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Feature idea: deletion dates for domain marketplace listings

by — Expired Domains 3 Comments

Marketplaces could help themselves by making it easier for domain investors to delete their listings on preset dates.

Picture of clock with words "expired domains"

Last week I sold two geo domains on Squadhelp on two consecutive days. Unfortunately, I had let one of the domains expire a few months ago.

As I reviewed my Squadhelp portfolio, I found many other domains I let expire recently. I also found a bunch that I’ve turned off auto-renew for, so they will expire within the next few months.

I tend to make renewal decisions in batches every six months or so. Then the domains I don’t renew expire over that long stretch. This makes it a pain to keep my portfolio up to date at Squadhelp, Dan, Sedo and Afternic. It means I have to log into each platform multiple times each month to delete domains.

This got me thinking: what if domain investors could tell marketplaces ahead of time when they should delete our listings? Basically, you could add a deletion date to tell the marketplace to remove a domain on a certain date.

With this feature, when you turn off auto-renew, you could log into your marketplace accounts a single time and set all of your listing deletions for the next X months. That would make the process easier for you and the marketplace.

I’m not sure how much demand there is for this feature. I’m sure many people just review their portfolio at the marketplaces every six months or so and delete ones they no longer own. And if something sells that they no longer own, it’s really only a headache for the marketplace.

Would other domain investors use a system that allows them to place deletion dates on their marketplace listings?

GoDaddy to roll out Radar to all Investor app users

by — Expired Domains 0 Comments

Feature makes it easier to find good domains that are about to be sold.

Screenshot of GoDaddy Radar feature in investor app shows auctions ending soon

The Radar feature will be available for all app users next week.

Next week, GoDaddy will roll out its new Radar feature to all Investor app users.

Radar is essentially a last-minute board for GoDaddy Auctions. The feature shows all GoDaddy auctions with at least one bid that end in the next four hours. It can be sorted by time, bids, age, traffic, and price. Auctions with two or more bids have a fire symbol.

While you can see last-minute auctions on the GoDaddy Auctions website, the user interface and on-the-go capabilities make Radar more useful. I found myself bidding on multiple last-minute auctions this week while I had spare time, such as waiting in the car to pick my kid up. If enough people use Radar, it will make it harder to buy good domains without facing competing bidders.

To access Radar, look for the Radar icon in the upper left-hand corner of the Investor app’s dashboard.

An interesting UDRP case involving an expired domain

by — Expired Domains 1 Comment

This panelist understands expired domain names.

UDRP in red on a cream background

National Arbitration Forum published an interesting case decision today involving a domain picked up at DropCatch.com.

Dr. Alan Y. Chow, d/b/a Optobionics, owned the domain optobionics.com but let it expire. Janez Bobnik acquired the domain on DropCatch.com and created what I’d call a “skeleton blog” on the domain.

When the Complainant realized the domain expired, it demanded that Bobnik give it the domain. Bobnik said he’d transfer it for $1,850, representing the cost of acquiring the domain, establishing the blog, and hosting. Instead of paying that amount, the Complainant filed a UDRP against the domain. It lost the case.

Panelist Aaron Newell made an educated examination of drop catching domain names and explains that buying an expired domain doesn’t prove that the domain owner targeted the Complainant. He wrote:

The mere fact that Respondent acquired the domain name from Dropcatch is, in this Panel’s view, insufficient to raise a presumption that it should have constructive knowledge of the Complainant and its rights.

Even if I am wrong about that, there is a basis for a presumption of equal force that if someone is acquiring a domain name from Dropcatch (or any backorder / aftermarket service), it is because that domain name lapsed and, therefore, is no longer of interest to the previous registrant. Most registrants will set important domain names to “auto-renew” if critical to their business.

For completeness, the Panel should add here that the Respondent does not say that it did not hear of or know of the Complainant and/or its use of the domain name prior to acquiring the domain name, but it also does not say that it did know of the Complainant prior to registering the domain name.

Accordingly, on the totality of the evidence, the case file itself does not demonstrate any basis on which the Panel can conclude that, on the balance of probabilities, the Respondent was targeting the Complainant with its registration of the domain name…

…It is in theory possible that before registering the domain name, the Respondent realized that there was a possibility that the previous owner might have let it lapse inadvertently and, in turn, might attempt to recover it from the Respondent in due course, perhaps enabling the Respondent to make a profit on the domain name.

