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.

 

[bmugford]

Thanks for pointing this out. The email you received comes from a standard template that provides general guidance on our typical payout schedule. Afternic's platform communications should be in sync, though. We'll bring this up with our engineering team today.

Thanks for responding.

I provided (3) different screenshots that all show different things. That is a problem.

GoDaddy has a market cap of around $15B. Surely there are the resources to fix this type of confusion.

Brad

 

[Future Sensors]

Even within the dashboard you can come across different statuses in different places, for the same transaction.

I suspect that this issue was never further addressed at the time, which is why inconsistencies like this continue to persist. So many things have been suggested since this thread started (and in threads preceding this thread). It is a pity that these are not being picked up.

 

[Janoss]

@GoDaddy

Can you please ask your team to look into adding back the ability to add multiple payout methods from the user settings? It is a step backwards to need to contact support in order to add a new payout method rather than users having the ability to just add it themselves and choose whichever they want as default right in their settings.

 

[411domains]

@GoDaddy

Since the "upgraded," version does not have it, I would like to recommend carrying over the "Registrar" info so that it can be added to the columns and viewable on the user's end.

How is it useful to the user?

It has proven to be a key piece of information when troubleshooting and resolving sync issues.

Let's say we move a domain or several domains to another registrar.

Obviously, they immediately go into review at Afternic. (Good)

Unfortunately, they will remain in review for eternity unless we call, email or delete & re-add the domain. (Bad)

Personally, I prefer deleting & re-adding. (It's efficient.)

In my experience with deleting & re-adding domains post transfer, I have found that many times Afternic's system re-adds the losing registrar info instead of the new registrar. It shouldn't, but it's does.

I discovered this while troubleshooting why opt-in notifications were not being received for domains that had been transferred and became Fast Transfer eligible.

After all the usual workarounds failed, I thought to check the registrars in the classic version and sure enough, they were showing the wrong registrars.

If the system is showing the wrong registrar, the domains will remain in pending opt-in status for eternity and no amount of refreshing will ever get them up to Fast Transfer Active status until the registrar info matches.

While this may be fine for some, I prefer the extra benefits of the Fast Transfer network.

That being said, it would be appreciated if this key piece of information were carried over. Quite frankly, I'm surprised it wasn't.

Since "Classic" is out and it's now being referred to as an "upgraded" experience, does this mean that basic, industry standard filter functions are coming soon?

 

[tonyk2000]

The ability to select a payout method after the sale is complete will continue to be in the Classic environment for the moment. Once we're confident that a 2.0 experience replaces all the functions on that page successfully, we'll switch that page over.

OK. GD killed afternic classic earlier today. I had an instant transfer sale ~2 hours ago. Please explain where and how am I now supposed to select payee for it (if needed)?. There is no dasboard with recent sales anymore. So I searched for the domain in sold section @ the "new" interface and found the following:

Status: Payout Pending
Payout date: 1/17/2024

1/17 is tomorrow. The domain was sold today so it cannot and wouldn't be paid tomorrow. Naturally, I did not yet receive an usual email from TA ( with the Subject: The transfer for <...> is done!) indicating that the payout is scheduled, as the sale occured just 2 hours ago. In afternic classic, I could select the payee after 2 hours (actually, within ~12 hours if it was sold on GD and within days if sold elsewhere). Now I cannot. Please advise.

 

[411domains]

I received an offer of $100 for a domain name that I had just added to my portfolio and was listing only to collect offers. Of course, I rejected this funny offer.

Then I got this message:

Show attachment 251612

I am the only one who will decide the pricing of the assets I own. No one has the right to comment on this point until I ask for. Especially to speak to me in an imperative manner is unacceptable!

If you do not want such listings to be made in Afternic, then simply remove this option. Or train your brokers properly!

Rich has been around for awhile, I don't know why he would say that. Perhaps he was just having bad day or something.

Regardless, it's never a good idea for a broker to say something like that. Especially in that tone.

Then again, maybe they shouldn't sit on leads like they do, but that's getting off topic.

It's a sales platform. You can ask or in this case, not ask whatever you want.

The bottom line is, it's your asset not theirs.

 

[USA]

@GoDaddy suggestion for new afternic
Make font black not gray hard for reading. Remove gray background. Font is too thin

 

[bmugford]

Hi @bmugford,
Thanks for pointing this out. The email you received comes from a standard template that provides general guidance on our typical payout schedule. Afternic's platform communications should be in sync, though. We'll bring this up with our engineering team today.

This transaction finally has a payout scheduled on 1/19.

That is 15 days after the "1-3 business days" email, and by my count on the 10th business day.

It is also well after the "next 7 days", not business days, shown in the other screenshot.

Brad

 

[capybara]

What are the exact conditions for a transaction to be handled by Escrow.com? What happens if the seller or the buyer are from a country not supported by Escrow.com?

 

[bmugford]

This transaction finally has a payout scheduled on 1/19.

That is 15 days after the "1-3 business days" email, and by my count on the 10th business day.

It is also well after the "next 7 days", not business days, shown in the other screenshot.

Brad

I received payment on this one today.

I also received payment on another that was sold on 1/16.

So, that one went from sold, to completed email, to paid in only (2) days.

One suggestion is it would be nice if Afternic broke down what amount was for what domain, if there are multiple payments at one time. @GoDaddy

Brad

 

[Springs77]

@GoDaddy I am no longer seeing the "DAN LANDER" selection turn RED when the name is already listed in someone else's DAN account. So if the name is already listed in another shady DAN account (which happens 90% of the time, people adding names they don't own), you won't know, and your domains are resolving to another person's DAN lander listing with a different price and description.

Kind of a big issue for people using the DAN landers especially making changes in BULK. I only noticed it by chance.

 

[SpareDomains]

This is what I get on my mobile device in Chrome for the two domains I purchased.

Some domains load properly, some don't.

Show attachment 251527

I use Bitdefender and efty, dan, sedo, squadhelp, dynadot all fine but afternic all day long with the ssl warnings. If you're trying to sell to end users "attackers might be trying to steal your information" probably not the best message to send as how many will click through versus abort. They really need to just toss the Afternic/Goddady logo on Dan and forward afternic to Dan and be done with it. Afternic is beta bug fest for years now.

 

[GoDaddy]

@GoDaddy

Can you please ask your team to look into adding back the ability to add multiple payout methods from the user settings? It is a step backwards to need to contact support in order to add a new payout method rather than users having the ability to just add it themselves and choose whichever they want as default right in their settings.

Hi @Janoss,
Customers can still update and edit their default payout settings, but we appreciate your feedback and we'll continue to monitor user sentiment on this.

@GoDaddy

Since the "upgraded," version does not have it, I would like to recommend carrying over the "Registrar" info so that it can be added to the columns and viewable on the user's end.

How is it useful to the user?

It has proven to be a key piece of information when troubleshooting and resolving sync issues.

Let's say we move a domain or several domains to another registrar.

Obviously, they immediately go into review at Afternic. (Good)

Unfortunately, they will remain in review for eternity unless we call, email or delete & re-add the domain. (Bad)

Personally, I prefer deleting & re-adding. (It's efficient.)

In my experience with deleting & re-adding domains post transfer, I have found that many times Afternic's system re-adds the losing registrar info instead of the new registrar. It shouldn't, but it's does.

I discovered this while troubleshooting why opt-in notifications were not being received for domains that had been transferred and became Fast Transfer eligible.

After all the usual workarounds failed, I thought to check the registrars in the classic version and sure enough, they were showing the wrong registrars.

If the system is showing the wrong registrar, the domains will remain in pending opt-in status for eternity and no amount of refreshing will ever get them up to Fast Transfer Active status until the registrar info matches.

While this may be fine for some, I prefer the extra benefits of the Fast Transfer network.

That being said, it would be appreciated if this key piece of information were carried over. Quite frankly, I'm surprised it wasn't.

Since "Classic" is out and it's now being referred to as an "upgraded" experience, does this mean that basic, industry standard filter functions are coming soon?


Show attachment 251642

Hi @411domains,
Your usage of the Registrar column is a helpful insight. We'll work on getting the column re-added in a future update to the Afternic UX. Thank you for sharing.

OK. GD killed afternic classic earlier today. I had an instant transfer sale ~2 hours ago. Please explain where and how am I now supposed to select payee for it (if needed)?. There is no dasboard with recent sales anymore. So I searched for the domain in sold section @ the "new" interface and found the following:

Status: Payout Pending
Payout date: 1/17/2024

1/17 is tomorrow. The domain was sold today so it cannot and wouldn't be paid tomorrow. Naturally, I did not yet receive an usual email from TA ( with the Subject: The transfer for <...> is done!) indicating that the payout is scheduled, as the sale occured just 2 hours ago. In afternic classic, I could select the payee after 2 hours (actually, within ~12 hours if it was sold on GD and within days if sold elsewhere). Now I cannot. Please advise.

