Afternic experience of June 2024

Hello everyone,

So the last month was another record breaking month after a wonderful April. In April there were a total of 22 sales and 12 in May. Whereas there were 21 sales in June, one less than April but the amount of sales was fantastic.

I’m working hard behind the scenes to make this all happen by adding a lot of more domains over the years and buying plenty of quality domains. And also revised the prices for all of my domains which are relatively more attractive than ever before.

Coming back to the sales of June 2024:

SunshineCoastRealestate.com – This was acquired in 2019 via SnapNames and sold for $1,988 through BIN.

RelaxSport.com – Acquired in 2016. Received a $1,200 offer but I remained firm on the BIN and eventually the domain sold for the original BIN price of $1,988.

StickyInk.com – There was an offer of $1,800 and the domain had $1,988 BIN. I accepted the offer since there was a small gap between both our amounts. Hold time 6 years.

OnePadel.com – Sold at BIN for $4,888 and the hold time was around one year only.

TheReps.com – Like I’ve mentioned it several times, domains starting with “the” keyword are good investments on condition that you buy the right combinations. This domain had a BIN of $9,888 and hold time was around one year. I could see the domain under “On Hold” for some time before the good news email came in of “Congrats, thereps.com has sold via Fast Transfer!” 😀

Betoro.com – Previously this domain had a BIN of $29,888 but after the repricing at the end of last year, I priced it at $9,888 and sold! Hold time around 3 years.

PerfectLawn.com – A perfect domain for a lawn company, isn’t it? This one sold at the BIN of $6,888. Hold time around 6 years.

InfinityFloor.com – Another BIN sale at $2,988. Hold time 4 years.

Limitl3ss.com – I like to invest in such a brandable domain. They’re slow to sell but you may try to buy a few and see how it goes for you. Sold at the BIN of $1,988. Acquired it via GoDaddy closeouts a year back.

SouthernCompass.com – This one had a BIN of $6,888 but after going back and forth with the buyer, we settled at $6,200. Hold time 4 years.

SeasonedSouls.com – Another $1,988 BIN sale which is the usual bread and butter of my portfolio. Hold time around 2 years.

LagoonResort.com – Possibly undersold this one at $1,988 BIN but I’m happy to keep sales ticking. Hold time 8 years.

LabelPrint.com – This one had a BIN of $50,000. But after a lot of negotiations for at least two months, it was sold for $26,000. I know it’s not usual for me to provide such a big discount on any domain but in rare cases I do.

GuardianService.com – I think this was undersold as well which had the BIN of $6,888. Hold time 4 years. What do you think?

Cake-Shop.com – Another hyphenated sale at the BIN price of $1,988. Hold time was around 3 years.

AttainHealth.com – The best sale of the last month at BIN price which came into “On Hold” and stayed for like a maximum of 10 days and then vanished. It came back again and remained for a few more days before converting into a successful sale for $29,888. Hold time 5 years. An interesting thing happened with this domain that the highest bidder failed to make the payment at GoDaddy Auctions and I was offered to purchase it which I happily did.

Ccs-Group.com – Be careful in investing hyphenated domains as you’ve to be very selective in buying. Not all are good and will sell. This one sold at the BIN price of $2,988. Hold time less than 4 years.

Addaa.com – This one was another BIN sale at $1,988. Hold time less than 3 years.

HelloGrowth.com – Hello everyone! This one sold for $9,888 at BIN. It was exciting to see when it came under “On Hold” status to a successful sale.

WebFuse.com – Another BIN sale of $9,888 which I had to hold for around 5 years.

Akord.org – This one sold for $1,988 at BIN with holding time around 2 years.

There were a total of 21 sales (excluding the sales of my sons) and 8 of them sold for $1,988 each. The main reason I believe is that a little over 30% of my portfolio is priced at $1,988.

The number of inquiries for June 2024 was just under 1,400 which is less than the last month. One of the most interesting data points is that in January the number of leads were the most this year and it was the least in June. The total number of domains at the end of June 2024 were a little over 9,650.

