Sedo not so "Great Direct Domain Auction"

[BelgianGuru]

Hi,

a couple months ago i posted about a plan to test different marketplace, to solve the major issue with domaining = "Selling domains fast for a good price"

So i selected 2 LLLL to sell, that would easily have sold on this forum auction for a reasonable xxx$

For those who don't know, you can pay 59$ and submit a domain for "Direct Auction" for 7 days in sedo

the short review: terrible service, undelivered the promise

when you check the Sedo selling point for "Direct Auction":
Benefits

• Maximum exposure: Featured on Sedo's homepage & search results. <<==NOT TRUE AT ALL. checked several times, never saw my auction in these page, even used the search with no match.

• Flexibility and convenience: Start an auction any time you want <<==NOT TRUE , maybe you get it
• Full control: Set your desired reserve price<<== YOU CAN NOT CHANGE ANYTHING WHEN THE AUCTION START

I checked several times, i never

from my 2 auction, one didn't sell and one sold at 120€ (lost 100$).

let's start from the beginning,
when you setup an auction, the interface is pathetic confusing,
and if by any chance you had one setting wrong, you can not change,
as Sedo is managed by some German robots who can not fix it to make it a professional auctin platform like ebay or Flippa

after you have paid for the auction, there is nothing that appear on your dashboard,
no email confirming your auction submission,
you have to wait for an email that will confirm the auction and the time it start(received 24h before it start and the same day on one occasion)

the time to start will eventually be the one you chose,
except if they process it too late and in this case they will chose a good time for you(happened on one of the auctions i started)

the auction that sold at loss, was not properly listed, as they used an option by default that killed the auction. They decided to put the auction in Euro, i never had the choice of currency when i started the auction, and i know for a fact that usd is the way to go, Eur to GBP get less bids. the support can't do or don't want to do anything to help in this case.

It is pathetic to see that a leader in domaining, offer such a poor level of service.

the support is there to explain you that they can not do anything to help you, useless

and worst, to prove you that these guys don't give a damn about their auction sellers, if the domain don't sell, they suggest that you relist it for another 7 days at 59$. THEY ARE AFTER THE MONNIES.

now, let me be clear, i am ok with the loss. it teach me that avoid to do any business with Sedo, after that i removed all my domains from their interface.

WHY SEDO REALLY SUCKS:
i listed around 500 domains on Sedo, never sold one. Half of them were listed on afternic(the new dynamic marketplace), and i sell regularly domains on afternic anything from 500$ to 1,500$ just with a free listing.µ
each time an auction end at less than 150$, Sedo steal money from their clients(59$ + 60$ min sucess fee)
note: "sucess fee" in this case refer = "success for Sedo", that's all that matter to them

simple solution starting bids = 150$ or 200$ (you don't have this option, when you setup an auction

the guys in charge at Sedo are probably in their 70s or 80s, and think we are still in 1999

when i was a child, we loved to watch a tv show called "Cosmos 1999"; it was a futuristic vision in the 80's;
from now i will refer to them as "SEDO 1999"

that was my painful experience with these dinosaurs, time to start a fresh markeplace for domainers

ps: just forgot to mention, when i complained to them about one of the fiasco auction, that sold at loss. I received a legal threat as a sweet answer.

 

[Mads]

Hi,

a couple months ago i posted about a plan to test different marketplace, to solve the major issue with domaining = "Selling domains fast for a good price"

So i selected 2 LLLL to sell, that would easily have sold on this forum auction for a reasonable xxx$

For those who don't know, you can pay 59$ and submit a domain for "Direct Auction" for 7 days in sedo

the short review: terrible service, undelivered the promise

when you check the Sedo selling point for "Direct Auction":
Benefits

• Maximum exposure: Featured on Sedo's homepage & search results. <<==NOT TRUE AT ALL. checked several times, never saw my auction in these page, even used the search with no match.

