Ask HN: Best way to backorder a soon to expire domain? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Best way to backorder a soon to expire domain?

9 pointsvdimarco8 comments

Whether it's a service, website or otherwise, please inform.

Here is what you need to know:

What status is the domain in (expired, rgp, pendingdelete). Expired means the registrar has renewed it for free for X days (it lasts up to like 45 days I think, it depends on registrar's policy). RGP is expensive expired, the registry charges I think $50 and registrars generally charge $100+. Then pendingdelete, means it DELETES in 5-6 days depending on registry (verisign/pir... not sure on neustar).

If its just expired and NOT RGP, then you have to check for registrar relationships. Most places call it something like pre-release and have an agreement with a dropcatcher/auction site. The most popular ones being NameJet, SnapNames, Pool. Figure out which one has pre-release rights and backorder there. IT WILL NOT ACTUALLY EXPIRE IF SOMEONE HAS BID ON PRERELEASE.

If its hit RGP (redemption grace period) it is going to drop eventually unless the owner renews it. You can try to contact the owner and buy it that way, it's risky, but it's the only thing happening at that point.

PendingDelete means it's expiring. It will be delete from the registry and whomever orders it fastest will get it. The original registrar has ZERO advantage at this point. big companies like namejet/snapnames/pool have a ton of registrar partners who they use all of their connections at once to try and grab these domains. Most of them allow you to backorder for free and if they catch it, it goes to auction between those who ordered it. Backorder it for free at ALL of them. Hopefully one of them catches it and not a private company investing in domains for themselves.

Good luck. If you have any questions I am happy to answer more.

It is also helpful knowing if any of the drop catching services have "first dibs" on the name you're looking to acquire. Most (all?) drop catchers have registrar relationships, so it may very well be the case that one service has a huge advantage over the others.

Personally I don't know if these lists are published (a quick search yielded nothing current), but I would do a bit of research to see if the registrar of your desired domain does have a drop catcher partnership. Failing that, I would put in a bid on all the services you've mentioned.

Godaddy backordering is a special case, as you have to buy a credit upfront (whether or not the name is secured). If the current registrar turns out to be GoDaddy or one of its subsidiaries (eg. Wild West Domains, there may be others), then be sure to buy that credit. Otherwise, I'd advise against it. I've never seen GoDaddy's drop catch come out on top (granted its a small sample size, I've used dropcatching to secure approx 10 low-competition domains).

EDIT: A quick WHOIS on the domain will tell you the current registrar. I'm sure you don't want to share the specific name, but sharing the current registrar here may help out.

Currently in redemption period (details below), although it has been more than 75 days. What gives?

Is my best bet paying $49.95 for the Name.com "Domain Nabber" service since they are the registrar?

Status: redemptionPeriod

Registrar: NAME.COM LLC Whois Server: whois.name.com Referral URL: http://www.name.com

Expiration Date: 2012-03-26

Looks like name.com refunds your $ on unsuccessful drop catches.

http://support.name.com/entries/21336448-how-does-domain-nab...

So I would use their service for sure, plus Snapnames, Pool and Namejet.

A redemption period of 75 days is quite long, but the link above mentions a 77 day window before deletion, so i think youre up to bat very soon for this.domain.

Best of luck!

It would be great if people could speak from experience, rather than citing "Pool.com, Namejet.com, Snapnames.com"

I have tried both Namejet and Snapnames recently. I used Namejet two times to try to get domains that expired and were under redemption. For Namejet you need to place a backorder and state the amount you are willing to pay, though I believe there is a minimum of $70. You do not need to pay upfront and pay only if you win the domain. You just place the backorder wait until the domain is released, when it is released if Namejet is able to get it, Namejet will charge you, provided no one else is bidding on the same domain name. If someone else is bidding on it, the domain will enter an auction. In my case, Namejet was successful for the first domain I backordered. No one else bid on it, so I got it right away. Namejet transfered the domain to eNom, paid the registration fee for 1 year, and gave me the login. The second time I tried Namejet, it failed to get the domain I wanted when the domain was released. I immediately found out that the domain was acquired by Snapnames based on an updated whois entry. Snapnames was conducting an auction on the domain I wanted, which they just acquired. I bid on it and the auction lasted for 3 days. At the end of the auction, there were no other bidders and so I got my domain for the low price of $19, Snapnames' minimum bid for this particular domain. My suggestion would to be to try both Namejet and Sanpnames, since you don't have to pay anything unless you win, though you do need to provide you credit card number. Also, you want to follow the whois records carefully for your domain of interest. I find GoDaddy's domain monitoring service very useful for monitoring whois records for domains I own and for domains I may want to own. It is quite affordable and a very good service. Hope this helps.

I've done this recently. I watched it expire. I checked the redemption times. Then ordered it as soon as it came out of redemption. It was done manually.

Where is the domain registered now? You can find this in the WHOIS.

Most registrars either own or have a relationship with a service which auctions off all of their dropped domains several weeks before they have even expired (if they are renewed the auctions are voided). If the domain is with one of these registrars, join the auction on their site (or partners site) and hopefully pick it up for the minimum bid.

Here is a partial list:

GoDaddy --> tdnam.com Moniker --> snapnames.com Fabulous --> namejet.com eNom --> namejet.com tucows --> namejet.com

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