.Website domain names are the first of the company’s domain names to be available through SnapNames.
New top level domain name company Radix has struck a deal with SnapNames to send expired domain name inventory through the auction platform.
.Club was the first new TLD I’m aware of to capture value from the expired domain name stream this way.
First up for Radix is .Website, with over 3,000 domain names now available for bidding. Backorders start at $69, and if only one person backorders the domain, they get it for that price. Otherwise, it is sent to an auction.
A number of potentially valuable domain names are open for backorders, including many three number and three letter domain names.
SnapNames will also hold auctions for .host, .press, and .pw in the future.
jennifer says
People need too see this crap for what it is. This is not good news
for domainers! It is a sign of “greed” and desperation on the part
of questionable registries to always try and make more and more
money at domainers expense.
Expired domains should always be allowed to expire, and be freely
registered again by the public when they become available.
First come first serve! These auctions services are being rigged to
drive up prices, and they are being promoted by crooked registries
and in truth are NOT domainer friendly.
The greed factor is destroying our industry, and this is just yet another
example in my opinion as it is driving up prices to where no one but a
handful of very rich individuals can afford to register a decent domain
name anymore. In fact the vast majority of domains at these auctions
are not worth even worth the minimum auction prices being asked.
I recomend domainer’s not do business or support registries who
participate in these types of activities.
There are plenty of honest registries who do not engage in such
activities and play fair — just allowing domains under their control to
expire like they always did before. If domainers would stop supportting
sites like like snap names and huge domains who engage in these
GREEDY GOUGING practices of asking ridiculious prices for subpar
domains then good quality names might actually be made available
to the public to register for “fair” registration prices again like they
always were before.
Andrew Allemann says
Someone is going to get the money, whether it’s someone like NameJet or SnapNames or the registry directly. If no one bids during pending delete these domains (at least most of them) will be fully deleted and you can grab them at reg fee.
Joseph Peterson says
@jennifer,
When expired domains go through a standardized, impartial, public process at auction venues such as SnapNames, NameJet, DropCatch, or Pheenix, domainers and non-domainers alike are given an opportunity to purchase them. Assuming all bids are genuine attempts to buy, that’s a fair opportunity; and the price only rises through real market competition.
Realistically, the alternative would be more private drop catchers, who would snag domains for themselves and set their own prices. In that scenario, there’s no publicly available option to buy anything except what the drop catchers don’t value.
Seems to me, the first arrangement is preferable.
@domains says
Judging by what’s up there now, a lot of those .website names probably will delete and go back to reg fee.
Trish Leighton says
Several thousand more names have just been added to the inventory, including the premiums. Worth checking out again.
vw says
looks like some of the better ones are now “reserved by the registry”. what a crock
vw says
well, it appears i was wrong. the domain was placed on backorder status and it appeared they were gone, but i was awarded the one i wanted yesterday so i must have been the only one to backorder it. all paid for and in my account, just to be fair and honest with an accurate update.