Currently having the most number of domains and had the least number of leads last month comparing between Jan-Jun of this year, yet the total amount of sales were the highest. You can never accurately predict in this business 😀

2 were partner registrar sales.
12 sales via GoDaddy search path.
7 sales via Afternic lander.

Total acquisition + holding costs (which includes transfers and renewals) was around $7,500 and the total amount of sales was $143,984.

I wanted to thank my Afternic rep Adam Ramsdell and the brokers who were involved in making the deals smoothly and professionally.

The above costs and sales amount may look out of the world for some investors but there is one important thing to keep in mind that I’ve invested in 7 figures (USD) for acquiring and holding those 9,650+ domains. Also just the renewal cost is a little over $100,000 annually. So there are a lot of expenses and money is invested. But overall, I’m in profit and happy with the progress.

I wish everyone a great month ahead and have a lot of sales. Feel free to share your sales and give your feedback on mine if you like to. It doesn’t matter how good or good the feedback is.

Does the price change increase sales at Afternic?

Hello everyone,

I’ve been using Afternic lander since January 2020 and have had continuous success with them. There have been many shocking months both in positive and negative ways. Negative in a sense that there have been a lot of inconsistencies over the time and a lot to learn from this experience as well.

In order to increase sales, recently I discussed an idea with Adam Ramsdell (my Afternic account manager) : if I change the prices for my domains, whether to increase or decrease it, will it bring it any additional sales or by the least does it increase any chances of more sales? His answer was absolute NO. I was a little surprised because I’ve heard from many domain investors that sales do increase when they make any changes to their prices at Afternic, especially when they reduce it by a good margin.

The very next thing that came into my mind was the paid tools like DomainTools and DomainIQ where anyone can monitor the domain names with any changes to it like in the WHOIS. So if there are any changes made to the WHOIS, this sends the notification to the person who has added the domain to monitor for any WHOIS changes. Normally people do this so they can know if and when the domain is getting expired so that they can acquire it. Or if the domain has been renewed for a long period, then they try to acquire it knowing the domain is no longer going to expire anytime soon.

So coming back to the main point, sales do not increase if you reduce or increase the price at Afternic. At least not with the help of Afternic but yeah, any external factors/tools may be helping if someone is getting notified via any tool to them, then they get to know about this and buy it which we investors think that it happened because of Afternic.

I just wanted to share this thing so my fellow domain investors will have clarity on this point and act accordingly if/when deciding to make any price changes in the future.

Have you noticed any increase in sales after making price changes to your domain portfolio?

Afternic experience of May 2024

Hello everyone,

April was a record breaking one in terms of number of sales where a total 22 sales happened. And last month, there were only 12 sales which was a bit disappointing to see because both numbers were less and the total amount of sales were down too.

Like I’ve discussed it many times, one of the biggest challenges in domain business is the inconsistency and one can only manage this by growing their size of domain portfolio with quality domains. And I say it once again that the number of domains do play a major role in having sales with consistency.

So let me share the domain sales of last month:

FenceCompany.com – This was the first sale of the month and the best one too. It sold for a whopping $32,888 and sold via partner registrar of Afternic. Hold time around 3 years.

Chookas.com – Acquired via GoDaddy closeouts a couple of years back and sold it for $3,988 via partner registrar of Afternic. If you Google the term “chookas”, you’ll find this information “It’s a uniquely Australian expression which dancers and performers say to one another backstage just as the performance is about to begin. It loosely translates as “break a leg or good luck”.

RoseHillHome.com – Acquired a couple of years back and sold it for $1,988 via GoDaddy registration path.

HorizonAutomotive.com – Another BIN via partner registrar at $2,988. A two word brandable domain for an automotive company. Hold time 2 years and another closeout purchase.

CreoGroup.com – A sale via Afternic price request lander for the full BIN price of $9,888. Sensible “group” keyword domains always do well like I’ve mentioned in several of my previous posts. Of course, you’ve to price it accordingly as well. Hold time around 5 years.

JbjConstruction.com – GoDaddy registration path sale at full BIN price of $1,988. Another GD closeout purchase a couple of years back.

