[UPHPU] picking up expired domains

[phpninja]

I just had a bad experience with this recently.

I used a service at http://www.godaddy.com that monitors a domain for
you until it expires and is supposedly available for the public again
when ICANN releases it. Basically how it works is you sign up, and put
in the domain you are watching. I signed up about 6 months before my
domain was set to expire in the registrars records. So I wait and
wait, and they give you a weekly update on the status of the domain.
So for a while every week I would get an email from godaddy saying
www.yourdomainthatwearewatching.com has had no Registrar status change
in the last 7 days. Finnaly when the domain was set to expire, I got a
new email saying "the status is now on hold" or something to that
effect.  So i email asking them "what is this hold? When is the domain
mine?". So they replied, "its a 30 day period that the owner of that
domain has to re-register the domain." Kind of a last chance through
the registrar to get the domain before they dont own it anymore. So I
was patient, and another 30 days pass. Then i get an email telling me
a new status change on my domain. Its basically telling me that I have
to wait another 30 days again, because of an ICANN hold or something
to that effect. So i waited another 30 days and 30 nights. (starting
to sound like noahs arc here). Then i got another status change on the
domain. It was telling me it was in its "deletion period" which is a
time where they free up the domain. After the "deletion periodd" the
domain is officially free, which is a period of 5-7 days.

So I am like "ok sweet, I will finnaly have the domain I am watching". 

Well after the 5-7 days I get 1 last notice from godaddy.com "SORRY,
COULD NOT CAPTURE DOMAIN". boy was I dissapointed...

Disgrunted by the whole experience, I wondered who the hell got my
domain? I took a further look into things. I checked the whois records
for the new owner of the domain, thinking someone out there wanted it
to, and at the very least it would be put to good use.

Wrong again! It was taken up by some crapp sub-pay domain service
called http://www.pool.com . So i visit the site and check it out.
Well low and behold on the very right they are monitoring 1000's of
domains expiring and buying them up all up. But how? How do they get
everyone? I personally think its a whole scheme setup from the top
down, pure collusion with all the domain companies. I do a search on
www.pool.com for my domain, and low and behold its in their domain
section, but probably 100 times the price or more then I would have
paid for it through a regular registrar service. So in the end I did
not get my domain and learned that the domain market is a pure crock
of shit. If you do not come up with an original name yourself your
doomed for failure in getting that golden domain thats set to expire
but the owner is doing nothing with it. oh and by the way, my original
domain i wanted, I visit it at www.thedomain.com and they are just
using it as a link farm :).. useful huh? anyways just thought id let
you know before you get dissapointed.


-phpninja

On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 13:37:54 -0700, Wade Preston Shearer
<lists at anavidesign.com> wrote:
> I have been unsuccessful at finding satisfactory details on picking up
> expired domains. I have been tracking a specific domain for a few years
> now waiting for it to expire in the hopes of acquiring it. It expired
> today and has not been reregistered. Does anyone know exactly when
> domains are supposed to become available after expiring? With the most
> recent ICANN changes, isn't the grace period reduced to five days?
> After those five days should the domain be available in the say way a
> new one would be?
> 
> wade
> 
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