• Flexibility and convenience: Start an auction any time you want <<==NOT TRUE , maybe you get it
• Full control: Set your desired reserve price<<== YOU CAN NOT CHANGE ANYTHING WHEN THE AUCTION START

I checked several times, i never

from my 2 auction, one didn't sell and one sold at 120€ (lost 100$).

let's start from the beginning,
when you setup an auction, the interface is pathetic confusing,
and if by any chance you had one setting wrong, you can not change,
as Sedo is managed by some German robots who can not fix it to make it a professional auctin platform like ebay or Flippa

after you have paid for the auction, there is nothing that appear on your dashboard,
no email confirming your auction submission,
you have to wait for an email that will confirm the auction and the time it start(received 24h before it start and the same day on one occasion)

the time to start will eventually be the one you chose,
except if they process it too late and in this case they will chose a good time for you(happened on one of the auctions i started)

the auction that sold at loss, was not properly listed, as they used an option by default that killed the auction. They decided to put the auction in Euro, i never had the choice of currency when i started the auction, and i know for a fact that usd is the way to go, Eur to GBP get less bids. the support can't do or don't want to do anything to help in this case.

It is pathetic to see that a leader in domaining, offer such a poor level of service.

the support is there to explain you that they can not do anything to help you, useless

and worst, to prove you that these guys don't give a damn about their auction sellers, if the domain don't sell, they suggest that you relist it for another 7 days at 59$. THEY ARE AFTER THE MONNIES.

now, let me be clear, i am ok with the loss. it teach me that avoid to do any business with Sedo, after that i removed all my domains from their interface.

WHY SEDO REALLY SUCKS:
i listed around 500 domains on Sedo, never sold one. Half of them were listed on afternic(the new dynamic marketplace), and i sell regularly domains on afternic anything from 500$ to 1,500$ just with a free listing.µ
each time an auction end at less than 150$, Sedo steal money from their clients(59$ + 60$ min sucess fee)
note: "sucess fee" in this case refer = "success for Sedo", that's all that matter to them

simple solution starting bids = 150$ or 200$ (you don't have this option, when you setup an auction

the guys in charge at Sedo are probably in their 70s or 80s, and think we are still in 1999

when i was a child, we loved to watch a tv show called "Cosmos 1999"; it was a futuristic vision in the 80's;
from now i will refer to them as "SEDO 1999"

that was my painful experience with these dinosaurs, time to start a fresh markeplace for domainers

ps: just forgot to mention, when i complained to them about one of the fiasco auction, that sold at loss. I received a legal threat as a sweet answer.

I faced similar sh*t recently!!

Check my post -

Sedo Customer Service gone Crazy!

Cheers!

 

[WPM]

Greetings,

My issue with SEDO is the whole whois "privacy" problem. There needs to be a better way to prove you own domains without sacrificing your privacy in whois.

I made the mistake of "making public" info for proof and withing an hour was spammed like a madman.

IMHO, you are better off building your own landing pages with a clear DOMAIN AVAILABLE banner and contact page. The benefit is twofold, one you can get ranked in the search engines for actually being a site, and two with adsense or similar, you may be able to actually generate a small amount of income.

Regards

WPM

 

[Grego85]

I also recently gave Sedo Direct Auction a shot. Waste of $59 and as BelgianGuru said, the interface is archaic and lacks even basic features.

Also, I've learned recently that many of my parked domains via Sedo were simply redirecting to malware webpages (which the domain preview does not indicate), pretty much the worst thing possible for selling domain names. I'm done with Sedo.

 

[TopShelf Domains]

Going to move over to Afternic as well.

Paid for a featured listing on Sedo and domains do not show all the time when searching the featured listings.

 

[equity78]

Hi,

a couple months ago i posted about a plan to test different marketplace, to solve the major issue with domaining = "Selling domains fast for a good price"

So i selected 2 LLLL to sell, that would easily have sold on this forum auction for a reasonable xxx$

For those who don't know, you can pay 59$ and submit a domain for "Direct Auction" for 7 days in sedo

the short review: terrible service, undelivered the promise

when you check the Sedo selling point for "Direct Auction":
Benefits

• Maximum exposure: Featured on Sedo's homepage & search results. <<==NOT TRUE AT ALL. checked several times, never saw my auction in these page, even used the search with no match.

