Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

Since Sedo implemented their transfer center for domain transactions, things have improved tremendously.

No longer dependent on email and the security issues that they entail, the transfer center offers a direct and up to date line of communication between the buyer, the seller and the Sedo transfer agent.

After dozens of personal domain sales and purchases at Sedo, I experienced the transfer center as the Technical Assistant, handling the domain transaction for a client.

The process was smooth and easy.

Once my contact info was added to the transaction as the Technical Assistant by the buyer, I received an email asking me to confirm my email by clicking on a link with a long hashed URL which ensures security.

Soon after that, I was sent the same link and a password that allowed me to log in as the Technical Assistant for the transaction.

The Technical Assistant has a partial view of the transaction’s particulars.

Unlike the buyer’s account, there is no information related to the negotiation, money involved or other information that should not be disclosed to a third party managing a transaction on behalf of someone else.

My experience with Sedo as the Technical Assistant was stellar; when the client needed an expedited registrar push versus a transfer to another registrar, the support team of Sedo responded very timely and literally saved the day; my client wanted to get the acquired domain up and running before the end of the week.

It only took 1/2 day for the entire process, including DNS propagation.

Once again, Sedo proves that they are worthy of being voted as the Best Overall Domain Solution at TRAFFIC 2011 in Ft. Lauderdale.

Yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to see that a transaction that was pending at Sedo on Friday, moved on with payment on Saturday.

Specifically:

On Friday, I pushed as instructed a domain to the Sedo account with the holding registrar. Due to the time being around 5pm, there was no further action during that day on the domain.

On Saturday, the Sedo agent apparently reviewed the status of that transfer and issued a credit note, thus marking the transaction as complete.

It’s definitely exciting seeing Sedo active on the weekend, a move that speeds up the process of buying and selling domains!

In late 2009 I accepted an offer on Sedo for one of my domain names; a dictionary .net with several uses. The buyer was from a country in the Middle East and a newcomer to Sedo.

After waiting patiently for payment for more than 30 days, it became obvious that the buyer would not fulfill their obligation and Sedo canceled the transaction per my request.

They also banned the buyer from the Sedo marketplace as a deadbeat and provided me with the buyer’s name and info. Unfortunately, the buyer’s locale made it impossible for me to proceed with any form of legal action, as I would have done if they were in the US.

Fast forward to the future, 20 months later.

I received a sizable offer for the same domain and decided to send the domain into a Sedo auction. Unfortunately, it ended with a single bid: that of the person who had made the offer.

The buyer paid promptly and issued a request for an invoice, thus revealing his name – and that’s where the transaction turned very interesting: it was the deadbeat buyer from 2009.

I’m a realist when it comes down to domain pricing: the market’s liquidity dictates the pricing – as long as one decides to sell instead of holding long term.

Naturally I would have proceeded with the transaction, as I’ve done with hundreds of others on Sedo. But this wasn’t an ordinary transaction, it was a mockery of honest trading. It’s one thing when someone gets a good deal based on circumstances or the willingness of the seller to sell lower; it’s another thing when they reneg on a deal and break the contract.

I contacted Sedo, notifying them that the deadbeat buyer was somehow back on Sedo and that I wasn’t going to proceed with the transaction. What matters to me isn’t losing a sale but rather, having justice delivered. It’s a matter of ethics to honor a contract and by going around that, the buyer was essentially not playing a fair game.

Sedo deliberated for only a couple of hours before letting me know that they agreed with my position; the buyer had been banned for a while and was allowed back in at a later time per his request for “good behavior”.

Sedo froze the payment at escrow and informed the buyer that they’d have to come up with the remainder of the payment, honoring the initial contract.

It was a brilliant move by Sedo: the buyer’s eagerness to pay indicated that they had both their money and their reputation at stake. If they didn’t pay, they’d have to reverse the charges and lose every chance of every being on Sedo again. To my pleasant surprise, the next day the buyer accepted to honor the original contract.

I sat tight for a few more days while Sedo processed a split payment and finally the deal was complete. It took 20 months from the initial contract to the completion of the transaction but that’s fine since justice was delivered. It also more than doubled my anticipated revenue from the sale.

The way that Sedo handled the transaction was truly fantastic and communication via the phone was superb in every aspect. It’s also gratifying to see that the buyer decided to play fair in the end, so kudos to him for that.

You’ll find out about the $6,200 sale in next week’s DNJournal.

When it comes down to receiving payments from Sedo, either for the monthly PPC revenue or for domain sales, nothing beats the speed and efficiency of direct deposit (ACH).

This is the fastest method to receive your money from Sedo, faster than Paypal, check or bank wire. With the ACH option – that requires a special routing number from your bank – the cash is there within 24 hours of Sedo issuing payment.

Sedo has streamlined the process even further, by combining payments.

For example, if your monthly PPC revenue payment is due at the same time as the proceeds from a domain sale, it will arrive in a combined transaction.

Of course, this will save Sedo a couple of dollars; just be aware of that, in case you are looking for a separate transaction that just so happens to be already in your bank account

Have a great Friday and expect many more domain sales next week as the domain market is truly on an upturn.

For updates, follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/acroplex

Nowadays it seems that people are impatient with a twist: they don’t want to listen and yet, they expect results.

After reading a post at DNForum about people blaming Sedo for taking a long time to verify domains when added to one’s account, I came up with these short and sweet tips that always work for me.

Enjoy.

• Update the DNS of your domain to ns1/ns2.sedoparking.com BEFORE adding them to Sedo. Since DNS takes 24 hours to propagate, wait this much prior to adding a domain to the Sedo account. For new domain registrations it’s instant.
• If you are the first to add that domain to a Sedo account and it has the DNS set as above, verification takes less than 5 minutes.
• If your domain WHOIS matches that of your Sedo account email, verification is instant.
• If an automated verification cannot be established, an email will be sent. Make sure you follow instructions.
• Are you impatient? Instead of calling Sedo “lame”, call their customer service number. They’d be glad to assist you on the spot.

Even when adding domains that exist or existed in some other person’s Sedo account, I never had to wait more than 3 days and that only when the weekend was in-between, e.g. Friday to Monday.