Atom / Atom.com - Marketplace (formerly Squadhelp)

[JudgeMind]

Hey Folks,

I've just started using squadhelp.com to list some of my brandable. So far I have 76 domains listed, there is no fee to list. I've had some decent action so far in the way of interested buyers but no sales as of yet. I've only been with them for 1 week now.

A bit of a summary review of SquadHelp:

PROS

• No Listing fee
• No Logo design fee
• Ability to submit your names to end users holding naming contests
• Ability to chat directly or send a message directly to end users.
• Stats of your marketplace domains are shown in the marketplace dashboard.
• Their customer service and support has been great, 24hr a day chat.
• Ability to increase or decrease the list price of your domains or to show a discount. You can decrease or increase the price yourself by $200. If you want to lower more, you can contact support.
• End users can shortlist your domains before they make a decision on which they want to purchase. The number of shortlists is shown in you marketplace dashboard.
• When you submit your names you get to set the price you wish to get. Because their commissions are high I recommend listing at a higher price to offset the commission costs.
• Their landing pages are fairly basic but they work. Because the marketplace is fairly new, I'm sure we will see style improvements in the future.
• One thing I really like is they accept multiple extensions. I have listed .co and .io along with .com
• Each seller gets a direct link to their marketplace portfolio, HERES MY PORTFOLIO. It is handy if your trying to p[promote your portfolio through social media.
• I like that their marketplace doesn't have tens of thousands domain listings like BB. They are fairly strict on the domains they accept to list and so this helps keep the number of domains in the marketplace down and gets your listings more exposure.

CONS

• Their commissions are very high, depending on the domain name they are usually between 30% and 35%. However, there are no listing fees, no logo design fees, so in the end their commission is very similar to brand buckets.
• Their logos are not top quality, in fact I requested to have some of my logos remade.
• I think they have a big backlog of logos to design, the wait time for logo design has been around 1 week, but your names are still listed while the logos are being designed.
• After your names are accepted you need to agree to their commission rate, at this point you also need to apply your own keywords, descriptions etc. I found this was very time consuming.

 

[Dane]

As for LTO and down payments, I believe Atom answered this upthread.

Their take on this is basically "Too bad, this is way we're doing it." But if a potential buyer goes to a landing page and glances at the Buy Now price and at the Pay in Installments price JUST TO KNOW THE PRICING, they have ZERO REASON to click on the "Pay in Installments" button until they are ready to buy... which could be days or weeks after careful consideration. Only THEN do they see the extra Down Payment amount. Sorry, but that's just not good business practice -- regardless of the answer Atom gave.

If you want to mitigate this issue but still offer LTO perhaps do not require a down payment?

In that case I might as well use Afternic. The attraction to Atom's LTO was because they allow us to require a down payment. But if the down payment amount is going to be hidden unless a button is clicked, well... that's just not right.

 

[NameGroove]

Their take on this is basically "Too bad, this is way we're doing it." But if a potential buyer goes to a landing page and glances at the Buy Now price and at the Pay in Installments price JUST TO KNOW THE PRICING, they have ZERO REASON to click on the "Pay in Installments" button until they are ready to buy... which could be days or weeks after careful consideration. Only THEN do they see the extra Down Payment amount. Sorry, but that's just not good business practice -- regardless of the answer Atom gave.

Sounds sort of like hotel "resort fees" where all fees are undisclosed prior to moving through the buy process. It always annoys me when I see fees pop up later.

Atom has data for STR of those who click LTO where down payment is not required vs those who click LTO where the seller required a downpayment. It would be helpful if they could share the difference in final STR to see if there is a material difference in final purchase rates, if any.

 

[dirk]

Must say I'm really unimpressed with atom. They're taking their sweet time making both seller and buyer look bad.

Won't ever be using them again.

 

[Dane]

Sounds sort of like hotel "resort fees" where all fees are undisclosed prior to moving through the buy process. It always annoys me when I see fees pop up later.

Here's another thing: In the Domain Transfer Center, Atom shows a status of "Seller Has Been Paid" when in fact the seller has only REQUESTED a payout. On the Transactions page it actually says "Wise Transfer Request Pending." So if the payout request is only Pending, why does Atom show a status of "Seller Has Been Paid"?

