Epik Marketplace Commissions / Fees Knowledge Thread

[creataweb]

Epik Marketplace Commissions / Fees Knowledge Thread​

I wanted to make a thread for Epik's Marketplace as I believe more and more of us will be using it for sales and listings.

In this thread I want to have the most up to date info about commissions and fees as they may change from time to time.

My experience so far was great with Epik MP. I had an inquiry from Afternic about 8 or 9 months ago and priced the domain accordingly. Not knowing much else I waited and around 2 weeks later I believe it was I received an email from Epik saying that my domain had sold and I was paid the full amount (no fees so far.) I can only assume the inquiry came thru Epik and since the domain was listed with Afternic it was priced there then sold at Epik thru a partnership and Epik might have added a fee on top to get their cut and possibly Afternic got one too (anyone feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken here with this scenario.)

This was my first sale with an Epik related MP purchase and I decided to request a check to be mailed because of PayPal payout limitations for my account. I believe it was minus 5% commission for cashout which is fairly low and fair overall.

Recently I sold a domain from auction here and used Epik's MP to finish the deal. I setup a private link so that it could not be purchased by someone else before the buyer got a chance. I was charged a 9% fee for that sale. I am not sure if that's a new fee or normal fee. I was slightly confused and asked another member about their experience via message.

So what I have figured out so far is this:

Sell via Private Link = Escrow @ 9% commission fee (but 0% cashout fee)
Sell via Marketplace = No Fees? Or only a cashout fee?
Selling via Afternic = No Fee initially but 5% cashout fee (my experience)

I'll tag @Epik.com @Rob Monster @Sarah@Epik for clarification / corrections as I'm sure some are not right or have changed.

By the way, these 2 transactions so far were pretty much the most hassle-free I've had anywhere. The money was instantly in my account, fastest of any place I've used.

---

Related:

• Epik Escrow and Fee Comparison

 

[alcy]

Could this be confusing people:

"The standard escrow fee is 1.5% of transaction amount, with a $75 minimum."

Is the $75 the transaction amount or fee.

its the fee

ty for this tip

 

[JB Lions]

its the fee

ty for this tip

Oh it is? Have no idea until they confirm. If it is, a $750 sale, with a $75 fee would be 10% fee. The 1.5% would kick in at $5,000.

 

[private123]

Epik escrow is for active transactions where you find your own buyer and bring them to Epik to finalize the deal:

1.5% escrow fee (no marketplace commission)

Any withdrawal fee ? # Indian bank account

 

[alcy]

Oh it is? Have no idea until they confirm. If it is, a $750 sale, with a $75 fee would be 10% fee. The 1.5% would kick in at $5,000.

i know..its bad

its confirmed... ;]

What is the minimum and maximum transaction amount?
There is no minimum or maximum amount, but we will charge a $75 minimum escrow fee per transaction. Thus, the lower value sales are better handled by the Epik Marketplace.

 

[Domains - Wanted]

i know..its bad

its confirmed... ;]

What is the minimum and maximum transaction amount?
There is no minimum or maximum amount, but we will charge a $75 minimum escrow fee per transaction. Thus, the lower value sales are better handled by the Epik Marketplace.

This just gets better and better

"Thus, the lower value sales are better handled by the Epik Marketplace"... yeah, sure, at 9% commission now! And this is optimistic, that is assuming there's no minimum fee now and no such minimum will be introduced in the future

 

[Domains - Wanted]

Epik announced the new commission structure via email to customers several months ago...

For the record, as your customer of 3 or 4 years, I have never, not once, received any newsletter or notification email from Epik on any subject, with the exception of transactional-type emails:

- confirmation of finalized transfers-in

- notification of failed transfers-in that I ordered

- annual reminder to keep WHOIS data up to date

- confirmation of order to withdraw to Paypal

Show of hands, people, has anyone here received the notification email concerning the new commission structure?

It was also discussed here in NamePros on August 1. See here:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/changes-to-epik.1093757/#post-6833404​

Sh*t, missed this one! Note to self: pay more attention to Namepros as means of registrars' important changes notification!

Come to think of it, not such a bad idea, all registrars' news and changes notifications conveniently in one place...

