advice Ideas for a new domain marketplace - alternatives to Godaddy, Afternic & Sedo

[Maxxo]

Congrats to the founders of Dan... I hope you're enjoying your time on the new yacht. But Afternic's fees are too high, the user interface is worse and customer support not as good. So, let's talk about some ideas for a new domain marketplace (that is not forum based) that is actually a user friendly dedicated e-commerce site that facilitates sales and payments between trusted buyers and sellers. Uni registry was pretty awesome for a short while until godaddy**** that one up too.

• eBay still seems like a viable option not sure why it's not more popular for domains
• efty seems ok but why charge? just take small =< 5% fee if name sells maybe
• sedo is tedious user interface
• afternic is failing to be like DAN
• "brand" marketplaces like brandbucket fees way too high

Has anyone made a comprehensive list of pros & cons different domain marketplaces. Let's see what chatgpt thinks...

 

[Bravo Mod Team]

Our thoughts:

You don't need a marketplace. Just decent domains and a free lander like we provide.

Otherwise, you'll forever be beholden to other companies who can take as much of your sales as they want from you.

We hope that helps.

 

[scithe]

GoDaddy stopped allowing auctions last year.

 

[m4jor101]

I'm trying to building an alternative to brandable marketplace. At first I thought of building auction platform as I was intrigued by the constant action taking place and that dopamine hit and also godaddy had just recently stopped user auction so it was right time to build an alternative but after asking around multiple people in this forum and other communities I didn't receive much feedback and interest in it and also because of chicken and egg problem made it difficult to launch an auction platform as a new player in the market.

I later explored what other way I could build a product as I feel domain community has very few innovative startups that are solving real problems while also focusing on better user experience and interface.
I soon discovered the sunsetting of Dan but after digging much deeper into this I don't think I alone can take on the like of big guys, so I niched it even further to focus only on premium/brandable marketplace but ensure that I could give best experience to few sellers and buyers rather than focusing on mass market.

 

[789.xyz]

Afternic is basically the monopolist in the secondary domain market, which is why it's as lazy as a piece of crap when it comes to optimizing itself. Even when excellent competitors like DAN emerge, they get acquired and stifled through GoDaddy.

 

[Dream Domains]

atom.com

 

[scithe]

What is Daaz lacking?

 

[Adrigan]

Congrats to the founders of Dan... I hope you're enjoying your time on the new yacht. But Afternic's fees are too high, the user interface is worse and customer support not as good. So, let's talk about some ideas for a new domain marketplace (that is not forum based) that is actually a user friendly dedicated e-commerce site that facilitates sales and payments between trusted buyers and sellers. Uni registry was pretty awesome for a short while until godaddy**** that one up too.

• eBay still seems like a viable option not sure why it's not more popular for domains
• efty seems ok but why charge? just take small =< 5% fee if name sells maybe
• sedo is tedious user interface
• afternic is failing to be like DAN
• "brand" marketplaces like brandbucket fees way too high

Has anyone made a comprehensive list of pros & cons different domain marketplaces. Let's see what chatgpt thinks...

Show attachment 268786

All marketplaces are shyte because they suffer from the same problem all middlemen do, which is primarily that they don't seek to benefit the buyer or seller more than themselves.

As the moderator accurately states, we don't need marketplaces. We need simple/effective landing pages which facilitates contact between buyers and sellers. I think marketplaces will suit some people who think it's risky/tricky to deal directly with unknown people and the numerous trickery that can happen and are willing to forgoe some money for that (although many people build the commission into their pricing).

Domain marketplaces provide nothing more effective than a landing page does and the parasitic marketplace owners have the nerve to demand a huge commission for doing really nothing at all, as the user has to do all the work to list domains, set parameters etc. Support from these alleged marketplaces range from non existent to beyond abysmal and in addition, their not insignificant incompetence leads to all kinds of troubles for either party, sometimes included theft and losses.
Yet the intelligent or often dunderhead idiots who work at these companies cheerfully claim "expertise" in domain name valuation (laughable) and some woolly & undefined "selling expertise".
They have neither and never will have, because they never seek to understand value and they couldn't sell water to a dying man.

