Domain Liquidation Platform - Seeking input for new Epik project

[DanSanchez]

Dear Namepros,

The team at Epik is exploring the development of a project that aims to shift the painful domain name expiration process into a more profitable experience for domainers. Perhaps you have read my opinions about registrars selling expired domains and refusing to help registrants in recovery. The time to disrupt this with action has come!

In the meantime, since joining Epik last month, I decided to do something about it with the help of some amazing engineers. The goal of this "name liquidate" idea is to sell domains directly to buyers that may otherwise wait to acquire these domains at expired auctions or being filled as registrar backorders which pays zero to the registrant.

The planned solution addresses two domainer pain points,
1. Liquidation of expiring inventory brings much needed capital, meaning you can renew more of your portfolio.
2. Buyers get clear title and dont waste time bidding on names that can be recovered post-expiry.

Here is the process,
1. Submit your domains: you unlock your domains, provide auth codes.
2. Seller acknowledges that a fast-transfer of the domain will occur once domain has a bid.
3. Bidders agree to non-revocable change of ownership if their bid prevails.
4. Sellers receive a large portion (80%?) of auction proceeds.

The process begins with a 7 day reverse auction counting down hourly/daily, down to $1 plus renewal/transfer for delivery. The domain doesn't have to be expired or expiring. You can submit the name multiple times during the life of the name but not more than once per year. Once the auth code is verified:
• Epik parks the domain with auction template with Make Offer pricing so retail bids can come in.
• Wholesale buyers are informed of expired auction inventory update.
• Domain goes through reverse auction in 7 days
• Domains are fast transferred to Epik as soon as one bid is made.
• If seller locks name, all domains will be removed and no further listings will be accepted from seller.
• Domains already at Epik are pre-qualified for "name liquidate" services, but you must opt in manually.
• External domains are eligible once auth codes are verified.
• Data will include number of views, expiration date, and expected delivery.
• Pre-set domain buys will give you the ability to buy any name when a price hits a certain target.
• Once a bid is submitted, it cannot be revoked. All purchases a final non-refundable.
As for brand name, we are considering NameLiquidate.com — very descriptive name and targeted at a very specific audience. That said, open to considering other names. A separate brand naming project is coming shortly for what Rob describes as the “Ultimate Digital Brand Marketplace”. This is separate.

 

[Kassey Lee]

I have let many domains drop without trying to sell them because of the extra work involved. If there is an [x] Liquidate option in the domain manager of, for example, Epik to allow Epik to do all the work before this domain finally expires, then that would be a good service. 20% commission for all the extra work that I'm not willing to do is worth it.

 

[.X.]

So are you suggesting Epik can guarantee a sale of a name? Or sell more successfully dropping names than anywhere else does? For 20% they better.

You are right people pay more at auction on expired domains because it’s psychological and now a “battle” to win. I think auctioning the domain would be more effective.

auctions are a pain in the ass though, especially the current formats that extend a domain auction if a bid is made at the last second. I think what we are dealing with in the domain name aftermarket today is simply outdated.

the early bird gets the worm in the system that @Dan Sanchez is presenting, I like it a lot, i think Epik in general is into innovation of new technology to raise the bar on the status quo standards, we need some new fresh technology in the industry.

One thing I don’t understand pertaining to many @Rob Monster threads, why are some people so upset when Rob or a Epik staff member presents new technology and substantiates their technology by simply explaining what their product provides vs the competitions products, I find Epik drive and enthusiasm to take the domain name industry to another level very exciting.

I do not have one domain name with Epik, i have never purchased a service from Epik, why??? Because I have yet to move my portfolios, but i could see that changing.

I also don’t understand why some are so tore up with how much profit Epik makes with their services, it’s not how much profit is Epik making, it is how much profit can you make utilizing the technology that they offer.

 

[Rob Monster]

auctions are a pain in the ass though, especially the current formats that extend a domain auction if a bid is made at the last second. I think what we are dealing with in the domain name aftermarket today is simply outdated.

the early bird gets the worm in the system that @Dan Sanchez is presenting, I like it a lot, i think Epik in general is into innovation of new technology to raise the bar on the status quo standards, we need some new fresh technology in the industry.

One thing I don’t understand pertaining to many @Rob Monster threads, why are some people so upset when Rob or a Epik staff member presents new technology and substantiates their technology by simply explaining what their product provides vs the competitions products, I find Epik drive and enthusiasm to take the domain name industry to another level very exciting.

I do not have one domain name with Epik, i have never purchased a service from Epik, why??? Because I have yet to move my portfolios, but i could see that changing.

I also don’t understand why some are so tore up with how much profit Epik makes with their services, it’s not how much profit is Epik making, it is how much profit can you make utilizing the technology that they offer.

There has been some great input on this thread.

I was delighted to see @DanSanchez take initiative here. He came to Epik initially at the suggestion of @Tia Wood as client. That relationship has evolved, and now he is a high impact member of the Epik team, and especially helpful on domain brokerage projects.

This thread also illustrates something I am passionate about, which is teaching entrepreneurship, i.e. how to go from concept to industry leader, and do it with maximum efficiency. I am hopeful that we'll be able to incubate a series of these clever initiatives around Product Management teams in the years to come.

A few comments on why I think this idea is worthwhile:

- The goal is to make it super-easy to monitor, find and buy liquidation names. This particular idea is a good example of "co-creating abundance" -- a topic I mention often on NP. This is found money for most domainers. It is also way more efficient than people posting unformatted lists in comment threads.

- The retail expiry stream is dominated by Godaddy. I have not attempted to analyze the GDDY financials but I am going to guess that expiry auctions are carrying a lot of overhead with no benefit to the registrants. Front-running Godaddy's expiry stream with win-win economics seems like a decent idea.

- The dropcatch expiry stream is dominated by the likes of Huge Domains with their registrar connection firepower for dropcatching names. Their huge investment in registrar apparatus could soon be an albatross due to huge overhead the moment the best inventory is monetized prior to redemption.

As for why Epik gets some heat, we put things out there to invite the parliamentary debate. It is the single best way I know of to get to the right product in a hurry. And yes, the occasional comments from a hardened skeptic, troll or malcontent makes the conversation a bit more lively.

 

[DanSanchez]

Liquidation is not something new and everything you are suggesting allready exists minus the 20% cut to you.

There seems to be a disconnect here. The expired auctions at godaddy/namesilo are a tax of inaction that amounts to millions of dollars in losses and possible earnings. They fully utilize your inventory to fill their pockets without sharing the profits. The shift is that we are willing to share those profits with the owners of the domains. The only way to take away the expired inventory from big auction houses is to begin voluntarily. In other words, we need a few portfolio owners to participate to test the system and its ability to liquidate without the seller's emotion interjecting.

My own experience in trying to recover domains at those two places was impossible. Meaning I lost both investment and domains.

The goal for this is platform is to encourage domainers to have an exit strategy with minimim time investment. Selling domains for $1 to $10 is painstaking and not the point of hedging domains for good profits. We want to sell your names for more of course, that way we can yield a win for the registrants and small profit for us.

Not claiming this is a new idea whatsoever, I do want to implement and disrupt the current processes that fail to serve the needs of registrants and buyers. There are countless threads about missing expired domains (mine included) and others complaining of an expired domain auction being cancelled. Of course you can liquidate on your own and I have always encouraged some profit is better than the complete loss of an expired domain that someone else bought.

I appreciate your input, I think you raised a good point about the current options there are to liquidate. My point to that is, how can we help the domaining community by facilitating the process? If we can find a balance, we can start shifting the growth from going to a few shareholders at billion dollar companies, into the pockets of the individuals that put in all the work.

I think it is a fantastic idea, except the 20% commission, I would suspect that you will be moving very large quantities of domain names daily. I think 20% is far to much, the plan itself sounds very good though.

Glad to hear you like the idea, the commission cost is variable. I am not married to it whatsoever, especially if we can get some of the volume from other auction houses. But I think initially we will keep it at that rate to recover the investment and focus on reaching more domainers with distribution and marketing inventory. Rob and I will spend time discussing this in detail.

 

[Grego85]

It might help with the psychology part of it. I cant tell you how many times I've failed to sell a name on here for even $20, only to see it get sold at expired auction for $80+

 

[Internet.Domains]

So the choices are, if I am understanding this correctly:

A. Let a domain expire and get nothing.

B. Enter the domain into NameLiquidate.com, pay 20% commish and possibly sell it for something.

To further break it down, the choices are:

A. Absolutely nothing.

B. Possibly something.

After a long hard and careful consideration, I choose B, hands down, no questions asked. Sign me up! Let's do this!

