Beginner's advice on how to go about backordering expiring domains

Several beginners ask questions

[le_gber]

Hi,

Just started monitoring a couple of .com's that are due to expire this month and wondered:

I used Snap and they ask for a bid - what does this represent? will the domains I want to backorder be visible to other snap user because I added them to the monitoring tool? is there any other way to get an expired domain rathern than to bid for it?

Cheers

[gpmgroup]

They always have an opening bid.
IF Snap gets the name for you will be entered in an auction starting at the highest opening bid.

Only then can you see who you are bidding against. Conversely at that point other bidders can see you. People who are not in the auction can not see any bidders at any time.

There are other catchers too so Snap may or may not get your name.

[le_gber]

Only then can you see who you are bidding against.

so if no one else bidded to get it, there is a chance that it'll come to me automatically?

There are other catchers too so Snap may or may not get your name.

Do you usually place a bid on both and hope that it comes to one of them?

Cheers

le_gber

[Webwork]

If no one else bids and Snap catches the drop then you get the domain for the minimum bid.

Place your drop catch orders everywhere you can.

Read each drop catchers website to learn how they operate. Some drop catchers receive all the dropped domains from certain domain registrars.

[rkhare]

let me share my story, i backordered a domain thru snap few months back, in the meantime i got a similar name elsewhere, i regisetered and forgot about snap thing. I even missed the email from snap thinking it as spam, it was only when i was checking my credit card detail i found that I was charged for it.

moral of story : if you are using something like snap which charge you after fetching you the name, its better to keep constant watch, else you will get a domain which you no longer want.

[le_gber]

Some drop catchers receive all the dropped domains from certain domain registrars

this sound very important - I'll double check it.

Cheers webwork!

[stu2]

It is ESCENTIAL that you place a bid with the auction house affiliated with that domain's registrar. The registrars often refer to them as their preferred auction partners, the preferred auction partners thank the registrars for their business :) You'll get an opportunity to bid against others if there is more than one bid offered, else you immediately get awarded the domain. It's prudent advice, basically insurance, to bid at all the dropcatcher/expiring domain auction houses, but in most cases they won't ever get a sniff, because it will never formally drop from the existing registrar; who will have sold it (hopefully to you) at auction with their preferred auction partner.

[le_gber]

stu2 none of the domain name's registrar are offering backordering or publically partner with backordering websites?

another question poped in my mind.

I have asked for the backorder in SN - so the domains are in my 'account'

Do I need to place a bid straight away, or should I wait for the domain to 'expire'

cheers

[cerebrum]

Some drop catchers receive all the dropped domains from certain domain registrars

Snapnames gets all expired domains from networksolutions

[stu2]

Sorry for my late reply.

none of the domain name's registrar are offering backordering or publically partner with backordering websites?

Well, if that's true, you need to place backorder bids at all the major auctions/dropcatchers. Namely snapnames/clubdrop/namewinner/pool.

I have asked for the backorder in SN - so the domains are in my 'account'

Do I need to place a bid straight away, or should I wait for the domain to 'expire'

Are you mixing terms here? It's pretty pointless placing a backorder bid on a domain that hasn't yet expired. Wait for it to expire and then bid on the domain. It might be up to another 35 days before it drops from the registry, depending on the registrar. You've already said that the domain's registrar doesn't affiliate itself with any of the auction houses/dropcatchers, which means that it will probably only drop from the registrar after the 5 day PENDING DELETE status appears in the whois. (as an aside, some affiliated auction houses hold their auctions before that time).

Anyhow, monitor the whois for the Pending Delete status, when you know it really is going to drop, and monitor your auction house/dropcatcher bids daily, just in case the domain does go to a preferred auction partner and they auction it off early.

After an dropcatcher catches the domain is where it gets really interesting. They all do it slightly differently, but a (second) auction begins for the domain. If you were the only bidder, you win immmediately (in most cases). If there is more than 1 bidder, then usually there's a 2-3 day auction period. You need to be on your toes at the end of the period to make sure you win the domain, usually in the last 5 minutes, or so.

[uhzoomzip]

snapnames the last 3 minutes is the time to bid.

If no one is bidding the name up and all bidders are inactive best bet IMHO is to wait till the 3 minute mark and put in a bid.

Reason being is at Snapnames if you try to put a bid in the last 2 minutes it adds another 7 minutes to the auction.

If you place your bid at 3 minutes there is a small chance that the other bidders will not be watching and you will ride out the last 3 minutes to get the name.

