eastwright - 11:56 am on Feb 21, 2007 (gmt 0)

I always wonder why there is too much hate about buying domains for resale and parking pages.

No doubt, each domain name has a value. No doubt, different domain names have different value. Yet the price of any asset is tied to its value. The free market is the only way to implement this tie. Any artificial attempt to regulate prices results in a black market. Marxists did this and the outcome is well known.

You may hate parked pages, but it is legal to setup a web site with ads being the only content. You may question quality of type-in traffic, but it is advertiser who decides whether the traffic worth the money. And advertisers are willingly buying this traffic. That means the ads work. Ads work means people get the products and services they need. Everybody gets happy – the consumer, the advertiser, the domain owner. Yes, I know, not everybody. There is always somebody, who believes he or she could use the domain name for better and more respectable purpose.

A consistent pattern I have observed is that anytime a premium name or an "almost" premium name comes up for drop that it gets "renewed" a day before it drops. This occurs EVERY time one of these names comes up for drop. ... People with legitimate interest in the names are closed out. Can't even join an auction on them.

As I understand, you are not aware of domain catching auction services. I would suggest setting up an account with Snapnames (it is not the only service, but as far as edicational purposes matter, they provide most transparent auctions with a list of bidders and bidding history). This way you may discover why it happens that premium and "almost" premium names get "renewed" a day before they drop. You will get the first hand knowledge about both the process and the price of the "renewal".