When domain names expire and the owner doesn’t renew, apparently they seem to get “held” and you have to pay through the nose to even make an offer to get it.
There are a couple I want and at least one of them gets this hold renewed year after year. Neither domain is currently being used. I even owned one previously and let it go back when I was paying $35/year. Does anyone know how this process works or if I’m missing something about how to do it?
Both domains seem to be held by registrars. One leads me to afternic.com, with a $350 minimum bid. The other actually has this in the whois lookup.
It’s a common practice, I think. I was unable to renew the registration for
an important (to me) domain last year, and my registration provider
(GoDaddy) snapped it up upon expiration. Now they want a fortune for it,
waving it in my face. I hate them for that.
I think this practice is despicable, it mocks the “free” market, and is
right up there with domain squatting. I used to do work many years ago with
RCA / BMG Records and they had a whole law firm in New York solely
dedicated to buying up domain names and trademarks they might use, or might
be used against them.
–
Ernie Simpson
On Thu, Jun 13, 2013 at 4:24 PM, Joe Muscara email@hidden wrote:
When domain names expire and the owner doesn’t renew, apparently they seem
to get “held” and you have to pay through the nose to even make an offer to
get it.
There are a couple I want and at least one of them gets this hold renewed
year after year. Neither domain is currently being used. I even owned one
previously and let it go back when I was paying $35/year. Does anyone know
how this process works or if I’m missing something about how to do it?
Both domains seem to be held by registrars. One leads me to afternic.com,
with a $350 minimum bid. The other actually has this in the whois lookup.
I noticed something. There’s a domain that I had for someone for a few years, but we decided to let it expire. It’s available at the normal price to anyone via any registrar. In other words, some registrars are slimy and jump on domains their customers had when they expire, and want a premium for them. Others like namecheap let them go like they should.
I used to get snail mail from register.com all the time that said, “your domain is about to expire, renew now” that never mentioned they weren’t my current registrar. People who weren’t paying attention could get tricked. And, my domains weren’t about to expire. Slimeballs.