[Rx Recruiters]

I've recently used SnapNames and GoDaddy. Both domains I backordered were snapped up by Enom - so I missed both of them. I will definitely use Enom next time.

Maybe I don't understand the process, but I was frustrated with GoDaddy not capturing the domain I was trying to get through them. They were the original registrar of the domain, and were the ones who were deleting it, so I assumed it would make sense to use them to capture it once it expired. No such luck, I got an e-mail from them saying "Domain Capture Pending", then a few hours later, saying that they had failed to capture it.

I looked at Enom's list of expired domains, and they had the particular domain listed for bids a week before it expired - how are they able to get it faster than the registrar who is deleting it? Just wondering - I'm sure there is some point in the process I don't understand, but I will definitely use Enom in the future.

[rkhare]

how are they able to get it faster than the registrar who is deleting it? Just wondering - I'm sure there is some point in the process I don't understand, but I will definitely use Enom in the future.

interesting observation, i'll have to rethink. I am trying a pending delete domain thru godaddy while it is registered with enom, let me take a second look ......

but cost of enom seems prohibitive $ 200 against $ 18 of godaddy and $ 60 min of SN

[Rx Recruiters]

Enom is much more expensive. I would have definitely used this for this particular domain (in hindsight), as it was a great domain I really wanted. There is another domain pending delete in which I am interested, I haven't decided if I'm going to spend more money and go with Enom on this one, or try GoDaddy again. One thing to keep in mind with Godaddy, the $18.95 you spend to backorder a domain is gone, whether they get the domain for you or not. After several misses, that starts to add up ... most of the services don't charge you anything unless you get the domain, GoDaddy charges you whether they do anything or not. Actually, their TOS says you can reassign your backorder to another domain, but they charged me again when I tried to do this.

I've got another e-mail in to GoDaddy now with more questions, and I will share their responses with the board. Another thing about GoDaddy, they are very responsive. They might not get the domain, but they will respond within a few hours to any e-mail you send, and it seems to be a real person responding, and not an automated e-mail like google sends out.

[stu2]

Let me get this straight. The domain you wanted was registered at GoDaddy. You backordered it at GoDaddy. It wasn't auctioned of at TDNAM (cos if it was you would have won it with your backorder). GoDaddy dropped it. Club Drop (Enom) won the eventual dropping battle and auctioned it off at Club Drop. Where you didn't win the domain?

This seems such an unlikely schedule of events as to be incredible. There must be more to this story than meets the eye.

With the above scenario, the "best fit" story to explain that would be that it went to auction at TDNAM, you didn't get any notification from GoDaddy, and you were outbid. The buyer transferred the domain to his Enom account and placed it up for sale at Club Drop.

You don't lose your backorder at Godaddy. You can transfer it to another domain or you can use it to track another domain. Ad infinitum.

Backordering a GoDaddy registered domain is almost less than useless. You may as well simply wait for it to appear at the TDNAM auction and buy it from there.

Backordering a non-GoDaddy domain is also almost less than useless (since there are many better dropcatchers) except in the unusual circumstances where it doesn't sell at auction, a domain "taster" picks it up for a taste, but drops it again 5 days later. GoDaddy seems to be quite good at picking up these types domains.

[Rx Recruiters]

I e-mailed GoDaddy several times about their failure to capture the domain name and despite e-mails asking several different questions about the process, the basic reply was <snip><edit>"no guarantees"</edit>

If it were a domain I really wanted, I think I would now go with a couple of the other name drop services, just to cover my bases.

What is your advice on capturing a "pending delete" domain?

[edited by: Webwork at 5:18 am (utc) on April 6, 2006]
[edit reason] No email quotes per WebmasterWorld TOS please [/edit]

[stu2]

A Pending Delete domain is going to be gone within 5 days of it turning into Pending Delete status. Your only choice is to backorder it at every major dropcatcher, immediately. Namely Pool/SnapNames/NameWinner/ClubDrop. They probably account for the majority of all dropping domains. Whichever one picks it up will then put it up for auction.

[stu2]

I just heard of another experience the same as yours on another forum, RxRecruiters. Where the domain had been registered at GoDaddy and backordered at GoDaddy. In that case, the domain also didn't go to TDNAM for auction also. It dropped. A "taster" picked it up and dropped it again a few days later. The person who backordered it eventually got the domain after it became available for the second time.

As an aside. I've seen several instances now where GoDaddy were successful in registering a "tasted" domain which was eventually dropped. Maybe the rest of the dropcatchers are only watching the initial drop, whereas GoDaddy's is a continual monitoring of the backorder.