 

[DanSanchez]

Isn’t this very similar to Daily Diamonds? I think you are going to have to keep the lowest price way higher than $1.00. Most would let drop or sell here rather than get possibly 80% of a dollar.

If you want to incentivize it has to be better than NP bargain bin for people to want to give you 20% of very little. JMO.

Daily diamonds does include expired names, this is more for liquidating expiring inventory before it goes to forced auction at any registrar. Not just Epik.

The $1 idea is purely for testing purposes, but I think it would encourage resellers to take a gamble on a name that would otherwise go unsold. I have snapped up names on the bargain bin for being this cheap in the past.

We are debating starting every auction at $10,000 while dropping the price hourly or daily over a 7 day period.

Again, the upside potential for domainers is 80% of the sale price. This can shift depending on feedback, but I would rather get something for a name I am letting expire anyway.

It might help with the psychology part of it. I cant tell you how many times I've failed to sell a name on here for even $20, only to see it get sold at expired auction for $80+

Precisely what I have experienced as well, there needs to be some emotional disconnection and a willingness to take risk of letting the market decide what the price should be.

 

[Rob Monster]

For folks who have Epik as their registrar, two thoughts on name liquidation:

1. We are going to make it super-easy to send your domains to NameLiquidate -- one click listing and done, directly from the Epik Domain manager. That should be online by January 10.

2. I am thinking to make it an option to allow Epik customers to set NameLiquidate as their default disposition at the end of grace period so that Epik customers can monetize their expiry streams.

What do folks think about that?

@DanSanchez
@vitigo

 

[Bob Hawkes]

This is, in my opinion a FANTASTIC INITIATIVE, one long overdue in our industry. I wish you the very best with it @DanSanchez and @Rob Monster .

I like the name NameLiquidate as being as you say descriptive.

I would find 80% or something near that which you propose as very generous.

I like the proposed decreasing amount approach for valuation. The mechanics you suggest seems logical.

So is the plan that this could be for domains whether registered at Epik or not?

Also, is your plan to do all extensions, only .com to start, or something else (sorry if this was covered and I missed it).

I look forward to this, both as a place to get a little bit for expiring names and to find good deals in acquisitions.

The search and arrangement of the marketplace will be a critical element to success once the inventory numbers get large.

Thanks for the great initiative.

Bob

PS On launch some sort of contest for NamePros members either listing or buying might help to raise profile quickly of the option.

 

[Blitzpotz]

If Epik is able to build this marketplace beyond Epik clients and Namepros members, so is able to attract it to a BIG audience then there is good chance to create something valuable in a currently empty niche.

Regarding my handling of names that I am not planning to renew: I am starting with Sedo and a BIN of below 100 USD since they canceled their minimum fee. Very few names sell. Then I put expiries to Namepros for 15/10/5 USD and again very few sell. I could sell more for lower prices and earn a pretty extra amount of money accumulating the dollars for the Hundreds of expiries I say Good-bye every month, but I don´t have the time and the resilience to provide authcodes, remind buyers to do this or do that, manage not working pushs, lose 4-9% on Paypal fees etc.

Think about liquidation sales. You urgently need money. What to do? Namepros marketplace is too competitive and there are too many auctions, too many with good names and the audience is probably to small to finance my sudden lack of cash (just in case). Think of leaving domaining one day, who buys a big portfolio with medium quality, alternatively who has the time to follow up for every name in a NP BIN or auction thread? They will need an extra Mod Team here managing my mistakes in several thousand auction threads.

NameLiquidate will get my names and authcodes. Let them do the work and the advertising and take the responsibility for 20% in exchange.

 

[RJ]

"Somewhat stressful, but also kind of fun" -- that was my experience with NameLiquidate from the buyers' perspective last night. There was one name in particular that was listed for auction that I really desired, so I stalked it for the duration of the the auction while the price dropped, hour by hour. Since there was no way to place a proxy bid, I was low-key worried that I would miss the auction entirely if I wasn't able to be near a computer when the auction was ending.

