Forum

Many of the major registrars have started to sell domains that their customers do not renew. The domains are usually auctioned off to the highest bidder. Some expiring domains are worth a lot of money, due to the rarity of the name itself, or due to it's traffic.

Currently, Dynadot does not auction expired domain names. The domains are deleted.

To make time for the auctions, most registrars have shortened the renewal grace period. The renewal grace period is the 40 day window after your domain expires, where you can still renew for the regular price. If you don't renew after 40 days, then your domain is deleted.

Once an auction is won, the domain is moved into the account of the winning bidder. We have surfed around a bit, but could not deterimine if the money from the auctioned domains is shared with the registrant.

Anyway, how would people feel if Dynadot started to sell expired domain names? We would probably have to shorten the renewal grace period to 30 days. How much of a problem would that be?

Does it feel "right" or "wrong" for us to be making money off of expired domains? If we were to do it, should we share the money with the registrant?

We have to seriously consider this issue, because the domain name industry is extremely competitive. Our margins are pretty slim. If all the other registrars are making money from expired domain auctions, and Dynadot is not, it may affect us over time. For example, they may be able to lower prices or hire that extra engineer, and we may not be able to afford it.  

Thank you for your feedback.

ICANN is the private, not-for-profit technical coordination body responsible for coordinating the unique assignment of Internet domain names and IP addresses. ICANN is not a government agency. ICANN has a contractual relationship with all accredited registrars that clearly sets forth the obligations of accredited registrars, (See http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/accreditation-agreement-en.htm). If a registrar fails to adhere to any of the terms of the RAA, ICANN may pursue all remedies available to it under the RAA, including termination of accreditation.

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lower the redemption fee too(shave off some of your profit) if you do this

As long as you provide clear information about the whole process and the reduction of the RP I don't see a problem.

On one hand it doesn't "feel" right to me, for DynaDot, my new pet registrar, to get into the domain auction game. But on the other hand, you bring up a good point; since other registrars are doing it, by not engaging in it you're missing out on a revenue opportunity.

I have domains with most of the major registrars and some not-so-major. And of the dozen or so I deal with, DynaDot stands alone when it comes to speed, efficiency, competence and user interface. And not with just the registrar service either.

Where else can you get $1 per month web hosting, with instant provisioning, SSL editing of your site, and the ability to instantly switch the domain you're hosting to a new domain, for free? Not only that but you don't even require that the domain name be registered here, like some registrars -- which is very cool of you. And even if you could get all that somewhere else, I mean what do you expect for $1 per month. Would it be pig slow, or greasy fast, like DynaDot.

I bring this up because I'd hate to see you "take your eye off the ball". I think you should dance with the girl you brung.

That said, from what I've seen, if anybody could do a domain auction system efficiently, it would be DynaDot. And if you were smart about it, as I'm sure you would be, you would implement it in such a way as to educate new customers about how extremely slick you are. And what better way to do that than to "integrate" it into your menu system. So when that new prospect shows up for an auction, they'll personally experience the fact that you're 10x faster than those slug registrars with ASPs in their URLs. And they'll say to themselves, "Hey I think I'll set up a few domains here." And then maybe they'll say, "Hey man this is pretty slick, I think I might oughta host a couple of them here too".

On one hand listing it on EBay "may" bring in more money, but listing it in your own system would generate new customers.

Oh and by the way I think it should be a 50-50 split with the registrant, and the system should have full transparency. Because as Ronnie always used to say, "Trust but verify." Why make them verify, why not just lay the cards on the table.

Just whatever you do, please don't get into "domain kiting". I deplore that practice, and I'm surprised that somebody as respectable as Dotster would be the biggest kiter of them all.

Lastly the thing that concerns me most about DynaDot is what's going to happen when you get big? Is your infrastructure scalable, or will you be a pig too, saying, "Reee reee".


[This post has been edited by chuckster on Nov 29, 2006 10:07am.]

So long as the original owner was contacted enough times, to be reminded to renew, I can't see why you shouldn't sell expired domains. I mean, if a domain owner wanted their domain that badly, they'd do all they could to make sure they renewed on time. I've just renewed a batch of domains I have at another company and there's still a month to go to renewal time.

The original owner shouldn't get any of the monies you would levy on selling the expired domain. They'd only own it so long as they paid for it. Let it go, then it aint yours any more!

I think it may attract some new members to Dynadot, which is always good, because I really don't enjoy transferring to Dynadot from other registars.

But, selling expired names, I really find it wrong. I think it may be ok, if there were some restrictions. I think that if you were to do this, you should make it so:
1) Former owners should get 50% of the sale price, at least.
2) While the name is at auction, the owner can take it down. (Choose it to not be auctioned)
3) While it's at auction, the owner can choose to renew it, and it's removed from auction
4) The can choose to not have a name auctioned in their domain editing thing.

...and stuff like that, just make it so the user has full control all the way up to the end of the auction.