 

[dirk]

Here's another thing: In the Domain Transfer Center, Atom shows a status of "Seller Has Been Paid" when in fact the seller has only REQUESTED a payout. On the Transactions page it actually says "Wise Transfer Request Pending." So if the payout request is only Pending, why does Atom show a status of "Seller Has Been Paid"?

Its a big mess. I'm in the middle of a transaction. On my end it says... Awaiting submission of transfer code. On sellers end it's saying, awaiting payment verification.

Been like that for 4 days. Ridiculous when you think they take 5% of a verified payment. Seller has sent me Auth code in private instead.

Draw your own conclusions.

 

[dirk]

Sidenote, I use Sedo lot, they can be slow but at least they will let you know what is going on.

Atom, I dunno. If i'd be an enduser the user experience would raise a lot of questions abou the legitimacy of the venue.

 

[kor]

Must say I'm really unimpressed with atom. They're taking their sweet time making both seller and buyer look bad.

Would you consider expanding on these points a little more?

 

[lambo.com]

anyone getting a bit tired of all the brain chip logos for .ai names ?

 

[lambo.com]

anyone getting a bit tired of all the brain chip logos for .ai names ?

when diversity?

 

[Jannes]

I prefer very versatile words or acronyms without icons.

Anyway, sometimes I'm tired of all the logos. Here's what one buyer thinks of Atom's eye candy land:

 

[D Haynes]

I prefer very versatile words or acronyms without icons.

Anyway, sometimes I'm tired of all the logos. Here's what one buyer thinks of Atom's eye candy land:

Show attachment 275806

That's a good idea @Atom.com . Not everyone finds the logos a positive.

 

[D Haynes]

First LTO sale through Atom yesterday. Smooth sailing so far but to second what @dirk said there are conflicting status reports. If you're waiting to verify a payment why not have a "verifying payment" status instead of telling me to push the name to the Atom holding account that you won't give me until the payment has been verified?

 

[NameFinest]

Hey guys what do you do when a domain you want to sell is approve se premium but with an appraisal price way below your desired price? You just trust them or keep it as standard or try to resubmit it?

 

[silentg]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1924824958003233059

Domain details page has this now:

https://helpdesk.atom.com/en/articl...k-price-a-new-way-to-engage-interested-buyers

 

[D Haynes]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1924824958003233059

Domain details page has this now:
Show attachment 275831

I always thought this would be a good idea for domains marketplaces. The "watchers" function on eBay is so useful for sellers and a lot of sales come from sending offers to watchers. Development of a "watchers/trackers" function could be a game changer.

 

[DomainRecap]

Anyway, sometimes I'm tired of all the logos. Here's what one buyer thinks of Atom's eye candy land:

Like a lot of things, logos are great... until everyone starts using them. Then it quickly becomes a mess.

 

[dirk]

Would you consider expanding on these points a little more?

Good question and yes, I will

I bought a domain (direct contact with seller) through atom.

So when I made the payment, he's getting a verifying payment status while I'm getting a securing Auth code status.

This status lasted for days, seller actually sent me the Auth directly before they did.

It's not a big issue when you're in direct talks but a one off buyer might think: " I'm not getting the Auth code". Especially as they state somewhere they typically deliver it within 24 hours. Now as a seller you might think there's something wrong with the payment as that's the status you're seeing.

Basically I have no clue what they do to earn that 5%

 

[King]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1924824958003233059

Domain details page has this now:
Show attachment 275831


https://helpdesk.atom.com/en/articl...k-price-a-new-way-to-engage-interested-buyers

Also shows up here

 

[King]

& this is what the email notification looks like, it tells you the country of the watcher, would be nice if it was more specific, maybe give us the State.

 

[doidomnola]

So not paying for an auction at Atom is a thing?

I got multiple emails like this one:
We'd like to inform you that you can buy the auction domain dallas.now for $325--since winner missed to purchase this domain during the winner purchase window.

@Atom.com what's the penalty for failing to pay? Hopefully they're banned from all future auctions.