I 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 one word .com with a reasonable buy it now price. I sent an email to the owner asking if there was flexibility. I was asked to make an offer via email, and my offer was accepted. I told the owner to change the BIN price on Sedo, and I bought it right away. The seller pushed the domain name to Sedo’s account, and Sedo had the domain name pushed to me. Another easy deal.
Although I typically like to do things on my own, my transactions at Sedo and Afternic were much easier than normal. I didn’t have to worry about explaining how to use escrow or to transfer the domain names. The process was automated at Afternic and the transfer agent at Sedo facilitated the deal on their end. Upon closing the deals at Afternic, I added several additional domain names to my account. I have also been looking at Sedo more. I appreciate the time and effort both platforms saved me on these deals.
Hi Elliot ,
I had exact opposite experience at Afternic with my recent sales even though opted for fast transfer i had to manually unlock the domain and send the transfer code and yesterday had another sale but automatic transfer not happening even for fast transfer opted in domains ,names are at Dotster
Sorry your experience wasn’t as good as mine.
dotster netfirms fasthosts are a nightmare because all these guys used 99 cent coupons to register domains, and nobody wants to dare push there.
That is what happens when you don’t want to spend $8 to register a domain
I’ve had good experiences at Afternic; have sold 3 names there for prices I wanted over the past year or two.
Elliot, can you share the names sold or at least the price range? 🙂
They were small… between $2-3k/each.
I never see you share any sales, so why should he!