SnapVentures.com – Another GD registration path sale for $1,988.

VeraGreen.com – And another GD registration path sale at BIN of $1,988. Acquired via GD auctions around 3 years back.

AnimalWelfare.org – Partner registrar sale $3,988. IMO, this fits very well with the extension. Hold time around 5 years.

JN66.com – Partner registrar sale happened for $2,988. I don’t really invest in LLNN domains but this one was interesting to me mainly due to repeating numbers.

Sinala.com – GD search path sale for $5,888 and hold time around 6 years.

KauaiVacation.com – Afternic price request lander sale $3,500. I hardly invest in geo domains and this was actually negotiated down from the original BIN price of $4,888. Hold time around 5 years.

There were a total of 12 sales and 4 of them sold for $1,988 each. The main reason I believe is that a little over 30% of my portfolio is priced at $1,988.

The number of inquiries for May 2024 was almost 1,500 which got better than the previous month. The total number of domains at the end of May 2024 were a little over 9,500.

5 were partner registrar sales.
5 sales via GoDaddy search path.
2 sales via Afternic lander.

Total acquisition + holding costs was around $3,500 and the total amount of sales was $74,068.

I wanted to thank my Afternic rep Adam Ramsdell and the brokers who were involved in making the deals smoothly and professionally.

I wish everyone a great month ahead and have a lot of sales. Feel free to share your sales and give your feedback on mine if you like to. It doesn’t matter how good or good the feedback is 

Difference between “On Hold” and “Sale Pending” statuses

Hi everyone,

While using Afternic for more than 4 years, I know many sellers who’re using this platform. And with the new Afternic 2.0, there are some new positive changes to the UI and some confusion has been there as well at the same time.

Anyone using the Lead Center, must be checking the “Sale Pending” tab which can be seen here and sometimes you must be seeing domains under “On Hold” status which can be checked here.

Today I wanted to share the difference between both of the statuses:

Sale Pending – Domain is displayed here when the broker gets the buyer to agree for making the payment and the broker has control to push the domain under this section to be shown. Keep in mind that there is no guarantee the sale will be converted if you see in this tab. You can only be assured that there has been some progress from negotiation to accepting the offer. Now it’s up to the buyer to make the payment or not.

On Hold – This status is a lot better and has a far greater success ratio in converting into a successful sale. At least in my case. The domain here is shown for at least a couple of reasons. The first is when someone goes to GoDaddy or any of the partner registrar of Afternic and searches the domain, adds to the cart and either makes the payment or doesn’t make it. But the domain is viewed by the seller at this “On Hold” status page. The time varies for you to be seen depending on the registrar and if the payment is made or not.

Another reason is that the domain is manually put on hold by the broker if and when they’re sure that the payment has been made by the buyer and are provided by some wire receipt or something for assurance to put the domain under “On Hold” status. During this “On Hold” period, no one else can buy the domain.

Thanks to my Afternic rep Adam Ramsdell for explaining it so that I can share it with my loyal readers and domain community. I hope you guys will find it helpful and get some clarification for these statuses.

Afternic experience of April 2024

Hello everyone,

Last month was a very special and recording breaking month in terms of number of sales. Although I keep adding new domains every month which should boost the number of sales but that normally doesn’t happen. I think this was a one-off month and I would love to have such sales every month on a regular basis. I’m working hard on making this happen with more consistency and this can be achieved with a slightly larger portfolio size (currently 9,390) and similar quality of domains.

Coming back to the sales, I’m excited to share it with my fellow friends and followers:

HealthIndustries.com – This was the first sale of the month and it sold for $5,888 via BIN. Acquired it via DropCatch in 2019.

PurpleTv.com – Another BIN sale for $3,988. Hold time around 3 years.

Ahorn.net – It’s always a nice feeling to sell .net domains and they do sell but at a slower pace than .com. This was a BIN sale for $1,988 and hold time was 5 years.

SonaHealth.com – “Health” keyword domains are a good investment but one has to make sure to buy with the right combination. This one sold for $4,888 via BIN. Hold time 4 years.

