Dormant Domain

I want to acquire a dormant domain

[Ben_Horn]

I want to acquire a domain that is registered to a business. Their registration expires in a few months. However, they are not using the URL. I get a "page not found" message when I try to view the page and I think the company might have gone out of business.

What's the fastest/easiest/cheapest way to acquire the dormant domain?

Ben Horn

[edited by: heini at 9:43 pm (utc) on April 30, 2003]
[edit reason] sorry, no urls please, thanks! [/edit]

[Shak]

Ben,

have you tried doing a WhoIs on the domain name, and emailing the registrant/admin/technical/billing contact.

otherwise go through a broker such as Sedo or AfterNic to try and acquire the domain for you.

The fact that it shows an error page is NO clue, I have 1000s of domains, and most show that when typed in.

good luck

Shak

[Kandevil]

One thought to have is they might well be going to let it expire. But if you email them, then they might think "we could make some money out of this" and ask you for payment and or renew it themselves.

Unless it is time important then hold on and wait to capture it when they let go.

Although depending on what it is, I can't imagine they would want that much for it, unless it is a oneword typed in phrase, so a quick ask on its availability/price as Shak suggests is probably worth while if you dont mind spending a few $$$

Think I might have talked myself out of my own point, oh well, discuss...

[Shak]

never ever wait for a domain to expire, a couple of important reasons:

1, there are domain name grabbers sitting around the world who snap up EVERYTHING, and I mean Everything.

2, Domains which expire sometimes are NOT released to the public for months/years.

Shak

[Kandevil]

Didnt mean wait for it to expire, but use something to get into the lottery/race when it happens.

Didnt convey that too well/at all.

[Ben_Horn]

If I can wait until it expires, should I pay $69 at Snapnames? Is there a better way to be sure I get it first if it expires?

[trillianjedi]

If you're prepared to pay $69 for it, why not just write to them and offer them $100?

It can't be that valuable a domain if they're not doing anything with it.

TJ

[Ben_Horn]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

I think the holder of the domain is out of business. I tried phoning them and the number is disconnected. (Ironically, the site was a web design firm.)

I thought there might be a way to have their registration cancelled if they have gone out of business and no longer use the URL.