The price you set might not be the price your customer sees.
When you list your domain names for sale through Afternic’s Premium Network, 100 resellers and registrars list your domain names for sale on their sites. Many of these partners allow customers to instantly purchase your domains by taking advantage of the Afternic Fast Transfer system.
You, the domain seller, pay a commission of up to 20% to Afternic.
But the total delta between what the buyer pays and you get might be much bigger. It turns out that some Afternic partners are marking up the price of your domains.
For example, both eNom and Name.com are adding 15% to your price. If your list price is $1,000, they promote the domains at $1,150. You still get $800 if the name sells.
Here’s an example. My list price on CashForecast.com is $1,995. Here’s the listing on Name.com:
SedoMLS has allowed this markup practice for a long time, but it appears to be new at Afternic. It was recently brought to my attention by a DNW reader.
I reached out to GoDaddy for an explanation. Afternic Chief Revenue Officer Bob Mountain stated:
Select partners are testing markups on Afternic domain names. There hasn’t been a fundamental shift, we’re just working with some of our partners at their request. If you would like to have your names removed from being listed at these markup resellers, please contact Afternic customer service.
Bruce Tedeschi says
It is like stealing money from the domain owner. I have hundreds of names at name.com. I did not agree to this behavior. This has to be illegal.
Kate says
I’ve noticed this long ago. Pricing is not consistent across registrars.
When I am interested in a name that is MLS-listed I check the domain at different registrars. You can easily save 100 bucks.
Domo Sapiens says
You… as a domainer, but an everyday person (or even a startup on a strict budget) might lose interest in your domain forever….
David Gruttadaurio says
Any idea how many Afternic markup resellers there are??? What’s disturbing is that our domains at these resellers are less attractive to buyers – being marked up 15% over our selling price with Afternic.
I wonder how much of the markup goes back to Afternic. Why would they permit this if they didn’t benefit? They have a better chance of selling a domain name (and getting THEIR 15%) if the price is lower – and thereby more appealing to buyers.
Andrew Allemann says
I’m curious if they have the data to know what effect a 15% increase in price has on sales. Does it only reduce total sales by a few percentage points and overall revenue is higher?
Bob Mountain says
Hey David, thanks for your question, a very limited number of Afternic resellers are currently testing this program. Afternic does not share in the markup.
David Gruttadaurio says
Thanks for the reply. You “don’t share in the markup”… but you also don’t have to share your 20% commission from the sale either?
BuckWild says
Don’t worry, they only do this to domains that are likely to sell
Mark Thorpe says
Not impressed, Afternic/GoDaddy!
John says
+1. It’s getting hard out there to trust anyone anymore.
Sameh says
Actually, this is not new. It has been that way on Name.com & ENOM for a long time now.
SP says
Consider for a moment that the economics may not be wonderful for the selling registrar (or registrar reseller) and that a move like this may bring additional distribution for the domain owners.
Let’s say you’re, uh, Wix or Squarespace and Afternic is approaching you to integrate premium domains into your domain search process. My hunch is domain investors would like that to happen, right? Anyway, on that $1,000 priced premium domain, without a markup, Wix may make a cool $50 – $100 in profit. They had better be able to forecast a lot of units to make that integration worth it. A markup puts more money on the table and could lead to increased distribution. My hunch is that there aren’t a lot of domain registrars out there that point to 3rd party premium domain sales as a meaningful source of gross profit. This might make it more meaningful.
The more meaningful the income to the distributing registrar/reseller, the more they will adopt the service and/or take it seriously (give it placement in search results etc), which is good for Afternic, and should be good for the domain investor as they continue to get additional distribution and thus sales.
I’m sure the $1,150 price point may scare off some that only wanted to spend $1,000. I wouldn’t expect Afternic to have a lot of tolerance in coming out as net losers on this initiative though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Andrew Allemann says
That is certainly the flipside to the equation. I don’t like the inconsistency across platforms, though. I think it creates a bad user experience if people see different prices for the same domain at different sites.
Domo Sapiens says
culture clash at all levels with gdaddy…
Testing for years?
John says
It’s all fun and games until the marked up price is cited as “exorbitant” by someone filing a UDRP because they don’t like the price.
Mog says
How about Registrars -misleading-allowing multiple pre-registrations in new gtlds without you having a clue??!!
If there is a name in pre-order or in EAP by you, then there should either be a notice that someone else already pre-registered it within their system cautioning the person about it, or not have the name available by them once it was pre-registered by someone in thier system. Otherwise it is very shady!
There has to be transparency!
If they do not inform people that there is another order in their system prior to your order, they are basically misleading you. It is simple as that.
Not to mention that by having the availability and no transparency-it allows them to delegate the name once they get it- to whomever they want for whatever price they want.
Kate says
I agree. I don’t like this either. This is not serious.
In my opinion a BIN price should be firm and consistent. They are messing with your pricing.
Like Andrew put it, it creates a bad user experience if people notice different prices for the same domain.
But I have to say, this is not new at all. Now people discover a lot things that are wrong in the domain industry.
Rubens Kuhl says
Doesn’t that already happen with unregistered domains ?
Domainchap says
nothing wrong here, if they are able to sell it and get their fair share. what’s the blip.
this is great, they help you sell your domains at the price you were willing to sell.
it is fair that they get paid for the service
nothing wrong here, it is commission based sales business 101
if you look at the example,
the difference is 295.5$ , they have to get paid for the sale
the seller will still receive 80% of 1995$, the money he wanted in the first place
great i am very happy when i sell domains on afternic,
and don’t care at all about how much the partner got to facilitate the sale.
Actually my portfolio would be at loss without the Afternic sales