Partners are marking up your domain prices — Some Afternic

The price you set might not be the price your client sees.

When you list your domain names for sale through Afternic’s Premium Network, 100 resellers and registrars list your domain names for sale on their sites. Many of these partners allow clients to instantly purchase your domains by taking advantage of the Afternic Fast Transfer system.

You, the domain seller, pay a commission of up to 20% to Afternic.

But the total delta between what the buyer pays and you get might be much bigger. It turns out that some Afternic partners are marking up the price of your domains.

For example, both eNom and Name.com are adding 15% to your price. If your list price is $1,000, they promote the domains at $1,150. You still get $800 if the name sells.

Here’s an example. My list price on CashForecast.com is $1,995. Here’s the listing on Name.com:

SedoMLS has allowed this markup practice for a long time, but it appears to be fresh at Afternic. It was recently brought to my attention by a DNW reader.

I reached out to GoDaddy for an explanation. Afternic Chief Revenue Officer Bob Mountain stated:

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 client service.