I recently sold a domain through Afternic that transferred into the buyer’s account over a week ago. Afternic is still waiting on the buyer’s “confirmation”. Of course, Afternic have already been informed that the domain is in the buyer’s possession, and a simple whois search shows this.

Sedo, on the other hand, has consistently performed well for me over the years. Consequently, I have both bought and sold domain names through Sedo’s brokerage, with complete satisfaction, including a few premium domains. And I have been very pleased with Sedo’s service in every transaction. As a matter of principle, I will not spend money with a company that fails to deliver acceptable customer service. So Sedo is in, and Afternic is out.

As a result of Afternic’s subpar response and assistance, there will be no purchases made by me through their brokerage. A first impression can open the door for future business. Blow that, and you lose customers. It’s a pretty simple concept: don’t aggravate your customers, or waste their time. Is that such a complicated lesson?

The name is pure generic and consequently pulled a premium price. It is estimated to be in the top 5 published domain sales for 2009. One might naturally assume that the buyer is tickets.com, but there are a number of ticket sale companies operating successfully in this arena who could benefit from the Ticket.com domain.

Concerts, sports, and musical ticket sales bring in a staggering amount annually. So gaining any competitive edge in this space, even at the cost of $1,525,000, is likely a sound investment in capturing and protecting market share.