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]

This is step 1 of the 3 part plan I had to move domains around.

So, here is what happened with the first list I provided to Afternic support -

There were around 1700 domains. One was not moved from the old account and is listed as "on hold" there.
It is listed as "pending sync" in the other account. There was an active negotiation, so that might be why.

(46) domains immediately moved to "in review" status.

EDIT: All the "in review" ones are now listed properly.

Brad

 

[D Haynes]

All of it is GD's to pay since you sell to GoDaddy and they sell it to the "end-buyer".
Since you don't even know the buyer's country let alone any info to put on the invoice you wouldn't be able to properly calculate the VAT rate.

GD act as a broker. Nowhere in the Afternic terms of service does it say you sell your name to them and they sell it on. It only mentions you (the seller) and the buyer.

I as a seller could be charged VAT on their service cost which is the commission and pay income tax on the profits I make (or not if its a loss). If I as a seller am not VAT registered the buyer should not be charged VAT on the sales price of the domain as I am not charging VAT on the sale of my product. This is as on in the UK although I understand different countries have different rules and the rules are different for VAT registered entities.

 

[skshogun]

GD act as a broker. Nowhere in the Afternic terms of service does it say you sell your name to them and they sell it on. It only mentions you (the seller) and the buyer.



I as a seller could be charged VAT on their service cost which is the commission and pay income tax on the profits I make (or not if its a loss). If I as a seller am not VAT registered the buyer should not be charged VAT on the sales price of the domain as I am not charging VAT on the sale of my product. This is as on in the UK although I understand different countries have different rules and the rules are different for VAT registered entities.

Hmmmm. This is very interesting. That would basically forbid proper taxation, accounting for many sellers. Have you (or anyone else here) bought a domain listed by some seller (not GoDaddy, NameFind) from Afternic? If so what does the receipt/invoice says? I bet it's some entity of GoDaddy and not the seller.
I am invoicing GoDaddy as the following business entity:
GoDaddy.com, LLC
2155 E GoDaddy Way
Tempe, AZ 85284
US

 

[D Haynes]

Hmmmm. This is very interesting. That would basically forbid proper taxation, accounting for many sellers. Have you (or anyone else here) bought a domain listed by some seller (not GoDaddy, NameFind) from Afternic? If so what does the receipt/invoice says? I bet it's some entity of GoDaddy and not the seller.
I am invoicing GoDaddy as the following business entity:
GoDaddy.com, LLC
2155 E GoDaddy Way
Tempe, AZ 85284
US

No I've never bought from AN but someone here must have. I know when you buy on Sedo you can request an invoice from the seller but I'm not sure if that's the case on AN (I've never been asked for one).

The GD taxations have always been a very grey area in my opinion. I have to trust they have people who know more than me about accounting running things but then again I used to trust they had competent people running other areas of the business and that's clearly not the case sooo...

 

[DomainRecap]

Things at Afternic seem to move along at a snail's pace. That is not a good thing when it comes to interested buyers.

This is my nomination for NamePros Understatement of the Year.

I had some payments clearing last week and still have several open negotiations at Afternic and was hoping for some updates today, but there was absolutely nothing, not even a "call logged" or "email sent".

It's just absolutely D-E-A-D and at a certain point you just want to start selling them at a stand outside your house.

 

[NicTraders]

We've now increased the coverage of Afternic's support staff to 7 days per week.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work too well. I contacted Afternic support a couple of weeks ago. It routed me to GoDaddy Support. I asked my question and was told I'd need to contact Afternic Support later. But that was what I already did.
Don't worry about it. I solved the problem - I no longer have any Afternic listings.

 

[DomainRecap]

Don't worry about it. I solved the problem - I no longer have any Afternic listings.

This is just getting uglier and uglier, but GoDaddy can't say I didn't warn them.

 

[skshogun]

No I've never bought from AN but someone here must have. I know when you buy on Sedo you can request an invoice from the seller but I'm not sure if that's the case on AN (I've never been asked for one).

The GD taxations have always been a very grey area in my opinion. I have to trust they have people who know more than me about accounting running things but then again I used to trust they had competent people running other areas of the business and that's clearly not the case sooo...

Yes, Sedo is much more open in this regard. I always receive the buyer name, address etc so I can properly calculate VAT even when the name sells through the SedoMLS.
As you said, on Afternic it's really a grey area.

 

[carob]

Asked Afternic to turn off Fast Transfer on all my domains which have it - the migration from Dan wrongly turned it on on xxx domains. I asked them to turn off Fast Transfer on all domains two weeks ago and they still have not done it. Another reason to keep moving listings off Afternic.

Afternic Fast Transfer has risks and almost no benefits, despite them misleadingly telling you it will reach more buyers, and few sales happen via the wider network anyway (except Namecheap) according to a research result mentioned on here by @Bob Hawkes which I can't seem to find.

As someone pointed out on here, the real purpose of Fast Transfer is to lock in the sale price for the benefit of Afternic - once a domain leaves your account it is almost impossible to argue about, or correct, the price. I have found Afternic failing to carry out my price changes, which is my main reason for not trusting Fast Transfer, as well as the risk of a rogue seller or Afternic bug getting a domain out of my account.