This reverse auction format requires some mental gymnastics, weighing the probability of someone else snagging it first against the cost benefit of being patient for the price drops. In the end, I purchased it as soon as the price hit $15. Admittedly, I would have paid significantly more if I knew there was any competition out there for it, but I made a calculated guess that there wasn't (at least on this platform) and it paid off.

There were 8 other names in the same batch that piqued my interest, but I wasn't in love with any of them, therefore I was willing to take a more patient "get-them-if-I-can" approach and wait for the final price drop for these names.

As soon as the final price drop happened, it was a race to get them into my shopping cart and checkout as fast as I possibly could. I grabbed my It was a anxiety-laced adrenaline rush not knowing if I was competing against anyone or not, and ultimately satisfying as I was able to get 8 of the 9 that I wanted for the minimum price.

The domain transfers all completed within an hour or two and the domains are in my account now. Overall a pretty good first experience with NameLiquidate as a buyer.

 

[DanSanchez]

Those aren't the only 2 options, Karmaco literally posted others above:

"There is a set way of liquidating domains allready in place: sell at low fixed prices,auction,sell here in bargain bin,sell at registrar level or drop them."

Try it and see if it works.

If you want to do something for domainers, make an NJ competitor. There would be big money there.

Yes, that is my goal. Simple starting point with low cost but plenty of action on the marketing side.

This seems more like another plug for epik. Almost a win for the industry,

instead to me, it seems like more advertising / marketing for one registrar (epik) to benefit from another registrar (others) not doing the right thing, rather than epik simply leading be example and doing the right thing for epik domains.

I'd consider it a win for the industry if epik were to start the shift of giving expired domain profits to the registrant, by default, for domains registered/expired at epik.

Thus, maybe prompting an industry wide shift, or simply domainers entrusting epik to hold their domains, because in the event of a domain loss, it's not a total loss.

But it appears epik follows the model of other registrars, and sends expired domains to auction (at an earlier date than registrars like Dynadot),

Remind me, for an expired domain at epik, who collects the expired domains profits... epik or the domain registrant?

If the answer is epik, how much of the profits go to the domain registrant? If the answer is none, my question is Why not share profits?

Sure would be an incentive to register / transfer domains to epik if the registrant were to share in the profits made from their expired domains.

Exactly, I came on board at Epik less than two weeks ago and raised the question at our Monday meeting (yesterday.) Rob was immediately on board and is willing to implement the changes on the Epik side of things.

The process by which we go about it is up for discussion here and I hope we can continue learning to make it better. My goal is to eliminate the unfairness completely by making it competitive for all stakeholders. If we can achieve a 10% penetration into the expired auctions market within 1 year, it would dramatically shift the face of domain investments and defund operations that rely on involuntary removal of your inventory.

 

[RJ]

Anybody here beat me to Ch_rg_C__ter.com? Nice pickup whoever got it! I grabbed some great _____Crate.com domains and a few other fantastic 2 words, as well as 2 one word canna related non.com's!

I feel bad for whoever had to liquidate those names. A couple of them had 8-9 months and even more than a year left, so at $9 it was almost like getting them for free.

Just a note for developers .. for me personally, I didn't even think of grabbing them at the next price level ($21 I think). But if there was a few steps lower, I certainly might have jumped on some of them at more than $9! So basically if I wasn't able to be online or awake at exactly the 1-hour window in question, I wouldn't have purchased a single domain.


That being said .. I'm rather happy about my acquisitions. Better value than GD closeouts for those particular domains .. particularly those that had more than 2 months remaining so I didn't need to pay extra for renewal!

Those were my names that I was liquidating tonight. I'm scaling down my portfolio size, so don't feel bad about it. I'm glad you got some nice names out of it.

In the end, 25 names sold. One for $96.92, one for $33.54, and 23 domains sold for $9.

Pretty easy process overall. There was instant Masterbucks payment to my account, so that's nice at least.

 

[Rob Monster]

Some great engagement here:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1261739319745826819

@Busyfather_dot_com was crushing it on NameLiquidate. Good to see.

Inventory is rising.

Prices are rising.

Sell through is solid.

Great engagement also on DNAcademy Social this week too. ICYMI, check it out. @Braden Pollock holds court on NameLiquidate starting at 1:11:

I joined the fun at around 1:26.

It is cool seeing a novel market innovation get root and become real. The project was incubated right here on NamePros so that is a bit of a NP success story.

