Thought Convergence, Inc. purchased the domain name Aftermarket.com at the Moniker Domainer Meeting in Paris in 2008 for $125,000 USD and put the domain name to work for a live domain auction platform using another company they own (DomainTools.com) previous auction system that was in place. The DomainTools.com auction system as far as I know was the first in the domain industry that allowed in-house bidding and online bidding at the same time, in real time.
On Wednesday, September 24, 2008, Thought Convergence launched its new Aftermarket.com live auction platform at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference in New York with several other auctions that followed at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. and its own DRT shows.
The Aftermarket.com domain never really became the "actual" domain name used as it simply did a forward to the DomainTools.com/Auction page but the domain was mainly used for a brand.
The majority of auctions Aftermarket.com ran, all did very well IMO.I enjoyed submitting domains to it and watching the live auctions.
The last auction that took place was the DRT June 16th 2009 auction with the extended version ending June 24. This was also the auction that Aftermarket.com sold Yahoo’s domain name Contests.com for $380,000 which grabbed a lot of headlines.
Since the June 2009 auction, I had hoped Aftermarket.com would continue with its service but no further auctions were ever announced. I reached out to Thought Convergence to find out its future plans for the site because trying to visit Aftermarket.com today simply did a forward to the home page of DomainTools.com .
I spoke with Jamal of TCI and he had this to say:
"As far as plans for Aftermarket.com (AM), we, TCI, are still evaluating the next step for AM. AM existed previously as a live auction platform, however we decided to steer away from that as we focused on our core offerings. As planned previously, we are currently exploring how to re-introduce aftermarket.com into the industry as a full service marketplace. The redirect to DomainTools.com is temporary."
So it appears Aftermarket.com will not be what it was before and they will likely come back as a Full Service domain aftermarket. Maybe something more in the lines of what Sedo offers with live and daily auctions, member listed inventory etc.
The domain name auction business has been exploding over the past couple of years with new services coming and going but IMO Aftermarket.com was one of the good ones that worked very well for many but sadly it will no longer be. I look forward to when Aftermarket.com is relaunched as a full service marketplace when ever that may be as it will be interesting to see what the Thought Convergence team comes up with.
Pat
It would be great if someone (anyone) could build some serious competition for Sedo.
Maybe we’d get a little transparency as to what they’re paying out.
Adam
@pat
What do you mean by what they are paying out ?
Buydomains does a pretty decent business in the aftermarket.
Good post Jamie and looking forward to see what Jamal and team cook up.
Damir
Sedo and afternic are a waste of time.
There needs to be a BIG Competitor – give them a run for the $$$
Mike
@Adam: BUYDOMAINS??!? Are you kidding? They will “buy” your domains for $10 and turn around and resell them for $2888 or some x88 price. Talk about lack of transparency…..they and their sister company Afternic are horrendous to deal with. I cant stand them and will never list my names with them again. Oh, and their (Afternic’s) online portfolio management software sucks beyond all imagination. Just read their forum http://www.discussnames.com It wont take long for you to see what they’re truly made of.
Adam
@Mike no I’m not kidding. I was responding to Pat’s comment. Sedo and buydomains, when both reported sales, were doing similar numbers in sales, making them competition for Sedo.
I don’t personally use either of those venues but have many colleagues who do and they’ve sold many domains over the years.
I’m not following what you and Pat are talking about with regards to transparency. Are you saying when you list a domain at these venues that these companies are buying the domains . . . are you getting the prices you want when you sell the domains?
Chris Nielsen
I was just searching for “aftermarket.com sucks” and found this page. I joined and tried to list 5 domains with them. I spent a lot of time picking the domains, checking the value, and then creating listings. Then I go to submit them and the first verification failed. They check your account email with the email on the domain, since mine was different, I can’t use the first method. The second method requires you to add a CNAME record to your DNS for each domain. Since I am not a newbie, I could do this, but why should I have to mess around like that? Are they so lazy they can’t have a review to validate the domains are mine?
If I had some assurace I would get some domains then I might spend the time to get them listed, but at this point I think it may be even more of waste of time, so I’m going to forget this idea. Seems like this division of TC is really on the “back burner”…