They likely paid a lot less money than your renewal fee would have been.
If you track domain names in your portfolio even after you let domains expire, you probably notice that people register the domains you let go.
That can be an emotional feeling, especially if the next registrant is an end user. Would they have bought the domain if you’d held onto it just a bit longer?
You might get the same feeling even if another domain investor picks the domain up on a drop.
But when it comes to new TLDs, keep in mind that the calculus is very different. I’m speaking specifically about domain names that have cheap first-year prices that escalate upon renewal.
I’ve taken a flyer on many cheap domains that have first-year prices of $5 or less. They sometimes renew for $50 or more.
In these cases, when someone registers the domain after I let it expire, I have to remind myself that they are paying the low first-year price. They might be just like me, taking a chance with plans to let the domain expire after a year.
James Kite says
That’s pretty much a no brainer.
Whether they are worthwhile keeping as part of your own strategy is the main issue.
Just because someone registered it, does not mean you made a mistake.
If you dropped it because you felt you couldn’t make a profit selling it, then someone dropping it because they didn’t want to pay standard renewal should be considered in line with your reasons for dropping it in the first place.
John says
The worst was when I dropped a few “premiums” that were $x,xxx and $xxx a year right from the start and to renew. The $x,xxx one was especially good. Then I discover later that not only did someone else register them, but was able to so for basic $xx reg fee. The person was a domainer who also planned to keep them long term and cash in at some point. As far as this person was concerned they were just priced at normal reg fee, and this person was no aware of any premium pricing at all. That was really appalling since the only reason I let them go was because of the high “premium” renewal fees. Then just recently I discovered to my surprise that both were available again despite the long term intentions of this second registrant. Naturally I went to reg them again myself, thinking this could be a great opportunity to get them back cheaper. Lo and behold I discover they are back to the original kind of pricing. So I think what probably happened was that this second registrant was allowed to have them for basic reg fee the first year with no indication of any premium pricing, despite that they are “premiums” and that my renewals would have been $x,xxx/$xxx, and was then presented later with renewal pricing at $x,xxx/$xxx after the first year.
Think about it. One of the things that totally *sucks* about the whole new gTLD program.