Sales Platform / Market Place (1.Viewing)

I am curious if you use a marketplace to list your domains and if so which one?

I used to have my own website, but I could never find a wordpress domain marketplace theme I really liked.

I have tried Uniregistry, EFTY and Epik, and godaddy auctions

Uniregistry - I was getting leads but found the brokers very spammy with follow up emails.

EFTY - I really like their platform, I made sales and had a decent amount of leads coming in. I was looking to integrate some parking with my portfolio so i Moved to Epik to give them a try. After leaving EFTY they have added a bunch of new features, integrated with DAN.com and now offering brokerage.

Epik - I like epik Rob and Sarah have been great to deal with. I get decent pricing, I still have yet to set up my market place properly, but I am getting some offers via my landers. I set up parking on some domains and was making a bit of $ but i figured I would rather optimize my landers to sell a domain, than make some pocket change.

godaddy - I only use there auction page, I get the typical low ball offers and no follow up with the counter offers. My auction membership runs out in 14 days I will let it expire.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts and experience.

Thank you

Dan
i also tried Uniregistry for a while but found I found that the brokers would spam interested buyers so i moved over to EFTY.

I really liked EFTY it seemed like i was getting more leads and sales on there platform

For .ca, I forward them to my own generic sales page and the inquiries come to me, no middleman. I probably also have a few listed on Uniregistry market with make offer. But I try to handle most .ca myself.

For .com and other extensions, most I have listed at Uniregistry, Afternic and still some on Sedo, though I don't add much to Sedo anymore. I have some listed at BIN, and some make offer. I like the idea of someone being able to buy the domain and get the instant transfer, I have heard it works for others.

Though I hate listing a BIN price, since any new service, product or situation could make a so so domain more valuable overnight. The other pitfall with listing on multiple marketplaces, is if you price your domains and want to change them, it takes more work going around to edit everything. Some buyers also seem to prefer certain marketplaces, for example sometimes I have a domain parked on a Uniregistry lander, but will get an offer come through on Sedo or Afternic. Why would they not just visit the domain and offer on the landing page?

Most of the leads from Uniregistry I've dealt with myself in negotiations.

With Sedo and Afternic, they usually control the negotiation process, so you end up paying a commission. I don't mind paying a commission for a good sale.

Lately I've thought about just running everything through myself, though I've liked the idea that my domains could pop up in a Godaddy search, and that some buyers might like dealing through a known company.

I don't think I have had any BIN sales really, if I have it would only be a couple I've forgotten about. Still waiting to wake up or get the notice on the app for a four or five figure instant sale having gone through!

Also, yes Uniregistry brokers do a lot of follow up, I've heard it's worked for some domainers, for myself I don't think they have ever closed a sale for me that was a follow up from an initial offer. Though I still think it's a good feature, because I have had buyer come back after weeks or months and completed a sale on my own.

Handling my own leads and using Escrow.com seems to work pretty well. Even people who don't deal in domains but need to buy one, can usually figure out how Escrow works easily enough. And most buyers whoever they are seem to want some kind of escrow service, especially above $1000 sales.

I prefer my own landers and handling it myself. Middle men tend to limit options (especially leasing/financing type discussions), and of course the big obvious issue of being less sure of who the buyer really is.

And yes, Uni is probably the worst to work with. Clearly they have automated follow ups with nagging but useless emails. I always tell them, if something has changed on your end (i.e. lower price), let me know. They continue to contact you as if they want to negotiate, but they never actually negotiate. I also find it very difficult to get a bottom line price. It's always "make another offer, that's not enough"

Escrow is certainly nice, but the lack of CAD is an issue and I've found more issues with transactions taking a while lately. One of the biggest problems I find is that their status updates aren't always accurate or clear, so that causes confusion. I was just buying a domain the other day, I paid immediately. Then the seller logs in and is told they have to re-verify their identity. Then they said she didn't need to do that after all. However, now the whole transaction has now been flagged for manual review of each step, slowing it to a halt. Escrow has different departments that complete things in a linear fashion, one step at a time, so that can really slow the process as each department has their own queue. This time, the status was reporting as if my payment wasn't being approved - which after a lengthy discussion with support, I found out wasn't actually true. What they claimed was, they only authorized my card until the seller accepts the terms of the transaction (although their system reported it as payment made). Once that happened (and the seller verification kerfuffle fixed), then they bounce it back to payments department to actually charge my CC. So the published status was confusing. Once they told me the actual process, it makes sense and wasn't so bad. But it still took a few days...

I guess I'm just used to instant transfers of .CA and no middle man.

I've got most of my domains listed on Sedo and Afternic for distribution. Domains are parked at Sedo (Sedo is a long time consulting client of mine for their SedoMLS product), but I haven't switched to sales landers yet, even though I am planning to do so.

I have used Sedo's escrow a few times, it works pretty well.