@DanSanchez is leading the charge and working hard to help folks succeed with it. Engineering has also been responsive to feedback.

 

[WhoaDomain.com]

The truth of it is this.

1. When a domainer is peddling his or her domain. They will probably do the basic stuff like show a long list of domains to EVERYONE.

I don't know what it is but domainers don't like this.

They would rather crap talk that domainer and call his list crap.
But I can guarantee you these are the same domainers that will peruse the expired domain lists till their eyes bleed and I can be 80% sure at some point these same domainers will pick a domain that was on that other domainer's "crappy list".

There is something about the mentality of a domainer to dive into EXPIRED DOMAINS lists.

I guess it's the idea of a "Do it yourself. and find Gold" type mentality.

Nobody likes to be "pitched" because they themselves are "pitchers".

This is why this idea is perfect.

I liken this idea to the Crocodile that sits in the only watering hole for miles because this is where all his "meals" will come to. at the waters edge at some point or another.

You never see crocs chase after their prey. They sit at the right spot where their meal will come willingly of their own free will.

So let's be CROCS!

or am I just full of Croc? lol

 

[RJ]

I like the idea of NameLiquidate, and I have added a couple hundred domains to test it out in this early phase.

My concern will using it as a seller is that the platform will simply become a place where buyers just wait around for the names to drop to $9 and race to buy them at that moment. (This is how I will use the platform as a buyer.) With the current setup, I expect 95% of sales will be for $9, and sellers will be hesitant to list anything of value here.

@Ategy's suggestion about using a "double ended" auction is surely needed if you expect buyers to pay more than $9. Instead of waiting for the final price drop, buyers could place a bid that that turns into a purchase when the BIN drops to that level. If buyers could see that other buyers are interested in a name it would stir up more interest and bids.

 

[DanSanchez]

Thanks everyone for giving the site a chance, we are still really early in the process of adding features that are critical to communication and functionality from both buyers and sellers.

In my view, the lack of some functions can be exploited early by those who care to understand the process without the functions in plain sight. Some great domains to be had for $9 right now and they are running on extended closeouts. I am about to buy one and I know others have purchased from the site as well, at considerably higher price than $9 closeouts.

I don't really think speed is an issue at the end. We need to remember that 95%++ of these domains unfortunately will not sell even if they were at $1 (+renewal).

The real key is to pull out as much value as possible from the domains that do sell. Get those $15 sales that otherwise would have been $9. So it's important those final stages actually not be too fast.

Two very key crucial features that would have a significant effect of inflating final prices are:

(1) The already mentioned increasing proxy / bidding (effectively the same thing)
.. AND ..
(2) Showing a timer to the next price drop.
(Be sure to include wording/info that covers the final hour at $9)

Thanks Ategy, agreed on your suggestions. The current price drop rate was entirely mathematical and put in place for expediency purposes. The penny prices is not ideal at all. But you nailed it, the real key is to enable domain registrants to extract whatever value the buyers see in their inventory INSTEAD of losing 100%+ to a random expiring auction that may only benefit stockholders of a billion dollar operation. We want to economically empower as many individuals as possible, even if that means getting $8 to cover the renewal cost of another domain!

Just bought a domain from NameLiquidate. Very good experience. Regular Epik checkout and the domain landed in my account immediately. It's definitely refreshing to get a domain a nanosecond after the purchase! I very rarely get fast transfers via Afternic.

@DanSanchez Even though I wasn't surprised to see a renewal price added to the domain's price because I'm used to it from closeouts etc.- I think it could be beneficial to have some sort of clarification about renewals so any potential buyer would know exactly what they should expect even before clicking on Buy It Now. For example- are renewals automatically added to all purchases or just to expiring domains? Since the platform isn't only for expiring domains- I think this is an important matter to clarify to potential buyers. IMO full transparency from the first moment someone lands at a marketplace or an auction platform is something that's lacking from most venues and it could add to NameLiquidate's credibility and be a differentiation factor.

Happy to hear the process is working as designed. Our main concern was getting that correctly FIRST before doing some other updates that are also needed for a positive experience. But the foundation is working and that makes me happy.

On the renewal price, I'm sorry it wasn't part of the initial price quote but it will be once we have individual domain pages. I wrote out all the explanation text and it's ready for implementation as soon as the Dev team gets back from their brief holiday. Inside the text is also a breakdown of the costs, including the renewals.


