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.

 

[DomainRecap]

I guess the buyer got bored of waiting and bought it full price...

That's hardly a glowing endorsement of Afternic.

"Our Brokers are So Slow that Buyers Hit the BIN out of Sheer Boredom!"

I actually had something similar happen, as the buyer sent an offer, to which the broker ignored it for about a week, so they in sent additional offers at higher and higher prices. I accepted the final one when they finally filtered in, but it took the broker another 3-4 days to get around to my transaction again.

And by that time, their price had gone up another $250 so I got a little "3 Stooges" bonus for all the delays.

If that doesn't illustrate how broken Afternic is, then nothing will.

 

[love4ever]

I guess the buyer got bored of waiting and bought it full price...

Yes the buyer got bored of the broker who disappeared and went sleeping !

.

 

[wwwweb]

Boosting needs to be abolished, Afternic wins when sellers sell, domains are not held in physical inventory where they take up space, they do not take security of the domain while it is listed. We should have all resources available if we are registering at godaddy, listing on their afternic, why are we being punished when are giving them total support, and it is not mututal. As well all that customer data is being retained by them for future marketing, and follow up, we all know data is very important.

 

[Intop]

Problems with Custom Checkout Link !
I have a personal landing page with my owns DNS and I am contacted by a potential buyer.

I would like to send an adjusted price proposal with a customized purchase link. I want to avoid a 25% commission and go down to 5%. We are talking about a very modest sale XXX, and I am not willing to leave 25% in commissions for a sale that has been negotiated outside Afternic in full.

I create the link within the domain in my afternic panel, test the link with the buy link and.... “Error occurred loading cart." This is the message that the buyer will see if he clicks the link.

Sent an email 10 hours ago to afternic support with no response. Chatted 8 hours ago indicating that I urgently need to send the proposal to the client. Nothing... the link still does not work.

I miss Dan....

 

[alcy]

A tale as old as time.

I get a $2K offer and counter with $3.5K and I get this message and the transaction is closed down by the broker. WTF?

maybe I just haven't had my 10th whiskey dis morning... but is here truly no way ever forever to avoid all any brokers when selling domains.. whether from buyer side or seller side or other side... or all kamasutra sides and positions

let's put our brains into one and find a way to sell and or buy with no brokers ever

can it be done????

ps sorry brokers

 

[Jannes]

Problems with Custom Checkout Link !
I have a personal landing page with my owns DNS and I am contacted by a potential buyer.

I would like to send an adjusted price proposal with a customized purchase link. I want to avoid a 25% commission and go down to 5%. We are talking about a very modest sale XXX, and I am not willing to leave 25% in commissions for a sale that has been negotiated outside Afternic in full.

I create the link within the domain in my afternic panel, test the link with the buy link and.... “Error occurred loading cart." This is the message that the buyer will see if he clicks the link.

Sent an email 10 hours ago to afternic support with no response. Chatted 8 hours ago indicating that I urgently need to send the proposal to the client. Nothing... the link still does not work.

I miss Dan....

1) is the extension supported by Godaddy (not just Afternic)?
2) have to tried logged out or even from other IP, in case there are measures to prevent buying your own domains?

 

[Intop]

1) is the extension supported by Godaddy (not just Afternic)?
2) have to tried logged out or even from other IP, in case there are measures to prevent buying your own domains?

.PT domain
Yes, I tried with different IP and with hidden browser tab to avoid cache.

 

[Jannes]

.PT domain

Okay, they (GD) don't sell .pt domains, therefore the cart doesn't load.
Gotta love how they've planned things.

 

[Intop]

Okay, they (GD) don't sell .pt domains, therefore the cart doesn't load.
Gotta love how they've planned things.

Show attachment 269355

Ohh my god !
Thanks for checking the problem. They should hire you because they do not know very well what they are doing.
In the chat the agent only view the fail and create a ID case to report and waiting....

But I think it must be something else. On afternic you can list .PT domains for sale, I don't see the logic for them not to let you create custom links even if Godaddy doesn't work with this extension.

 

[GoDaddy]

@GoDaddy @Afternic

The saga continues. The ball is in your hands now. My recent doomed sale. Will the buyer cancel it because of your malfunctioning system?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1880559021335445550

Hi @Blueleaf66,
We're touching base again with the TA team today regarding this matter. They'll get in touch with you as soon as we have an update on the transfer.

@GoDaddy

Any idea ?

Why do leads sometimes get created with "Qualifying" status, and sometimes with "Negotiating" status - in both scenarios the buyer has made a valid offer.

Hi @Smooth,
Without the specifics of the domain, it's difficult to say for sure. In this case, the lead marked as "Qualifying" seems like the offer was attached to the initial lead. The broker might be waiting for the buyer's confirmation to qualify the lead and move it forward.

Once again, without more details, it's tough to provide a complete picture of the scenario.

Problems with Custom Checkout Link !
I have a personal landing page with my owns DNS and I am contacted by a potential buyer.

I would like to send an adjusted price proposal with a customized purchase link. I want to avoid a 25% commission and go down to 5%. We are talking about a very modest sale XXX, and I am not willing to leave 25% in commissions for a sale that has been negotiated outside Afternic in full.

I create the link within the domain in my afternic panel, test the link with the buy link and.... “Error occurred loading cart." This is the message that the buyer will see if he clicks the link.

Sent an email 10 hours ago to afternic support with no response. Chatted 8 hours ago indicating that I urgently need to send the proposal to the client. Nothing... the link still does not work.

