inventory that you can't search, that has hundreds of Love + Word domains, but you aren't given the option to search it. You can't even choose which extensions you're willing to consider for the domain you're thinking about buying. Godaddy just bombards you with random suggestions.

Godaddy should provide visitors with a good filtering system that isn't hidden behind a paywall, or requires visiting auctions.godaddy.com and choosing the 'type': 'buy it now' or 'make offer' filter together with other filters, so they'll be able to scan and filter Afternic's inventory right from the main godaddy search.

Sperry8 · Feb 24, 2024

SuperBrander said:
@Sperry8 I think that's exactly the problem. The afternic inventory isn't easily findable on Godaddy. At least not in a straightforward way.

Head over to Godaddy.com and imagine that you're a buyer who wants a domain that starts with the word 'love' accompanied by an unknown second word. There's no filtering system so you just have to write 'love' in the search field. On the next screen you get the obvious message that Love.com is taken and you aren't given any decent filtering options that would allow you to look for all the names that start with 'love' and accompanied by a second word. So what are you supposed to do? There's a whole afternic inventory that you can't search, that has hundreds of Love + Word domains, but you aren't given the option to search it. You can't even choose which extensions you're willing to consider for the domain you're thinking about buying. Godaddy just bombards you with random suggestions.

Godaddy should provide visitors a good filtering system that isn't hidden behind a paid wall, or requires visiting auctions.godaddy.com and choosing the 'type': 'buy it now' filter together with other filters, so they'll be able to scan and filter Afternic's inventory right from the main godaddy search.

Huh, how about that. So now the only way we'll ever sell a name listed at Afternic is if someone types in the exact word? You are correct, filtering on GD is very limited (Price and characters).

Sperry8 · Feb 24, 2024

Well if this is how it's going to be - I'll be removing all afternic name servers and just pointing direct lander now. If someone is going to type my name directly, then they are just as likely to type it into a browser. Obv, I'll keep the listing on Afternic for those who type full name into GD... but this should limit sales (since there will be less search ability).

SuperBrander · Feb 24, 2024

@Sperry8 Godaddy does suggest some purchase options from the aftermarket below, but they're totally random. A mix of random extensions and random words. It's a mess. Visitors can search the inventory properly if they head over to auctions.godaddy.com and choose the type- 'buy it now' or 'make offer' option together with other filters. But how are visitors supposed to know that? The main Godaddy search has to make the inventory... searchable! It's the most basic thing a marketplace needs to do- let people browse and filter through the inventory instead of leaving them clueless or making them jump through hoops. Hopefully @GoDaddy will eventually see the light.

LoveCatchyDomains · Feb 24, 2024

SuperBrander said:
Visitors can search the inventory properly if they head over to auctions.godaddy.com and choose the type- 'buy it now' or 'make offer' option together with other filters.

Has that been fixed? Multiple issues have been raised in the past on NP, about sellers being unable to find their listings on GoDaddy auctions--even with typing in an exact match in some instances?

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