Afternic experiment of March 2020

[AbdulBasit.com]

Hello everyone,

This is the third post of the Afternic experiment series after I published January and February results which I’m hopeful that some of my readers find it interesting.

It was a bright start of March with 4 sales in first 15 days and the remaining 16 days went totally silent which was not very surprising because of the situation globally due to Covid pandemic.

Some of the highlights of March 2020 are as below:

There were once again very close to 550 inquiries which includes the inquiries on repeating domains as well. this time I just reached 3,700 domains right at the end of March.

As said earlier, I’d 4 sales and all that happened in the first half of March. 3 out of 4 sales happened via GoDaddy which includes Kword.com for $3,888, GoDragonfly.com for $3,988 and EastEight.com for $8,888. Only one happened via Afternic sales lander which was U-6.com sold for $1,888.

Kword.com acquired more than 5 years back. GoDragonfly.com acquired almost 2 years ago. EastEight.com also almost 2 years back and U-6.com more than 5 years before. Altogether acquisition cost for these 4 domains was under $500.

Considering the Covid pandamic haunting globally, I see the number of sales and total amount is decent.

Feel free to give your feedback and if you like to add your experience with Afternic, feel free to share. Also you may contact me directly if you like your results to be published in my next report post.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

have u ran experiments before on makeoffer only? what kind of results?

or do you believe that afternic becomes basically not very useful if no bin and thus expanded exposure network is present? ty.

Yes, I'd ran experiments before at Afternic with Make Offers only and the results were disastrous. What I make sales in one month, I was making in one whole year! Though I'd far less domains than what I've today but still the results are very different. I've seen sales have picked up aggressively after setting up BIN at Afternic.

I hope this answers for your second question as well.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

yes it clears now
but its still amazing.


may I ask the avg age of your domains? surely its not 1.... 5? 10? ty.

Never calculated the average age but I can say that 1,000 domains are having registration year of 2000 and earlier.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

From those inquires how many or % were just lowball and how many were close to a decent sell price?

Very few 4 figure offers in the report which were not close enough to my BIN else I get contacted by Afternic.

I cannot see or judge the % of lowball offers because I don't get to see each and every lead detail which ended up nowhere. But I can see one thing clearly that I get more 4 figure offers after moving to Afternic than directly via Uniregistry landers. May be the trust factor of GoDaddy logo involved for the inquirers/buyers

 

[alcy]

Yes, I'd ran experiments before at Afternic with Make Offers only and the results were disastrous. What I make sales in one month, I was making in one whole year! Though I'd far less domains than what I've today but still the results are very different. I've seen sales have picked up aggressively after setting up BIN at Afternic.

I hope this answers for your second question as well.

thanks for info
tat is what i always thought about afternic.
that it becomes basically useless unless we have bins.
it certainly proved that way for me... where i have always kept makeoffer prices there mostly due to having always larger folio since I domain for 6 years now. plus all this optin stuff by email for afternic, sometimes it just does not work on certain registrars.. and i was not very consolidated before.

now its bit different as I am down to 1300 names. and mostly at dyna... so perhaps its time i give serious look into bins on afternic. one must stil price domains properly.. and not exagerate.. it will be a time consuming process but .. like you say, it can be worth it.

perhaps afternic with its bin expanded network can really be a diference maker for sales, for many domainers. as im sure not that many take advantage of this.

but lets not kid ourselves.. first and foremost to have success with bins there, you need solid domains.. and that may be the problem for many/most domainers too. i think that in your case, you simply have a very solid folio of names to begin with. with many older names, acquired for more than handreg fee. or acquired for handreg fee but a long long time ago

cheers, thanks!

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

wow! did I get it right? 550 inquiries on 3700 names, in 15 days?

thats really spectacular...

Almost 550 inquiries in entire March month on 3,700 domains which includes repeating domains as well.

Those 4 sales happened in first 15 days.

Hope it clears now

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Does it make a difference to use 8 endings?

Don't have an accurate answer with any facts and figures but I don't think it big makes difference.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

thanks for info
tat is what i always thought about afternic.
that it becomes basically useless unless we have bins.
it certainly proved that way for me... where i have always kept makeoffer prices there mostly due to having always larger folio since I domain for 6 years now. plus all this optin stuff by email for afternic, sometimes it just does not work on certain registrars.. and i was not very consolidated before.

now its bit different as I am down to 1300 names. and mostly at dyna... so perhaps its time i give serious look into bins on afternic. one must stil price domains properly.. and not exagerate.. it will be a time consuming process but .. like you say, it can be worth it.

perhaps afternic with its bin expanded network can really be a diference maker for sales, for many domainers. as im sure not that many take advantage of this.

but lets not kid ourselves.. first and foremost to have success with bins there, you need solid domains.. and that may be the problem for many/most domainers too. i think that in your case, you simply have a very solid folio of names to begin with. with many older names, acquired for more than handreg fee. or acquired for handreg fee but a long long time ago

cheers, thanks!

I agree with you.

Also for most part of my domain investing career, I did mistake of never trying out BIN at Afternic due to which I never made consistent sales.

It's definitely worth changing to BIN at Afternic.

I think the only hand registered domain of 2018 I purchased was Imagina.co.uk. Also out of 3,700 domains I own, 1,000 are having creation date of 2000 and earlier as most of my acquisitions come from expiring auctions and private purchases. It's been almost a decade investing in domains so numbers are not too much but I focus both on quality as well quantity together.

Thanks!

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Yes.

ProGuide needed in this.

You may want to check this - https://www.namepros.com/threads/how-do-i-valuate-domains-and-set-an-asking-price.951601/

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

So given that no BIN price is shown, would you say that you're getting more inquiries than when your domains were Directing to DAN servers (which shows BIN price on landers)?

I'm not 100% on receiving more number of inquiries because that has been increasing as I'm adding at least over 50 domains per month in my portfolio so that naturally increases the number of inquiries.

But for receiving offers, I'm sure of getting more number of 4 figure offers than I was using at Uniregistry and I'm confident it's due to GoDaddy brand recognition factor as most people aren't aware of Uniregistry.

And I've never used DAN and no plans of using them. I might have listed some domains when I created account with them long time ago.

Also while using Uniregistry landers, you can see one domain which I've still left using Uniregistry lander and I think it's the only one left using Uni lander and that's GRO.com

The only difference with this lander and all my domains using same Uniregistry lander was the minimum offer field which wasn't there in all other domains. Since I was receiving plenty of emails, most of which were of no use and I needed to avoid them for which I put up minimum offer on this domain.

Thanks!

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

but if your afternic listings basicaly sell at your bins across their partner network, then this means redirecting to the non-bin afternic lander is not giving you many sales? cause if i understansd correctly, those afternic landers, it goes to the broker for negotiation right?

or at this point its just impossible for you to know how many sales are due to the lander redirecting, vs just having bin prices setup and then distributed across various networks?

I'm not aware of any Afternic lander with BIN.

Also all inquiries either via calls or by submission of forms goes to Afternic brokers for any communication/negotiation.

As mentioned in my first post of this thread, 3 out of 4 sales happened via GoDaddy. Only one happened via Afternic sales lander. If there was any sale via partner registrar, I could've known that as well which is shared in the report itself. I believe it's very helpful to know this data for analyzing further what to do next in terms of using Afternic landers or to move elsewhere.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

i must have missed something in your past posts.. so much info... everywhere...

i was under impression most of your sales occured via partners of the network... not 3 out of 4 via godaddy.

in this case, your results then become somewhat equivalent to one listing his domains on godaddy... but ensuring he has a bin price there... so perhaps godaddy auctions bin+makeoffer listing type option.

it sure makes me wonder whether this would achieve similar results in your experiment. i wouldn't be surpised as I too am big fan of gd auctions and despite al my names everywhere being makeoffer only, almost everything I sell happens on gd auctions (then a few sales hgere and there via my current lander which is bodis and then some on sedo..).. so I Definitely understand the powerhouse that is gd auctions.

as for afternic sale lander with bin price.. well one could always redirect to the link below (my domain example).. which is directyl taken from afternic market. my name does not have bin now, but it did, then it'd show up there too.. note this lander does not go to broker per se. you simply reply to the offer... or the buyer buys at bin right away:

https://www.afternic.com/domain/vrsign.com

Thanks for sharing but I don't like this lander which you shared because that brings in lot of lowball offers which is waste of time.

Also when you put up BIN at Afternic, that increase the chances of your sale.

As per Afternic I'm quoting "Priced domains are more likely to sell than domains without a price. When you also set a buy now price, your domain is eligible to be a fast-transfer premium domain."

Simply leaving without BIN like the lander you shared, that has less chances of selling the domain.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Have you trying putting BIN only on your domains ?

I've put BIN, Minimum and Floor on all domains which I've set BIN. Also 98-99% of my domains are having BIN.

 

[sharastar]

Does it make a difference to use 8 endings?

Don't know I too feel good by pricing with 888's.

Congrats on those Lovely sales this month even in those challenging times @AbdulBasit.com

I think it's good for all that the Domain sales must be enclosed in forum's to help other Domainer's and the only exception is when an NDA's is signed and Thank You again for enclosing your test and sales to our community.

#Waitingfornextmonth

Thank You

 

[Wendell]

Thats what I like to see - HODL until you can't HODL no more
Congrats on the $$$

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

so if so many of your sales are strictly through gd, i may perhaps debate redirecting my domain to a bin priced godaddy auctions lander... as well as ensuring all my gd auctions are priced with bins.

I think it will restrict the partner registrar listings and sales which again means less chance of sales. The more exposure, the better.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

A couple of questions:

1) How did you get that lander page? When I added Afternic nameservers, it loads a page with ADs and a link at top saying the domain name is for sale. I'd prefer just the For Sale page.

2) When you use BIN, what's your strategy for setting your Floor Price, Reserve Price, and Minimum Offer?

Thanks and congrats on your success! Thank you for the info you share.

1) Most probably you're using their ns1/ns2 whereas you may want to change to ns3/ns4 for your desired results.

2) Usually for all my low-mid 4 figure domains, I set BIN, Floor, Reserve and Minimum the same.

For mid-high 4 figures, I lower down a bit only in Minimum and rest always remain same no matter whatever the BIN is. Same is the case for 5 figures.

 

[hui2000]

Thanks for sharing

 

[alcy]

wow! did I get it right? 550 inquiries on 3700 names, in 15 days?

thats really spectacular...

 

[alcy]

Almost 550 inquiries in entire March month on 3,700 domains which includes repeating domains as well.

Those 4 sales happened in first 15 days.

Hope it clears now

yes it clears now
but its still amazing.


may I ask the avg age of your domains? surely its not 1.... 5? 10? ty.

 

[Nattydomain]

From those inquires how many or % were just lowball and how many were close to a decent sell price?

 

[FolioTeam]

Congrats on the sale

 

[brandpainvestment]

Awesome sales.

Many many congratulations to you.

 

[Mister Funsky]

Well done and thanks for sharing!

 

[infosec3]

Congratulations, Abdul, and thanks for sharing.