I miss Dan....

Hi @Intop,
As @Jannes mentioned, the Custom Checkout Link pathway doesn't support the .pt extension. For future reference, you can check the list here: https://help.afternic.com/s/article/What-extensions-TLDs-can-I-list. The TLDs supported by the Custom Checkout Link fall under "TLDs supported on our Reseller Network and All Lander Types."

We'll share this scenario with the product team to help clear up any confusion.

 

[Future Sensors]

My common sense says that for TLDs that are not supported, the option to create a custom checkout link should be disabled in the dashboard.

 

[Blueleaf66]

Hi @Blueleaf66,
We're touching base again with the TA team today regarding this matter. They'll get in touch with you as soon as we have an update on the transfer.

Hi, I think dev team should be looking into this since it's possibly related to .ai's recent migration to Identity Digital. I checked Godaddy's transfer system yesterday and it hasn't been updated. For example, it was still showing that .ai transfers don't carry a 2-year renewal which isn't the case anymore.

 

[DomainRecap]

maybe I just haven't had my 10th whiskey dis morning... but is here truly no way ever forever to avoid all any brokers when selling domains.. whether from buyer side or seller side or other side... or all kamasutra sides and positions

It hath been oathed for many a fortnight!

When Dan was being shut down last year, GD promised that an Afternic Seller Brokerage Tool (which takes the broker out of the equation) would be provided by "the end of year".

You can see how that worked out.

Now the promise has switched to "First Quarter 2025" and we're still waiting. That's the only reason I'm still at Afternic, as unless you're Rip Van Winkle and can just sleep through the incessant broker delays, it's virtually impossible to run a domain business there.

 

[DomainRecap]

The saddest part is they had it all there at their fingertips, no work required other than changing the Dan logo for a GD logo.

I personally believe the end game is to shut down everything and run the marketplace through GoDaddy again, using either Dan or Afternic as the temporary bridge, and shutting down the other one to save costs.

So since Afternic has its fans among the GD elite, and is already integrated with GD and MLS, the GD brass totally ignored how crappy the system is for sellers and went that route. It killed two birds with one stone - those execs invested in the Afternic purchase get kudos and everyone receives their "hit that date" Christmas bonus for closing down one of the marketplaces before the end of 2024.

At least that's my theory.

 

[D Haynes]

I personally believe the end game is to shut down everything and run the marketplace through GoDaddy again, using either Dan or Afternic as the temporary bridge, and shutting down the other one to save costs.

So since Afternic has its fans among the GD elite, and is already integrated with GD and MLS, the GD brass totally ignored how crappy the system is for sellers and went that route. It killed two birds with one stone - those execs invested in the Afternic purchase get kudos and everyone receives their "hit that date" Christmas bonus for closing down one of the marketplaces before the end of 2024.

At least that's my theory.

Entirely plausible. In essence they've already shut down Afternic in regards to what it once was. It was a marketplace solely for aftermarket domains and now it's basically Godaddy.

When you're by far the biggest player in the game you can get away with being poorly run for a long time but I don't think they're untouchable by any stretch. At some point a new player will start to threaten and they won't be interested in being bought out or Godaddy will have slipped so far they won't be able to buy them out.

The smart move in my opinion right now is to list our names at AN 20% higher than you list them elsewhere and use different landers.

How long until they take away fast transfer for anyone not using GD nameservers?

 

[Optinom]

Entirely plausible. In essence they've already shut down Afternic in regards to what it once was. It was a marketplace solely for aftermarket domains and now it's basically Godaddy.

When you're by far the biggest player in the game you can get away with being poorly run for a long time but I don't think they're untouchable by any stretch. At some point a new player will start to threaten and they won't be interested in being bought out or Godaddy will have slipped so far they won't be able to buy them out.

The smart move in my opinion right now is to list our names at AN 20% higher than you list them elsewhere and use different landers.

How long until they take away fast transfer for anyone not using GD nameservers?

Sedo has the potential, as they have the only alternative in MLS. But for some reason they're run poorly too. Interfaces are poor. I'm not sure about brokers.

 

[Future Sensors]

I personally believe the end game is to shut down everything and run the marketplace through GoDaddy again

This will definitely scare away Sellers who still have some connection with Afternic and despise GoDaddy. But it will eventually move in that direction, lol.

 

[Timkh]

When you're by far the biggest player in the game you can get away with being poorly run for a long time but I don't think they're untouchable by any stretch. At some point a new player will start to threaten and they won't be interested in being bought out or Godaddy will have slipped so far they won't be able to buy them out.

At least half of all sales come through the GD reg path. And if the potential buyers don't see the domain on GoDaddy, we don't know what percentage of them will go to landing pages or other major registrars supported by Sedo(mls/basic). And this is the only reason why many of us, unfortunately, are still with them.

 

[DomainRecap]

And this is the only reason why many of us, unfortunately, are still with them.

I'm still with Afternic because of the 'dangling carrot' that is the Self-Brokerage Tool. If that never materializes then I am gone with the wind.

I used Dan exclusively prior to its termination, while also listing on Sedo and Afternic, and only very rarely did anything come in through Afternic, and most of it was Stalled/Confused junk leads.

 

[Garet]

At least half of all sales come through the GD reg path. And if the potential buyers don't see the domain on GoDaddy, we don't know what percentage of them will go to landing pages or other major registrars supported by Sedo(mls/basic). And this is the only reason why many of us, unfortunately, are still with them.

So true. That's the simple and painful truth for me 100%.