The value of a broker is a personalized relationship with the buyer. Automation defeats that. You can use Afternic's self-brokering if you want to control the relationship.
Floor price is the minimum that the broker is allowed to negotiate to, not a buy it now price, if you update the floor price then the broker will still go back to the buyer and continue the negotiation.
If you want Afternic to be able to negotiate on your behalf without delay, then you should keep your floor price up to date with the actual lowest amount you are willing to accept. If you have to update your floor price in response to a broker negotiating then you are not giving the broker all of the tools to negotiate effectively.
An argument could be made that if you update the Buy It Now to be less than or equal to the buyer's best offer then the payment link could be sent automatically, but that shouldn't happen with the floor price because that isn't the point of the floor price.
Not quite. When you receive an offer through lead center, the current suggested way to accept it is by lowering the floor to match the offer (Afternic instructions). What further negotiation is required at that point, other than their poor solution for accepting offers?
So while I agree that this shouldn't be the point of the floor price, it's exactly how it's currently implemented. Mind you, I lowered both the floor (as instructed) as well as the BIN, to help facilitate the sale and potentially trigger the automation... Nothing. It still took them 3 full days to send an email.
And I did acknowledge the importance of a personalized relationship during the negotiation. However, from me accepting the offer to them relaying it took nearly full 72 hours. If you think that's how it should be, then good luck in this industry going forward. I've been doing it for 23 years (wast majority outside Afternic) and I'm still around. Many are not.
Also, this mentality is exactly why GoDaddy "similar domains sold" list maxes out at under $3000 (most of them clearly undersold), while I eventually sold mine for ~$8K (assuming it closes). Keep lowering your floor ahead of time guys, so GoDaddy brokers can sell your domains after 5 minutes of negotation
Renewal time firesales this logic results in are my favorite time to buy assets.
PS: You're right about self brokering, but if I have to do it myself in order to do it right, I might as well do it through my own landers entirely and pay up to 5% commission instead of 20%+. The sale can still finalize through Afternic custom checkout link if the customer so wishes, but it allows me to negotiate freely, keep the buyer on my site without the broker offering them others underpriced "alternatives" at the first sign of a pushback, and it saves me a good chunk of change as well in the process...
