question Got price request from Afternic. Should I move BIN over to them now?

[golan]

Sometimes Afternic sends me price requests for my domains. Today i got one as well. They say:

Set a Floor Price and Buy Now price in the next 48 hour
To remain a robust marketplace of premium domain names for both buyers and sellers, we require that every domain have a Floor Price and Buy Now Price within 48 hours of receiving a sales lead.

Now as i understand i need to set the BIN there. Usually my BIN's are at Sedo and Undeveloped, and at Afternic all domains are with Make an offer.

If i set BIN there now, how long should i keep it there? All the previous times ended without any outcome.

 

[Joe Styler]

We are not refusing to do it. I simply asked you to ask them what the offer was or set up your pricing to make the offers on your names in line with what you expect.
The videos I posted show the best practices for selling domains. You have access to me and others who can help make sure your portfolio is optimized to sell the most domains possible each year.

 

[Name Trader]

We are not refusing to do it. I simply asked you to ask them what the offer was or set up your pricing to make the offers on your names in line with what you expect.

Which will puts any possibility of making a deal on that offer, out of the question, because of the timing issue (paraphrasing your own words).

OK. I won't remove all my domains from Afternic until the next time I receive a BIN/Floor price request which doesn't include the offer received amount.

 

[Joe Styler]

Our brokers work every day and with brokers on both sides of the US and Europe we cover a lot of the day - though not quite 24-7 hours we are pretty close so there should be little delay on a price reaching you as the brokers also know that the faster they can close the deal the more likely it is to close.

 

[Name Trader]

Our brokers work every day and with brokers on both sides of the US and Europe we cover a lot of the day - though not quite 24-7 hours we are pretty close so there should be little delay on a price reaching you as the brokers also know that the faster they can close the deal the more likely it is to close.

So do you allocate brokers to accounts based upon where the account is situated? Otherwise it's going to be almost impossible to get and email from the broker, receive/read it. Send a reply that you want to to see their offer. The broker then has to receive/read it, look up the potential buyers offer, send another email, which we have to receive/read, and then compose a reply. Which the broker has to receive/read, and then get back to the potential buyer. This is pretty much impossible to complete within 24hrs if the broker is on the other side of the world.

The first time I read something like, "the buyer is not ready to make an offer at this time", I'm going to be out of Afternic.

 

[anantj]

I'm not sure what you are asking then. If you want to have a price where you are not committed to accept an offer and weed out low offers that is a minimum offer. It doesn't say that you are willing to accept that offer.

I think it is pretty clear what he's asking. Is the floor price binding? This is a simple yes or no answer. And to expand on reason behind the question, the e-mail from afternic states that the floor price is binding. Your comment above (and reproduced below) states that floor price is NOT binding

In your example above if there is a floor price and no BIN the broker would likely accept any offer over 3k and relay that to you. You would then decide what you want to counter with.

Joe I know your smarter than that and what you're writing right now is not indicative of your high and respectable position at godaddy / afternic.

I echo this sentiment. I know you're extremely smart. I respect how you handle the forum and your conduct. But I also fully realize when you give us the run-around with non-answers and deflections. I'm not as smart as you but @pokainc's question was plain as a day to me too!

 

[anantj]

The videos I posted show the best practices for selling domains. You have access to me and others who can help make sure your portfolio is optimized to sell the most domains possible each year.

How do I take you up on this offer?
You might regret this though!

 

[Name Trader]

@Joe Styler - I EXPECT your Afternic Brokers to inform me of all offers on my Make Offer domains. Failing to do so is an abrogation of the Afternic's Brokers duties for Make Offer domains. I just DON'T ACCEPT that we HAVE to request it, in order to get it. If you are saying this is never/not going to happen. Then I'm done with Afternic. It's a simple choice for me. Having to ask for something which is obvious to every toon on the planet, is one of the craziest toon ideas I've ever heard. It reflects badly on the mentality of the toons running the show at Afternic. IMHO.

PS: I only just though of this. So I'll add it here. You have only ever stated the policy as it is being applied by Afternic. But you have never given any justification in support/defense of this stupid policy. If you think my reasoning is so outrageous, then I think it behooves you to criticize it with some logic. Else, you are telling us, that Afternic are not open to any logical suggestions which might improve the free communications between us sellers and Afternic's Brokers. Yes/No?

