Hello all,
I have been bouncing around the idea of a new type of escrow service that greatly differs from the mainstream commission structure. Those of us who make frequent sales know the pain in the ass that commissions and fees are. The cheapest option currently available to transfer funds is PayPal, which is just under 3%. Unfortunately, the lack of a proper goods transfer makes PayPal risky, and many of you have experienced that issue first hand.
Conversely, using a service like Escrow.com provides the security to protect a substantial amount of funds and valuable domain names, but comes at a hefty price. Say you sell a domain name for $1,000 and use Escrow.com for a safe transaction. After the $63 standard fee and the $100 concierge fee, you only walk away with 83.7% of the original sale price. In fact, your sale has to be for at least $125 just to cover fees, let alone take anything home from the sale. If you sell through a popular marketplace, you're going to get nuked with commissions. Afternic? 20%. Sedo? 15%.
What I want to introduce is an escrow service that doesn't charge you per sale, but rather charges you a monthly subscription fee to use the escrow service. I believe this type of structure would best serve domain investors who either sell in consistent volumes or who sell for considerable amounts (at least $100 per say).
I am thinking of the best pricing model for the sake of sellers and of course the business itself. I'm thinking of a tiered system of something like this (don't hold me to the prices);
Up to 10 transactions - $39/month
Up to 20 transactions - $59/month
Unlimited transactions - $99/month
My goal is to provide a service that not only protects buyers and sellers, but allows sellers to reap the full benefit of their sales. Namebio shows 144 sales >$100 that occurred yesterday alone, let alone the hundreds, if not thousands, that occurred outside of major marketplaces.
I would love some feedback on the idea, to test its plausibility and hopefully work out kinks that allow it to come to fruition. Long live domain investing!
TL;DR - instead of risky transactions or 15-20% commissions, an escrow service that charges a flat monthly fee for domain name transactions of any amount
I have been bouncing around the idea of a new type of escrow service that greatly differs from the mainstream commission structure. Those of us who make frequent sales know the pain in the ass that commissions and fees are. The cheapest option currently available to transfer funds is PayPal, which is just under 3%. Unfortunately, the lack of a proper goods transfer makes PayPal risky, and many of you have experienced that issue first hand.
Conversely, using a service like Escrow.com provides the security to protect a substantial amount of funds and valuable domain names, but comes at a hefty price. Say you sell a domain name for $1,000 and use Escrow.com for a safe transaction. After the $63 standard fee and the $100 concierge fee, you only walk away with 83.7% of the original sale price. In fact, your sale has to be for at least $125 just to cover fees, let alone take anything home from the sale. If you sell through a popular marketplace, you're going to get nuked with commissions. Afternic? 20%. Sedo? 15%.
What I want to introduce is an escrow service that doesn't charge you per sale, but rather charges you a monthly subscription fee to use the escrow service. I believe this type of structure would best serve domain investors who either sell in consistent volumes or who sell for considerable amounts (at least $100 per say).
I am thinking of the best pricing model for the sake of sellers and of course the business itself. I'm thinking of a tiered system of something like this (don't hold me to the prices);
Up to 10 transactions - $39/month
Up to 20 transactions - $59/month
Unlimited transactions - $99/month
My goal is to provide a service that not only protects buyers and sellers, but allows sellers to reap the full benefit of their sales. Namebio shows 144 sales >$100 that occurred yesterday alone, let alone the hundreds, if not thousands, that occurred outside of major marketplaces.
I would love some feedback on the idea, to test its plausibility and hopefully work out kinks that allow it to come to fruition. Long live domain investing!
TL;DR - instead of risky transactions or 15-20% commissions, an escrow service that charges a flat monthly fee for domain name transactions of any amount