When Accelerator.com went to expiry auction at GoDaddy Auctions, the Whois registrant was (and still is as of publication) listed as “Afternic, LLC – On Behalf of Domain Owner“. If you look up just about any GoDaddy-registered domain name currently in auction at GoDaddy Auctions, it likely has the “Afternic, LLC – On Behalf of Domain Owner” registrant information. At any given time, there are thousands of domain names with this registrant information.
I have been asked many times who this actually is, and I have come to understand that this is essentially a holding account for domain names that are pending completion of a sale. A GoDaddy-registered domain name that expired and is no longer able to be renewed will be moved to this account once it is past the renewal time and before the auction transaction is completed.
When someone previously asked about this registrant, GoDaddy’s Joe Styler answered on NamePros:
“We have various holding accounts for different types of sales. It just means that the domain is moving to a new owner.”
People might wonder what happens to the domain name if the auction winner doesn’t pay for the auction. I believe GoDaddy Auctions automatically offers it to the runner up bidder with the other bidder’s bids removed. If the runner-up doesn’t complete the purchase within 24 hours, it is offered to the next person. Here’s an example of the email a runner up receives:
This message is to notify you that the winning bidder of Item Number XXXXXXXXX, [REDACTED].com, did not complete this transaction. You had the second highest bid of XXX.XX and now this domain auction has been moved to the “Won” section of your GoDaddy Auctions account. You must complete the purchase of the [REDACTED].com within 24 hours of this notification or the domain may be offered to others for purchase.
Should the runner up bidders all pass on the opportunity to buy the domain name, I am pretty sure the domain name goes through the deletion process. It will then become available for drop catchers and drop catching services to try and catch as it deletes. If it makes it through that process, it becomes available for anyone to hand register.