Working on this today: A quick video of how to properly navigate V1 of NameLiquidate without the critical features mentioned here. As well as a guide on finding good names for buyers. For sellers, a quick video on how to properly list and keep track of your listings.

What is notable about NameLiquidate is really the speed of execution. We went from idea to launch in less than a month. It is an example of what we have started to call: Crawl, Sprint, Run. You can picture it.

I want to take the opportunity to thank @DanSanchez for his initiative and entrepreneurship in bringing this idea to light. I want to thank the NP community for enthusiastic co-creation. Well done.

Thank YOU Rob, this was merely an idea that required your leadership and execution to be deployed. The NP community has been incredible as well. All positivity and great feedback. You are all taking part in the individual empowerment of hundreds or thousands of your colleagues.

 

[Rob Monster]

Just got some fanmail from a member of the NP community.

He sold his domain ThePoker.com for $720 on NameLiquidate.com earlier this week. He decided to purge his portfolio of vice domains for personal and philosophical reasons. This was the efficient way for him to do it.

One man's trash is another man's treasure. Congrats to buyer and seller. It was a win-win. There is definitely something happening here. Big upgrades on the way.

 

[DanSanchez]

Bumping this thread to thank everyone again for participating in the refinement of NameLiquidate.

Big update coming soon, if you haven't followed the official support thread please do so now.
https://www.namepros.com/threads/nameliquidate-com-liquidation-platform-official-thread.1180304/

Also, nice contest thanks to Epik.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1261464695111692288

 

[Andrew Knox]

So essentially a better Namejet/GoDaddy Auctions/Flippa? You don't need to over complicate it, just make a better auction platform please. Set a reasonable minimum success fee (like $5 instead of $15 at GD) and commission (10-20%) and then, and this is the hard part, get the traffic/bidders that those guys have. If you can't get the punters in then it's just like Ali G's hoverboard pitch...

 

[Rob Monster]

Thanks for the continued great input to this pet project of @DanSanchez.

One thing I wonder about with this Domain Liquidation service is whether to allow domain owners to have the ability to set a reserve price.

For example, when the domain hits the reserve price, the inventory stays listed for a short period and then drops off the inventory. The maximum reserve would still be low, e.g. $99. After all this is LIQUIDATION.

The logic of allowing liquidation with reserve is that it slightly protects the seller from extreme bottomfeeders. The seller can basically have a safeguard against losing a lot of inventory.

The unsold inventory can still be displayed at the reserve in the marketplace inventory and MLS feeds as long as the domain is still verified.

Since each domain can only be submitted for liquidation from time to time (e.g. 1x per year), the submitters have a strong incentive to not set a high reserve.

Finally, if the seller does set a reserve, the domain should be flagged as having a reserve which buyers can filter out.

Welcome any thoughts on liquidation reserve both from perspective of buyer and seller.

 

[Mister Funsky]

- Closeout prices: Ending in 24hrs or less will be priced at 12, 9, 8, and 5 before ending.

Whatever the starting price (truly irrelevant other than the fact that if it is too low I, and others, may not participate) so lets say it starts at 1200 on day seven. There should be a logical downward daily progression, slowly at first of course, to allow someone to stumble onto the auction and grab a name they have been wanting whether retail or wholesale buyer. A higher sale price means more money for both of us (seller and epik) plus you get the 'onboarding' of domains/domainer as I assume the 60 day lock is mandatory.

The significant drop should not begin before the 48 hour (maybe 36) period countdown begins. There should be a consistent hourly price reduction ending with a steady and predictable $5 an hour for the last 36 hours (or 48) so an investor watching will know when he/she should be ready to jump in to ensure the name is 'caught' before someone else gets it (otherwise, people will wait for the next big drop to buy the name if the tiers are irregular and too steep...not what either of us want). The expectation for the bidder/buyer should be created such that someone else may take the name at any time is essential to keep the energy/activity up.

Ending time is important as well. Will it be EST, PST or Zulu. Whatever the time is, it should be logical as to when most domain investors are active (easy enough to determine...plenty of data out there). For example, I will not get up at 4am my time to jump into an ending auction...ever.

