Sedo price scam?

[stellar73]

Was just using Daily's search page to check the expiry date on a .com domain I own which is registered with GoDaddy

The domain suddenly popped up for sale on the right hand column of their Premium Listings at a price of £752!

I have just been onto Daily to ask them what was going as I had never listed it for sale there. They told me it was because it is listed with Sedo who supply them with their premium listings and that I should contact Sedo for further information.

I do have the domain listed on Sedo but at a BIN of £425!

I know that Sedo has various 'partners' and to be honest I never really looked at the small print of how this works but I'm shocked at the price difference. Does anyone know whether they are allowed to do this?
Presumably if someone did buy it at that price then Sedo and/or Daily would pocket the difference along with their regular commission on my listed price.

I'm going to take this up with Sedo but just wondered if anyone knows anymore about this and specifically the legality of it?

 

[AssetDomains]

My guess is its some sort of exchange rate mix up the price quoted is quite near to what it would be in dollars

 

[stellar73]

My guess is its some sort of exchange rate mix up the price quoted is quite near to what it would be in dollars

Daily is a UK site though, all their prices for premium domains are listed in £ - all my Sedo listings are also in £'s

Have emailed them now so will see....

 

[Admin]

Interesting, let us know what they say.

Admin

 

[stevelook2]

I just did a wee search there! Not one of my domains but on Daily

spa-beauty.com is listed at £2165

On spa-beauty.com the asking price is £1224
1883USD 1450EUR

Shocking

 

[stellar73]

Waiting on them replying but just did a further check on around 15 .com's I have listed with BINs on Sedo, 7 more (the better ones) are showing up in Daily's Premium Section all with prices which are between 176 and 177% of the BIN price I listed them for on Sedo.

Very sneaky if there's something in the small print which allows them to get away with this, anyway will update thread once I get a reply!

 

[boxfish]

Why don't you like it?

If you get your required price and they are happy to promote it on their platform then surely it is win-win?

 

[Systreg]

Another example is pdadisplay.com for sale on Daily at £5,188, the same domain on Sedo is in dollars at $5,188

At todays exchange rate $5,188.00 = £3,383.34, and then you have the £1037.60 VAT that Daily charge on top of the price = £6225.60, outrageous really when you can buy it on Sedo for the VAT inclusive price of £3,383.34

 

[stellar73]

Why don't you like it?

If you get your required price and they are happy to promote it on their platform then surely it is win-win?

I don't like it because I had not been made aware that it's happening which strikes me as rather fraudulent on their part (even if they come back to me and say it's in the small print of their contract I think something this significant should be much more transparent)

I also don't like it because further to encouraging sales I think a practice like this ultimately puts buyers off. These prices are vastly over inflated (over and above what I would consider these domains to be worth anyway) and even if someone initially took the bait and was considering buying one, surely any person with a modicum of sense would then click through to the actual domain parking page (which is with Sedo), see that there is a different price listed there which (if it was me anyway) would only serve to totally confuse me and put me off proceeding any further with the purchase as I would smell a rat/ scam!

In principal it's great to be promoted on other platforms but not like this.

 

[cc976a]

Why don't you like it?

If you get your required price and they are happy to promote it on their platform then surely it is win-win?

A buyer may be tempted at £1k but thinks £2k too dear.

Sedo are a market place, not a retailer buying from wholesalers. It's not their product to price, only set the commission % which you agree in to. They should not be touching or over-inflating the selling price.

Can't believe they would be legally allowed to get away with. They are setting the price for YOUR product - in which this greed could be costly for the hand that feeds them.

 

[sdsinc]

There are also many domains that were listed on Sedo by the previous owners, and never removed.

 

[morozova]

It looks like Daily is not converting dollar amounts from the premium inventory they get, but simply appending £ sign to it, see identical $ and £ price tags for domains like hostunion.com and tphost.com on Afternic and on Daily.

 

[stellar73]

It looks like Daily is not converting dollar amounts from the premium inventory they get, but simply appending £ sign to it, see identical $ and £ price tags for domains like hostunion.com and tphost.com on Afternic and on Daily.

Yep, that's one trend that's common (usually where the original listing on Sedo was in USD), the other trend that is common is where the original Sedo listing was in GBP then it's quite typical for the multiplier (as it appears on Daily) to be 175 to 176 % of the original price listed. I tried various examples (must have been around 30 or 40) and not once was there a match between the Sedo price and the Daily (Sedo MLS) price. If you click through on Daily as if you're going to buy the domain the price remains in £'s and you also get charged VAT.

Sedo sent me a very unsatisfactory reply about all this which was dismissive and basically written in marketing speak. They did not acknowledge any problem yet mysteriously had very quickly removed all my domains from the MLS listings which suggests they know full well there is something wrong. (ie there is nothing in their t&c's that allows them to make price hikes which as far as I can see makes it fraud)

I am in the middle of writing a long reply to them at the mo, I will post it here tomorrow probably