opinion Does the industry need another auction place?

[AndyM]

Just a general query.

Do you think the industry could benefit from another auction/market place.

A site built by domainers for domainers.
A site that wouldn't charge astronomical success fees and listing fee's.
A site that could potentially go into direct competition with Flippa. (eventually)

Let me know your thoughts and opinions and then watch this space!

Thanks in advanced
AndyM

 

[Trent1000]

Yes a free entry, lightweight, easy to use, membership based platform, built around trade reviews.

Feedbacks should be as important if not more as on NamePros. Where buyers and sellers can build up credibility. Verification would NOT be for data collection and politically incorrect member categorization, but for real verification to make sure that X member is a real person with a real intention to do business. Bidder alias must be transparent, so no shill bidding is possible, and then the platform don't need to pretend that they are of course strictly against it...

A credit score of a certain person could be based on a good number of metrics, if you add your NP profile, one level higher, if you add your facebook profile, one level higher, and so on.
So a platform which is for domain buyers, and domain sellers, not for the management's pockets.

 

[AndyM]

Just a wee update to let you know that development has begun. Once at a slightly more advanced stage I will share the url as it it would be great to have actual domainers test the platform. But here is small snap shot of what the UI will look like.

 

[dncafe]

The new marketplaces that come out are usually bloated with way too many features, with poor usability and difficult for new buyers to sign up and buy listed domains.

I have considered launching a .COM only marketplace, to weed out all the other domain extension trash that I feel has devalued and hurt domaining as a whole.

 

[AndyM]

I'm still on it...

So far I have an API to fetch your domain details when you add a domain - this includes info such reg/exp dates and registrar so you don't have to crawl through umpteen domains to get this info.

I have created custom email templates that will be sent through AWS (Amazon)

Paypal has been integrated for subscription payments and domain purchases. Escrow is there too for more expensive domains. Will look at other payment gateways such as SagePay and Stripe but this will be later down the line and will possible carry a premium.

Password reset is in, cause... they can be forgotten.

I've got the domain and the branding but that's a secret for just now. Hoping to launch a landing page in the next 2-3 weeks where you can register for launch day.

Gone for a slight re-design and changed colours as I thought it was a little too dark

 

[cipcip]

Good luck, let me know once it is done or in progress I am interested.

In my opinion it should have a really clean interface, like really simple dummy interface. Most of the marketplaces and such are way overcrowded and you usually do not find what you want, just because of that.

 

[Name Trader]

Not to discourage you, because I'd love to see more QUALITY options .. but the truth is that we see a thread like this several times a year ... usually one or two sites get started .. but never end up with "the right stuff" and all end up fizzling out.

The main reason for fizzling out I think, is because nobody can build a website with the volumes needed to make it successful. We can't compete with the big boys like GoDaddy, Afternic, Sedo, SnapNames, NameJet. And without the volumes, buyers and sellers won't come. Also, I think the "right stuff" is subjective and differs with different people. But, IMHO, that is not the primary motivation for these new sites failing. But I would never discourage anyone from trying

 

[Name Trader]

looks clean and minimal. With large font. Just how I prefer it. Unlike almost everywhere else. Well done.

 

[AndyM]

Logged in view

 

[Name Trader]

I agree wholeheartedly with the change of color. Personally, I'd like to see it more monochromal (is that even a word). Most of the big boys are "monchromal" (black on white), probably for a reason. Less painful on the eyes. Less prone to being disliked by somebody.

 

[AndyM]

7 months of development is well and truly under way. This is a marathon not a sprint as I'm doing it all myself while working full-time and have a young family. Taking on board all your thoughts , opinions and ideas is at the forefront of this project and I'm loving and appreciating all the feedback.

What I would like to do early next year is to get a hand full of people to sign up at no cost for the purposes of testing and make sure that the interface is easy to use and appealing. Run some dummy auctions to make sure everything is working as it should.

So for now I'm going to look at colour theory and I'll get back to y'all soon.

 

[twiki]

Wha??? Sounds like this whole verification nonsense in nothing more than racketeering against small businesses if that figure is true??? Any reference so we can check out?

And would you mind sharing what kinds of costs are involved for a marketplace? I can only think of hosting costs since I don't have much exp in making websites.

It depends on how you build the payments process, but if you (for example) want to commission trades and make everything smooth for users, you need to become a payment processor and that's 500K. Everything else comes on top. There's also security certification etc etc.

CC issuers specifically deny third-party intervention in the sales process. The entity charging must be a registered payment processor, and the other party is the buyer. So the marketplace has no place in that unless registered.

There are some marketplace payment solutions but each has their pros and cons. For the one I worked on, the only solution found without enormously expensive fees was to "force" the sellers to register as merchants with the payment provider via the forms inside the marketplace offered by the payment processor. The marketplace never took off though.

