Afternic boasts “more than 100 partners” in its reseller network, and I have found it to be a great way to passively sell my domain names. Domain name registrants can list their domain names on Afternic, and eligible sale listings will show throughout its partner network. Many of the partners include registrars like Namecheap and Name.com, in addition to GoDaddy, the parent company of Afternic.
I have been aware of some partner registrars marking up the prices of Afternic listings, but I just learned that at least one partner offers a small discounted price for Afternic listings. I learned about this when someone asked about opting out from Afternic partners that alter the list price:
Can we have an option @afternic forcing participating DLS registrar not to discount/markup names. @PaulENicks @jjstyler . A lot of effort has been put in pricing the names and I am seeing 15% price variation at some. Just a switch on account/individual level
— dotcorner (@dotcorner) July 27, 2021
A bit of further discussion led me to check out a couple of my sale listings on Namecheap. I have AlmostPerfect.com listed on Afternic with a price of $19,988. This is the price that is shown when someone searches for the domain name at GoDaddy and at other registrar partners, such as Network Solutions and Dynadot.
A search of this domain name on Namecheap shows the domain name is available to purchase there for $19,390, as you can see from the screenshot below. This is nearly a 3% discount off the list price.
When Afternic-listed domain names sell at Namecheap, the seller is credited with the full list price. I presume this means Namecheap is able to discount the price by giving up some of the commission it would earn on a sale.
On the flip side are partners that mark up the price of Afternic-listed domain names. Name.com, Enom, and Epik appear to increase the price of Afternic-listed domain names that are shown to people who search via their platform. For instance, AlmostPerfect.com is listed for sale via Name.com for $22,986.20. This is a 15% markup from the list price. I believe Name.com (and other partners that do this) keep the additional sale revenue.
There could be different reasons for each strategy. Namecheap may look at it as a volume play, and people who shop at different registrars for the best price of a domain name would find it cheaper at Namecheap.
Enom and other registrars that mark up the price, on the other hand, may want the additional revenue to make these sales worth its while. Perhaps the company understands its customers are willing to pay a bit more for their desired domain name and won’t go price shopping. Perhaps their analysis has shown a buyer isn’t dissuaded by the marked up price.
While I highlighted a handful of registrars because I know about their pricing, I am sure there are other registrars and partners doing the same thing, possibly at different percentages. Personally, it doesn’t bother me that some registrars change the price, but I don’t spend a ton of time setting my prices. Some sellers take issue with this, and I understand why they don’t love it. I believe sellers can opt out of selling at partners that change pricing, but that is something to discuss directly with Afternic.
I have been aware of this issue for years and brought this up many times, looking for a solution.
I don’t want different prices on different venues. It is annoying that other registrars are allowed to just charge some arbitrary surcharge that I did not agree to when I priced the domain with Afternic.
Afternic can split the standard commission however they want with the partner registrars, but I am not a fan of adding some arbitrary fee on top of your asking price. That standard 20% commission should be more than enough for GoDaddy and the registry partner, without the need to add an extra commission.
Brad
Why would they price your domain at the price you want when they can mark it up and make it harder to sell so they can then sell their own comparable domains for a cheaper price? They might be giving themselves a market edge over you.
If I had the time and inclination I’d look into which domains they mark up and whether they have a similar domain available they give preference to.
It wouldn’t surprise me, especially at Epik, which is one of the many reasons why I opted out of my domains being listed on Epik.
Brad – contact Afternic and ask them to remove your domains from the resellers who are changing your prices, they will do that for you.
I do not like the price differences, when I set a price for a domain, that should be the priced listed everywhere.
Spot on Brad, Rob, Mark
They make a better volume margin selling their own.
Universal “retail” pricing needs to be mandatory. They can offer a discount on thier commission to buy now as a cost to acquire customer separately.
“Perhaps their analysis has shown a buyer isn’t dissuaded by the marked up price”.
Perhaps their analysis has shown thier buyers will purchase “Best Value” over “Best Quality”
The majority of thier buyers are 99 centers not 10k+
The “comps” clearly demonstrate volume vs quality
It’s rare to see a “comp” priced higher.
Comps should be “whats currently for sale” like every other commodity market place.
Eliminates the mixed bag of wholesale/retail pricing confusion.
Cheers
All we need are few options in the control panel like
– Do you want to allow participating registrars mark up your names ? (Y/N) N
– Do you want to allow participating registrars to discount your names? (Y/N) Y
# In both cases you will receive same net price as listed on Afternic.com