Afternic taking the lead?

[Lasher]

Has anyone else noticed how Afternic are posting much more sales than Sedo these days? Afternic has a better site, better categorization, a better escrow model and, in my experience, more responsive customer service.

Now if only they would get rid of those crazy arbitrary 'appraisals' you have to buy to get a featured listing. They are so off the mark it isn't even funny. I see that the OnlineCasino.de pending sale has been posted here already, the Afternic appraisal on that has a current market value of $5,420, the current bid is $101,000. At a minimum anyone attempting to charge for this kind of appraisal should at least be scanning comparable sales.

Afternic, if any of you folks read this, please consider removing that requirement. If it's about the money then charge an extra $20 for the listing if you must, but those appraisals are a joke and the reason most of my featured listing budget goes to Sedo.

Derek.

 

[ripley]

Derek, you're right on the money with this one. Afternic often touts that it lowered its featured listing price from $95 to $50, but in reality it's $70 since you also have to buy an appraisal (which, as you say, are of dubious value).

I've purchased one featured listing from Sedo and one from Afternic, both with similar results in terms of exposure and interest. But at $20 less expensive, my next one will most likely be going to Sedo.

ripley.

 

[dotnom]

I agree. For the same reason i don't list any domain in their featured table

 

[ripley]

I'm sure that Afternic's justification would be that yes, it's a cumulative total of $70 to get listed, but that it includes an appraisal which is value added and increases the likelihood of a domain selling. And in general I can see the logic in that. But I'm just not sure whether I believe that an Afternic appraisal appeals to buyers enough to sway their decisionmaking.

ripley.

 

[AdoptableDomains]

...in reality it's $70 since you also have to buy an appraisal (which, as you say, are of dubious value).

Anyone in the business for a while should know that often appraisals are a bad thing. In the case cited here, it could potentially have prevented the domain from being bid higher than the appraisal. There's nothing to say another bidder even dropped out when it went above appraisal. In this case it must not have, but often a bidder not familiar with the market will decide it's not worth more than the appraisal and stop there.

 

[ripley]

Anyone in the business for a while should know that often appraisals are a bad thing. In the case cited here, it could potentially have prevented the domain from being bid higher than the appraisal. There's nothing to say another bidder even dropped out when it went above appraisal. In this case it must not have, but often a bidder not familiar with the market will decide it's not worth more than the appraisal and stop there.

It's clear to me that it's simply done to allow them to make more money. Why? Because though you have to order an appraisal before you can get it featured, you can still exercise the option not to publish your appraisal once it's finished.

ripley.

 

[-db-]

Has anyone else noticed how Afternic are posting much more sales than Sedo these days?

No, I haven't.

Week after week, month after month, SEDO seems to be the winner.

This week's DNJ report shows 15 SEDO sales on the (top) charts. Afternic had 2.

Maybe I missed something. Any hard numbers to back this up?

And don't even get me started on appraisals.... from ANYBODY.

 

[Lasher]

Should have been more clear, I meant number of sales not dollar totals.

 

[AWest]

Afternic, if any of you folks read this, please consider removing that requirement. If it's about the money then charge an extra $20 for the listing if you must, but those appraisals are a joke and the reason most of my featured listing budget goes to Sedo.

Derek.

Hello Lasher,

We do read this, and we DO pay attention to what our members say. Give me an opportunity to take this up with management and see what we can do.

Thank you for using Afternic!

Best regards,

Amber West
Afternic.com
[email protected]

 

[zhisede]

....Afternic has ....a better escrow model and....
Derek.

A better escrow model?

I don't like their model. They don't handle the domain. I have to transfer the domain to buyer myself and I need to wait for buyer to confirm the push or transfer. I don't know what I can do if the buyer purposely change the whois info and refuse to confirm.

This has kept me away from afternic for at least 15 $xxxx level sales, although I like their customer service much more than sedo.



.

 

[ripley]

Sedo does the same thing. I just completed an escrow with Sedo where I had to deal with the transfer emails, and once transferred the buyer wouldn't turn off their whois privacy to confirm to Sedo that they had possession of the domain for almost three weeks. Eventually they just disbursed the money to me anyway but it was frustrating there for a while.

ripley.

 

[zhisede]

If your register supports push, I think you can push the domain to sedo account instead of transferring it to the buyer. Almost all of my domains are pushed to sedo account not the buyer.

Sedo does the same thing. I just completed an escrow with Sedo where I had to deal with the transfer emails, and once transferred the buyer wouldn't turn off their whois privacy to confirm to Sedo that they had possession of the domain for almost three weeks. Eventually they just disbursed the money to me anyway but it was frustrating there for a while.

ripley.

