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Registrar Where My Last 10 Afternic Sales Landed

After I sell a domain name, I don’t pay much attention to it. Occasionally, I will look to see how it is being used, but I don’t really follow my sold domain names after they’re sold.

Last month, Namecheap Founder and CEO Richard Kirkendall sounded the alarm that his company would “most likely” leave the Afternic sales network.

With Afternic listings still showing up in the Namecheap registration path, I was curious to see which registrars have been responsible for my most recent 10 Afternic sales. To do so, I did Whois searches on my most recent 10 Afternic sales, not including LTO deals or the a sale I closed using the Afternic checkout link.

CEO: Namecheap “Most Likely” to Exit Afternic Network

I don’t always check where my Afternic-sold domain names are transferred post-sale, but I have noticed quite a few transfer to Namecheap. This is because Namecheap is a part of Afternic’s network, and Afternic-listed domain names show up in the Namecheap registration search path.

This may not be the case for much longer, according to Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall. In a reply to a conversation on X, Richard indicated that Namecheap will “most likely” exit the Afternic network, eliminating a very large source of buyer leads:

My Experience with Afternic / Dan Checkout Link

I recently sold a domain name I owned for several years after an email discussion with the buyer. During our negotiation, at least three people from the buyer’s side were involved in the discussion. Once we agreed on a price, I wasn’t sure whose email address to use for the transaction and had a feeling it could be someone else entirely.

Because of the relatively low value of the deal (under $5k), I decided to use Dan.com for the transaction. In my experience, buyers have had few difficulties with payment, and Dan support works with the buyer to facilitate the domain transfer instead of having to do that myself. Despite a higher cost % vs. escrow, I have found there to be fewer speed bumps.

Because it was unclear who would be managing the transaction, I did not do the traditional lead import at Dan.com. Instead, I opted to get a checkout link via Afternic. Since Afternic and Dan both offer the same 5% transaction fee on imported leads, it was essentially the same cost and I figured I would see how the checkout link works.

Change / Test BIN Pricing Regularly

From the outset, I will tell you that I don’t have statistically significant data that would offer true insights about price testing and/or price sensitivity. I think regularly changing and testing your prices could prove helpful in selling domain names.

I have many hundreds of inventory-quality domain names that have historically been priced at just shy of $1,000 – either $999, $997, $988, or something else very close. I recently updated the prices of just about every name I own that had a price of $2,000 or less to ~$2,500. I did this on Dan.com and Afternic. My rationale was from insights shared by Darpan Munjal and Michael Sumner.

2 Major LTO Changes at Afternic


Afternic recently introduced the lease to own (LTO) purchase model for domain names bought via GoDaddy. Domain names listed for sale via Afternic with LTO enabled have been shown to US-based buyers with the LTO options next to the BIN price.

This morning, the company announced two changes to its LTO offering that should benefit sellers:

My Thought Process on Afternic vs. Dan.com

I list nearly all of my inventory quality domain names with BIN prices on Dan.com and/or Afternic. The majority of these domain names utilize the Dan.com BIN landing page. I want to share my thought process behind why I choose the Dan.com landing page and why I prefer to list names separately on both platforms.

When I list a domain name for sale on Dan.com with a BIN price, it syndicates to GoDaddy and its sales network. A prospective buyer searching for a domain name on GoDaddy’s website – or a partner like Namecheap – will see my domain name sale listing whether it is listed on Dan.com or Afternic.

If the domain name is not listed directly on Afternic with the LTO option enabled, the prospective buyer won’t have the option to buy it with a payment plan even if that option is available via the Dan.com landing page.

Here’s how the registration path looks without LTO enabled at Afternic: