Afternic - Official Thread

[GoDaddy]

Hello NamePros!
By popular demand, we have launched a dedicated feedback thread for Afternic, the GoDaddy-owned domain name marketplace.

We have created this thread as a way for you to tell us what works, what doesn't work, and what features you'd like to see at Afternic (please be constructive with your feedback). We're looking forward to hearing from the domain investment community to help us shape the future of Afternic.

We will also be sharing Afternic product updates in this thread.

Please note that this thread is not meant for support. Please email our support team at [email protected] for assistance.

 

[411domains]

@GoDaddy

Your "Godaddy Assistant" is defeating the entire purpose of using Buy Now landers.

If I wanted to negotiate pricing, I would not go to all the trouble of setting the nameservers, then copying & pasting over a half dozen pages, a thousand domains at a time to select that specific lander.

Until you get rid of it or make it optional, my portfolio will be parked elsewhere.

 

[Traderas]

@GoDaddy

I would appreciate if you stopped ignoring my posts.

Who is in charge of explaining how the leads-brokers system works?
This is fucked up, once again.

Right now I have a lead in my lead center for a domain for $30, as well as an offer for the same domain in my dashboard for $50.
The broker in charge of this lead is not able to see the offer of $50...

I m negotiating right now the offer I see in my dashboard, without the broker participation in this.
I thought direct negotiation was off the table since the start of Afternic 2.0
Did you add some new feature?

PS: of course I was never notified for any of these offers

 

[DrJacoby]

PS: of course I was never notified for any of these offers

Out of curiosity, why would you want to be notified of offers?

The whole idea of pointing the nameservers to Afternic is for them to handle all the leads and negotiations, so that I don't have to be bothered with it.

 

[Traderas]

Out of curiosity, why would you want to be notified of offers?

The whole idea of pointing the nameservers to Afternic is for them to handle all the leads and negotiations, so that I don't have to be bothered with it.

Yes, I wonder the same thing.
These are some of the answers I have receive

We have inquired with the respective team and they have advised us that you would only get email notifications when brokers are directly messaging you and you would not get those for other activity like offers.

"When an offer is made on one of your listings, our brokers will seek to address what they can with the potential buyer(s) first. If they are unable to get the potential buyer to accept a pre-approved price (the Buy Now or Floor prices, if set) then they will then message you to engage you in the negotiation process. At that stage, you will receive an email notification."

 

[kor]

why would you want to be notified of offers?

To make sales and earn money maybe?

 

[DrJacoby]

Yes, I wonder the same thing.
These are some of the answers I have receive

Well, if I remember correctly, you previously wanted to be informed about basically everything that happens in your Lead Center.

Why not have your own landers if you want to handle the offers yourself?

 

[kor]

Why not have your own landers if you want to handle the offers yourself?

To be able to use godaddy's brand awareness, trust and broker team maybe?

 

[Traderas]

Well, if I remember correctly, you previously wanted to be informed about basically everything that happens in your Lead Center.

Why not have your own landers if you want to handle the offers yourself?

Yes sorry, I misread your post. Of course I want to be notified.
These are my domains and I m the only one that can make decisions about them.

 

[DrJacoby]

To be able to use godaddy's brand awareness, trust and broker team maybe?

Absolutely, that's exactly why I point all my domains to Afternic. And in addition I don't have to be bothered about every inquiry and offer, I only get an email when a domain has sold. I love it!

But @Traderas wants to be notified about everything, so for him it would make more sense to have his own landers.

 

[kor]

I don't have to be bothered about every inquiry and offer

A few months ago, I received the following email from an afternic broker regarding a relatively valuable .com domain name I had just added to my portfolio and set a minimum offer of $10,000:

We want to make sure to present all offers before closing out potential buyers. We have a best and final offer of $7,500 USD for CVCCVC.com. If you would like to accept this offer, please let me know. If not, we understand and will be in touch next time a potential buyer comes along. Thanks,


Shane W Fraser | Sr. Domain Broker | Aftermarket

Afterwards, I stated that the offer was appropriate and I would accept it if they would complete the payment within 2 days, and the sale took place quickly. Moreover, despite my request, he convinced the buyer for $8000 and covered a part of the commission.

If this broker had acted like a robot and never notified me because it was below the minimum offer, I probably would have never heard of this opportunity and would not have been able to make the sale.

That's exactly why brokerage exists. To create a strong and effective bridge between the buyer and the seller and to follow the whole flow closely.

 

[FredMercaldo]

I've been having recent issues with Afternic. Historically, prior to the Dan acquisition, I would list a name on Dan and then Afternic. If the name already existed on Dan, I would send an email to support and within an hour it was fixed. If it was still listed on Afternic by the previous owner, I would fill out a support form and within 24-48 hours they would email me that I could now proceed and list it.
Two weeks ago, after 3-4-5 days, Afternic emailed me and told me the many ways to prove my ownership. That wasn't my question. Thankfully I have a great VIP manager at GoDaddy to help me. This morning I took ownership of a domain I bought at GoDaddy auctions last week. Accepted at Dan, listed for $10,000; failed at Afternic, as the former owner has it still listed at $2,099....which is potentially damaging any search results for this name at all other registrars. I didn't fill out the support at Afternic....I just emailed my guy at GoDaddy. Question, since this acquisition and listings are all at companies owned by GoDaddy, why do these issues still exist? Can't there be an "auto delete" on all owned platforms once a name is acquired???

