Afternic Floor Prices

[baldidiot]

Does anyone here use the floor prices at afternic? We had someone enquire about a domain through an afternic broker (is it always through a broker?) and they asked for the lowest we'd take. The deal fell through but I noticed that they'd updated the floor price of the domain.

My concern with these is the broker being able to basically say to the buyer "if you offer anything above £x I can just accept it" just to close the deal rather than actually trying to get the best price for the domain.

Eg:

Without floor price - BIN set at £1000, buyer offers £100, we negotiate and manage to do a deal at £750
With floor price - BIN set at £1000 with floor price of £500, buyer offers £100, broker says "£500 is the floor", sale closes at £500

This is just a fictional example, but plenty of times I've pushed a domain up higher than the minimum that we'd accept for it (eg: where we would be happy to take £500 but we've just come down slowly on the price and the buyer ends up coming up higher).

 

[diablo]

My concern with these is the broker being able to basically say to the buyer "if you offer anything above £x I can just accept it" just to close the deal rather than actually trying to get the best price for the domain.

I treat every market place differently because they each have their pluses and minuses, and they won't bend to you.

For me, the Afternic floor is an opportunity not a concern. It's good if the broker can negotiate without coming to me, even if they do say "if you offer anything above £x I can just accept it". The key is making £x is a price you would happily sell the name for.

 

[baldidiot]

I guess my point is that I might be happy for it to sell for £500 (or whatever) but I'd be happier if it sold for £750...

My concern with the floor prices and afternic putting a broker in between you and the buyer is that they're more concerned about getting a deal done, regardless of how much it's for, whilst we're more interested in getting the best possible price for it.

 

[astutiumRob]

The broker will tell them 1000, they'll offer 100, broker will say no, they'll offer 200, broker will say no - rinse/repeat.

If/when they offer over the floor broker will say yes, AFAIAA they dont actively share the exact amount so coukd be 500 offered, could be 600 etc

Although commision on a deal st 500 is obv a lot more than no commission on no deal at 1000, I've not heard of deals bern consistently at floor rather than floor-and-above.

Much the same as the 'allow offers' with a min-price-to-accept on ebay.

For s/sheets and automation and pedantry you could take your actual floor, plus the commission, plus exchange fees/risk, plus banking fee, plus a bit for your time dealing with the platforms and setting floor at that - in practice though putting it at x% of the asking price is probably simpler

 

[baldidiot]

The broker will tell them 1000, they'll offer 100, broker will say no, they'll offer 200, broker will say no - rinse/repeat.

That could lead to lower prices than actively negotiating for a higher price though. Let's say the opening offer is £100 and the floor is £500, but it's listed at £1,000.

If the broker is just saying "go higher" and they use small increments, then it would be the first offer they make that's above the floor. Ie: the second they get above the floor it would get accepted. Whereas if you're negotiating yourself and countering the offer, they buyer may accept a higher price.

It's also totally ignoring the fact that we can keep negotiating even after the offer is above the floor price. For example, say they've offered £600 (so above the floor and a price the broker would just accept), I might still try and increase that price further if I think the buyer will increase their offer.

There have been plenty of times when I might have just taken the lower offer if it was all that there was and it was the buyers max, but it looked like there was room to increase it further so I pushed it up. This is especially true when you receive multiple bids on an domain.

I don't really want the broker to just take the first person to offer the absolute minimum that we'd accept. We want to get the maximum value from the domain, which may be above the floor price (but could take a little bit of additional negotiating to get it).

 

[astutiumRob]

It's also totally ignoring the fact that we can keep negotiating even after the offer is above the floor price

Once an offer is at/above floor that's the "end" of the process and it's accepted - so in your methodology you do not want to set a floor.

 

[baldidiot]

Once an offer is at/above floor that's the "end" of the process and it's accepted - so in your methodology you do not want to set a floor.

Yes, that's my whole point.

But if you speak to a broker about a domain and give them a minimum (for that one specific deal, it could be different for different deals) they update the floor price themselves. Or they did with me, at least.