What does "Registrar Sponsorship" mean?

[cshel]

I bought a snap on a domain that was supposed to expire on Mar 2... on Mar 3, it now says it's not going to expire for another full year, but it wasn't renewed by the registrant.

Here is what the whois now says....

Status: REGISTRAR-HOLD
Updated Date: 03-mar-2004
Creation Date: 02-mar-2001
Expiration Date: 02-mar-2005


>>> Last update of whois database: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 07:10:30 EST <<<

NOTICE: The expiration date displayed in this record is the date the
registrar's sponsorship of the domain name registration in the registry is
currently set to expire. This date does not necessarily reflect the expiration
date of the domain name registrant's agreement with the sponsoring
registrar. Users may consult the sponsoring registrar's Whois database to
view the registrar's reported date of expiration for this registration.


Does this mean that there's no hope of this dropping until next year now? I haven't come across this situation before so I'm not entirely sure where this leaves me in terms of being able to pick up the domain.

 

[Sharpy]

It means it has expired and is now gone into the "Hold" cycle. The expirey date is just the registrar extending it. If the owner doesn't renew it should drop when the hold/redemption/pending delete cycles have run their course.

 

[Mr Webname]

The registry adds a year at expiry so that's probably all that has happened here and it will drop as normal - probably!

 

[cshel]

It means it has expired and is now gone into the "Hold" cycle. The expirey date is just the registrar extending it. If the owner doesn't renew it should drop when the hold/redemption/pending delete cycles have run their course.

Thanks, I feel very relieved

It's been a few years since I've tried to catch a lapsed domain, I guess they've changed the procedure a bit.