Summary:

Epik Marketlace commissions are for passive listings where the buyer finds YOU:

9% for direct purchase
5% for monthly Payment Plan​

Epik escrow is for active transactions where you find your own buyer and bring them to Epik to finalize the deal:

1.5% escrow fee (no marketplace commission)​

Escrow transactions are set up by filling out a form, as opposed to using a marketplace listing:

https://www.epik.com/services/escrow/​

So, to be sure: there is no option for (commission-free) private sales via your marketplace any more, where I bring the buyer?

I believe the monthly payment plan used to be free as well? Well, 5% increase here, coupled together with the 5% waiver re withdrawals to Paypal, I can live with that. Not much motivation to leave any money with Epik, prompting transfers-in, though

We are working on a more streamlined escrow process. And other changes are in the works for the marketplace as well.

Judging by the changes implemented earlier this year, I can't say I'm looking forward to more of the same

 

[EASYPICKINGS]

First of all, we have never lost a customer domain name. We have some of the tightest account security around, e.g. 2FA SMS, MaxLock, IP-Allow, Google Authenticator, WHOIS privacy, are all free.

If a domain name were to go missing, we are a member of the ICANN registrar stakeholder group and are in contact with many of the registrar CEOs and that domain would be locked down and returned pronto.

All that being said, in our case, there is a 60 days transfer lock. The odds of a fraud (e.g. domain theft) being exposed within that time frame is very high.

For customers that have accounts at Epik, and where we know the buyer and seller, Epik does routinely waive the transfer lock. Some transactions are done in less than an hour, including transfer in and out.

In some cases, including this past week with a newly registered .IO domain at Dynadot, we did a mid/high 4-figure BTC escrow transaction and the domain stayed at Dynadot.

So, yes, when it comes to protecting domain assets, it pays to be a domain name industry specialist. And in our case, we can afford to do escrow transactions for free. That is pretty unique.

I just contacted you guys yesterday inquiring about using your landing page to redirect my domains to. Get back to me thanks!

 

[Baluvidneo]

Love to find this thread.

Happy to see no cash out fee

 

[blockhead]

Sadly I just happened to notice that the commission for monthly payment plans has increased to 9% (from 5%).

So now we have (as of 5/20/2019):

• 9% for direct purchase
• 9% for monthly Payment Plan

I will now go back to Escrow.com for most payment-plan deals.

That said, Epik's commission rates are still lower than other marketplace options such as GoDaddy/Afternic and Sedo.

On a related note, I just sold another domain via Epik's Marketplace, for $2,500 BIN - minus the 9% commission of $225. The Masterbucks are immediately spendable in my Epik account, or I can cash out via PayPal. Thanks Epik!

Now please find a way to become even more competitive with those commissions. Undeveloped also is 9% and has very fast service as well. Who will be first to differentiate yourself from the competition?

 

[Rob Monster]

Sadly I just happened to notice that the commission for monthly payment plans has increased to 9% (from 5%).

So now we have (as of 5/20/2019):

• 9% for direct purchase
• 9% for monthly Payment Plan

I will now go back to Escrow.com for most payment-plan deals.

That said, Epik's commission rates are still lower than other marketplace options such as GoDaddy/Afternic and Sedo.

On a related note, I just sold another domain via Epik's Marketplace, for $2,500 BIN - minus the 9% commission of $225. The Masterbucks are immediately spendable in my Epik account, or I can cash out via PayPal. Thanks Epik!

Now please find a way to become even more competitive with those commissions. Undeveloped also is 9% and has very fast service as well. Who will be first to differentiate yourself from the competition?

If you are bringing the seller, then use this service instead:

https://www.epik.com/services/escrow/

The rates are as low as 1.5% and for escrow, and if (1) the domain is at Epik, and (2) the seller is paying via bank transfer, and (3) the seller is a NP member, then it can be done without fee.

However, for a passive marketplace sale, it is 9% for sales or leases and there is no cashout fee or other fees. You can decide whether to pass that fee on to your buyer.

Also, NP members looking for additional exposure can be approved to list and park domains including free SSL parking landers that look good and convert well. Here is the how-to:

https://www.epik.com/support/knowledgebase/selling-and-leasing-domains-on-epik/

In the meantime, congrats on your sale.

 

[SuperBrander]

@Rob Monster Quick question- when bringing in a buyer to Epik, can escrow be set up with an installment plan (and thus sellers paying only the 1.5% fee) or do installment plans have to go through the marketplace with sellers paying the 9% fee? Thanks.

 

[Rob Monster]

@Rob Monster Quick question- when bringing in a buyer to Epik, can escrow be set up with an installment plan (and thus sellers paying only the 1.5% fee) or do installment plans have to go through the marketplace with sellers paying the 9% fee? Thanks.

