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Clean Up Your Marketplace Portfolios!

This morning, I received a transfer email from GoDaddy for a domain name I didn’t sell or transfer. I won this domain name at a NameJet auction in February. Although I am passively offering it for sale via my Embrace.com landing page, I am monetizing it via PPC and do not have it listed for sale on any of the domain name sale marketplaces.

After receiving the email, I did a bit of research to confirm that I still own the domain name. Essentially, I wanted to make sure I hadn’t resold it or that something else funky wasn’t going on with the domain name. Using DomainTools, I saw that there was a “for sale” notice with a BIN price. Clicking on the link to me to an Afternic page, although Afternic indicated that the  domain name was not for sale. I checked Sedo, and the domain name was listed there with the same BIN price as was indicated on the DomainTools page.

When I saw this, my hunch was that the domain name sold via Afternic. Because it wasn’t my sale listing and not approved within my account as an Afternic listing, GoDaddy couldn’t do a “fast transfer” from my eNom account and needed to request a transfer manually. I emailed Afternic’s Alan Shiflett, and he confirmed my hunch and told me  the domain name was sold via Afternic. Unfortunately for

Alan Shiflett Was the Real Winner of the Contest

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alan-shiflettNearly three years ago, I hosted a hand registration domain name contest on my blog. Each of the seven participants shared a list of ten domain names they hand registered as part of  the contest, and readers selected who they believed registered the best domain names without knowing who registered what list of domain names. The simple rules for the contest were set out in this blog post, and voting for the contest winner was done in this subsequent blog post.

There were 260 votes cast for the winner, and it was my (blind) list that received the most votes. Although my list won the popular vote, the real winner in this contest was Alan Shiflett, who is Partner Sales Manager at Afternic. In speaking with Alan today, he let me know he has sold three of the ten domain names he hand registered!

Alan was kind enough to share the three sales and their sale prices:

Easy Deals at Afternic and Sedo

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afternic-and-sedo-logosI generally prefer to work on my own, without much outside assistance to buy and sell domain names. I opportunistically buy domain names at marketplaces, but I have never been one to regularly check or use domain sale venues such as Afternic or Sedo. Both venues have good reputations, but I preferred to go about things on my own.

In the last month or so, I have had good experiences with both Sedo and Afternic and I thought I would give them both props.

A few months ago, I listed a handful of domain names on Afternic with buy it now prices. I know that buy it now prices help sell inventory more rapidly, but I don’t like to price inventory in a dynamic market like the domain name resale market. I listed a select group of names I would be happy to move at set prices and forgot about them.

One morning, I received an email offer via one of my Embrace.com landing pages. I quoted a price for the domain name, and a few hours later, I received an Afternic notification that the domain name was sold. Within a very short period of time (and without the need for me to intervene in any way), the domain name was transferred from Enom to the buyer’s account at Network Solutions. In the meantime, I followed up with the buyer to tell her about a similar name I also had for sale at Afternic. After a short negotiation, I lowered the BIN price a bit, and she bought that one, too, via Afternic. The domain name was transferred, and the deal was done. Easy.

Earlier this week, I was looking at Sedo’s inventory. I found a

Doobie Brothers Acquire DoobieBrothers.com

The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band that was most popular in the 1970s and 1980s. A few of their best known hits include Listen to the Music, Takin’ It To The Streets, and What A Fool Believes.

The band has used the less desireable DoobieBros.com domain name for its website for many years, and it looks like they got a major upgrade. According to DomainTools, it looks like the Doobie Brothers were able to acquire the exact match DoobieBrothers.com domain name from NameFind (via Afternic / GoDaddy) for an undisclosed sale price. DoobieBrothers.com now forwards to the band’s website.

My guess is the cost wasn’t too high since the Doobie Brothers are a well known band and avoiding a dispute is probably more important than trying to maximize the value of a deal for this particular domain name. It is a bit surprising that it took so long for them to get the domain name though.

DoobieBrothers.com appears to have come from the

GoDaddy Hiring Afternic Sales Executive

If you’re looking for a corporate job in the domain name space, GoDaddy is hiring a Sales Executive to work on the Afternic team. The position will be based in the Cambridge, Massachusetts office. The job opportunity was posted on LinkedIn on May 5th.

Although the job listing says “Knowledge of the Domain Aftermarket is a plus,” it is not a requirement. However, one of the main responsibilities that this job entails is to “Become an expert in internet marketing and develop a passion for the domain industry.” The company is looking for someone who has strong sales experience for this position.

One interesting tidbit in the job listing is that it shares how many domain names the company’s domain name brokers / sales executives sale each day:

NameFind Hit With UDRP

It looks like a domain name owned by NameFind, LLC is the subject of a UDRP filing. I was looking through the World Intellectual Property Organization’s new UDRP cases, and I saw that a company called Ellery Land Pty Ltd has filed a UDRP for the Ellery.com domain name. This is WIPO Case D2016-0066.

Ellery.com is registered to NameFind, LLC. This company is affiliated with Afternic, and the domain names in its portfolio are from portfolios including the Marchex portfolio and Mike Berkens’s portfolio. A Whois history search shows that Ellery.com was previously owned by Marchex.

I did a Google search for Ellery Land Pty Ltd because I had never heard of the company before, and it looks like the company is in the fashion business and uses

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