The thing about domaining is there are always people in the know on certain topics but they don’t go mainstream. It takes a post on a blog or Namepros for the majority of domain owners to see the full picture.
DomainNameWire wrote about a topic today that has pissed me off for awhile and I think the same as we are demanding answers and changes from NameJet and GoDaddy, we need aftermarket sites like Sedo and Afternic to be held accountable.
Andrew wrote about how at certain registrars you are getting marked up by the registrar to their benefit and their benefit only.
I have the domain name Mibby.com listed at Afternic and the price is $5,000. When you check it at Name.com it’s $5,750, now this is not a broker saying, “Raymond I think I can get you a little more and my commission will be based of $5,750.” No these people want to take their commission based off $5,000 and keep the $750 as some kind of bonus.
Andrew got a comment from Afternic Chief Revenue Officer Bob Mountain:
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.
Why should we your customer have to do this, when we did not authorize it? Not everyone in the domain industry will read Andrew’s post.
There should be another box that you need to check when you approve the MLS agreement.
When you add a domain to Afternic you get an email,
Thank you for choosing GoDaddy as your Afternic Premium Network registrar.
Before your domain name(s) can be listed for sale on GoDaddy and other Afternic resellers, you must authorize your participation in the Afternic program. Please click the button below to log in and authorize.
When you click that button to authorize they should make it known they are adding a markup and if you wish to participate.
What if a buyer has a $5,000 budget? $5,750 no thanks, on to the next name. That might not happen every day, but plenty of buyers do have budgets. The point is no Afternic or Sedo customer should miss out on a sale for a reason like this.
This is an industry that has long worried about the government getting involved in aftermarket activities like auctions and secondary market sales. If the bullshit doesn’t stop it’s going to come and then look out, you are never getting those horses back in the barn.