[rkhare]

feeling bad but thought its important to share, godaddy, lost the backordering for me and again its enom winning the battle. Its shame for godaddy supporters like me. Feeling really bad as the name was too good to lose.

[stu2]

You should really place an order at all the dropcatchers, as I've mention before.

[ericp]

Who are all the major dropcatchers? How many are there? Does anybody have a list?

[Webwork]

In no particular order:

SnapNames
Enom's Club Drop
GoDaddy's backordering system
Tucows is now auctioning their own drops
Pool which comes and goes with it's successes

That's a good start.

Any others that have shown significant success?

[cerebrum]

I backordered a domain with Godaddy and I got it. Its just like any other domain and may be clubdrop, snap, pool ignored it.

If you are pretty serious about the domain, then do place back orders on all drop catchers.

[stu2]

Here are the major registrars with their Preferred Auction Partners, who also happen to be the major dropcatchers.

GoDaddy -> The Domain Name After Market (GoDaddy does the dropcatching)
Network Solutions -> SnapNames
Directi -> Snapnames
It'sYourDomain -> Snapnames
Bulk Register -> Snapnames
Moniker -> Snapnames
DomainSite -> Snapnames
Dotster -> NameWinner
Enom -> ClubDrop
TuCows -> TuCowsAuctions
? -> Pool

For a full list of SnapNames partners, you should visit their website.

You should be bidding on the expiring domain at the preferred auction partner as soon as the domain expires.

You should be bidding at all dropcatchers as soon as the domain enters PENDING DELETE status in it's whois. It will delete from the registry on the 6th day, when all the dropcatchers will be scrambling to catch the name, if they have a bid/backorder on the domain.

[SEOPTI]

Keep in mind: many of expiring domains avoid Googles SANDBOX because they never expire. This is a huge advantage for spammers. Google didn't close the door, so if you want to make some quick cash avoiding the sandbox, get them. But first check backlinks with Yahoo (linkdomain:www.domain.com), if the crappy expiring domain has backlinks from at least 100 different domains, purchase it, set up at least 10.000 -20.000 doorways and cash in.

[handsome rob]

Here's my $0.02. If you're using Pool.com, or any other service I suppose, copy the domain name you intend to order into Word or notepad first and take a good look.

When I was young and foolish(roughly 2 weeks ago) I thought I was backordering #*$!.com

$60 and no competing bids later, I am the proud owner of <snip>

Feel free to point and laugh.

[edited by: Webwork at 11:48 pm (utc) on April 27, 2006]
[edit reason] Charter [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[travisk]

A non-savvy friend of mine backordered a domain through Snapnames. After the end of the PENDINGDELETE period, the whois now shows his name and address as the registered owner.

He claims he has not received any email from snapnames regarding the domain. The registrar is shown as "OWN IDENTITY, INC". A visit to the registrar website shows "this page under construction". Does anyone know what could possibly be going on with his domain?

[edited by: Webwork at 11:50 pm (utc) on April 27, 2006]

[fischermx]

travisk,

That means that Snapnames got the domain name, but they were unable to charge your friend for it, so they keep it for a while. Sometimes snapnames fail to inform about rejected credit cards, it happened to me some weeks ago.

[fischermx]

Some clarification:

Snapnames get domains directly from Network Solutions, IF and ONLY IF the domain is still in posession of netsol. Once it is relased to the registry, the dropped domain can be catched for any drop catcher.

Exactly same situation for Godaddy now. You can backorder domains that are not even expired, same as you can do in Snapnames and Pool. (NameWinner and ClubDrop require the domain being in pending delete).
But they have a sort of ridiculous system. Now they even auction the name during the period of time that the current registrant can still renew the domain name!

So, you enter in an auction and even get charged for it. If the domain is renewed you get a refund. Very strange system they have now.

[edited by: Webwork at 2:28 am (utc) on April 28, 2006]
[edit reason] Charter [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[john_k]

Two years ago, I bid on a domain at several different auction sites. I won it through an auction service that has not been named yet in this thread. (So no use for me to advertise their name.) The thing is, any of the "auction" sites may wind up using ANY registrar in the world to actually register your domain. In this case, the registrar was a company in Japan. I can muddle through some simple text in a few languages, but Japanese isn't one of them. I literally had to start at the registrar's home page and then use View Source on every page in order to navigate the links and forms. I managed to get my password sent to me and then get the domain unlocked. Then I requested a transfer through my preferred registrar.