discuss Afternic results in steady downtrend - now flatlining for months

[Dot Com Realty]

Hey all. Been domaining for 17 years, and Afternic has been a solid platform all this time. Well, except for the last year. I had 17 sales in 2017, and 22 in 2018, but only 12 last year. And nothing whatsoever in the last four months. This is far beyond the standard deviation from normal. I have been re-investing 150% of profits into higher quality and more names - happy to run negative cash flow to build a solid portfolio. I expected about 30 to 40 sales last year - this would have been normal based on my experience. Most of my names are priced right at the Godaddy appraised price - which has always been the sweet spot. My premiums are more and I have no interest in selling them, and I don't factor in my premiums into my bread and butter sales.

Brandbucket has died. In my experience with them in the last 4 years, they do about .05% sell-through rate at best.
Brandpa - only been with them for a year and have 60 names - priced up to $75k max. Zero percent sell through rate.
Squadhelp - Extremely happy with them. Three sales - mid to high four figures with a 10% sell through rate.
Efty - great guys running this, but just get lots of spam. Hard to get traffic stats with the goog anal system
Dan.com - Seems a clean platform - moved 150 names over recently. Like the traffic stats.

Would welcome any comments, suggestions, experiences and stats to share.

 

[Dot Com Realty]

My 50% of domain sales last year came via Afternic which was really amazing as well as surprising to find out such great results and I'm happy with it.

Can I ask if you just have premium listings there like I do, or are you using their landers? What kind of sell-through rate do you have, and price ranges?

 

[Silentptnr]

To clarify - I am not using their landers - just listed in their premium listings with GD. I have 650 there. Would you recommend their landers?

Yes

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Can I ask if you just have premium listings there like I do, or are you using their landers? What kind of sell-through rate do you have, and price ranges?

At the end of last year, I'd 3400+ domains
STR was around 2.2-2.5%
Started using ns3/ns4 landers starting 2020.
BIN starts from $1,888 and goes on high. Usually the sales are in the range of $1,888-$3,988.

 

[Dot Com Realty]

All 3 names you mentioned above are great, only think I can think of is if your not asking enough for your domains? What would you price the 3 at ? If people sell there names
To cheap, they won’t be able to support all the laggards in the portfolio.

Hi thanks. Actujally Rx2 was inbound to me - not SH. I had like 200 lowballers/domainers on it over the last 10 years, but finally got a real end-user and got $5500 for it. Surely could have got more but tired of fielding all the jusnk offers. The other SH name I sold (my first one with them) was Banxa.com for something like $7500. OptionPulse went at about 4k, TheMedStore was like 5k.

I would say out of 650 names, I have about 550 or more average names - nothing special - that are at GD appraised values of between $1500 to $2000 mostly. About 80 are higher than GD and names like Aistra, AllDrug, Bonap, etc. that I think are only growing in value and impossible these days to replace at aftermanrket auctions. Maybe a dozen that I want to actually use someday - like we all do. And one ultra premium that I will never sell at any price - only lease.

 

[Dot Com Realty]

At the end of last year, I'd 3400+ domains
STR was around 2.2-2.5%
Started using ns3/ns4 landers starting 2020.
BIN starts from $1,888 and goes on high. Usually the sales are in the range of $1,888-$3,988.

Wow. Great stats. Like $250k last year? ns3/ns4 landers are Afternics? And STR was through Afternic or?

 

[wwwweb]

Hi thanks. Actujally Rx2 was inbound to me - not SH. I had like 200 lowballers/domainers on it over the last 10 years, but finally got a real end-user and got $5500 for it. Surely could have got more but tired of fielding all the jusnk offers. The other SH name I sold (my first one with them) was Banxa.com for something like $7500. OptionPulse went at about 4k, TheMedStore was like 5k.

I would say out of 650 names, I have about 550 or more average names - nothing special - that are at GD appraised values of between $1500 to $2000 mostly. About 80 are higher than GD and names like Aistra, AllDrug, Bonap, etc. that I think are only growing in value and impossible these days to replace at aftermanrket auctions. Maybe a dozen that I want to actually use someday - like we all do. And one ultra premium that I will never sell at any price - only lease.

Your getting above average pricing, and hopefully selling in other venues on the side. What could be hurting you could be the vast buying Huge Domains is doing, and pricing bins in the $1500-$3500 range undercutting some of your asks, and others with volume over dollars.

