Kazama San
Established Member
- Impact
- 559
I am writing this to inform everyone about the MASSIVE downsides of using Spaceship for selling domains that involve negotiating with buyers.
I had the misfortune of losing a $2700 sale on January 24, 2026 just because of scant regard and rigidity shown by Spaceship’s support agents toward buyer sensitivities and time. They literally blew a $2700 sale just because of their rigidity and tall claims.
THE DETAILS:
So, after over a month of negotiations from an opening offer of $1800 for a crypto domain with $4888 BIN, I’d managed to convince the buyer to go up to $2700. I initially thought that I was underselling or the buyer could also be a broker and they may be lowballing me.
But I needed the funds and the buyer, as I later found out, was not lowballing and it was genuinely their best offer. This buyer, likely launching their first startup with limited capital, agreed to my counter offer of $2700. An agreement was reached.
However, I received a message from Spaceship’s support agent that the buyer has requested to make the payment in 2 instalments. They asked me if I agree to the buyer’s request and then Spaceship will need to cancel the agreement and the buyer will need to send an offer again and then I’ll have to accept it.
I responded saying I am fine with it. Soon, I received a notification/email that read: “Negotiation is Canceled” and “Payment expired”. Notice the use of strong negative language here. Goes a long way in spooking a hesitant buyer or at least sowing the seeds of doubt in their minds.
Unsurprisingly, I, too, was beginning to get anxious. Some sort of fear was creeping in. So, I contacted chat support just to confirm whether Spaceship had relayed the message to the buyer in clear and polite terms.
It’s pertinent to note that the buyer was not a native speaker and their broken English was barely understandable at times. No offence here.
However, the buyer was faithful and quickly made another offer within 5 minutes. This time they said they wanted to make the payment in 2 instalments.
However, they wanted to pay in February and March and preferably wanted to schedule the payment in the middle of February.
Since it was January 24th, I wasn’t sure how Spaceship would process such a weird transaction request. I was worried the support agent might as well cancel this negotiation or ask the buyer to wait it out till Feb 15th.
And… just like that friction was setting in. I could sense this was turning into a dicey situation. One instance of bad messaging could ruin over a month of negotiations.
I hurriedly agreed to the buyer’s offer. I dropped a message via chat window asking what the buyer meant by their offer. Since the buyer was making a purchase in January that would mean he has to pay the 1st instalment in January itself and then in Feb or March whenever he is comfortable.
However, this message didn’t go through to the buyer. Instead the support agent received it.
I asked them again to please clarify with the buyer. The support agent told me as the agreement is reached for the second time, it is not possible to contact the buyer now. “So the new deal needs to be created from the buyer's side.”
REPEATEDLY TURNING DOWN REQUESTS:
I also requested them to allow the buyer to club their 3rd offer with their second offer itself, instead of sending them another email/message with a threatening tone: “Negotiation is Canceled” and “Payment expired”. You know how that works wonders with buyers?
Here’s the most important part and I’ll quote again: “So the new deal needs to be created from the buyer's side.”
Meaning I will need to wait for the buyer to make another offer.
RUINED DEAL:
Spaceship automatically assumes buyers have lots of patience, time and are constantly in a mood to play offer/counter offer games with strangers sitting in some other corner of the world on a strange website that has canceled their offer TWICE already.
You never know how the dice may roll this time. As a seller I needed to wait for the buyer to make another offer for the third time. THIRD TIME! My intuition told me this deal is wasted.
As expected, the buyer developed cold feet and “suddenly” became unresponsive. I contacted chat support to get in touch with the buyer immediately.
They responded saying we have already messaged the buyer, nothing else needs to be done now. I enquired would it be possible for Spaceship to “open” the closed/canceled deal so that, perhaps, I could convince the buyer. Crickets, that’s not allowed on RIGID Spaceship.
Perhaps at that moment I realised I’d snatched defeat from the jaws of victory thanks to mighty Spaceship. They ruined a confirmed deal just because of their poor messaging, rigid system, indifferent support agents and ZERO flexibility.
TALL CLAIMS:
A couple of weeks ago, their ex-CEO announced on X that domain investors will be able to re-open closed leads and contact them once again “after a week” and that read receipts has already been rolled out to users.
While I wait for the first promise to be fulfilled, I can confirm read receipts doesn’t work, at least, for me. Tall claims on X with a dash of brown-nosing fans and indifferent support with nothing but excuses to back it up.
I’d also messaged the ex-CEO explaining my ordeal at the time but he was too busy.
IS AFTERNIC BETTER?
At this time, the clear takeaway for me is that Afternic is MILES better in terms of poaching leads and converting them. That 15% commission might sound extreme (20% with boost on and up to 30% with name servers pointed elsewhere), but at least Afternic doesn’t ruin your sales.
I have criticised Afternic in the past for their archaic backend but they do give me the most number of sales and convert old leads well. OTOH, Spaceship ruins “confirmed” deals just because of their nonchalant support agents and absolutely apathetic behaviour.
To their credit, Spaceship does attract a certain subset of buyers, and is a good market for certain types of domains, and coupled with 5% commish, the enticement is real.
However, the part that stung me the most was how Spaceship ruined the deal when it casually canceled the transaction for the second time around. Absolute deal killer.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Be careful when importing leads on Spaceship, or negotiating with buyers, their inflexible system and nonchalant support agents’ attitude might as well ruin your confirmed deal(s).
