Afternic recently began offering Dan.com-lookalike landing pages with GoDaddy branding. I liked them enough to move inventory to them away from Dan.com. Afternic followed this up with the ability to allow prospects to make an offer to buy a domain name in addition to the BIN and LTO options.
Unlike how the Make Offer process works on Dan.com, there is no negotiation box for sellers to communicate with buyers directly. Instead, when a buyer submits an offer via the landing page, the negotiation is handled by a GoDaddy broker.
I am pretty sure the GoDaddy broker will use the BIN along with the floor and minimum price levels to negotiate a deal on behalf of the seller. If there is not a floor price – the bottom line price the seller has set in order to part with a domain name – I believe the broker will get in touch with the seller to try and bridge the gap between what the buyer is offering and what the seller is seeking. I also believe if the seller has a floor price listed, the broker is authorized to close a deal at that level. I believe when domain names are listed for sale on Afternic, the broker’s duty is to represent the seller’s interests.
Domain name sellers are able to see their inbound offers in the Lead Center, which is located under the Sales tab on the left side of the Afternic dashboard.
Not having the negotiation box for the buyer and seller to discuss a domain name sale is good and bad. It’s bad because I have always enjoyed the back and forth banter of a negotiation. It’s good because I have probably gotten in the way of quite a few sales that may have been able to be closed by a professional negotiator who doesn’t have a personal connection to the domain name itself.
For the time being, I am only using the Make Offer option for a very small fraction of my domain names listed for sale via Afternic. Most of those do not have floor prices listed.
You’re making lots of assumptions, here’s one that is not: GoDaddy has their own portfolio, competing with your inventory.
I simply don’t trust them.
If you’re not talking directly with the buyer, you have no idea what’s going on.
I emailed James and my assumptions are correct.
He also let me know “direct seller to buyer negotiations will be coming to Afternic.” He thinks it will be the end of the year or early 2025.
I was told end of this year by Afternic on Twitter last week.
“I believe when domain names are listed for sale on Afternic, the broker’s duty is to represent the seller’s interests”
Right, and as you noted, there’s the floor price that the broker can use.
When a broker is paid on commission, they either get paid a commission or they do not. For many domains, their commission difference between an asking and floor price is not as important as just closing a deal and getting a commission. Either someone will pay the floor or they won’t. There’s really nothing stopping them from just running the floor by the buyer, and if there’s no interest, moving on to another potential commission.
I think there’s a very real difference between how domainers and brokers view the sales process. This would not apply to elite domains, obviously. But your average, run of the mill domain with an asking price of 22k and floor of 14. I think it does.
GD is going from worst to worst and downhill.
If they can’t get this simple feature , how can they be in business?
Are those people working in GD know anything about the domain business?
Godaddy brokers can’t give names proper due attention, they need to transfer Dan system over when they close Dan down. Domain holders are losing out big time. The systems within afternic are truly broken and holders are losing sales, it’s very sad.
Donot oversell them. Custom lander, out of the 3 sale lander options they give you to choose from, was itself proclaimed as Dan lander. It used to have make offer and was Dan lander all in all. It used to say that too. Now it is custom. What about promotion? There is none. This listing does not show at Dan market place. No where it is. Only if someone searches exact and full name with TLD in GD search bar, it might. Otherwise if Elliot is searched Elliot .com ( suppose listed) will not show and GD page will say buy Elliot. in etc. at 0.1 $ and other Tlds and buy if turned away and does not see Elliot.com.
Same with BIN lander. James ( GD) even does tell why they have 3 landers? These 3 and no marketplace to list them. AN was shutdown. The third GD enquiry lander is to get customer email data and so GD can get them offers. How it helps selling ?
You please get these clarifications from GD , as we failed so far despite hundreds of reminders, what these 3 landers do for promotion and differently? Thanks.
The real truth:
Almost every time I make an offer via GoDaddy, an unwanted and unwelcome broker shows up.
That is not for smart savvy experienced people. Such people are way too smart, savvy and experienced to deal with that.
I hate it. I always dread it too.
It can also be and usually is extremely bad, and ruins any possibility of a good negotiation.
And, therefore: it often creates a huge disincentive to even make an offer and try buying via GoDaddy.
Only when there is no other way would I even bother now.
Yes, there should be the ability to negotiate direct. That’s exactly what I want. I do that on Sedo, but the feature there is still very limited. There should be something even much more flexible and useful than the little box for that on Sedo.