Hi @tonyk2000,
We are correcting an issue with the display date for the payout date; thank you for sharing this. By clicking on the status, you will be taken through to the TA page in the Classic experience for additional information.

@GoDaddy I am no longer seeing the "DAN LANDER" selection turn RED when the name is already listed in someone else's DAN account. So if the name is already listed in another shady DAN account (which happens 90% of the time, people adding names they don't own), you won't know, and your domains are resolving to another person's DAN lander listing with a different price and description.

Kind of a big issue for people using the DAN landers especially making changes in BULK. I only noticed it by chance.

Hi @Springs77,
Thanks for your feedback; we'll share this with our team. If your domain name was originally listed with Afternic, not listed at Dan.com, and you use Afternic's Dan.com Lander option, then adding that domain name to a Dan.com account while you're using Afternic's Dan.com Lander option should be impossible because of the way Afternic utilizes the Dan.com Lander to display your name. You're welcome to share a domain name or two as an example for us to check via DM.

For any domains at Dan.com that are erroneously listed, you can use their ownership verification system: https://dan.com/users/settings/ownership

 

[tom365]

I'm certain GD did plenty of due diligence on that, so the price reflects a lot of valuation factors that we can speculate on.

Simply comparing the elegance and user-friendliness of Dan to the antiquated, buggy Afternic that seems unable to break out of its shell. It's saddening and reflects badly on the entire ecosystem at GoDaddy.

I sent an email to Afternic and also left an online message to Afternic,it has been 7 days.but there was no response.

I purchased a domain through Afternic,paid and the seller has already pushed the domain name to Afternic's godadd account. However, it has been 7 days and Afternic has not pushed the domain name to me. I sent an email to Afternic and also left an online message to Afternic, but there was no response.

Afternic maybe gone bankrupt? why afternic nobody goes to work?

 

[GoDaddy]

@GoDaddy I am no longer seeing the "DAN LANDER" selection turn RED when the name is already listed in someone else's DAN account. So if the name is already listed in another shady DAN account (which happens 90% of the time, people adding names they don't own), you won't know, and your domains are resolving to another person's DAN lander listing with a different price and description.

Kind of a big issue for people using the DAN landers especially making changes in BULK. I only noticed it by chance.

Hi @Springs77
Our team did spot a bug in the Dan.com Lander notification system. This has been resolved, thank you. If you still experience issues, please DM us.

 

[Gm0]

Please share these concerns with Aman Bhutani (Godaddy CEO) and his admin ((Debra).

I emailed with him the other day and he said he thought all was well with the afternic system - and welcomed further input. So, please email him with your Afternic concerns so that he knows these concerns are Widespread and not isolated.

[email protected] (catchall)
[email protected] (personal)
Debra L. Nordfors (Aman's assistant) [email protected]

 

[Mister Funsky]

@GoDaddy

Will the option be available soon/anytime to have a 'make offer' button/box available on names that have a BIN?

Of course if someone goes to afternic.com they will see the min offer but when ns1/ns2afternic landers are used for a name, all we see is the BIN price...there is no indication I (seller) might be willing to entertain an offer.

I've recently pointed many of my names to afternic and, all things considered, we (Godaddy at 15% and myself) are doing okay. The previous two decades I handled sales myself and my top 3 were all BIN with make offer. In two of the cases the names sold for 55% and 75% of the BIN...one was about 110% of the starting BIN (customer made me mad).

There is no doubt from my perspective that having the BIN/Make Offer options available at the same time is what allowed the sale to happen. In the first two cases mentioned, the buyers said they had seen the BIN before and opted not to contact me. It was only after I added the 'Make Offer' button did they begin the process.

 

[Mikeyboy]

will dan.com be shutting down? Sounds like it should

 

[Gm0]

Godaddy killed Dan.com.

It was an incredible platform prior to Godaddy acquiring it.

 

[bmugford]

This is a problem -

https://twitter.com/x/status/1749887308147388544

A bunch of people have reported the exact same issue.

GoDaddy has too many different paths between Afternic, GoDaddy auctions, Dan.com, Afternic feeding to GoDaddy, Afternic feeding to Dan, etc.

It's quite the cluster*uck.

I try to list names, they are already in some else's account and/or end up "in review".

It's almost impossible to track all these issues with a large portfolio.

Now you have people just listing domains they don't own. It would be very easy for someone to just authorize one of these and get screwed.

@GoDaddy

Brad