Afternic...

[hestheman]

Is it safe to list your names at afternic to sell? In other words do they still screw people over?

 

[webmasterinfo]

how does afternic screw people?
never heard that before

 

[WhiteLion]

Yes how do they?
More importantly are they any good? Are they worth the fee? Do buyers go there?

 

[nascar1]

Last domain I sold over there it took over 9 months and I have no idea how many ignored emails for me to get paid. Of course they gave my domain to the buyer right away.

 

[DNQuest.com]

There is the old AfterNIC and the new AfterNIC. Much of the complaints heard is based on the old AfterNIC. They were shut down and someone bought the name and created the new AfterNIC. The new owner is no way affiliated with the old AfterNIC.I have not heard complaints about the new AfterNIC yet, but many people are not discussing them either. I don't know if that is good or bad.

So if you hear a story, find out if it's the old or new AfterNIC.

 

[nascar1]

Yes to be fair this was a year or more ago. Old, new, didn't matter to me. Screwed is screwed.

 

[Jeff]

Originally posted by DNQuest.com
There is the old AfterNIC and the new AfterNIC. Much of the complaints heard is based on the old AfterNIC. They were shut down and someone bought the name and created the new AfterNIC. The new owner is no way affiliated with the old AfterNIC.I have not heard complaints about the new AfterNIC yet, but many people are not discussing them either. I don't know if that is good or bad.

So if you hear a story, find out if it's the old or new AfterNIC.

Good point, DNQ.
You could also PM #1 Namepros member, Roger ("proproject"), as well.
Good Luck getting the info you need.

 

[upbeat]

I sold a name via the NEW Afternic earlier this year. It was a pleasure. Customer service was prompt and top-notch. The whole transition was a breeze and payment was made immediately after the whois listing was in the new owner's name. Unfortunately, Afternic is now charging around $9.50/year for sellers to list at their site. Since they charge a commission when a name is sold, I can't see paying to simply 'list' with them.

 

[Lord]

is it 9.50 per name?

 

[CenterPoint]

Originally posted by Lord
is it 9.50 per name?

No $9.50 per year to list as many domains as you want

 

[WhiteLion]

Do you believe people actualy look there to buy domains?

 

[kohashi]

they are established and have traffic.
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=http://www.afternic.com

a lot of traffic it would seem. I dont list there though. So im not sure how well those people convert to sales.

 

[nascar1]

Well one thing you can see that hasn't changed, new or old, is that they don't freshen up the listings. A quick search showed names listed for sale that have already expired and dropped and have new owners.

 

[kohashi]

i would assume its rather resource consuming to check each listing daily.

 

[CenterPoint]

Originally posted by WhiteLion
Do you believe people actualy look there to buy domains?

Actually people do go there to buy domains, the problem is they get lost in the thousands of listings. We have clients that that was the first place they went. However did not make a purchase because they were totally overwhelmed

 

[nascar1]

i would assume its rather resource consuming to check each listing daily.

Well you choose the biz your in and all that comes with it.

You either do it right or someone else will.

 

[DrWYSIWYG]

I just read about the announced partnership between Afternic and Domain People. I went to domainpeople.com, typed in a domain I had on sale at Afternic, and it did comeup in the search.

This is big and this is before Verisign's rollout of the SMP which may cost a heck of a lot more upfront than $10.

Does anyone know when the Versign SMP program will materialize? Does anyone know if Afternic will be adding more registrars?

Just curious...

Doctor WYSIWYG
domaindakini.com

 

[proproject]

Originally posted by nascar1
Well one thing you can see that hasn't changed, new or old, is that they don't freshen up the listings. A quick search showed names listed for sale that have already expired and dropped and have new owners.

We're working on that. We beta tested a script that was going to remove all expired domains by looking up the domain with whois. We started with just .com and just used the (you would think) authoritative fields returned by the registry, not the registrars. We sent the list to all the sellers and we got lots of emails telling us their names were indeed currently registered and they checked out.

We're still searching for an authoritative way to tell whether a domain is really expired or not. We're not giving up. Let us know if you have some ideas.

 

[proproject]

Originally posted by CenterPoint
Actually people do go there to buy domains, the problem is they get lost in the thousands of listings. We have clients that that was the first place they went. However did not make a purchase because they were totally overwhelmed

The way we address this problem is ranking. We use a dictionary lookup (1 or 2 words), then we analyze the length of the domain, the TLD, the prices, I forget what else, to determine each listing's rank. We show the best names first (by rank) when you browse by category. Sounds like we could use more refinement to our ranking.

 

[nascar1]

Let us know if you have some ideas.

Well some registrars, like Godaddy have a monitoring service that sends an email if the reg info changes. Seems to me that that would be the easiest way to do it.

I just checked again and I have picked up on drops several of the names listed and bought outright others.

That's why I mentioned it.

 

[proproject]

Originally posted by upbeat
I sold a name via the NEW Afternic earlier this year. It was a pleasure. Customer service was prompt and top-notch. The whole transition was a breeze and payment was made immediately after the whois listing was in the new owner's name. Unfortunately, Afternic is now charging around $9.50/year for sellers to list at their site. Since they charge a commission when a name is sold, I can't see paying to simply 'list' with them.

Thanks for the positive report. Seller memberships have never been free on our exchanges (NameBuySell or the new Afternic), so you must have paid for a membership if you sold a domain through us. Now you can list all the domains you want.

I also want to explain more about our paid memberships.

The annual Exchange membership price is $9.95. The annual Buyer membership price is $1.00. These fees help our members in some important ways. For example, it helps us provide good service and expand the marketing network. Also, having a billing relationship with every member helps authenticate members to each other. This reduces bogus activity and gives members more confidence in the activity on the exchange.

We do not want to operate an exchange - and I don't think you want to list your portfolio on an exchange - where troublemakers can list bogus domains or send bogus offers without even taking out their credit card to authenticate themselves or demonstrate their sincerity.

We invest a lot in managing the listings, members, and transactions on Afternic. This benefits our marketing partners, our members, and us. Having paid memberships makes it feasible.