Closing and transfer — Copper Domains

Route A: Escrow.com

The default when a name is not listed anywhere. Escrow.com is a licensed, independent escrow service; neither side holds the other's money or name at any point.

Day 0

Terms confirmed by email. Name, price, who pays the escrow fee, transfer method. Either side can quote that email later.

Day 0–1

We open the transaction at Escrow.com as the buyer and fund it. You receive an invitation to the same transaction and agree to the terms shown there.

Day 1–2

Escrow.com confirms funds are secured to both of us. Only then do you move the name.

Day 1–7

You transfer the name by registrar push (same day) or auth code (usually 5–7 days between registrars). We confirm receipt inside Escrow.com as soon as it lands.

Day 2–8

Escrow.com releases the money to you by wire or the payout method you chose when you set up your Escrow.com account.

Escrow.com is a brand name and a separate company. We have no relationship with them beyond using them as a buyer, and you deal with them directly for your payout.

Route B: Marketplace checkout

If your name is already listed at Afternic, Dan, Sedo, GoDaddy or a similar marketplace, we can simply buy it there at the agreed price. You change the Buy Now price to the number we agreed, tell us it is live, and we check out. The marketplace collects our payment, walks you through the transfer, and pays you under its own terms and timetable.

Simplest route when a listing already exists. No new accounts for either side.
The marketplace's fee comes out of your side under its published rates, so the agreed number should account for that. Say so and we will talk in net terms.
Payout timing is the marketplace's, not ours; each publishes its own schedule.

Transfer methods

Registrar push

If your name is at GoDaddy, you can push it to our account at the same registrar. It is immediate, there is no inter-registrar waiting period, and it costs nothing. We give you the receiving account's customer number and email when terms are set.

Authorization code

For a name at another registrar, you unlock the domain, generate the auth (EPP) code and send it to us by email. We start the transfer at our registrar; your registrar emails you to approve it, which shortens the wait from the default five days. Names registered or transferred within the last 60 days are locked by ICANN rules and cannot move this way until the lock clears; a push, or waiting out the lock, are the options then.

Who moves first

Under Route A, nobody does: you move the name only after Escrow.com confirms our funds are secured, and Escrow.com releases those funds to you, not back to us, once the name is in our account. Under Route B the marketplace stands between us the same way. We will not ask you to send an auth code or push a name on a promise of payment, and if anyone claiming to be us does, it is not us.

After closing

The name moves into a privacy-protected registration in our account. We do not contact you again about it unless you ask us to.

How the money and the name change hands.