The issue is that you cannot tap directly in the money flow for a comission. That's not allowed. For intangible goods there is also the possibility of late fee-charging, such as later fees charge on the seller's card. But you assume a risk there. If there are any previous costs, such as domain registrations supported for example (not the case I guess), worker salaries, servers, whatever else, you will be at a loss each time a client does sell their stuff but does not pay to you in the end. So... there are a lot of unknowns.

Marketplace building is not for the faint-hearted, nor for the low budget ones.

Edit: for more precise insight you need to talk directly to cc processors, this is just side info as I'm not in the industry, but based on hurdles we have faced.

 

[AndyM]

Auction page example here for view only
. Not open for registration yet

 

[Samer]

Thank you for your service!!

Seriously, Sick of the monopoly auctions in this industry.

Sav auctions don't accept Paypal.

Signed up! excited.

 

[GenericDomainz]

Let me know your thoughts and opinions and then watch this space!

Thanks in advanced
AndyM

Definitely need. Even not 1, but 2-3 more such places, even paid, as well as more niche/news websites, thematic resources.

 

[AndyM]

@dexdn feel free to pm your ideas. I'm making this my mission this year to develop this site. It will take some time as I'm working full time but I've spent the last 3 years back at uni to get my degree in web development and I want to make it work.

 

[AndyM]

Here's a small snapshot of how the listing page is looking. The search filter shuffles the panels around based on what button is clicked or what you start typing in the search bar.

 

[Name Trader]

I think you should also think of having at least POA (Request Price for non-priced domains).

 

[Not a robot]

I don’t like the idea. Another auction site means another hoop I have to jump through to get myself verified to participate in an auction. It also means another auction site to watch for. It’s more important to build a platform buyers want than one sellers want.

 

[Name Trader]

Totally get you there stub. I personally like the yellow-ay/orangey-gold but I know I need to consider other users opinions. Hoping to replace those tiles with logos/images that the user can upload themselves.

I understand that was probably the point. I have two observations. If there is no logo uploaded, a white space would be the best depiction of a blank space, than having an ugly yellowish color And secondly, relying of uploads from users is going to boarder on the sublime to the ridiculous. It might actually detract somewhat from what you are trying to develop. One option might be to have a range of pastel shades for the poster to choose from instead. At least it would be more consistent. Or the pastel shades might be fixed to specific, or groups of TLDs, which buyers would become familar with.

 

[Mister Funsky]

I agree re color...it must be easy on the eye with a simple layout..open a browser with your site, daddy, und, flip, etc and jump from one to another and take note of your immediate responses (I know it is hard to do when one is your baby!).

You clearly have coding skills...just a passing thought was touching base with Rob at Epik...of course you would not give any secrets up but considering they are getting ready to deploy an auction house (to liquidate domains by domainers) there may be an opportunity for knowledge exchange.

 

[eternaldomains]

Just a general query.

Do you think the industry could benefit from another auction/market place.

A site built by domainers for domainers.
A site that wouldn't charge astronomical success fees and listing fee's.
A site that could potentially go into direct competition with Flippa. (eventually)

Let me know your thoughts and opinions and then watch this space!

Thanks in advanced
AndyM

Auction definitely needed. Especially $0 upfront listing fees. And payouts via direct debit (ACH/SEPA/BACS) + ability to choose listing currency & payout currency separately. Better still adopt Payoneer directly for payouts. Push/Transfer agents include weekends if possible. 5-15% commission fees probably acceptable.

Color scheme must change. Now look more like "some shady darkweb site" or some gaming/betting/ponzi site. Not good either way. Pastel color is better.

 

[.X.]

I think we need a new, more innovative, more transparent auction market place.

A actual live auction market place is extremely appealing to me.

 

[tonyk2000]

Another auction site means another hoop I have to jump through to get myself verified to participate in an auction. It also means another auction site to watch for. It’s more important to build a platform buyers want than one sellers want.

It also means another place to remove fresh acquisitions from. If I catch the domain today - in many cases I will need to remove it from sedo, afternic and / or uniregisistry as the previous owner or owners never bothered to.

As a matter of fact, in current business environment, another auctions place may not survive. If it is not powered by a registrar for domains registered with this registrar. Registrar-based auction or marketplace would be another story...

If, however, something is really under development (both in design and business aspects) and if this thread is not completely hypothetical - then I wish best of luck to the owners Something fresh is definitely needed.

 

[nononsense123]

I love this idea. One specific suggestion that someone else also voiced: Make thematic divisions in the marketplace. com, ngtld's..
more if possible: emerging tech, liquid domains, numerical domains, one word, 2 word and so on