 

[Rob Monster]

Just checked::

https://nameliquidate.com/

There are already more than 600 domains in this liquidation cycle. There are going to be some deals in this mix for sure. We'll be interesting to see at what price point domains get taken out. I see some solid 3 and even 4 figure domains in these lists -- including some "shoot the moon" candidates!

If folks want to finance some domain purchases, PM me and we'll see what we can do. The end-goal is to get domains into the hands of end-users. For the folks who have more time and talent, but less treasure, we'll do what we can to help there.

Also, very important, you are free to front-run! So, in other words, try to find a buyer, and then once your buyer is confirmed, then you can snipe the domain.

 

[DanSanchez]

Hey guys .. looking like there's tons of potential here.

that being said .. just took a peek and seems like there's still some crucial elements needed before you push this.

1 - Help / information / instructions / details: Currently non-existent?

2 - Search: only manual? You should really implement at least some basic advanced search.

3 - Download: Some would like to be able to download the entire list (with available data if possible).

4 - Timing: I see you have some ending at 5am (2am Pacific). Is this really the optimal end time? I really suggest you have them all end at the same time every day. Otherwise there will be too many differing price points and end times and just overall confusion. I also highly suggest you mention when the next pricedrop will be .. it certainly will enhance sales and have some people waiting to jump for the next level.

5 - Pricing: Honestly .. having domains priced at amounts like $682.67 is just silly and distracting. Particularly when talking hundreds of dollars, prices should be rounded to the dollar and even to another higher level ($10s, or $25s .. ei: $680 or $675)

6- SERIOUSLY consider what I said about about adding a second side to stimulate action (increasing bids or proxy BINs)

Hey thanks for the kind words, the site is still a work in progress but we expect to have a lot of the finishing touches completed tomorrow or Sunday.

My responses to your points:
1. Text and copy are being written by me, started yesterday and will push to finish this morning. All pages, explanations, instructions, etc. will make the site feel more complete.

2. Search, the manual search is extremely basic now because the dev team had to focus on the bones first to get the site operational. I provided a mockup search box that is extremely detailed and helps you narrow down your searches, quickly.

3. Download, will be available but it is behind some more important features we want first. Like the search bar.

4. Timing, these auctions are purely the expired stream at Epik for the moment. The auction start time will depend on the expiration process. But dev team is working on implementing a "watch list" to set in automatic buy ins, so you don't have to wait for the auction to end at the lowest price you want to pay to snag up the inventory you want.

5. Pricing, the pricing changes are purely based on hourly reductions to end at $9. The auctions are fast, only 72hrs from start to finish. Once we start seeing the first batch of names ending, you will see what the advantages of a reverse auction for buyers and sellers. The goal is also variety of pricing, I foresee hundreds of domains added per day, the stream will be full of great opportunities.

6. We are implementing an automatic buy-in to bring activity to the best inventory. It is very promising and the idea if fluid, we are happy to hear your input.

Thanks everyone for your excitement and ideas. It helps us! Especially the dev team doing the bulk of the work.

Somehow i missed this thread. And it's super crazily amazing stuff you are cooking guys.

So a question: if i submit my expires, what are the lifespan limits? Like, not later than 10 days to expiry, or not later than 10 days upon expiry if i still can obtain the auth code, or what?

Thanks I get teary eyed when I see this fully working, honestly. My thoughts on your question:

Your expired domain limits are varied depending on the registrar. For example if the domain is at Godaddy, you need to unlock and provide the auth code as soon as possible. Godaddy is known to take domains way before redemption to auction off. It may be prudent to run the auction 15 days post-expiration, at most.

Again, this highly depends on the registrar. I have the experience at most registrars but would appreciate your personal experience at places like NetSol, Register.com, Domain.com, and any others that might be part of your portfolio holdings.

The main goal is to avoid buyers wasting their time, sellers, wait too long to liquidate. This is to fluidity of capital and inventory. Submit your names with time and we will deal with any setbacks as they come.

Exactly!

Just two days ago i had a case. I had a domain in my SEO domain shop priced at $90, nobody bought it thru a year and i decided to drop it. Then i found it while scanning DD drop auctions, and the bid was already $480+! And only few hours left. Of course i jumped to renew it. GUILTY! The next morning found a $200 offer via DD, sold.

Precisely why I fell in love with this concept immediately!