Afternic ordinary listings reach a long list of registrars given at https://help.afternic.com/s/article/Afternic-Partners - the only ones you miss if not enabling Fast Transfer are the following subset who might account for at best under 1% of sales, hardly justifying the risk of enabling Fast Transfer:

• Domain[dot]com (EIG)
• Dotster (EIG)
• Tucows
• Enom
• Amen Sasu (Dada)
• Amen World (Dada)
• Nominalia (Dada)
• Register[dot]it (Dada)
• Gname
• Hostopia/Aplus
• 123Reg (HEG)
• MeshDigital (HEG)
• OpenProvider
• Snapnames

 

[doofer]

Asked Afternic to turn off Fast Transfer on all my domains which have it - the migration from Dan wrongly turned it on on xxx domains. I asked them to turn off Fast Transfer on all domains two weeks ago and they still have not done it. Another reason to keep moving listings off Afternic.

Afternic Fast Transfer has risks and almost no benefits, despite them misleadingly telling you it will reach more buyers, and few sales happen via the wider network anyway (except Namecheap) according to a research result mentioned on here by @Bob Hawkes which I can't seem to find.

As someone pointed out on here, the real purpose of Fast Transfer is to lock in the sale price for the benefit of Afternic - once a domain leaves your account it is almost impossible to argue about, or correct, the price. I have found Afternic failing to carry out my price changes, which is my main reason for not trusting Fast Transfer, as well as the risk of a rogue seller or Afternic bug getting a domain out of my account.

Afternic ordinary listings reach a long list of registrars given at https://help.afternic.com/s/article/Afternic-Partners - the only ones you miss if not enabling Fast Transfer are the following subset who might account for at best under 1% of sales, hardly justifying the risk of enabling Fast Transfer:

And as previously discussed, fast transfer does not mean fast payout !

 

[DomainRecap]

And as previously discussed, fast transfer does not mean fast payout !

Nothing at Afternic spells "Fast Payout".

 

[Name2go]

Nothing at Afternic spells "Fast Payout".

Want an anti-laugh joke?

Fast is a German word, too. Its translation into English is
Nearly or almost.

 

[DomainRecap]

I don't get what is supposed to happen here.

I am testing out Afternic with a subset of my domains (all at one registrar) and I set the BIN, but it then requires me to set the Minimum Offer ('Min Offer must be greater than $20') so I choose the same Buy-it-Now dollar amount, but when I test the BIN or Custom landers and click "next" it boots me to the Request Price lander.

Is this Afternic acting up or is it because I had to type in a Make Offer amount? Am I setting the BIN properly because usually there is a place to disable the Make Offer, but this system is so archaic that I'm not sure what is going on.

Basically, how do you set a BIN on Afternic without a Make Offer? Or do you even need to and this is yet another Afternic bug?

 

[Altetra]

I got some offers on Bodis, if I come to an agreement, I want to import my lead to Afternic but I not see how, did they removed this feature or it must be added as a domain then configure how to sell it?

 

[Altetra]

No I've never bought from AN but someone here must have. I know when you buy on Sedo you can request an invoice from the seller but I'm not sure if that's the case on AN (I've never been asked for one).

The GD taxations have always been a very grey area in my opinion. I have to trust they have people who know more than me about accounting running things but then again I used to trust they had competent people running other areas of the business and that's clearly not the case sooo...

I have try once to buy a domain on Afternic, will not provide much details but the reason why it did not sell to me at the available BIN is really suspicious, I wonder who really controls that domain now, it felt like Godaddy decided not to sell it but not the seller, I will see later what happens with it will spy on it's WHOIS, but who knows maybe the seller forgot to update price.

Yes you get the invoice and many other emails, it had 0% tax based on my country.

 

[Jannes]

I got some offers on Bodis, if I come to an agreement, I want to import my lead to Afternic but I not see how, did they removed this feature or it must be added as a domain then configure how to sell it?

Yes, you list the domain first and pray it doesn't go into review. A checkout link can then be created from the listing (domain details page).

 

[DomainRecap]

I got some offers on Bodis, if I come to an agreement, I want to import my lead to Afternic but I not see how, did they removed this feature or it must be added as a domain then configure how to sell it?

Go to Portfolio - All Domains

Then search for the domain you want to sell, and click on it.

You should see a "Create Checkout Link" on the mid-right of the screen.

 

[DomainRecap]

I just read back through this thread and found that this lander problem (where clicking 'Next' on the Afternic BIN lander forwards to the Request Price lander) is a known and continuing issue.

So how can you sell BIN domains at Afternic when the landers don't work?

Afternic is like a carny funhouse, with another crazy surprise behind each new door you open. Probably best not to enter in the first place.

 

[bmugford]

The process of fixing my Afternic listings is still ongoing.

Last night I uploaded a file with some priced domains into my Afternic account.
They were ones listed on Dan, but not on Afternic for whatever reason.

I received a confirmation that it was processing in the background (or something like that).
As of around 10 hours later, nothing has happened.

It's like it just disappeared into the ether.

The process of doing pretty much anything on Afternic is frustrating. @GoDaddy

Brad

 

[DomainRecap]

The process of doing pretty much anything on Afternic is frustrating.

To be honest, I feel that dealing with Afternic is shaving years off my life, and I'm not kidding. I'm not a depressive person by nature, but lately I find myself getting up in a bad mood with aches and pains I didn't know I had. And I experience a combination of trepidation and resignation when checking my email and clicking on the Afternic Dashboard.

It's like a horror movie where you're caught in a nightmare where nothing ever changes.

Like that Twilight Zone episode where William Shatner is trapped in the town where his car never gets fixed (probably Afternic mechanics) and all the other residents keep asking the Devil Fortune Teller machines if they can finally leave today. No!

Oh great and benevolent Afternic, will my Dashboard receive an update today? Will payments from last week finally be approved? Will I ever get paid?

No!