The landing pages offered by this site are more than adequate for the purpose of selling a domain and I would imagine it suits most domain owners who have domains to sell.

I do see the value for buyers to browse many names with certain words or name parameters and for this aspect, marketplaces are ok. But if you are a seller and your name is good or better, you really don't need to do anything as buyers will find you all by themselves.

Anyone with brains can see that creating yet another marketplace is a pointless exercise, unless they set it up so that they charge a very low commission like 2% or less and don't bog it down with a bunch of nonsense, junk and fill the pages with ads, etc., and if such a site became successful, the 1-2% commission can quickly add up.
They could charge more for including and escrow element or for tying into escrow.com.

 

[alcy]

All marketplaces are shyte because they suffer from the same problem all middlemen do, which is primarily that they don't seek to benefit the buyer or seller more than themselves.

As the moderator accurately states, we don't need marketplaces. We need simple/effective landing pages which facilitates contact between buyers and sellers. I think marketplaces will suit some people who think it's risky/tricky to deal directly with unknown people and the numerous trickery that can happen and are willing to forgoe some money for that (although many people build the commission into their pricing).

Domain marketplaces provide nothing more effective than a landing page does and the parasitic marketplace owners have the nerve to demand a huge commission for doing really nothing at all, as the user has to do all the work to list domains, set parameters etc. Support from these alleged marketplaces range from non existent to beyond abysmal and in addition, their not insignificant incompetence leads to all kinds of troubles for either party, sometimes included theft and losses.
Yet the intelligent or often dunderhead idiots who work at these companies cheerfully claim "expertise" in domain name valuation (laughable) and some woolly & undefined "selling expertise".
They have neither and never will have, because they never seek to understand value and they couldn't sell water to a dying man.

The landing pages offered by this site are more than adequate for the purpose of selling a domain and I would imagine it suits most domain owners who have domains to sell.

I do see the value for buyers to browse many names with certain words or name parameters and for this aspect, marketplaces are ok. But if you are a seller and your name is good or better, you really don't need to do anything as buyers will find you all by themselves.

Anyone with brains can see that creating yet another marketplace is a pointless exercise, unless they set it up so that they charge a very low commission like 2% or less and don't bog it down with a bunch of nonsense, junk and fill the pages with ads, etc., and if such a site became successful, the 1-2% commission can quickly add up.
They could charge more for including and escrow element or for tying into escrow.com.

its not really true to say everyone would have same number sales if markets didnt exist at all. and only landers.

 

[scithe]

I disagree that marketplaces serve little value. They keep the deals regulated.

Have you ever had a buyer or seller try to change the terms after a deal? Once Afternic or Sedo have your credit card there's no "idiot" button for them to press and try dumb things. Of course they can just walk away from the deal but they can do that with direct sales as well.

I wonder if charging a buyer's premium and lowering seller fees would deter many buyers away? What if instead of a 25% Afternic commission is was 12.5% and 12.5%? Or 7.5% and 7.5% with Afternic landers? From there I can see Afternic adding icons to indicate which domains were available at a lower buyer's premium.

Many buyers might try to negotiate that 7.5% or 12.5% off. I think I'd rather give someone 7.5-12.5% off than 20% off which I have accepted in the past.

 

[Adrigan]

I disagree that marketplaces serve little value. They keep the deals regulated.

Have you ever had a buyer or seller try to change the terms after a deal? Once Afternic or Sedo have your credit card there's no "idiot" button for them to press and try dumb things. Of course they can just walk away from the deal but they can do that with direct sales as well.

I wonder if charging a buyer's premium and lowering seller fees would deter many buyers away? What if instead of a 25% Afternic commission is was 12.5% and 12.5%? Or 7.5% and 7.5% with Afternic landers? From there I can see Afternic adding icons to indicate which domains were available at a lower buyer's premium.

