Aftermarket Domains

An aftermarket domain is a name someone already owns and is selling. It sits on a brokerage (Afternic, Sedo, Atom, Hugedomains, Dynadot, and a dozen others) with a price tag, and you can buy it right now. Different from auctions, where you wait days for bidding to close.

Speed and pricing. Aftermarket: pay the listed price, the domain is yours in minutes. Auction: bid against other people, wait days for the timer, see who wins. Aftermarket usually costs more because the seller is not under pressure to close. Auction prices swing wildly because they are decided by whoever shows up.

Fifteen, totaling around 5.2M live listings: Afternic, Sedo, Atom, Hugedomains, BrandBucket, BuyDomains, DomainMarket, Efty, DN.com, Gname, Spaceship, Dynadot, Above, PerfectDomains, and NameShift. Listings refresh every 15 minutes. Stale or delisted rows get filtered before they reach the page.

Click through to the marketplace from the listing, pay there. The marketplace runs the escrow and pushes the domain to your registrar account, usually within 1 to 7 days. If you and the seller happen to use the same registrar, it can be instant.

On most platforms, yes. Afternic, Sedo, and Atom let you send offers alongside the listed BIN price, and offers 20-40% under the ask get accepted more often than you would guess. Hugedomains and DomainMarket run fixed-price inventory and rarely move on it. If you are not in a hurry, watch a name for a few months and lowball when the listing has been sitting; sellers tend to fold once a domain has been parked too long.

Compare where the name is listed and what each marketplace charges: published seller commissions run from 7.5% (Atom Standard listings) to 30% (Afternic Boost), and the same name can ask different prices in different places. Guide: Domain marketplaces compared.