There is a domain related to my existing domain. For eg - my domain is abc.com and the domain which I am trying to acquire is abcd.com. I checked the domain availability with name.com and who.is as well, according to both websites the domain expiration date was 28feb, 2012 but till now it is not showing as available. I am totally confused that why it is so? I want to get it before anyone gets it because it is very much similar to my existing business name.
If it is already expired on 28th then why it is still showing as “Taken” ??
Once a domain has expired, the domain goes into a kind of temporary Purgatory where you can’t touch it straight away. (The owner has some kind of grace period where they can claim it back, I gather.) From there, it seems that certain companies have first choice at buying up expired domains before the rest of us can get at them (this is my experience, anyway). That usually means that some shark will buy up the domain for about $10 and then at some point put it up for sale for some huge amount–often in the hundreds or thousands of dollars. I’m not really sure how the system works, but in my experience, it totally sucks.
Yes, the domain will be in a state the original owner can (pay over the odds to) claim it back - this is common because so many people forget / don’t see the notice emails. (Or some companies don’t GIVE warning emails)
After the expiry date there will be a 40 days grace period with all services shut down but renewal possible without any fine. After the grace period comes redemption period in which the whois information is removed and also renewal charge will be extra. After redemption period the name will be set for deletion which takes 5 days. It takes 75 days for whole process from the date of expiry.
These domainers ping the domain registry constantly and scoop up domain names as soon as they are dropped. It’s crooked and an unfair advantage the rest of us do not have.
I’m sure many of you will remember what was called “domain tasting”. These domainers who are plugged in to the registry would register domains as soon as they dropped and hold them for a few days to see how much traffic they got. If they did not get enough traffic, they would drop the registration and not have to pay for the domain. I had no idea until just now that ICAAN had abolished this policy in the second half of 2009. According to CNET, domain deletions (scooping up a domain and releasing it without paying for it a short while later) have dropped by 99.7%.
I don’t know why it took so many years to end an abusive practice. I can only imagine how many millions upon millions of dollars those crooked domainers made by engaging in that crooked practice.
If anything, an expired domain after its redemption period should be put up for auction so everyone has a fair chance at getting it, not just those who constantly ping the registry.
If there’s hardly any interest in the domain name, it won’t even have to go into auction. Speaking of which, OP, check with the registrar
what they’ll do to expired domain names in their inventory.
I wrote a short report giving more details how it works, but the short version is it ultimately depends on the registrar the expired name’s
with. It’s nice if they let it go just like that, but it can work against you also if you let your domain lapse like countless others have.
