Comments on: How to Snatch an Expiring Domain

By: Benedict

Benedict — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 12:17:43 +0000

As someone who’s been working with computers and networks for over 30 years now I have to say, the domain name registration business is the absolute worst thing about the internet as a whole. Mostly because the true cost of ‘registering’ a domain name is not much more than entering and maintaining a few lines of text in a database that is already being run for free by governments in a globally distributed manner. In reality, including the server-cost that it requires (that registrars actually don’t even have to pay for) that would amount to around 2 euro per name a year, maximum. So in actuality, all the overhead we’re paying for a name is just that: free profit for the ‘registrar’, who has barely any effort or cost for doing this ‘hard’ task of maintaining a website and being its administrator.
And in the end, does anyone really care? I’ve been running very succesful websites using free domain names, and no users really cared about its name. I just put the actual name of the service or brand on the frontpage and in the headers of each page and that was fine. Consider if you want to be scammed into believing it makes a difference, in my experience it does not. It’s a scam.

By: Dexter Payne

Dexter Payne — Fri, 05 May 2023 10:30:06 +0000

I just saw a book that proposed – “What if pool.com was in the business of buying expired auto registrations instead of domains, and selling them to the highest bidder.”

By: Dexter Payne

Dexter Payne — Fri, 05 May 2023 10:13:53 +0000

Very “interesting”! A note from the “other side” – Im helping a friend, a musician, up in age, who had a domain for a little over ten years – it was his first and last name dot com. Not a star, a moderately successful musician, focusing mainly on kids music. Doing local library programs, song-writing workshops in grammar schools.

Late last year, he got scammed online, had to get help closing bank accts, changing cc, etc. and some of his poorly documented auto-pay accts went down, including his hosting and domain renewal.

We caught it in redemption period – that gives you an idea how active the site was, probably had not been refreshed in over 5 yrs, but it still served him when he occasionally needed to send a prospective client there to view his bio. Naively thinking the $80 charged by the registrar was too much, he decided to wait and buy it again after it was released. “Who would want my name?”

I was naive, too – had a bad feeling about not jumping on it, but his finances are limited, so we waited. It was snapped up and now a domain with zero traffic which cost $12.50/yr to maintain, is on a server that hosts some sketchy stuff, and its “for sale” for 6,000 EU. Traffic? Zero. Really! Maybe it’s good news that the hosting went down also, so they may not have gotten any of the content, though I know it’s not so hard to time-machine that.

I would humbly submit that what seems like a viable business to you guys is just a little out of control. I get that there is going to be competition for “good” domains when they expire. Speculation is great and I understand that it’s attained the status of “a business”.

But to trash the “business” (if you can call it that) of an aging musician in the twilight of his career… that’s really something! And for what? The lowest bid they would take was 2,100EU. He is not going to pay that, and frankly, neither is anyone else. In the name of wishing for riches – an innocent person got squished.

Makes me think of all those smart guys who rushed to CA in 1849 to dig for gold. Good luck, and collateral casualties be damned.

By: Lee

Lee — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 15:34:12 +0000

Someone owns a domain who sells / leases domains as a business. I made an offer that he laughed at. The name will “expire” in about 60 days, according to “WhoIs.com.” Can I bid on this name so that I can force this shark to get into
a bidding war with me?

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 16 Oct 2021 06:43:37 +0000

Bummer.

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Sat, 16 Oct 2021 06:27:06 +0000

@Jon: No.

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 06:37:56 +0000

Any plans to update this article?

It is from 2005, but still coming up in a google search.

By: bliss

bliss — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 14:17:37 +0000

Most commonplace registrars have an internal auction now – but it’s often facilitated through a 3rd party source as well.

Lovely read and great to see Chris from Enom actually write in to provide some clarity so far.

By: david

david — Sat, 07 Dec 2019 06:21:06 +0000

I am searching a way through which i can be able get an expired domain without any broker like snapnames. Or is there any api to work with ? I am also a programmer and seeking for any free api can be helpful for me to get the exact time of deletion..

By: Geoff Jackson

Geoff Jackson — Thu, 12 Sep 2019 12:36:53 +0000

Wow. That was insightful. Never even realised half of that went on in the background.
Only happened to stumble across this post as trying to acquire a domain name (currently parked) with plenty of history but is showing as ‘Taken’ still so working out how best to try and snap it up without paying out $hundreds.

By: Brian Kim

Brian Kim — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 09:20:11 +0000

Most commonplace registrars have an internal auction now – but it’s often facilitated through a 3rd party source as well.

Lovely read and great to see Chris from Enom actually write in to provide some clarity so far.

By: Peter A

Peter A — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 21:17:35 +0000

Friendly note to anyone reading – Dropcatch.com is one of the best drop-catcher these days. And GoDaddy has created their own auction platform, so for high value names, chances are those will simply get auctioned within their platform (so no drop will occur).

By: MikeA

MikeA — Sun, 03 Jun 2018 11:05:34 +0000

So,

Way back in the day, there was a domain I had, and I ended up letting it expire. Every once in a blue moon (and the largest stretch was 3 years), I take a peek, and since 2003, the domain has been “parked” by GoDaddy – for nearly 15 years.

Never available on the market, not available by any of these companies. Even the whois information is wrong with it’s creation date (stating it was created in 2011, not 2001). I feel that GoDaddy did in fact shorten this ICANN process and jumped on the domain name I had… and each year, it’s clear it just never gets released.

I’d love to challenge this somehow, someday. Woudl also love to know if anyone else was in a similar situation with GoDaddy or other domain management companies.

By: J.R. Wilfong

J.R. Wilfong — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 19:06:16 +0000

Sorry for all the typos in the last message..
Im In chemo at the moment and it looked great until I went back (after publishing)..
Hopefully you get the point..
Cheers…”again”..

By: J.R. Wilfong

J.R. Wilfong — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 19:02:51 +0000

Here’s a different take on the name game..
I just recently went searching for a good name and something strange happened twice in a row… after I searched for several hours a decided to pour together a list of alternative nabbed that were appealing. Then I weren’t back and looked at the names for comparison. I entered the names into a social mention search to see which were the most powerful (by a social search percentage), then went to purchase a couple. Oddly enough 4 out of 7 had become only available at auction after the 3rd search. I wonder if there is a bit that counted my hits on the names then bought them up after it appeared that there was active interest. I hope out was just a coincidence because this would be unethical on so many levels. But I have a hunch that it’s true…
Loved the story as well…
Cheers!