 

[Joe Styler]

How do I take you up on this offer?
You might regret this though!

You can send me a pm and I will put you in touch with someone who can help.

 

[Joe Styler]

@Joe Styler - I EXPECT your Afternic Brokers to inform me of all offers on my Make Offer domains. Failing to do so is an abrogation of the Afternic's Brokers duties for Make Offer domains. I just DON'T ACCEPT that we HAVE to request it, in order to get it. If you are saying this is never/not going to happen. Then I'm done with Afternic. It's a simple choice for me. Having to ask for something which is obvious to every toon on the planet, is one of the craziest toon ideas I've ever heard. It reflects badly on the mentality of the toons running the show at Afternic. IMHO.

PS: I only just though of this. So I'll add it here. You have only ever stated the policy as it is being applied by Afternic. But you have never given any justification in support/defense of this stupid policy. If you think my reasoning is so outrageous, then I think it behooves you to criticize it with some logic. Else, you are telling us, that Afternic are not open to any logical suggestions which might improve the free communications between us sellers and Afternic's Brokers. Yes/No?

I never said that I am not open to the suggestion. I have said that I noted it. It is valid. However I am trying to let people know how to work within the system we currently have to best sell their domains, and if wanted how to get the offer info.
It is not easy or likely to happen in the near future for several reasons. 1. There are ways you list your domain which do not require a price to be submitted by the buyer. e.g. The for sale lander. If someone goes right to your url and sees the name is for sale and submits a form with interest they do not have to put in a price.
2. We use a wide network of resellers over 100. This is to your advantage you get exposure for your domain worldwide at the point people are looking to buy in a company they are comfortable with spending their money at. Not all of them are set up to take pricing. You are talking about other development teams, other priorities at companies besides ours, etc that will mean you may never get them to insist on a price for the offer. Not all of them are set up to send us pricing. Many do not want added friction and work in the sales process. The simple reason they sell your domains is that they make money from them. If there is added work and points of friction they will sell other easier to sell domains with less friction.

I can go on but basically the more you restrict the types of leads coming in the less likely you are to sell domains. So for example, if you remove the sales lander on the URL because you don't like that people can inquire on a domain without an offer amount, then you will lose those leads. If you don't want to respond to offers from non Afternic websites that won't take a price as the offer then you lose the network and it's benefit to you to gain exposure for your domain. So you are left with managing the leads yourself so to your point why use us then? My point is because we offer value in exposing your domain to millions of end users and have a team of very experienced brokers that can close the deals, speak local languages, have brand recognition and trust etc.

It seems to me that you would prefer to manage your own leads which is not a service we provide. Our business model is based on gaining your domain the most exposure possible, having it bought right at the company the person was using to search for domains, or speaking with the buyer on the phone quickly after they indicate interest in the domain and closing the sale for you. We try and remove as many points of friction as possible and we do need a price from the seller at some point early on in the process to sell your domain.

We have grown sales significantly for our customers over the past few years by adding more reseller partners and removing points of friction, investing in our brokers and systems, and in advertising. If you are not selling domains we are not making money so our interests are laser focused on yours - selling the most domains. We have our system developed around this and not everyone has to agree with it or how it works or does not work for them. There are many different selling styles. If you want a price every time someone has an interest in your domain then we may not be the best fit for you.

 

[Name Trader]

@Joe Styler - All of what you say is probably true. But none of this really affects the Broker informing us what the offer is, on a Make Offer domain. Or telling us the lead came from a source where you don't have the ability to force the potential buyer to make an offer. (Which I hadn't realized was happening). It's also false to assume that I want to manage my own sales. But I am expecting to receive all offers, when I set my domains as "Make Offer". Which your system is designed to ignore. As it stands today.

Make Offer means just that. Make an offer. It doesn't mean that you can send our domains to venues that don't accept Make Offer domains. Circumventing our intentions. But that is not sufficient excuse for the Afternic Brokers NOT to inform us of ALL offers received, when they ask for BIN/Floor pricing. That is simply a no-brainer (to me).