• Flexibility and convenience: Start an auction any time you want <<==NOT TRUE , maybe you get it
• Full control: Set your desired reserve price<<== YOU CAN NOT CHANGE ANYTHING WHEN THE AUCTION START

I checked several times, i never

from my 2 auction, one didn't sell and one sold at 120€ (lost 100$).

let's start from the beginning,
when you setup an auction, the interface is pathetic confusing,
and if by any chance you had one setting wrong, you can not change,
as Sedo is managed by some German robots who can not fix it to make it a professional auctin platform like ebay or Flippa

after you have paid for the auction, there is nothing that appear on your dashboard,
no email confirming your auction submission,
you have to wait for an email that will confirm the auction and the time it start(received 24h before it start and the same day on one occasion)

the time to start will eventually be the one you chose,
except if they process it too late and in this case they will chose a good time for you(happened on one of the auctions i started)

the auction that sold at loss, was not properly listed, as they used an option by default that killed the auction. They decided to put the auction in Euro, i never had the choice of currency when i started the auction, and i know for a fact that usd is the way to go, Eur to GBP get less bids. the support can't do or don't want to do anything to help in this case.

It is pathetic to see that a leader in domaining, offer such a poor level of service.

the support is there to explain you that they can not do anything to help you, useless

and worst, to prove you that these guys don't give a damn about their auction sellers, if the domain don't sell, they suggest that you relist it for another 7 days at 59$. THEY ARE AFTER THE MONNIES.

now, let me be clear, i am ok with the loss. it teach me that avoid to do any business with Sedo, after that i removed all my domains from their interface.

WHY SEDO REALLY SUCKS:
i listed around 500 domains on Sedo, never sold one. Half of them were listed on afternic(the new dynamic marketplace), and i sell regularly domains on afternic anything from 500$ to 1,500$ just with a free listing.µ
each time an auction end at less than 150$, Sedo steal money from their clients(59$ + 60$ min sucess fee)
note: "sucess fee" in this case refer = "success for Sedo", that's all that matter to them

simple solution starting bids = 150$ or 200$ (you don't have this option, when you setup an auction

the guys in charge at Sedo are probably in their 70s or 80s, and think we are still in 1999

when i was a child, we loved to watch a tv show called "Cosmos 1999"; it was a futuristic vision in the 80's;
from now i will refer to them as "SEDO 1999"

that was my painful experience with these dinosaurs, time to start a fresh markeplace for domainers

ps: just forgot to mention, when i complained to them about one of the fiasco auction, that sold at loss. I received a legal threat as a sweet answer.

They threatened you for a negative review ?

 

[BelgianGuru]

They threatened you for a negative review ?

when the auction flopped, i contacted the support to see what they can do
basically they apologized,
then they said that if i don't transfer the domain(at loss), they have the rights to charge me much more(they have my credit card info) + legal compensation need to be paid to the winner of the auction

i complained in the first place, because the auction was no setup properly as i wanted: "wrong currency" and start time was not the one i asked

i say ok i can live with this loss, but they will never have any of my business,
and i removed all my domains from sedo

now, i think it's a good thing to know, that sedo is not there for domainers, they are promoting their own domains, and that's pretty obvious

 

[Domain Lead Finder]

Why do people think that end users know about Sedo and Flippa and the likes? Sedo and Flippa are the most expensive "buy now" pages in the world. Type in Sedo.com or Flippa.com in Spyfu or Semrush and see an approximation of how much they really spend on bringing in new buyers. I outsell Sedo and Flippa every time just by putting up my own buy now page and doing some work.

Also 59$ to give you a priority listing in front of an audience that is 95% domain investors is something one could do for free by listing his domain here on the forum.

 

[BelgianGuru]

Going to move over to Afternic as well.

