Afternic Almost Dead?

[Fearless]

Out of all the names in Afternic's auction, zero have met the reserve. Are they selling anything?

 

[Anthony Ng]

I guess people just wait till the last minute.

They did sell after all: http://www.afternic.com/index.cfm?a=auctions&sa=all&range=res

 

[Fearless]

Originally posted by nameslave
I guess people just wait till the last minute.

They did sell after all: http://www.afternic.com/index.cfm?a=auctions&sa=all&range=res

They can't survive selling an average of one name a day unless it's their names.

Their liability insurance alone would eat up those profits.

 

[adoptabledomains]

Looks like the death may be official now. See this story:

http://www.atnewyork.com/news/article.php/1469711

 

[Fearless]

Originally posted by adoptabledomains
Looks like the death may be official now. See this story:

http://www.atnewyork.com/news/article.php/1469711

Talk about timing.

 

[QualityDomains]

Just read that news myself, is this bad news for us all?

 

[prasit]

it's good news for GregR. now he can make some from the domain-reselling site

 

[adoptabledomains]

More info in their press release:

"Register.com also announced it will close its Afternic customer segment and as a result, the Company will have to write off goodwill in the third quarter. Due to the write-off of goodwill, the softness in revenues, increased penalty fees related to credit card charge-backs and refunds, and a potential increased bad debt reserve, the Company does not expect to remain profitable in the third quarter of 2002."

http://investor.register.com/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=rcom&script=412&layout=-6&item_id=337013

 

[adoptabledomains]

Things don't seem to be working there anyway. I had a domain sold on July 30, and instead of their own DNescrow closings it was supposed to be sent to Escrow.com. The domain never has closed, escrow.com cannot seem to find out what's going on, and Afternic has no apparent way to contact a human.

They've potentially lost me a $500+ sale.

 

[GeorgeK]

I had two names I was buying, and no one replies to emails, argh.

 

[Fearless]

Originally posted by GeorgeK
I had two names I was buying, and no one replies to emails, argh.

George you would be considered a huge volume buyer with that many purchases at Afternic.

 

[namedancer]

I'd been putting off relisting my names there as my showcase dwindled to nothing. Now I'm happy about all the time I saved. Sometimes procrastination pays!

Didn't sell anything anyway. Don't guess they'll refund my $5 signup.

 

[observer]

It heard today, Register.com plans to keep the "automatic auction system". But with the exception of the (quite poor) escrow service, was Afternic anything else than an automatic auction system in the past few months?

 

[maxheadroom]

I say good riddance! What was a promising and fun place to hang out and buy & sell domains, was turned into a nazi concentration camp. I only sold 2 domains there, and neither were anything to write home about. But I left my portfolio there just for the heck of it. I've been getting emails for a month... "We've removed your auction ..." If they didn't run all the people off the site, they'd have had people to bid.

I'm glad they are dead. (sorry, but just had to get that off my chest.)

 

[NewSeller]

They will be online till 2003