Installment plans are almost always done with credit card or Paypal simply for convenience which is why it is typically treated as a lease.

However we have done high value payment plan deals where the buyer pays monthly or quarterly via bank transfer, in which case the escrow fees can be low or waived.

It depends on the buyer. If it is a low value deal, i.e. less than $5,000, and the buyer is doing payment plans, I would just assume credit card or PayPal, and include the fee in your financing offer.

For example:

Buy Now: $5000

Payment plan: $60/month for 60 months.

The mindset of many low budget buyers will be "I can afford the payment" and that is all that matters.

You have some configuration options:

- Annual price increases (default is 0%)
- Payment applied to principal, or not.
- Purchase option, or not

See screen dialogs:

As you can see, it is highly configurable, both in terms and in presentation.

For NamePros customers, you can actually use all of this without transferring domains into Epik first.

 

[SuperBrander]

Thanks, @Rob Monster. I'm familiar with these options and they are great but I'm still not sure I understand if a buyer can be brought to Epik and a payment plan set up via the 'Escrow' option for a low fee. For example, for the payment plan I currently have with Epik, the buyer is paying 8.5K with a few installments. I've been paying Epik the 5% fee on each installment (and that fee won't be available going forward as it is now 9%). So could it have been done with a 1.5% fee or no fee at all (providing all the terms you mentioned were met), considering that I brought the buyer to Epik? I think it's all a bit confusing. I think it would be helpful if you guys could consider having a pre-defined fee for each option explained on a designated page both for buyers and for sellers including payment options and their ramifications on the fee.

 

[Rob Monster]

Thanks, @Rob Monster. I'm familiar with these options and they are great but I'm still not sure I understand if a buyer can be brought to Epik and a payment plan set up via the 'Escrow' option for a low fee. For example, for the payment plan I currently have with Epik, the buyer is paying 8.5K with a few installments. I've been paying Epik the 5% fee on each installment (and that fee won't be available going forward as it is now 9%). So could it have been done with a 1.5% fee or no fee at all (providing all the terms you mentioned were met), considering that I brought the buyer to Epik? I think it's all a bit confusing. I think it would be helpful if you guys could consider having a pre-defined fee for each option explained on a designated page both for buyers and for sellers including payment options and their ramifications on the fee.

First of all, we got rid of the redemption fees so the all-in commission is 9%. With PayPal now charging 5.2%, you can see why that is actually a very good deal as PayPal is heavily used for smaller transactions. I do not like PayPal at all for this reason.

For escrow transactions it is possible to de-risk a transaction by interacting with the buyer. It is also possible to lower payment processing fees by directing the buyer as to which direction to go with regards to payment methods. The process is more consultative, but it works and is flexible. More here:

https://www.epik.com/services/escrow/

For transactions in progress, we'll honor the legacy commission rates for any in-progress payment plan.

For future transactions, if it is high value, just contact us and we'll advise the best option based on the transaction size, assets being purchased, payment method, and reputation of the buyer. The rate caps are published. Where possible, especially for large transactions, we will be as competitive as possible.

 

[CJ6]

Rob, I'm loving the new parking. I'm slowly moving my domains to using it (dependent on when I have free time at a computer).
Thanks.

 

[Rob Monster]

Rob, I'm loving the new parking. I'm slowly moving my domains to using it (dependent on when I have free time at a computer).
Thanks.

Thanks @CJ6. The new SSL parking landers are super slick and very versatile. It is one of the coolest developments we have done in a long time!

The how-to:

https://www.epik.com/support/knowledgebase/enable-a-coming-soon-or-domain-parking-page/

The content editor and SEO tools are slick but also some very nice templates that work seamlessly with the marketplace listing. You can even activate parking right from the marketplace listing page -- we added that on Monday so that folks can do it all in one step rather than listing first and then designing a marketplace lander. That should be a nice time-savings for folks who are dealing with bulk operations.

 

[SuperBrander]

Great. Thanks, @Rob Monster

 

[Mister Funsky]

The new SSL parking landers are super slick and very versatile

I like the look of the new landers (and ssl) as compared to the old -- but haven't had a chance to check scale-ability yet.

Currently my domains are parked through voodoo (more visit, click origin/type data is available) with the link at the top of the page sending an interested party to your marketplace using the link code:

http://marketplace.epik.com/[DOMAIN]

Will this code automatically send them to the 'new' ssl landing page or will another code have to be inserted?