But since, in your own words, this is unlikely to happen anytime soon, I will be removing all my Make Offer domains from Afternic BECAUSE Afternic Brokers are abrogating their responsibilities as brokers by not informing us of the offer received, when they ask for BIN/Floor pricing. This is no bid deal for either of us. It's the principal at stake which is the big deal here.

 

[tonyk2000]

Not all of them are set up to take pricing.

Make Offer means just that. Make an offer

Seems I tend to agree with... both Nothing wrong with Make Offer setup by itself, however, there are always two sides. Buyer may make a funny $10 offer if they are forced to, or submit a million dollar offer if the form does not accept anything else (with no intention to pay), just to receive a response or feedback, Similarly, the seller who is operating in strict "make offer" mode may always respond with a cosmic price if they are somehow forced to give a price. Neither will make a sale closer. So, what is the solution? Who knows... GD is trying to reasonably balance both sides by requesting a price from a seller. What else can be expected... ? Joe, what will happen if the seller still refuses to determine a bin price and asked the broker to obtain some no-nonsense offer from the buyer?

 

[Name Trader]

Seems I tend to agree with... both Nothing wrong with Make Offer setup by itself, however, there are always two sides. Buyer may make a funny $10 offer if they are forced to, or submit a million dollar offer if the form does not accept anything else (with no intention to pay), just to receive a response or feedback, Similarly, the seller who is operating in strict "make offer" mode may always respond with a cosmic price if they are somehow forced to give a price. Neither will make a sale closer. So, what is the solution? Who knows... GD is trying to reasonably balance both sides by requesting a price from a seller. What else can be expected... ? Joe, what will happen if the seller still refuses to determine a bin price and asked the broker to obtain some no-nonsense offer from the buyer?

I have watered my request down somewhat, inasmuch I would accept if the broker ALWAYS quoted the price or claims that if was from a venue which didn't accept Make Offer domains. But for Afternic to REFUSE to provide this information at the time they ask for BIN/Floor pricing, is RIDICULOUS. IMHO. I really haven't seen @Joe Styler explain in a satisfactory way, why they refuse to do that. Because what it means, is we are wasting our time listing our Make Offer domains at Afternic. Because they are doing everything in their power to make us change our domains to BIN domains, by not providing the expected level of service (by not providing us with potential clients offers) expected from listing our domains as Make Offer. I don't EVER remember a time when a broker has ever presented me with 1 offer, ever, on all my domains listed as Make Offer, at Afternic. It's always provide BIN/Floor pricing. When we are not exactly sure what the price should be. Because we have never received any offers. Circular argument.

 

[tonyk2000]

for Afternic to REFUSE to provide this information

Actually Afternic might want to make negotiations 100% transparent to the seller. Like Uniregistry brokerage does. This would eliminate most if not all issues currently discussed. If the seller knowingly elected to outsource leads processing (to Afternic) - he will only appreciate that there is a broker selling for him, and he will not try to "exclude" brokers and contact the buyers directly. This is how competing (Uniregistry) brokerage operates. It works. Moreover, based on my own experience with mentioned competing brokerage service - an opportunity for the seller to review to broker-buyer communications is nothing but helpful, on various occasions I could post useful comments for brokers ("second opinion", etc.).

 

[MasterOfMyDomains]

Very informative thread. One thing came to mind, not sure if it was mentioned, but when you visit www.afternic.com/forsale/bandmanager.com as example, a (ugly) page comes up with a phone number to get instant price, as well as request price in 24 hours. Different than /domain/bandmanager,com
Maybe leads are coming in this way. What if we don't respond in 24 hours?
It says need a price instantly, call now. How can you offer that service with no bin/floor/reserve set
More clarity is needed, along with a lot of other help, but i sure do understand setting bin is best.
Maybe 5k floor for everything, min offer xxx gives your people something to work with, even if a name is not worth that

 

[Name Trader]

Very informative thread. One thing came to mind, not sure if it was mentioned, but when you visit www.afternic.com/forsale/bandmanager.com as example, a (ugly) page comes up with a phone number to get instant price, as well as request price in 24 hours. Different than /domain/bandmanager,com
Maybe leads are coming in this way. What if we don't respond in 24 hours?
It says need a price instantly, call now. How can you offer that service with no bin/floor/reserve set
More clarity is needed, along with a lot of other help, but i sure do understand setting bin is best.
Maybe 5k floor for everything, min offer xxx gives your people something to work with, even if a name is not worth that

The problem with that is Floor is also a commitment to sell the domain at that price. Just like a BIN.