 

[ripley]

That was indeed the case with mine -- that sounds far easier. Thanks for clearing that up! So that's not how Afternic handles push escrows?

ripley.

 

[Domainate.com]

Has anyone else noticed how Afternic are posting much more sales than Sedo these days?

Sedo doesn't list their entire daily sales (if they do, I've never seen where). They have been and always will be selling more than Afternic, because Afternic has taken too long to try and appeal to an international audience, and Sedo is raking in the dough from ccTLD sales especially.

Now if only they would get rid of those crazy arbitrary 'appraisals' you have to buy to get a featured listing. They are so off the mark it isn't even funny. I see that the OnlineCasino.de pending sale has been posted here already, the Afternic appraisal on that has a current market value of $5,420, the current bid is $101,000. At a minimum anyone attempting to charge for this kind of appraisal should at least be scanning comparable sales.

Yup...I've been the victim of a crappy appraisal. Both the CMV and PMV of the appraisal on Poker.in is less than the highest bid I've gotten (which was over half a year ago mind you), and the CMV was under what I paid to buy it when just about everyone under the sun that knew about my purchase of it said I got an absolute steal. The funny thing is, they appraised a clearly less quality name of mine, Golf.vg, for considerably higher CMV and somewhat higher PMV than they did Poker.in. Worse keyword, far worse extension, higher appraisal! In fact, Poker.in CMV is just under that of Poker.IDV.TW! Same word, 1000 times worse extension, slight dip in value, LOL.

What I REALLY hate are the overblown appraisals on other names though. I forget what it was, but I remember seeing a 1-word ccTLD such that the 1-word didn't have very good OVT and wasn't a product or anything (so a brandable name not so much a generic) and was in a crappy ccTLD, and it got a higher appraisal than my Poker.in got. I just hope no clueless person accepts what the appraisal says and bids away at the name thinking they're getting value.

Afternic, if any of you folks read this, please consider removing that requirement. If it's about the money then charge an extra $20 for the listing if you must, but those appraisals are a joke and the reason most of my featured listing budget goes to Sedo.

Featured listings on either site are becoming a joke, just like both marketplaces in general. I mean on Sedo, someone has 5 MILLION names to look through now to find yours...5 MILLION. And yet I have more success selling names there than on Afternic, where I have to advertise my portfolios (see my sig) and actually lead people in, which should be AFTERNIC'S job since I'm paying them $20/yr. But yea, not 1 sale I've done at either site has come from now 9 featured listings between the two sites. I just wish I had more time and money so that I could make NameTrader.com a reality sooner than later. The domain industry needs a solid marketplace and doesn't have one.

 

[zhisede]

Here is Afternic.com escrow process: http://www.afternic.com/buy.php?p=4

I think afternic has better customer service. When dealing with trustable buyers, I still use afternic escrow.

 

[AWest]

Home Featured Listings...

Hi all,

I noticed that there was some conversation on this thread regarding our appraisal requirement for Home Featured listings. I would like to let you all know that as of today we no longer have this requirement. You may now feature your name without an appraisal.

We are always interested in what our members think, and in some cases we are able to implement your suggestions, so please, always feel free to contact us with your thoughts and ideas.

As far as the value of featuring your domains, check out:

http://domainnamewire.com/2006/07/03/afternic-featured-listings-experiment/
http://domainnamewire.com/2006/07/06/afternic-featured-listings-update/
http://domainnamewire.com/2006/07/11/afternic-update/

If you have any questions regarding our new policy for Home Featured listings, please feel free to contact me!

Best regards,

Amber West
Afternic.com
[email protected]

 

[ripley]

That's great news, Amber. Except this complicates my decision about where to place my next featured listing.

ripley.

 

[AWest]

Well, if you have any other questions that may aid you in making a decision to feature your name with Afternic, I'm all ears.


Best regards,

Amber West
Afternic.com
[email protected]

 

[shopperx]

Thats great news Amber, i will list a couple of dictionary words domains i have for sale.


Regards

 

[movingconcierge]

How about you match or better Sedo's policy on fees?

I previously had my names at afternic, but couldn't take how long the previous iteration of the site took to do anything. Subsequently, my membership expired. I'd like to put my names at Afternic, but the fees are a hindrance.

Well, if you have any other questions that may aid you in making a decision to feature your name with Afternic, I'm all ears.


Best regards,

Amber West
Afternic.com
[email protected]