One site will allow you to opt out of registrar markups the other won’t.
Here is a follow up to the story I posted last week about some domain registrars marking up your names (for their profit) when you list at Sedo and Afternic.
Joe Styler reaffirmed what Bob Mountain wrote two years ago. You can contact Afternic and have your names not show at the markup registrars.
We also understand many people are against any kind of commission mark up from any partners which is why we allow anyone to email in and opt out for their account. Bear in mind only the Afternic inventory will be affected and if the reseller accepts other premium domain feeds containing your names they could continue to show up on those sites.
Joe Styler wrote in the comment section here September 18, 2019
Joe also pointed out how there is language in the Afternic membership agreement that does say you can be marked up. I did some research into that too.
The way this was done is interesting. Archive.org is our friend here. Joe pointed out that it was not in the fast transfer TOS but the membership agreement, go check it out now, you will notice the updated date, currently
Membership Agreement – Updated on August 22, 2019
So when Afternic slipped in “You understand that certain reseller distribution partners may, upon approval by the Company and at Company’s sole discretion, add a markup to the sale price of your domain name and that the reseller distribution partner may keep this markup in its entirety, and that you will receive no payment for the portion of the sales price that is marked up.” The membership agreement update, date was not updated. This happened in October of 2018 and you can view that here https://web.archive.org/web/20181011084930/https://www.afternic.com/legal
But when you look at the previous record on Archive.org back in June of 2018 you see no mention of the markup language, for proof you can see that here https://web.archive.org/web/20180623050144/http://www.afternic.com/legal
So the question is, why did the Afternic membership agreement change but the date remained May 12, 2016 for the last update? If someone was pedantic about TOS and checked it daily, they would have no reason to read it again to see the markup language placed in there.
On top of that a company should email you and let you know about the markup and the change in the membership agreement.
Just wanted to make sure everyone was informed and provide proof as to what actually happened.
Now onto Sedo who also has the same practice and they don’t mention the markup as well.
When asked if they would do the same as Afternic and provide an opt out? Here was their reply:
Currently there is no option to opt out from specific registrars. Our goal is to maximize the chances of a domain sale for our sellers, and each participating registrar increases these. Sellers will always receive the price they set in their Sedo user account (minus Sedo’s fees).
— Sedo (@Sedo) September 20, 2019
So if you are like many investors who are against the markup your best play is to Buy it now at Afternic, make offer at Sedo, and opt out of markup registrars at Afternic.
Neither company can give a clear answer on why their partners have the right to markup your domain names, but there are things you can do about it to have full autonomy over how your domain names are presented for sale.