Spaceship.com - Marketplace Thread

[DomainRecap]

Spaceship.com recently launched a new Marketplace section, and as NamePros has given me the go-head, I think the company deserves its own thread for NP domain marketplace users to converse in.

https://www.spaceship.com/sellerhub/

Personally speaking, I will be setting up a new Spaceship.com account this weekend and going to work investigating its various features, options and policies.

 

[DomainRecap]

Is it not a 10% Seller commission now?

Obviously, and it was just a simple typo after typing in 'Buyer Premium' and 'Seller Commission' over and over and over and over.

For future reference, Commissions are for sellers to pay and Premiums are for buyers to pay - that's the way big auction houses (and other sales businesses) like Sotheby's and Heritage work. Buyers can't pay a Commission fee because they're not selling anything, and Sellers can't pay a Premium fee because they're not buying anything.

The typo has been corrected, so now you can sleep at night.

 

[Rippa]

It appears (and I don't know why) Spaceship staff & owners do not now interact with us here, although this NamePros marketplace thread is dedicated to Spaceship.

In any case, I just noticed an oddity. It may be a simple error, or a precursor of what might be termed "a fiddle"

My domains at Spaceship are set to "Auto-renew = OFF"
Upon a recent domain renewal, I got the email Order Summary, and was surprised to see the notation "1 year extension, Auto-renew On" for each domain

Spaceship Domain Manager still lists these as OFF but ... it is odd. (The .pdf receipt states nothing of auto renewal settings)

I'd like to assume Domain Manager is correct, but if they suddenly toggle all domain renewal settings retroactively to auto renew On, the only 'proof' is the pictured renewal email which confirms this. I'd like to believe they'd not be so dastardly, but CVC Capital Partners values Namecheap and Spaceship at $1.5 billion... Am I being too careful or imaginative?

 

[Rippa]

The oddity of misreporting Auto-Renew is as stated.

The oddity of Spaceship not engaging on this page seems because they do so elsewhere on NamePros. This is marketplace thread and another is registrar thread:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/spaceship-com-registrar-thread.1300167

 

[King]

Sellerhub names are no longer shown when you hit "Load more premium"

It only shows Afternic names, didn't they breakup? Or did they run back to their ex and this was their way of making up?

 

[domainer8888]

It only shows Afternic names, didn't they breakup? Or did they run back to their ex and this was their way of making up?

this breakup talk was just part of the pump to get more listing at Spaceship

 

[DaveX]

I'd like it if the placeholder text on the make offer lander offer field could be the minimum offer amount. Something other than 0.

 

[Jannes]

What the heck is this "Prices shown don't include spaceship [sic] commission" sh*t again? Spaceship is trying hard to make Afternic look really good.

 

[fozz]

What the heck is this "Prices shown don't include spaceship [sic] commission" sh*t again? Spaceship is trying hard to make Afternic look really good.

Show attachment 295466

This today.

 

[Timkh]

It looks even more inappropriate on "Make Offers" landings.

In case of "BIN", at least the buyer can add the domain to the cart and check it.

 

[Jannes]

This is the second time in a short period that they've made an idiotic decision. 10% commission is fine by me, but it's as if they're lacking some basic intelligence.

I'm sick of babysitting my landing pages all the time. I guess all roads lead to @NamePros landers.

 

[BritFlippa]

What the heck is this "Prices shown don't include spaceship [sic] commission" sh*t again? Spaceship is trying hard to make Afternic look really good.

Show attachment 295466

You're right - it looks off-putting. I was having a moan about it yesterday over on the Registrar thread (hadn't realised as I was replying to Richard's announcement on commission-split which was featured on there).

I asked :

1) Is it possible to have a Default button which allows us to set the buyer/seller % at the time of listing?
(Ideally including a total Default to never have Buyer commission).

I believe that the option is currently only available once negotiations have begun.

This means that "Prices shown don't include spaceship commission" is displayed below the price even though there won't be a buyer commission (I will absorb the 10%).

Alongside this message (covered) is a vague "Spaceship charges a commission on each SellerHub domain sale. The final commission amount will be calculated at checkout" then the first stage of viewing the cart
has no mention of the buyer's commission - IF they battled through the pop-up that says
"You will be redirected to Spaceship.Com" like some kind of warning.

 

[King]

Instead of "Prices shown don't include spaceship commission" it should be "Prices shown may not include spaceship commission" and it should only appear when MO is on. Showing with BIN only names where it is 10% for the seller makes zero sense.

 

[BritFlippa]

Instead of "Prices shown don't include spaceship commission" it should be "Prices shown may not include spaceship commission" and it should only appear when MO is on. Showing with BIN only names where it is 10% for the seller makes zero sense.

Agree. Just more unnecessary hurdles getting in the way.

 

[korganian]

All of my domains listed in Spaceship marketplace and pointed there are not even resolving. I just get

"This site can’t provide a secure connection"​

I just changed the name servers back to NP

 

[fozz]

They should have just kept the commission charge seller side and added the credit card convenience fee to the buyers side. Wired payments zero fee.

 

[Jannes]

They should have just kept the commission charge seller side and added the credit card convenience fee to the buyers side. Wired payments zero fee.

Agreed. The word 'commission' should never be presented to the buyer (at least not on a freaking lander!), it's confusing. Buyers pay (and understand) service fees.

 

[fozz]

Agreed. The word 'commission' should never be presented to the buyer (at least not on a freaking lander!), it's confusing. Buyers pay (and understand) service fees.

I'm moving away. It's obvious now the 5% was an onboarding tactic. No email alert to sellers about changes is contempt.

 

[Daniel Owens]

@enetwork Do you have any defense to provide? Has the commission increase funds been used to draw more buyers in?

 

[DomainRecap]

How does SpaceShip handle sales taxes (US, VAT, etc.)?

I chatted with support they stated absolutely no sales taxes are charged anywhere (seller sales, commissions, end user sales) on the platform and it's up to the seller to adjust his own sales taxes and remit accordingly.

Is that really how it works? If a US citizen or business (with a taxable state/local status) buys a $3000 domain from SS, the final invoice comes in tax-free at exactly $3000? And the 10% commission invoice to the taxable-status seller checks in tax-free at exactly $300?

Seems strange to me, knowing the IRS.

 

[DomainRecap]

And if so, how are domain sellers supposed to charge or even quantify the sales tax when the marketplaces hide the customer address and tax status data?

It's like in order to sell domains you need to take part in these gray-market venues and then hope you don't get audited.