I wonder if it is just being closed. That is part of the overall new design for Afternic as well, making communications more clear and transparent. I am in charge of Auctions, backorders, appraisals and the product side of our brokerage. I work with Afternic closely but I dont own it so take what I say here with a grain of salt, things might change or have changed and I'm not always in the loop.
The way it works now is that you get an offer on a domain that doesnt have a Buy it now price or there is a minimum offer set and the offer from the buyer meets that but not your BIN price.
The sales team will try and sell it. They need a price though from you before they can work on it that you would accept. Then they go and talk with the buyer. This is where they really shine I might add. If after talking with the buyer and attempting to get them to see a high value in the domain the buyer still will not make a decent offer they normally close it out and you do not hear from them again unless the buyer comes back to the table.
So for instance you have a domain for sale with no BIN price and an opening offer at $100. The lead comes in and the buyer says I want to buy this domain. The sales rep asks you what you want for the domain since there is a lead. You say $5k bottom line. They get on the phone and talk with the buyer about why it is worth more than $5k and try and close it out above that in many cases and leave the $5k as an option. The buyer despite their attempts to help the buyer see the value of this domain for their business in real terms says, no way am I paying more than $100. I'm going to buy the 3 word dot biz domain for $15 instead! At that point they dont get back to you. They tell the guy if he changes his mind he knows where to find us and they close the lead.
This scenario is the same if you have a $100 min offer and a $5k BIN or floor price set. In this case though the sales team knows the bottom line you want. They have the same conversation and they close it out. The lead isnt lost but it wasnt a good one. This guy only wanted to pay $100 and despite their best efforts he wasnt budging. So in this case we got the lead, we worked it and closed it, but you dont know that happened.
This is what they are working on making more transparent in the future. There is a massive redo underway of Afternic some of which is in the Beta version out now. It will be much improved at the end of it.
Right now the best way to get this kind of insight into the leads is to email
[email protected]. They can give you some more info on the lead they are working or completed and what happened. They'll also be able to confirm they are getting them. I really think they are but it is the scenario above you are encountering. However, I could be wrong and if so they will know about the lead getting there or not and if it is not we would certainly want to fix that ASAP.
