Afternic Adds Renewal Note to LTO Cancelation Email

A month ago, I wrote about an issue sellers need to be aware of when using the Lease to Own (LTO) option on Afternic. If a LTO deal is canceled, the domain name is returned to the seller’s GoDaddy account with auto-renew disabled, regardless of that status prior to the sale.

This morning, one of my lease to own deals was canceled and the domain name was returned to my GoDaddy account. Despite having auto-renew enabled before the LTO started, the domain name had auto-renew disabled after it was returned to my account.

GoDaddy CTA: Someone Else is Interested

If you use Afternic and its GoDaddy brokers to sell your domain names, your Lead Center is most likely filled with inquiries that have many “Email sent to buyer” notifications. Most of these outbound messages go unanswered. What are GoDaddy brokers saying in their emails? Most likely some sort of take on ‘are you still interested in the domain name?’

Adam Maysonet shared a screenshot of an email he received from GoDaddy following an inquiry he made to buy a domain name:

Afternic: Auto Renew Turned Off for Canceled LTOs

Earlier this week, I received an email from GoDaddy reminding me one of my domain names would expire on June 29th. The domain name caught my attention because I thought I had sold it, and receiving a renewal email for a domain name I sold would have been peculiar.

It turns out I had not sold the domain name. Instead, it was a domain name that was bought on a 12 month LTO in May of 2025, paid for 5 months, and later returned to me when the buyer canceled the deal. When Afternic returned the domain name to my account, the company did not re-enable auto renew for this domain name.

This is not the first time this happened to one of my domain names. In April, I mentioned this issue on X. I don’t think it’s the first time I reported it, but I can’t quickly find the prior time(s):

Afternic Listings Should be Removed if Domain Name in Expiry Auction

I saw a domain name in the Dropping.pro newsletter that caught my attention this morning. When I clicked through on the domain name, I was taken to a BIN page on GoDaddy’s website rather than the expiry auction landing page. The domain name is currently listed for sale via Afternic for $65,000 with a lease to own option available:

At the same time, this domain name is in an expiry auction at GoDaddy with a high bid of $3,550. The auction ends later on this afternoon:

Did GoDaddy Just Sell Hantavirus.com?

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The hantavirus outbreak has received significant news coverage over the past week. According to various reports, the virus was linked to an outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship, and several passengers became ill and some reportedly died. Apparently, others who came in contact with some sick cruise ship passengers have also become sick.

This morning, I was curious about who owned the Hantavirus.com domain name. When I visited Hantavirus.com, I saw an Afternic landing page that typically shows up after a domain name was sold on Afternic but before the buyer changes the nameservers:

How to Transfer a Newly Registered Domain Name Sold on Afternic

It’s a great feeling to sell a newly registered domain name. It validates that the time and money I spent on researching something was worthwhile, particularly when the domain name was sold without any outbound effort.

In mid-March, I read an article about something that got me thinking about domain names. I immediately registered 17 domain names at GoDaddy and listed them for sale on Afternic. Out of the blue, two of those domain names sold yesterday (singular and plural two word .com domain names). This was great, but it also led to a bit of confusion for me.

Since these domain names were less than 60 days old, they were ineligible for the Afternic fast transfer service. Instead, Afternic prompted me to provide the authorization codes for these domain names. Within the domain name settings page for each domain name, the typical link to get the authorization code was not there because they were within the ICANN mandated 60 day transfer lock period.