The rule is that the seller pays sale fees, no options or deviations, the seller pays.
I think this is fine when the sale price is high enough that the fees are more than covered. But what about bargain domains - low sale prices? Those quick flips and bargains are great to the buyers, but not to the sellers.
Buyers and sellers are equal in many ways:
Without buyers there would be no sellers, but without sellers there would be no buyers either.
Neither sellers nor buyers want to pay fees:
There are pros and cons for when either party pays:
When the sale price is low the seller gets barely any profit, and paying fees on top means their profit is tiny. Whereas the buyer paying the fees means their domain is a little bit more, and will still be a bargain!
A mutual benefit exists:
Many users will come and list cheap domains, either new users or those just happy getting a quick flip and small profit (it's a genuine business model). Such sellers selling cheap domain names provides a means for shrewd buyers to obtain cheap domains to spend a bit more time/effort and make a larger profit over time.
There may well be more potential bargains being listed if the seller didn't have to pay the fees on low price domains!
Based on all of the above, I suggest:
Have a threshold which determines the point of whether the buyer or seller pays any fees.
For example:
Yes this adds a slight complication, but is it really that hard?
Pros and Cons of discouraging buyers VS sellers:
This is just an idea for discussion. I'm sure there'll be caveats I've not thought about
I think this is fine when the sale price is high enough that the fees are more than covered. But what about bargain domains - low sale prices? Those quick flips and bargains are great to the buyers, but not to the sellers.
Buyers and sellers are equal in many ways:
Without buyers there would be no sellers, but without sellers there would be no buyers either.
Neither sellers nor buyers want to pay fees:
- Sellers want to get as much as possible
- Buyers want to pay as little as possible
There are pros and cons for when either party pays:
- Should seller pay fees, and we risk losing people wanting to sell domains cheap or start auctions low?
- Should buyer pay fees, and we risk losing people bidding?
When the sale price is low the seller gets barely any profit, and paying fees on top means their profit is tiny. Whereas the buyer paying the fees means their domain is a little bit more, and will still be a bargain!
A mutual benefit exists:
Many users will come and list cheap domains, either new users or those just happy getting a quick flip and small profit (it's a genuine business model). Such sellers selling cheap domain names provides a means for shrewd buyers to obtain cheap domains to spend a bit more time/effort and make a larger profit over time.
There may well be more potential bargains being listed if the seller didn't have to pay the fees on low price domains!
Based on all of the above, I suggest:
Have a threshold which determines the point of whether the buyer or seller pays any fees.
For example:
- Sale price below $25 for PayPal the buyer pays the fees
- Sale price at or above $25 for PayPal the seller pays the fees
Yes this adds a slight complication, but is it really that hard?
Pros and Cons of discouraging buyers VS sellers:
- If some buyers are not bidding as they don't want to pay fees (under $25 etc) the domain is still listed for many other buyers to bid on, and the site obtains the content and remains a good place to buy and sell.
- If the seller doesn't want to list because they do not want to pay the fees or are new and unsure of the fees, then no-one at all gets to bid on the domain, and so the site has less posts, and other buyers lose out on potential bargains.
This is just an idea for discussion. I'm sure there'll be caveats I've not thought about