 

[elevator]

Interesting topic

 

[Joshua Harding]

@Joe Styler (or anyone else who holds the answer)

As domains parked via ns3.afternic.com + ns4.afternic.com aren't monetized, are visits recorded in the parking dashboard?

 

[Joe Styler]

No they will not show visits if they are set to ns3 and ns4.

 

[Joshua Harding]

No they will not show visits if they are set to ns3 and ns4.

Thanks for getting back to me, Joe!

Is this something you'd consider adding? As you're aware, visitor counts are an invaluable metric in determining interest and/or setting appropriate pricing structures.

Another question if I may - are we made aware of inquiries when we have both a BIN and floor price set, or is it automatically handled by the assigned broker? That is to say, if an agreement is not reached, would we at any point be made aware that it was initiated?

Thanks again for your transparency, Joe. It helps.

 

[Joe Styler]

You would not know without asking. If they get an inquiry less than your min offer price you will not know which is why some people choose to have a very low min offer price so they can see any offers coming in to them and prioritize the domains for renewal etc based on offers even if they are low ball.

 

[Joshua Harding]

You would not know without asking. If they get an inquiry less than your min offer price you will not know which is why some people choose to have a very low min offer price so they can see any offers coming in to them and prioritize the domains for renewal etc based on offers even if they are low ball.

My apologies - I should be more clear as it's a very specific case.

This would be the case in which both a BIN and floor are set, yet the offer comes in above the minimum offer, but below the floor. In this case, depending on how close the offer is to the floor, I (or any seller) may be willing to reconsider the floor price if the offer is close enough.

I've tried to make that as clear as I can - my apologies as it's difficult to effectively illustrate via text.

Would we be made aware of such an offer, or is it filtered given the established floor price?

Cheers!

 

[Joe Styler]

I would go with no as the answer to that to be safe, so consider that as the answer when thinking about a pricing strategy if you want your pricing and not the broker's judgment to be the determining factor on whether or not your see offers.
However, in practical terms it is a judgment call by the broker who gets the offer. Many people set their min offer at $20. So you may have a min offer of $20 and a floor of $10k and a BIN of $20k. If they get an offer for $50 you're probably not going to hear about it. If they get one at $8k you probably will. If you get one at $2k maybe, maybe not. They broker is going to get the buyer engaged and explain the value of the name and work to try and sell it. If the buyer seems unwilling to go anywhere near your floor they probably won't reach out. If they feel like the buyer is starting low but will come up they'll tell you. The main thing the agent is trying to do is get your domain sold so if they think there is a chance they will act on it. If they talk with the buyer and he won't go over $100 and stands firm that domains have no value and we're "stealing" a domain that should be theirs because no one is using it then you won't get those kinds of offers sent to you. Hope that helps.

 

[Joshua Harding]

I would go with no as the answer to that to be safe, so consider that as the answer when thinking about a pricing strategy if you want your pricing and not the broker's judgment to be the determining factor on whether or not your see offers.
However, in practical terms it is a judgment call by the broker who gets the offer. Many people set their min offer at $20. So you may have a min offer of $20 and a floor of $10k and a BIN of $20k. If they get an offer for $50 you're probably not going to hear about it. If they get one at $8k you probably will. If you get one at $2k maybe, maybe not. They broker is going to get the buyer engaged and explain the value of the name and work to try and sell it. If the buyer seems unwilling to go anywhere near your floor they probably won't reach out. If they feel like the buyer is starting low but will come up they'll tell you. The main thing the agent is trying to do is get your domain sold so if they think there is a chance they will act on it. If they talk with the buyer and he won't go over $100 and stands firm that domains have no value and we're "stealing" a domain that should be theirs because no one is using it then you won't get those kinds of offers sent to you. Hope that helps.

Exactly the answer I was looking for - it absolutely helps.

I appreciate you taking the time to flesh it out in detail.

Thank you, Joe.

 

[JMbusiness]

EDITED - mistake, message was meant for a different thread