It was fast and easy, but pay attention to fees to withdraw your funds.
I use a number of marketplaces to sell domain names. About a third of my portfolio is listed with landing pages on Uniregistry Market, formerly known as Domain Name Sales.
I self-broker my inquiries on Uniregistry. I also typically just start an Escrow.com transaction rather than use Uniregistry’s marketplace checkout.
On a recent sale, I decided to offer the Uniregistry checkout to the customer. After all, I imagine customers will get confused if suddenly they are sent to an outside service to complete the deal. (There is an Escrow.com integration with Uniregistry.)
The transaction happened really fast. The customer paid by a credit card. Uniregistry will only accept credit cards and PayPal if the domain is subsequently transferred to Uniregistry, otherwise, a wire is required. Keeping the domain at Uniregistry locks it down for 60 days, reducing the likelihood of a chargeback.
Uniregistry charges 6.88% on transactions under $5,000 when the customer pays with a credit card. This is in line with Escrow.com. Payoneer, a new entrant into domain escrow, charges a lower price, but I’m not sure what fees they add for credit card payments (which are limited to $2,000).
At any rate, Uniregistry seems on par with other escrow options. It’s certainly a lot less than other marketplace options as well, which will typically take 15% or more. Uniregistry charges 15% if it handles negotiations but nothing if you negotiate on your own behalf.
The downside to Uniregistry’s fee structure is “exit costs”. I think a lot of this has to do with the company being in Cayman. According to the fees page, you get one free payout per month, then you have to pay a fee for additional payouts. A customer support rep told me they actually pay out weekly. Also, it only pays via PayPal and WireTransfer. PayPal payments aren’t mass pay, so you have to pay fees. ACH is not an option, either.
TomF says
Afternic Godaddy is a better option, 7 percent cc surcharge, 15 percent commission, then want more money for disbursement of funds outside one withdrawal, come on, take it off the 15 percent of doing nothing.
Uniregistry cherry picks expired domains from your account, I went back to godaddy.
Uniregistry is just out to tax the loyal domainers.
Thomas Clowes says
“Uniregistry cherry picks expired domains from your account, I went back to godaddy.”
Any evidence of this? I’m intrigued.
John says
I would also like to hear about the cherry picking – that is a serious allegation.
Andrew Allemann says
It would be nice to have some info to back this up. At the same time, here in 2016 almost all of the major registrars do this. The only exception I can think of is GoDaddy.
Thomas Clowes says
Same question as above really.. what evidence is there that ‘all of the major registrars do this’ ?
Andrew Allemann says
Most top registrars have a deal with the expired domain services to directly sell their expiring domains to them. Rightside and Tucows (#2 and #3) keep some domains for themselves and own large portfolios of domains they obtained this way. Tucows also sells some expired domains directly to bulk buyers rather than (or in addition to) selling them in auctions. (It’s in their public filings.) From my personal experience, I know that Moniker does the same thing, although they probably don’t qualify as a top registrar anymore.
Thomas Clowes says
Interesting stuff. I am aware of the deals with NameJet and the like, but was mainly curious about the simply keeping them for themselves/selling to bulk buyers that you mentioned.
I assume that they do this because it is allowed? That is to say that whilst it may seem a little ‘shady’, if you have access to lots of good expiring domain names.. why WOULDN’T you keep them..
Andrew Allemann says
Yes, it can create conflict of interest but I don’t see it as being disallowed. Rightside has about 300k names at last check. I believe Tucows has a much smaller portfolio now, and many of its domains were surnames acquired in an acquisition, not from the expired name stream.
Koosah says
Ive had so many BIN transactions on Uniregistry not complete that Ive lost count. I think its something like 95% havent gone through. Must be something wrong with their checkout process.
Andrew Allemann says
So it informs you of a BIN sale before payment is secured? That seems like a process problem that needs to be resolved.
Koosah says
The system puts it under “pending sale” for 10 days then moves it to not complete if the buyer fails to pay.
Andrew Allemann says
That’s pretty lame, especially for smaller sales. They should have to pay for it immediately during checkout.
Sergey says
I think most of platforms do the same thing: Sedo, Afternic also send notifications of BIN sales before payment is received.
Andrew Allemann says
I suppose you’re right, at least on my experience with Afternic. Most of my domains are on fast transfer so the payment is secured at the time of purchase. Other times I get an email that says the domain is sold pending verification of payment. But I don’t think I’ve ever had the payment not be verified.
joe says
Well a post with interesting topic.
I also have Uniregistry.com/market is where I have my best domain name premium, I still do not sell, but after reading your post.
I have a doubt and I wish if you could answer me.
You in your post write the following: The transaction happened very fast. The customer pays for a credit card. Uniregistry will only accept credit cards and PayPal if the domain is later transferred to Uniregistry, otherwise, a cable is required. Keeping the domain in Uniregistry blocks it for 60 days, which reduces the likelihood of a chargeback.
As far as I understand is that as the one that says the domain name you sold should return to Uniregistry.com with the name of the buyer or else if it is not done so Uniregistry.com blocks for 60 days, what Uniregistry wants. Com is that the domain name we sell to another buyer this transfers to a Uniregistry.com.
If so, it will be better to seek buyers and investors who are registered clients with Uniregistry.com if there are no problems the transactions are made within Uniregistry.com and the change is made immediately and thus is not transferred.
If the buyer is not registered at Uniregistry.com and you want the purchase of this domain to be transferred to another registrar that the buyer refer all domains and not transfer later to Uniregistry.com does the blockade of 60 days?
The other issue that I initially asked Uniregistry.com was what would be the cost of one of a domain if I sell and they send emails with a 10% after 6% Escrow etc. Being in the Cayman is not a pretext to pay 15% because the money we invest in buying domains every day has a 25% revenue