 

[cabotower]

when a name is listed at afternic and put on a dan lander would the sale be through afternic or dan?

 

[GoDaddy]

@GoDaddy

Your "Godaddy Assistant" is defeating the entire purpose of using Buy Now landers.

If I wanted to negotiate pricing, I would not go to all the trouble of setting the nameservers, then copying & pasting over a half dozen pages, a thousand domains at a time to select that specific lander.

Until you get rid of it or make it optional, my portfolio will be parked elsewhere.

Hi @411domains, that's a recent test feature that our team rolled out. You'll notice that we have a phone number listed on the Buy Now landers for potential buyers that need more information before purchasing the domain. This chat provides an alternative for customers who are more comfortable typing than phoning, so that they can connect with Afternic's team to get questions answered. We will definitely make the team aware of your feedback, though.

@GoDaddy

I would appreciate if you stopped ignoring my posts.

Who is in charge of explaining how the leads-brokers system works?
This is fucked up, once again.

Right now I have a lead in my lead center for a domain for $30, as well as an offer for the same domain in my dashboard for $50.
The broker in charge of this lead is not able to see the offer of $50...

I m negotiating right now the offer I see in my dashboard, without the broker participation in this.
I thought direct negotiation was off the table since the start of Afternic 2.0
Did you add some new feature?

PS: of course I was never notified for any of these offers

Hi @Traderas,
In this case, it looks like you had a buyer that submitted 2 offers in quick succession. In this unusual scenario, the first offer gets logged, which is what your broker would be able to see in their system. Both offers, including the $50 offer, are sent to you, too. You should have received an email notification for this offer. If you didn't, we'd recommend checking your email settings at Afternic as well as your inbox's junk folder.

This is a fringe case, but we'll ask the Afternic team to look into amending the system to handle that scenario.

I've been having recent issues with Afternic. Historically, prior to the Dan acquisition, I would list a name on Dan and then Afternic. If the name already existed on Dan, I would send an email to support and within an hour it was fixed. If it was still listed on Afternic by the previous owner, I would fill out a support form and within 24-48 hours they would email me that I could now proceed and list it.
Two weeks ago, after 3-4-5 days, Afternic emailed me and told me the many ways to prove my ownership. That wasn't my question. Thankfully I have a great VIP manager at GoDaddy to help me. This morning I took ownership of a domain I bought at GoDaddy auctions last week. Accepted at Dan, listed for $10,000; failed at Afternic, as the former owner has it still listed at $2,099....which is potentially damaging any search results for this name at all other registrars. I didn't fill out the support at Afternic....I just emailed my guy at GoDaddy. Question, since this acquisition and listings are all at companies owned by GoDaddy, why do these issues still exist? Can't there be an "auto delete" on all owned platforms once a name is acquired???

Hi @FredMercaldo,
Afternic and Dan run on two different infrastructures, but we’re working on the relationship and interaction between them, which started with the auto-opt-in of BIN listings at Dan to Afternic.

As support might have told you, the fastest way to currently remove listings from Afternic is with ownership verification: https://www.godaddy.com/garage/afternic-landing-page-selection-ownership-verification/ which can be completed in a minute or two.

when a name is listed at afternic and put on a dan lander would the sale be through afternic or dan?

Hi @cabotower, when a name is listed first at Afternic with a Dan.com Lander (available through the Lander Selection column at Afternic), then your domain would be listed for sale through Afternic.

If your domain was listed first at Dan.com with a BIN price, it would be distributed through the Afternic network

 

[tonyk2000]

This chat provides an alternative for customers who are more comfortable typing than phoning, so that they can connect with Afternic's team to get questions answered

Who in their right mind would want to "chat" with a bot ("digital assistant")?

 

[411domains]

Hi @411domains, that's a recent test feature that our team rolled out. You'll notice that we have a phone number listed on the Buy Now landers for potential buyers that need more information before purchasing the domain. This chat provides an alternative for customers who are more comfortable typing than phoning, so that they can connect with Afternic's team to get questions answered. We will definitely make the team aware of your feedback, though.

@GoDaddy How about you send them this "feedback?"

The BIN Landers are for BUYING NOW.

Translation: When set to BIN landers, we neither need nor want brokers running interference or worse, pitching alternative domains to our potential buyers.

Stop f'ing around with unnecessary test features and get to work on the hundreds of platform inefficiencies that currently plague Afternic 2.0. AKA...Afternic Beta. AKA...Afternic Beta, Year 2.5.

C'mon guys, things only seem like rocket science when you have no clue what you're doing.

 

[Mister Funsky]

UPDATE: After many emails, I finally got a detailed email from what I assume is a senior tech. No response prior seemed to understand that I never signed up with afternic directly...finally a email came that explained that, on afternics end, an account was created when I first logged in through godaddy long ago.

I was told how to retrieve my afternic account information...information I did not know existed since I never 'joined' afternic.

So by going through all the retrieval steps as if I had signed up directly, I was able to learn my afternic 'name' and was eventually able to get a new password. Log is was finally achieved. Stress levels decreasing!

Thanks to @James Iles for his assistance. I'm disappointed @GoDaddy did not respond to me in this thread. James has kept me from having a bad taste by reaching out to me.

 

[tonyk2000]

Yes, payee selection is still a functionality that Afternic offers, and it appears this should have been an option for you. We've asked our Afternic engineers to investigate this

Any news on this? I am still unable to select payees for not-yet-scheduled payouts.
Losing existing and useful functionality is unacceptable.

It may well be that GoDaddy, being a US company, does not realize how important this feature is for non-US sellers. So, a few generic tips:

1) Paypal. They earn (and a lot) on currency exchange. It is too expensive to receive 100% payouts to paypal outside US, as withdrawals are costly (currency exchange from USD to local currency @ extremely unfriendly rate, and potentially changing local currency back to USD should the seller need to spend USD later). SImilarly, it is expensive to fund USD paypal wallet from outside US - there would be currency exchange and/or foreign purchase fee applied by the sellers bank or CC company. Accordingly, the most practical way to fund USD paypal wallet is via receiving _occasional_ masspayments (no fees) in USD. With an opportunity to select paypal payee @ afternic, all was fine, and I could receive $$$ into my paypal wallet as needed [this included routing small sales to paypal, which is logical]. Now I can't. And, as shown above, I cannot and would not switch all payouts to paypal by selecting it as default afternic payment method.
In other words, thanks to GoDaddy, I'm now losing money as I need to pay more $$$ for routine fund movements.

2) Different banks have different _receiving_ wire fees, which depends on the amount, currency, correspondent bank and currency exchange rates. Afternic itself offers an opportunity to select payout currency for most countries. Accordingly, it is logical to expect that the sellers may need to maintain different bank accounts for different sales/currencies etc, selecting payee as needed [= chaning default payee for some sales]. Even GoDaddy itself is doing this! During purchase time @ godaddy .com, sometimes it says "your CC will be billed by GoDaddy US", and sometimes it says "... by GoDaddy Europe". I do not care why. No issues. Your know how to do your accounting. Sellers know how to operate theirs. But, after the recent afternic upgrade (or bug), it is impossible to perform a routine task of selecting the payee for a sale!

 

[FredMercaldo]

Hi @411domains, that's a recent test feature that our team rolled out. You'll notice that we have a phone number listed on the Buy Now landers for potential buyers that need more information before purchasing the domain. This chat provides an alternative for customers who are more comfortable typing than phoning, so that they can connect with Afternic's team to get questions answered. We will definitely make the team aware of your feedback, though.


Hi @Traderas,
In this case, it looks like you had a buyer that submitted 2 offers in quick succession. In this unusual scenario, the first offer gets logged, which is what your broker would be able to see in their system. Both offers, including the $50 offer, are sent to you, too. You should have received an email notification for this offer. If you didn't, we'd recommend checking your email settings at Afternic as well as your inbox's junk folder.

This is a fringe case, but we'll ask the Afternic team to look into amending the system to handle that scenario.


Hi @FredMercaldo,
Afternic and Dan run on two different infrastructures, but we’re working on the relationship and interaction between them, which started with the auto-opt-in of BIN listings at Dan to Afternic.

As support might have told you, the fastest way to currently remove listings from Afternic is with ownership verification: https://www.godaddy.com/garage/afternic-landing-page-selection-ownership-verification/ which can be completed in a minute or two.


Hi @cabotower, when a name is listed first at Afternic with a Dan.com Lander (available through the Lander Selection column at Afternic), then your domain would be listed for sale through Afternic.

If your domain was listed first at Dan.com with a BIN price, it would be distributed through the Afternic network

@GoDaddy. Thanks for your reply, however as the owner of all 3 platforms now, again, there should be a system in place that once a GoDaddy auction sells a name to a new buyer/owner, you automatically delete any present listings at Dan or Afternic, which would eliminate the need for all of this needless customer service and communications. Can you imagine the credibility issue if someone would have acquired the name in question at $2,099 and I would have rejected the sale? I can understand jumping through a hoop if the name is registered somewhere else; but why should I have to prove to Afternic by adding a DNS record when simply, my Whois information shows my ownership that you can ascertain in seconds, not minutes?

 

[411domains]

I've been troubleshooting an issue since Friday and since I'm stuck waiting for the Afternic team to return on Monday so that we may resume troubleshooting on their end, I thought I'd see if anyone else was affected.

Has anyone else noticed Fast Transfer sync issues on newly eligible domains since DAN forced the auto opt-in on all accounts?

Just curious, let me know.

 

[bmugford]

Sold a domain on Afternic (fast transfer) on 8/12.

In the email it said "we will send you an email within 7-10 days regarding your payment..."

On 8/14 I received an email saying the transfer was complete.

Payout date is scheduled as 8/17.

I am not sure about others, but I have noticed faster payments lately.

Brad