There’s a waiting game we domainer’s patiently experience when eyeing domains coming up for auction.
In general terms, when we identify domains we wanna acquire, we have to wait for them to exit their grace period, and enter the pre-release period. When the pre-release starts, the auctions typically begin, and the floodgates open for all bidders who’ve placed the name into their queue. Then it’s off to the races.
The waiting period can be a drag, though. Why? Cause not all domains exit the grace period. Their original owners can swoop in and re-register them. Great for them, but a drag for us.
Bad for me, though - directly - cause when I find exceptionally good domains entering the grace period, and slowly inching towards pre-release, my mind enters overdrive, and begins calculating how I can develop the domain, monetize the traffic, and create a worthwhile, relevant website for new or existing visitors.
Yes, the original owners fully deserve the right to a grace period, and the ability to re-register their domain names, but how about we adjust the process a little bit?
How about, when an owners domain enters the grace period, there’s an immediate three day “offer” auction, where bidders can make direct offers to the original owner, through a 3rd party or the original registrar. When, and if, the owner returns to re-register, they’ll be presented with two options: Renew -or- accept $xxx offer for your domain.
Seems like a win-win to me.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 9:50 am and is filed under General Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
This is an interesting idea.
From the sell side, it would benefit owners as it would allow them to see if there’s interest for their domain name. Many times a domain name is dropped because it isn’t of relevance anymore to the owner. Also, I would guess many non-domainers wouldn’t realize the value of their domain name unless it was presented to them.
From the buy side, it would allow for a cleaner process, and even firms like SnapNames could still benefit from such a process.
mp/m
hi greeting ,
does the term ““`re-register”"”" mentionned by u[you] here
mean the same as
““`re-new”"”"
??
ThANKye , 2w
yup..
-peter
[...] http://www.domainersgazette.com/domain-grace-period-alterations/“”; [...]
Sort of like a ‘Buy Now’ option on the auction. Yes would be handy in eliminating the waiting periods. Tucows are a very fair registrar but the 80 day wait is a killer.
However, there will be a fair number of domain owners though who can not be contacted. This seems to be a reason for many deletions in my experience. You would have to have the full grace period for them if there was no response to the ‘buy now or renew’ offer.
Interesting idea however what you call a re-register is actually a recovery by the registrar. When a registrar recovers a domain it can only be recovered to the original owner and there are extra costs associated with a recovery over a renewal. The registrar is not able to recover the domain in the name of the original owner to then transfer it to a new owner.
I also believe you will see fewer and fewer domains enter the redemption grace period as more registrars stop deleting domains and instead take them for resale in their own aftermarket programs.
..broken down, here’s what I was suggesting:
1. Domain Expires
2. 3-day Grace Period ‘Offer’ Auction begins. All bidders agree to some sort of T&C stating: if the original owner never returns, nothing happens, and domain eventually enters pre-release auction. If original owner *does* return to renew, the owner will be presented with the two offers: re-up & pay the recovery fee & regain control , or, pay recovery fee and sell for $xxx offer.
3. Then original owner approves transfer to highest bidder, and registrar takes small % of the sale.
also, in my opinion, I can’t see the ole grace period being skipped by any registrar. It was built to protect original registrants, and if it was altered, I’d expect a large backlash from the community at large..
-peter
Good idea. This has happened to me two. Several months ago there was a one-word .org dropping. It dealt with a subject that I interest me greatly and I began thinking of how I could develop it. I was very excited. I placed a very high pre-auction bid on Snapnames in the hopes that they would devote more resources to acquiring the name. I also backordered the name on GoDaddy and Pool. I was practically drooling.
The owner renewed it the last day. Oh, well.
There’s one I know in particular:
http://www.iyd.com/index.php/module/home/action/page/show/tos/
There is no grace period and under no circumstances will ItsYourDomain.com be able to renew the domain after the automatic expiration.
That hasn’t changed before and after they were acquired by Tucows, unless someone hasn’t re-written their TOS.