 

[Dot Com Realty]

Yes

Interesting. Yeah it seems that your average buyer is ignorant of the domain business, valuations, and the process of the transferring. So, when they go to a bigger site like GD, Afternic, or Dan maybe, they trust it more. All too often we get sales where are landers are much cheaper - sometimes like half of Afternic premium and yet they click through and buy on Afternic at double the price. Kind of like eCommerce. You have your own Shopify or something, and at Amazon, and people know and trust Amazon so they buy there.

I think I will put more on these big sites and whittle down my Efty site. So out of Afternic, Sedo, Dan, Unireg, you recommend Afteric yeah? Thanks much. I think this might get the sales going again.

 

[Samer]

First want congratulate you; posted some DN

it takes courage you open yourself;

Rx2.com makes the complete most sense!!
RX.com (which sold for 1M to an Investor
Rx2 next best, deserves raise, nice alternative

I also like PulseOptions, looks nice,

Sorry “TheMedStore” not a fan; this is where SH worth weight gold; 3 word name, surprised, even if the 3 go together- perfectly. (med/ Wb “themedicationstore”? this sold how much?

How many 3 word names out of the 650?
They get insanely de-valued unless SH etc...

Lastly, believe most afternic to list, not landers.
I too am not a fan of those afternic landers, but believe what sells 24 hour # dedicated rep. Still not worth to utilize,if have use afternic landers.

Samer

 

[wwwweb]

First want to congratulate you; posted DN

it takes courage you open yourself;

Rx2.com makes complete sense!!
cant RX.com (which sold 1M to an Investor Rx2 next best, guy deserves a raise got it)

I also like PulseOptions, it looks nice.

Sorry “TheMedStore” not a fan; this is where SH worth weight gold; 3 word name, surprised, even if the 3 go together- perfectly.

How many 3 word names out of the 650?
They get insanely de-valued unless BB/BP/SH

Lastly, believe most afternic to list, not landers.
I too am not a fan those ugly afternic landers, but believe what sells 24 hour # dedicated rep. Still too ugly to utilize afternic landers.

The Med Store looks like a cannabis play, if someone hit their price target, good on seller for pricing it aggressively, and not underselling it.

 

[Silentptnr]

Interesting. Yeah it seems that your average buyer is ignorant of the domain business, valuations, and the process of the transferring. So, when they go to a bigger site like GD, Afternic, or Dan maybe, they trust it more. All too often we get sales where are landers are much cheaper - sometimes like half of Afternic premium and yet they click through and buy on Afternic at double the price. Kind of like eCommerce. You have your own Shopify or something, and at Amazon, and people know and trust Amazon so they buy there.

I think I will put more on these big sites and whittle down my Efty site. So out of Afternic, Sedo, Dan, Unireg, you recommend Afteric yeah? Thanks much. I think this might get the sales going again.

There are things I like about Efty. Tried it for quite a while. Just didn't sell very many domains.

For me, there is great value in not having to guide buyers through escrow and all that. Afternic does a great job handling all the buyers needs and I just get paid. And it's pretty quick.

I also like Sedo, but for me, afternic does better.

 

[Kassey Lee]

First of all, thank you for the valuable information. Outstanding results. Congrats.

The other SH name I sold (my first one with them) was Banxa.com for something like $7500. OptionPulse went at about 4k, TheMedStore was like 5k.

They show you have great skills picking domains. For example, dotDB reports 79 matches of Banxa on various extensions, but I failed to find any end user. Google search shows Banxa.com has been developed as "an internationally compliant fiat-to-crypto gateway solution for exchanges, wallets and other cryptocurrency businesses".

1. When did you acquire the domain Banxa?
2. Did you pick it purely because you liked the name and you thought it could be a great brand?
3. Godaddy appraisal for Banxa is 3747. Was it the same value when you acquired the domain?

Thanks.

 

[boker]

Hey all. Been domaining for 17 years, and Afternic has been a solid platform all this time. Well, except for the last year. I had 17 sales in 2017, and 22 in 2018, but only 12 last year. And nothing whatsoever in the last four months. This is far beyond the standard deviation from normal. I have been re-investing 150% of profits into higher quality and more names - happy to run negative cash flow to build a solid portfolio. I expected about 30 to 40 sales last year - this would have been normal based on my experience. Most of my names are priced right at the Godaddy appraised price - which has always been the sweet spot. My premiums are more and I have no interest in selling them, and I don't factor in my premiums into my bread and butter sales.