Paid for a featured listing on Sedo and domains do not show all the time when searching the featured listings.

yes, it is weird that they have no concern about customer experience

it seem that this platform was build only to promote their own portfolio

if you look at the number of sales vs the number of domains parked, it is clear that these guys never hired a decent sales marketing team to rethink their business for profits.

 

[trap3]

Totally agree with belgianguru. Imo, Interface is like something from 1999 and the level of overall service is a disgrace, except for their response times which are very good.

I recently listed a domain in direct auction. You can pay $59 or €59, depending on which currency you select. Support say you cannot change anything after the auction has started , however you can in fact change your description. Which i did. So when i asked them to lower my reserve price and they said no, i argued this point, but to no avail. I Just recieved the same robotic answer over and over. No, we cannot change after auction started.

The reason i wanted to lower my reserve price was due to a 'reserve range' being shown for my direction auction listing at $5000-9999 (i really cannot understand why they do this). My reserve was $5000. I felt showing this reserve range could significantly reduce action on my listing, so wanted to lower the reserve to $4999. By reducing the reserve by $1, the new reserve range would display as $1000-4999.

I find it quite astonishing that they could not accomodate. They are taking 15% commission on sales. Yet they dont seem to appear to want to assist you with even basic support. Baffling.

They do list your domain on the homepage though. However it appears to be only 10 auctions listed, in order of least time remaining. So you get listed right at the end of your auction.

If i dont get any bids (60 views so far and no bids) then i will be certainly asking for a free relisting. If they dont accomodate then i will be requesting at least a partial refund.

 

[DJ Smak]

I recently paid for a direct auction as well and although I am relatively new to this (haven't been buying domains for a few years) I was annoyed that I couldn't change anything after the fact. I had a domain that I priced wrong and seeing the reserve starting between $1,000-$5,000 was offputting. I had zero bids and low amount of traffic for a supposed direct auction. Also, I agree with the whois privacy issue, and also faced a lot of spam the moment it went public. All i ever got was spam asking me if i need a developer.

 

[trap3]

Just to follow up. I managed to get on to live chat just now. After a little conflict, the then very helpful customer services agent spoke with a manager, and 'as an exception' lowered my reserve price to $4999. Now the reserve range is showing in much more favourable light at $1000-4999.

 

[sOliver]

SEDO is a monopoly that is crumbling. They dont care about their customers because they dont have to. They are still selling more domains than any other marketplace last I checked? I dont have any numbers on market share Afternic vs SEDO but SEDO should still be at the top.

The problem is that businesses on SEDO spend more money than on Flippa precisely because its the industry standard. Flippa is for cheapskates and so far they have not been able to get rid off that image.. Flippa should probably hire a PR genius to attract more high-paying businesses.

I think eventually Flippa will overtake SEDO or a new marketplace will emerge. We'll see

 

[trap3]

SEDO is a monopoly that is crumbling. They dont care about their customers because they dont have to. They are still selling more domains than any other marketplace last I checked? I dont have any numbers on market share Afternic vs SEDO but SEDO should still be at the top.

The problem is that businesses on SEDO spend more money than on Flippa precisely because its the industry standard. Flippa is for cheapskates and so far they have not been able to get rid off that image.. Flippa should probably hire a PR genius to attract more high-paying businesses.

I think eventually Flippa will overtake SEDO or a new marketplace will emerge. We'll see

Flippa is insanely expensive for a ultra premium or premium listing. $349 or $249 respectively. The standard listings @ $9 with a half price relisting are too cheap, agreed, and attracts way to many substandard domains and websites.

 

[saybinem]

thanks i am going to do a direct auction but now stopped

 

[Arnaud Fischer]

Interesting insights, fully appreciated. I have glams .com running on this week's auction, really not sure what to expect. Not moving so far. I want to check it out before deciding what to do with a few more "glam-xyz", like glambook .com. If not SEDO, then what would be your recommendation? Flippa seems expensive from reading the thread above. Non-expert ... thank you!

 

[Arimor]

.