Many buyers might try to negotiate that 7.5% or 12.5% off. I think I'd rather give someone 7.5-12.5% off than 20% off which I have accepted in the past.

I never said little value. I said no more effective than landing pages. Can you not read? I also said they can be of some value to some people, later on in my post.

I can see the benefit to some sellers with using a 3rd party for the transaction, for help if the buyer starts shenanigans and perhaps advice on some details that come up that th seller doesn't understand, etc.

But Assnic & Sedo live in a fantasy world where they think they are living in the world as if it was still 1998-2002. In those boom times of domain names, it was easy to get away with giant commissions as people were awash with money, hungry to get a piece of the domain name gold rush.

But those times are long gone and have been gone for over 20+ years, yet the moron CEOs at these sites don't seem to have noticed.

There is no justification for charging huge commissions to the seller for essentially doing nothing for the seller. I imagine most people will load up these site's commission into their pricing.

 

[Jannes]

I never said little value. I said no more effective than landing pages. Can you not read? I also said they can be of some value to some people, later on in my post.

Watch your attitude toward members, please.

 

[Adrigan]

Watch your attitude toward members, please.

I was correcting a user's faulty comment. Plus, I'll do as I please.

 

[Zir0]

Facebook has some pages for selling domains and buying. Just search sell buy domains and you will get a list.

 

[Jannes]

I was correcting a user's faulty comment. Plus, I'll do as I please.

I think I can live without your rude rants. Bye.

 

[doofer]

Ebay - Zero seller protection

 

[alcy]

Watch your attitude toward members, please.

babhahahaha
says the dude who just told all to .ignore alcy

who does that

alcy is da shit
u never .ignore alcy
if u do u go to hell

 

[Maxxo]

All marketplaces are shyte because they suffer from the same problem all middlemen do, which is primarily that they don't seek to benefit the buyer or seller more than themselves.

As the moderator accurately states, we don't need marketplaces. We need simple/effective landing pages which facilitates contact between buyers and sellers. I think marketplaces will suit some people who think it's risky/tricky to deal directly with unknown people and the numerous trickery that can happen and are willing to forgoe some money for that (although many people build the commission into their pricing).

Domain marketplaces provide nothing more effective than a landing page does and the parasitic marketplace owners have the nerve to demand a huge commission for doing really nothing at all, as the user has to do all the work to list domains, set parameters etc. Support from these alleged marketplaces range from non existent to beyond abysmal and in addition, their not insignificant incompetence leads to all kinds of troubles for either party, sometimes included theft and losses.
Yet the intelligent or often dunderhead idiots who work at these companies cheerfully claim "expertise" in domain name valuation (laughable) and some woolly & undefined "selling expertise".
They have neither and never will have, because they never seek to understand value and they couldn't sell water to a dying man.

The landing pages offered by this site are more than adequate for the purpose of selling a domain and I would imagine it suits most domain owners who have domains to sell.

I do see the value for buyers to browse many names with certain words or name parameters and for this aspect, marketplaces are ok. But if you are a seller and your name is good or better, you really don't need to do anything as buyers will find you all by themselves.

Anyone with brains can see that creating yet another marketplace is a pointless exercise, unless they set it up so that they charge a very low commission like 2% or less and don't bog it down with a bunch of nonsense, junk and fill the pages with ads, etc., and if such a site became successful, the 1-2% commission can quickly add up.
They could charge more for including and escrow element or for tying into escrow.com.

Yeah seems like self-hosted landing page is way to go if the domain is a good one.

 

[Maxxo]

Our thoughts:

You don't need a marketplace. Just decent domains and a free lander like we provide.

Otherwise, you'll forever be beholden to other companies who can take as much of your sales as they want from you.

We hope that helps.

Wouldn't it be better if the domain for sale hosted it's own landing page? Using namepros landing page is still middleman... right?

 

[Bravo Mod Team]

Using namepros landing page is still middleman... right?

Nope, we connect you directly to your buyers through email; we aren’t in the middle. We just make it easier for buyers and sellers to contact each other, like a more helpful WHOIS.