 

[Rob Monster]

I like the look of the new landers (and ssl) as compared to the old -- but haven't had a chance to check scale-ability yet.

Currently my domains are parked through voodoo (more visit, click origin/type data is available) with the link at the top of the page sending an interested party to your marketplace using the link code:

http://marketplace.epik.com/[DOMAIN]

Will this code automatically send them to the 'new' ssl landing page or will another code have to be inserted?

That is a great question.

Currently we take them to the Marketplace lander. However, if the domain itself is pointed to an Epik parking lander, I think it could dynamically redirect to the domain itself via 301 redirect. What do you think of that solution? It is backwards compatible with the existing link structure that your reference above, it should confer the SEO strength back to the domain itself, and allows the domain owner to stage their domain in exactly the way they want.

 

[Mister Funsky]

Currently we take them to the Marketplace lander.

The 'old' marketplace lander has worked (sales wise) in the past but it lacks a bit of comparability with mobile devices...that is why the new landers are appealing as it seems they scale well.

I know it can be difficult and time consuming to make changes/additions in an existing system and I look forward to using the new landers...I am still playing with all the options to see what works/looks best.

 

[Rob Monster]

The 'old' marketplace lander has worked (sales wise) in the past but it lacks a bit of comparability with mobile devices...that is why the new landers are appealing as it seems they scale well.

I know it can be difficult and time consuming to make changes/additions in an existing system and I look forward to using the new landers...I am still playing with all the options to see what works/looks best.

Thanks for that.

Please keep us posted on what works well for you and we'll keep refining the templates for maximum conversion impact. To note, you can add your own Google Analytics code if you want to study the user engagement with those landers. This is one of the various tools included.

Epik Engineering is reviewing this thread to see how to fast-track a solution for the legacy marketplace.epik.com landers.

However, in the meantime for your existing Voodoo landers, if you are using Epik landers anyway, you can simply redirect people to [DOMAIN] and that will take them straight to your Epik SSL lander on your domains. Problem solved.

 

[oskaaay]

Epik Marketplace Commissions / Fees Knowledge Thread​

I wanted to make a thread for Epik's Marketplace as I believe more and more of us will be using it for sales and listings.

In this thread I want to have the most up to date info about commissions and fees as they may change from time to time.

My experience so far was great with Epik MP. I had an inquiry from Afternic about 8 or 9 months ago and priced the domain accordingly. Not knowing much else I waited and around 2 weeks later I believe it was I received an email from Epik saying that my domain had sold and I was paid the full amount (no fees so far.) I can only assume the inquiry came thru Epik and since the domain was listed with Afternic it was priced there then sold at Epik thru a partnership and Epik might have added a fee on top to get their cut and possibly Afternic got one too (anyone feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken here with this scenario.)

This was my first sale with an Epik related MP purchase and I decided to request a check to be mailed because of PayPal payout limitations for my account. I believe it was minus 5% commission for cashout which is fairly low and fair overall.

Recently I sold a domain from auction here and used Epik's MP to finish the deal. I setup a private link so that it could not be purchased by someone else before the buyer got a chance. I was charged a 9% fee for that sale. I am not sure if that's a new fee or normal fee. I was slightly confused and asked another member about their experience via message.

So what I have figured out so far is this:

Sell via Private Link = Escrow @ 9% commission fee (but 0% cashout fee)
Sell via Marketplace = No Fees? Or only a cashout fee?
Selling via Afternic = No Fee initially but 5% cashout fee (my experience)

I'll tag @Epik.com @Rob Monster @Sarah@Epik for clarification / corrections as I'm sure some are not right or have changed.

By the way, these 2 transactions so far were pretty much the most hassle-free I've had anywhere. The money was instantly in my account, fastest of any place I've used.

---

Related:

• Epik Escrow and Fee Comparison

interesting thread

 

[Tunababa8v]

Update:
Commission for external domain sold on epik is 10% but still 9% for internally sold domain

 

[yoosuf]

I wish I had seen this earlier.

For the last hour I have been trying to figure out why I was charged 10% commison on my sale on Epik..when I could have easily got just 5% on Dan. Thanks for the info

 

[tdwuk]

I wish Epik would clearly state the fees instead of making me search for the fees.
I usually sell on NS and the fees are clear. Someone suggested Epik because of the custom HTML landing pages which is great and something to consider.