Brandbucket has died. In my experience with them in the last 4 years, they do about .05% sell-through rate at best.
Brandpa - only been with them for a year and have 60 names - priced up to $75k max. Zero percent sell through rate.
Squadhelp - Extremely happy with them. Three sales - mid to high four figures with a 10% sell through rate.
Efty - great guys running this, but just get lots of spam. Hard to get traffic stats with the goog anal system
Dan.com - Seems a clean platform - moved 150 names over recently. Like the traffic stats.

Would welcome any comments, suggestions, experiences and stats to share.

It's the same in my case, last months were dead, domains selling through landing pages and whois, but not through afternic.

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

Somehow, I dont get Afternic sales. All other platforms work well for me.

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

I shall add that I never park there

 

[Dot Com Realty]

First of all, thank you for the valuable information. Outstanding results. Congrats.

They show you have great skills picking domains. For example, dotDB reports 79 matches of Banxa on various extensions, but I failed to find any end user. Google search shows Banxa.com has been developed as "an internationally compliant fiat-to-crypto gateway solution for exchanges, wallets and other cryptocurrency businesses".

1. When did you acquire the domain Banxa?
2. Did you pick it purely because you liked the name and you thought it could be a great brand?
3. Godaddy appraisal for Banxa is 3747. Was it the same value when you acquired the domain?

Thanks.

Believe it or not, I saw Banxa at auction and forgot about it. It went to closeout and I still didnt pick it up. I was too cheap to buy it at $11 and was going to wait till $5. But I looked at it again when it was like $9 and thought - duh, that is a great name and grabbed it. Funny. No, GD appraisal at the time was half that. Yeah, I thought it sounded good and was short and brandable, and could be a banking app or something.

 

[trelgor]

By the way, I would have xxx sales per year at Afternic if I took just any offer. I'm more focused big wins.

My names are powerball tickets, not scratchers.

Did you have this strategy all along? If not - how did that shift look?

 

[Kassey Lee]

Believe it or not, I saw Banxa at auction and forgot about it. It went to closeout and I still didnt pick it up. I was too cheap to buy it at $11 and was going to wait till $5. But I looked at it again when it was like $9 and thought - duh, that is a great name and grabbed it. Funny. No, GD appraisal at the time was half that. Yeah, I thought it sounded good and was short and brandable, and could be a banking app or something.

Excellent! Such is the situation where courage is needed and gut feeling plays the final role. I understand that feeling. Thank you for sharing.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Wow. Great stats. Like $250k last year? ns3/ns4 landers are Afternics? And STR was through Afternic or?

More than 250K.
ns4/ns4 - Afternic landers.
STR - Overall.

 

[Dot Com Realty]

More than 250K.
ns4/ns4 - Afternic landers.
STR - Overall.

Very nice!!!!

 

[wizard]

Afternic is great i feel it’s increasing not declining you need to look at the domains you own and the pricing...

 

[boker]

More than 250K.
ns4/ns4 - Afternic landers.
STR - Overall.

Nice, that means just over 3k average prices. Can you share a roughly average acquisition price and average holding, I have a guess that the vast majority are not hand regs or closeouts.

 

[boker]

Afternic is great i feel it’s increasing not declining you need to look at the domains you own and the pricing...

I think that it's important the quantity at afternic as well. I had last years around 1k domains will less quality and I had more sales,in the last year more quality but just around 500 domains and the inquiries dropped a lot. Also, I have domains with up to 17 inquiries/price request everywhere else(including whois, godaddy, and landing page) but none at afternic, so probably depends on niche and lot's more.

 

[wwwweb]

Nice, that means just over 3k average prices. Can you share a roughly average acquisition price and average holding, I have a guess that the vast majority are not hand regs or closeouts.

I think there is confusion in the statement because prior to January, his portfolio was parked pointing to Uni landers.

To be honest I think afternic brokers are swamped, in follow ups etc, and probably need more manpower in making sure they are doing it in a timely manner so leads don’t sway elsewhere. Uni does have a team of brokers that could probably come online pretty quick if integrated, but not sure how all that is going to incorporate.

 

[namemarket]

Hey all. Been domaining for 17 years, and Afternic has been a solid platform all this time. Well, except for the last year. I had 17 sales in 2017, and 22 in 2018, but only 12 last year. And nothing whatsoever in the last four months.....

My experience has been very similar with ongoing declining sales, only a few early last year and nothing recently.

I think it's also the end-user resale market getting worse as time goes by and not necessarily Afternic's fault.

However, Afternic platform is very outdated and far from good. Sometimes I get a notice of an inquiry and other times nothing received except it's shown on their page. Also, when I quote a price the inquiry often then disappears from their system.

 

[namemarket]

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