I had the misfortune of losing a $2700 sale on January 24, 2026 just because of scant regard and rigidity shown by Spaceship’s support agents toward buyer sensitivities and time. They literally blew a $2700 sale just because of their rigidity and tall claims.
THE DETAILS:
So, after over a month of negotiations from an opening offer of $1800 for a crypto domain with $4888 BIN, I’d managed to convince the buyer to go up to $2700. I initially thought that I was underselling or the buyer could also be a broker and they may be lowballing me.
But I needed the funds and the buyer, as I later found out, was not lowballing and it was genuinely their best offer. This buyer, likely launching their first startup with limited capital, agreed to my counter offer of $2700. An agreement was reached.
However, I received a message from Spaceship’s support agent that the buyer has requested to make the payment in 2 instalments. They asked me if I agree to the buyer’s request and then Spaceship will need to cancel the agreement and the buyer will need to send an offer again and then I’ll have to accept it.
I responded saying I am fine with it. Soon, I received a notification/email that read: “Negotiation is Canceled” and “Payment expired”. Notice the use of strong negative language here. Goes a long way in spooking a hesitant buyer or at least sowing the seeds of doubt in their minds.
Unsurprisingly, I, too, was beginning to get anxious. Some sort of fear was creeping in. So, I contacted chat support just to confirm whether Spaceship had relayed the message to the buyer in clear and polite terms.
It’s pertinent to note that the buyer was not a native speaker and their broken English was barely understandable at times. No offence here.
However, the buyer was faithful and quickly made another offer within 5 minutes. This time they said they wanted to make the payment in 2 instalments.
However, they wanted to pay in February and March and preferably wanted to schedule the payment in the middle of February.
Since it was January 24th, I wasn’t sure how Spaceship would process such a weird transaction request. I was worried the support agent might as well cancel this negotiation or ask the buyer to wait it out till Feb 15th.
And… just like that friction was setting in. I could sense this was turning into a dicey situation. One instance of bad messaging could ruin over a month of negotiations.
I hurriedly agreed to the buyer’s offer. I dropped a message via chat window asking what the buyer meant by their offer. Since the buyer was making a purchase in January that would mean he has to pay the 1st instalment in January itself and then in Feb or March whenever he is comfortable.
However, this message didn’t go through to the buyer. Instead the support agent received it.
I asked them again to please clarify with the buyer. The support agent told me as the agreement is reached for the second time, it is not possible to contact the buyer now. “So the new deal needs to be created from the buyer's side.”
REPEATEDLY TURNING DOWN REQUESTS:
I also requested them to allow the buyer to club their 3rd offer with their second offer itself, instead of sending them another email/message with a threatening tone: “Negotiation is Canceled” and “Payment expired”. You know how that works wonders with buyers?
Here’s the most important part and I’ll quote again: “So the new deal needs to be created from the buyer's side.”
Meaning I will need to wait for the buyer to make another offer.
RUINED DEAL:
Spaceship automatically assumes buyers have lots of patience, time and are constantly in a mood to play offer/counter offer games with strangers sitting in some other corner of the world on a strange website that has canceled their offer TWICE already.
You never know how the dice may roll this time. As a seller I needed to wait for the buyer to make another offer for the third time. THIRD TIME! My intuition told me this deal is wasted.
As expected, the buyer developed cold feet and “suddenly” became unresponsive. I contacted chat support to get in touch with the buyer immediately.
They responded saying we have already messaged the buyer, nothing else needs to be done now. I enquired would it be possible for Spaceship to “open” the closed/canceled deal so that, perhaps, I could convince the buyer. Crickets, that’s not allowed on RIGID Spaceship.
Perhaps at that moment I realised I’d snatched defeat from the jaws of victory thanks to mighty Spaceship. They ruined a confirmed deal just because of their poor messaging, rigid system, indifferent support agents and ZERO flexibility.
TALL CLAIMS:
A couple of weeks ago, their ex-CEO announced on X that domain investors will be able to re-open closed leads and contact them once again “after a week” and that read receipts has already been rolled out to users.
While I wait for the first promise to be fulfilled, I can confirm read receipts doesn’t work, at least, for me. Tall claims on X with a dash of brown-nosing fans and indifferent support with nothing but excuses to back it up.
I’d also messaged the ex-CEO explaining my ordeal at the time but he was too busy.
IS AFTERNIC BETTER?
At this time, the clear takeaway for me is that Afternic is MILES better in terms of poaching leads and converting them. That 15% commission might sound extreme (20% with boost on and up to 30% with name servers pointed elsewhere), but at least Afternic doesn’t ruin your sales.
I have criticised Afternic in the past for their archaic backend but they do give me the most number of sales and convert old leads well. OTOH, Spaceship ruins “confirmed” deals just because of their nonchalant support agents and absolutely apathetic behaviour.
To their credit, Spaceship does attract a certain subset of buyers, and is a good market for certain types of domains, and coupled with 5% commish, the enticement is real.
However, the part that stung me the most was how Spaceship ruined the deal when it casually canceled the transaction for the second time around. Absolute deal killer.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Be careful when importing leads on Spaceship, or negotiating with buyers, their inflexible system and nonchalant support agents’ attitude might as well ruin your confirmed deal(s).
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