Cheapest drop-catching service?

[Mr.Domains]

Hello,

I inadvertently let two of my domains expire, (hosted with Dotster). :sigh2:

Dotster support tell me:

You can either attempt to recover the domain through the auction itself or wait for the opportunity that the domain may enter its respective redemption period. You can purchase the domain back by placing a bid on the domain through snapnames.com. If not, the domain will go into redemption and it will be a $99.95 fee plus one year renewal fee to retrieve domain.

Can anyone tell me the cheapest way I can try to retrieve these domains back?

They probably aren't worth more than $50 each as domains, but are worth (slightly) more to me, as I have already invested time in both of them.

Thanks,

 

[amplify]

Pay the $99 and take a "loss" of $120 as if they go to Snapnames, what you may think is worth $50 is worth $500 to someone else and you may incur a higher loss if you bid or not get your domains back.

I let quite a few names I paid for in the low XXX region accidently expire and didn't notice the redemption period or I would have bought them back. My loss, someone else’s gain and lesson learned (to frequently checkup on expiring names and renew a month or two out if I don’t want to drop them).

JMO

 

[angel69]

I've decided to drop names in the past if I couldn't monetize or sell them, sometimes big losses, I just couldn't afford to renew. Later, by following GD auctions (to use as an example) I saw my lousy names get $100 or more in bids, I could've stopped the auction by paying the $80 redemption fee, but GD would not reveal to me who those bidders were, and since those bidders never contacted me directly when I owned the names I assumed they were not going to do differently if I got the domains back and became the owner again. That hurts lol, so I didn't get the domains back, GD made money off my domains. Again.

Since the chance of you handregging the domains when they eventually become public again are slim (if there are no bidders when they get auctioned off by SnapNames (in Dotster cases) and if there are no backorders either) then pay the redemption penalty if you value them. You may participate in the SnapNames auction of your own domain, or have a friend do it on your behalf, but the bids may get high and it may cost you more than $80 to get the name back, and with auctions you never have any guarantee of winning

Another time some guy, who sounded serious and whose info checked out well, told me to retrieve a domain in redemption after I had dropped it cuz nobody wanted it and didn't make money, after checking him out I decided to trust him and got the domain back for $80. It's been years and the prick never answered my emails again, I think he changed his mind about adding the $80 to my sale price (that was my condition) and was too embarrassed to tell me. I never did that again for anybody, I weighed the risks and went for it but got burned lol, the name still sits there in my CP.... There are NO guarantees in this life so if you ever drop a name you might as well avoid following its own auction during redemption, it may get you excited that you may have a gem if you see nice bids, but no auction service or registrar will ever tell you who those bidders are since you'd be "stealing" their business according to them. So if no one contacted you directly while you owned the domain, they won't be contacting you after you get the domain thru redemption either...you live you learn