Twinery.com – This was sold for $1,988. I think the buyer got a great deal here. This can be used as a one word brand or t+Winery. Hold time around 3 years.

Symbook.com – Another $1,988 BIN sale and the hold time was 4 years.

Igiro.com – This domain was having a BIN of $4,888 but eventually I accepted $3,000 after going back and forth with the buyer. Salute to the broker who was very patient and cracked the deal smoothly. The deal took more than a month of follow-ups and calls to get this done.

ACR.CO – The highest amount of sales last month at $9,888 and surprisingly that came in via .CO sale. I love to invest in .CO domains. This was acquired in a small bulk deal 4 years back.

RemarkSolutions.com – Another BIN sale for $1,988 with hold time of 1 year only. Such wonderful two word domains are a good investment and “solutions” is a great keyword to look after.

CountLine.com – Around 3 years hold time and this was sold for $2,988.

ECO5.com – This domain was acquired via NameJet in 2019. This was sold for $8,000 after a tricky negotiation happened behind the scenes for which I appreciate the great skills of the broker who made the deal happen smoothly.

AvantiSolutions.com – Another BIN sale for $4,888 with a hold time of 4 years. Didn’t I say just now that the “solutions” keyword is great for investment 😉 But make sure the combination make senses to you as well as for the buyer.

Monte.CO – 6 years hold time which is a long time period considering high renewal fee. But I love .CO domains and they do sell well if you buy the right domains. The initial offer was $1,500 but I remained firm on the BIN of $3,988 and credit to the broker who was able to convince the buyer to hit the BIN.

FromFearToFreedom.com – It’s a four word domain and one should never worry about too many character containing or 3-4 word domains. As long as it’s making sense, you may buy it. Acquired it in $xx and sold it for $1,988 via BIN.

Legarda.com – Another equally highest amount of sale for $9,888 like ACR.CO last month. This was another BIN sale. Hold time 4 years. This is a popular person name and a lot of companies are using this term as their brand name.

NewWineSkin.com – A great sale for a three word domain for $5,888 via BIN. Hold time around 1 year.

RsBrands.com – Another BIN sale for $1,988. You’ll notice that I’ve sold several LL+keyword domains. One should note that LL has to be western premium letters and the word should be a strong keyword.

SurrenderedLife.com – Along with many other BIN sales, this one was sold for $2,988. A GoDaddy closeout purchase a couple of years ago.

Value-Group.com – Finally a hyphenated sale. The initial offer was $1,407 but I remained firm at BIN of $1,988 and eventually it sold without making any compromise on the price. “Group” keyword domains can be a good investment if you choose it wisely.

Cetindag.com – A person’s name sold for $1,988 BIN. Hold time 2 years and this was acquired via GoDaddy closeouts.

ZoomMortgage.com – This domain had a BIN of $9,888 but after the negotiations, the broker was able to convince the buyer to pull the trigger at $7,444 which was their highest offer after the initial offer of $6,000. Hold time 3 years.

Essentico.com – One word brandable domain. They’re always good to invest in but are getting costlier as the time goes by. Hold time around 2 years. This was another BIN sale for $3,988.

There were a total of 22 sales and 8 of them sold for $1,988 each. The main reason I believe is that 31% of my portfolio is priced at $1,988.

The number of inquiries for April was slightly above 1,400 which is less than both the previous months of February and March. The total number of domains at the end of April 2024 were 9,390.

6 were partner registrar sales.
11 sales via GoDaddy search path.
5 sales via Afternic lander.

Total acquisition + holding costs was around $5,000 and the total amount of sales was $93,616.

I wanted to thank my Afternic rep Adam Ramsdell and the brokers who were involved in making the deals smoothly and professionally.

Also, I wanted to record a protest for myself and behalf of many fellow domainers who’re facing the same issue at Afternic which is the very late payouts. Sometimes it take several weeks! Kindly sort out this issue which is ongoing and no one bothers to fix it until now.

I wish everyone a great month ahead and have a lot of sales. Feel free to share your sales and give your feedback on mine if you like to. It doesn’t matter how good or good the feedback is ðŸ˜‰