Domain Backorder Situation

Attempting to renew my own domain

[Kentwick]

I've had a domain for ~6 years, but apparently it expired and I received no notification. So they want me to spend $155 to get it back. It's a very low trafficked domain, I haven't fully developed it, and it gets from 0-10 hits a day on average. So I figured I could get it back at least a little cheaper by back ordering it.

I understand that GoDaddy has the cheapest service, but they throw your domain into a public auction. My main question is what is the likelihood that such a low trafficked domain will attract attention from other bidders? Would it be safer to go with Pool.com or another service, or is that not necessary unless the domain is in high demand?

[buckworks]

It doesn't need to be in high demand, there only needs to be one other person who wants it for you to lose the domain name forever.

Be very, very sure you'd have no regrets about that before you start trying to pinch pennies by backordering.

On the other hand, if you would indeed have regrets about losing the domain, hold your nose and pay what it takes to get it back while there's still time.

[Kentwick]

I can't imagine there really even being one person vying for it. I've never had anybody interested in the domain name before. And besides, if I ordered with some of the more expensive backordering services like Pool, that would be pretty safe wouldn't it?

[Webwork]

Nothing is safe. Pay the outrageous fee for recovery of the domain or risk losing it. There are no safe dropcatch/auction bets. There are simply too many variables.

[Marshall]

I can't imagine there really even being one person vying for it.

There are companies that just wait for domains to expire, even going so far as putting as many as possible on back order, so they can, as I like to put it, hold them 'hostage' knowing there's a good chance the domain owner will want it back.

This happened to a client of mine, a non-profit theater company. Their domain expired and it was immediately scooped up by a company who wanted $10,000.00 (I kid you not) for it. Needless to say, they didn't bite.

Bottom line - if it's important to you, it's important to someone else no matter how little traffic it gets.

Marshall