Advice on buying an expiring name please

[DomainPairs]

I've got a client with a .co.uk domain. The .com is set to expire at the end of december, and it will probably go because the similar .net name used by the current registrant for emails expired early November. The expired .net is with dotregistrar, and the .com is with melbourneit. None of the names is worth a great deal, but the .com would be handy for my client. What's the best way of going about buying it, and how do I find out when they are likely to drop?

 

[DomainPairs]

Wish I had been sleeping.

I've read about snap names and all the others and their mixed results and didn't think in this case it was worth either spending the money or drawing attention to the name.

I realise that I can check every few hours to see if it can be registered - actually I'd probably write a script to check this from one of my sites and alert me when when it found it. I just wanted to get some idea of the time that the name was likely to drop from either of the registrars.

 

[DomainPairs]

I understand that if we had a serious need for the name, then it would be worth spending money to try to get it. I just fancied trying to grab it "by hand" to learn a bit about the deletion process. It seems a bit wasteful to hit a whois service with hourly enquiries for a couple of months just to see if it was available.

 

[TexasFilly]

It's hard to say when and if a name will actually 'drop' into the general pool of available names. Rule of thumb, the 'expiry' date on the 'who is' record, well, it'll always have a 30day grace before it expires, i believe that's an ICANN instilled guideline that all registrars are to uphold. After the 30 days, there's a several day period where it's either 'renewed' by the registrar with the 'registry' or it drops.. Many registrars are 'renewing' the names if the original registrant fails to do so. Take a look at www.GoDaddy.com (they now have a section titled 'preowned domain names' or something like that.. and they are names that did not get renewed by the registrant, so the registrar (GoDaddy) renewed them with the 'registry'. .. oddly, GoDaddy charges $35 yr. for a 'pre owned name'.. yet it's $8.95 for an 'available' name.. I don't agree with that pricing structure, although I do register all my names with GoDaddy.

Goodluck.

 

[DomainPairs]

I had a look at godaddy and it looks as if they pay the reg fee for some names. wintogether.com for example has been reg'd by them and they want $55 for it.

Does anyone know what melbourneit's policy on expired domains is?

 

[DropWizard.com]

Rule of thumb, the 'expiry' date on the 'who is' record, well, it'll always have a 30day grace before it expires,

Somebodies going to get caught napping

 

[DomainPairs]

I did look at your site DropWizard and I'm sure you would do a much better job of grabbing it. Only two problems - it's not worth $120 to my client and you only accept PayPal and at the moment PP are treating Europe like a cash cow and a lot of us are telling them to stay in America or change their attitude.

I just thought it might be fun to try to do the work.

 

[chatcher]

If you do decide to try it manually, don't check the whois to see if it's available. The whois is not updated in real time. Check availability by actually trying to register it!

If it really isn't worth the price of a Snapback (check it at Snapnames to see if anyone else has the Snapback slot), you may have a chance getting it on your own.

 

[Kid Kool]

Originally posted by DomainPairs
I did look at your site DropWizard and I'm sure you would do a much better job of grabbing it. Only two problems - it's not worth $120 to my client and you only accept PayPal and at the moment PP are treating Europe like a cash cow and a lot of us are telling them to stay in America or change their attitude.

I just thought it might be fun to try to do the work.

domainpairs if it is not a name that others will be after try:

expirefish.com. it is only 19.99 for one name

they are good for getting "b" list names, that don't have a snap on them.

 

[DomainPairs]

I can't see how you can check if snapnames are going for it unless you have an account with them.

If I put a script on a server, what is the best way to time the availability enquiry?

Do I do it at 10 second intervals starting on the hour, and maybe repeat 5 times?

Do I then do this every hour until I discover that I have lost?

How do I discover or guess the best time to start this cycle?

 

[Shaggy]

Domain Pair.....you don't need an account with snapnames to see if your domain name is snapped.......go to http://www.snapnames.com and type in the domain you are looking to get. When the page comes up showing your name...look to the right of it....it should have 3 boxes. The first box is for availablity....the next box is if has a snap on it (if this one does not have a X in the box...its not snapped) and the third box is to be able to monitor the name. So if the second box is not X'ed, then it doesn't have a snap on it. Hope this helps...

 

[DomainPairs]

Thanks for that Shaggy - I'm too much of a cheapskate to pay $69 for something that may not even drop.

 

[DomainPairs]

Just had a look and there is no snap on it.

I still can't find out how long it takes for dotregistrar and melbourneit to let them go after expiry (I'm actually looking at 2 names).

 

[DropWizard.com]

Domain Pairs

PM the names on over and I will try to give you an estimate of drop dates.

Confidentially of course.

 

[DomainPairs]

Well it looks as if this project is a non-starter as it's just been renewed. He's had it for 3 years and never even put it on a parking page.

I'd still like to have a go at drop catching though. So maybe I'll try to find another one to play with.