However, there is simply no compelling evidence put forward by Complainant in support of this theory, and there is therefore no evidence available that enables the Panel to conclude that, on the balance of probabilities, Respondent targeted the Complainant in its registration of the domain name…

I’ve talked to many people who think that drop catching is a practice in which people buy domains to sell them back to the previous owner. This might have been part of the business many years ago, but ICANN put into place notification requirements that make it extremely unlikely that a domain expires without the owner’s knowledge. This includes required notifications and a change to the nameservers well before a domain goes through the full expiration cycle. If the person is using the domain for an active website, that website will go dark, alerting them to the expiration. In all of my years investing in domains, I can count on one hand the number of former owners who inquired about a domain I acquired in the drop.

Newell retorted another one of the Complainant’s interesting arguments. The Complainant argued that the domain owner suggesting they use Escrow.com somehow suggests bad faith:

Complainant notes that the Respondent offered to effect the transaction using escrow.com and in turn assets that Respondent’s proposal to use escrow.com is evidence of a “familiarity with quickly transferring domain names for a profit.”

The Panel is particularly surprised at this line of argument. This allegation is entirely speculative and there are a number of good faith reasons why the Respondent would want to effect a secure transaction in respect of the domain name. Surely the Complainant would itself have sought to use escrow.com or a similar service had it agreed to a monetary settlement.

Reading between the lines, it sounds like Newell thought this might be a case of reverse domain name hijacking but decided not to rule on it. He wrote:

Neither party has commented in respect of reverse domain name hijacking. I will therefore stop short of that point and find simply that the Complainant has not satisfied the relevant criteria for transfer and/or cancellation of the domain name which, consequently, should remain with Respondent.

This case is another example of someone spending more to file a UDRP (after presumed legal costs) than it would have cost to acquire a domain name. There are times this makes sense, but you better be damn sure you have a solid case and don’t phone it in.

Expired domains: where do they go?

by — Expired Domains 5 Comments

Here’s a list of which expired domain services have exclusive deals for registrar inventory.

Picture of clock with words "expired domains"

One common question I get about expired domains is where to backorder them. Certain platforms have direct deals with registrars for their expired inventory. This means the inventory can be exclusively acquired at one expired domain service unless the domain goes all the way through deletion.

Here’s a list of platforms and where they get exclusive inventory from. This can change from time to time, so it’s wise to check the latest info if you’re viewing this post in the future. Also, please let me know which registrars I’ve missed.

For expired domain tips, tune into the Domain Name Wire Podcast starting next week for a two-episode discussion about expired domains.

GoDaddy: all GoDaddy brands (including 123-Reg, Uni, Mesh Digital, Wild West Domains), Endurance brands that are now part of Newfold (including BigRock, Domain.com, Fastdomain, PDR), some CentralNic brands (Key-Systems, Moniker, and perhaps more in the future), Enom/Tucows, GMO Internet, Name.com.

NameJet/SnapNames: Network Solutions, Register.com, Dreamscape, DNS Holdings, OnlineNic, SeaWasp (Fabulous), Ionos (fka 1&1, appears to get domains after they go through Sedo first)

Sedo: Ionos

Dynadot: Dynadot, PorkBun

The following registrars auction their own expired domains: Namecheap, Sav, NameSilo

Expired domain shuffle: GoDaddy picks up 2 registrars, loses Namecheap

by — Expired Domains 0 Comments

Two CentralNic registrars join GoDaddy Auctions but Namecheap leaves.

Picture of clock with words "expired domains"

Three registrars have changed where they are sending expired domain names.

Based on recent searches at GoDaddy Auctions, GoDaddy has picked up Moniker’s and Key-Systems’ inventory. These two registrars previously sent their inventory to Newfold Digital’s platforms (NameJet/SnapNames). They are both part of CentralNic (AIM: CNIC), but I don’t see any of CentralNic’s other registrars on GoDaddy as of now.

On the other side, Namecheap has pulled its inventory from GoDaddy. A check of Newfold inventory doesn’t show any Namecheap names, and I’ve heard that Namecheap is going to start auctioning off names itself. However, I haven’t been able to confirm this through Namecheap and don’t see any of the inventory on its site yet. Namecheap has an auction platform, but it currently lists only new top level domains and ccTLDs. I’ll update this story if I hear back from Namecheap.

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