Domain aftermarkets need to clean up their inventory.
Let me start this rant with some good news.
This month, I sold a domain name for $6,500 that I found through Domain Academy’s Afternic advanced search tool. I bought the domain for less than $100.
Now for the bad news: I spent a lot of time searching for good values on the tool and wasted a lot of time. It’s not that I couldn’t find good values; it’s that many of the ones I found were invalid listings.
Around the same time I bought the domain I sold this month, I bought another one for $3,000. It was refunded because it was an invalid listing.
After selling the one domain this month, I decided to dig in again and find similar values through Domain Academy’s tool, which is a power search tool for Afternic inventory.
I found four domains with buy now prices I liked, but I only successfully acquired one of them:
- One domain I paid for was successfully transferred to me
- One domain I paid for was an invalid listing, and I’m getting a refund
- Two domains I couldn’t purchase. When I clicked the buy links in the tool, the page wasn’t a buy now page. Instead, it said the domain might be for sale and to call to inquire. I called, and the rep said there was no way these domain listings were valid. He said one of them was a listing syndicated from Dan.
To be fair to Afternic, it doesn’t appear that the latter two domains are being syndicated through its Fast Transfer network. When I search for the domains on GoDaddy and Afternic partners, they don’t show up.
Still, the fact that two of the three domains I bought on Afternic through Buy Now links were invalid is a bad sign.
You could argue that I was looking for deals that seemed too good to be true. That’s a good point. But I was on the other side of a recent bad transaction showing how stale inventory ends up in the Afternic network.
This month, I received an email notifying me that I sold a domain on Dan.com through the distribution network. I was initially excited and searched my email to see how much I paid for the domain. That’s when I noticed I had already sold the domain last year through Afternic.
I never asked Dan to add my domains to Afternic. GoDaddy made this decision after acquiring Dan.com. I don’t really use Dan anymore and manage everything through Afternic.
So there’s another disappointed buyer out there with a failed transaction.
And I’m sure a few readers can relate to this: I sold a domain on Afternic that I had let expire years ago. It was freely available for registration.
There was also the recent issue where someone was adding valuable domains to Afternic, ostensibly to trick sellers into clicking the Fast Transfer opt-in so they could acquire the domains cheaply. (In Afternic’s defense, it had a control in place to prevent these valuable domains from being fully listed. But these controls won’t stop every invalid listing the way Afternic is currently structured.)
While I’ve focused on Afternic in this post, we all know that Sedo also has many stale listings.
And don’t get me started on Sedo’s search option for “Websites only”, which is supposed to show only active sites. When I searched for the keyword “money” under the websites filter today, only one of the top five listings was for a domain with an actual website (and I think that one is an invalid listing).
I even recall a time I negotiated back and forth on Sedo to buy a domain name, and it turned out the seller didn’t own the domain.
I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I posit that Afternic and Sedo have millions of invalid listings.
Invalid listings are bad for the domain aftermarket. Buyers need to trust that when they click the buy button and pay for a domain, they’ll get it.
I’m sure aftermarkets look at the problem and consider what threshold of failed transactions they’re comfortable with. At what point is customer angst such that they should clean up their inventory? (And both of these aftermarkets like to brag about the size of their inventory. They don’t want to report the lower number of truly valid listings.)
Aftermarkets have some controls in place, and they’d do well to improve these.
For example, when a domain I’ve listed at Sedo expires, Sedo automatically removes it from its inventory.
Afternic automatically removes a domain from its Fast Transfer network when it changes registrars (but this keeps the domain in its non-Fast Transfer inventory).
Domain registrants have some responsibility, too. But aftermarkets shouldn’t add an extra burden on sellers as GoDaddy did by syndicating Uni and Dan listings.
Personally, I delete my Sedo inventory once a year and then add it all back from my master list of domains. This ensures I’m not listing old domains.
And if I sell a domain outside of Afternic, I log in to delete the domain on Afternic.
I firmly believe Afternic and Sedo need to improve the integrity of their listings. But I’m not betting they will invest the money required.
NR says
Bait and Switch? Oh sorry that name won’t work, However,,. take a look at these…
Trevor West says
Estibot mentions if domains are for sale on Afternic. I’ve been using that sale information to help me value my domains. Perhaps I need to stop doing this.
Logan Flatt says
I’ve sold a domain name for $50,000 that Estibot and GoDaddy’s valuation algorithms said was worth only $100. I’ve sold other domains under similar circumstances. Just because an algorithm spits out a number doesn’t mean that the number is accurate, meaningful, trustworthy, or should be relied upon by a buyer or a seller in their decision of how to price the domain name. It’s just a number spit out by an algorithm. It has nothing to do with human beings and how they price a domain name.
Trevor West says
I’m not referring to Estibot’s own valuation. Estibot will indicate when a particular domain you search for is for sale on Afternic. However, if these Afternic listings might be invalid, they can’t be trusted as legitimate comparisons for pricing purposes.
Mark Thorpe says
Don’t bet on Afternic or Sedo cleaning up their domain listings.
Rant deserved.
John Poole says
Andrew, thanks for noting your experience which details more FACTS and REASONS that the domain name industry needs “governmental REGULATION” not an incompetent and corrupt ICANN which has been CAPTURED by the Registry operators and Registrars (i.e. “Contracted Parties” who effectively hold VETO power over the GNSO). ICANN has long been considered to be a “trade association” of the Registry operators and Registrars, and ICANN certainly does NOT operate in the Public Interest nor does ICANN serve the NEEDS of Registrants worldwide, who, at best, only have a small, ineffective voice within ICANN thanks to inept and corrupt actions, past and present, of the ICANN Board of Directors, ICANN management and staff, and ICANN “community.” Good luck on getting Afternic, Sedo, et al, to delete INVALID listings. As you know, the Domain Name Industry has a well-earned SLEAZY reputation for many reasons.