When I visited a Namecheap auction this morning, I noticed an informational header indicating that Namecheap may change the time of day its auctions end.
“Have your say on Auction end times
We’re reviewing our end time schedules and want to know what works for you. Share your ideal bidding window and shape the future of Auctions, all from one short survey.”
I’ve been impressed by the growth of Spaceship and its recently launched SellerHub. The sister company to Namecheap has shown a great willingness to engage with its customers, and the platform quickly implements suggestions and feedback. I like working with businesses that value and prioritize customer feedback. The low 5% sales commission is a nice sweetener as well.
About two weeks ago, I added a swath of domain names to Spaceship’s SellerHub as a test. At the moment, I am only listing domain names on the platform without using its landing pages.
Richard Kirkendall is one of the hardest working executives in the domain name space as the Founder and CEO of Namecheap. He has built Namecheap into one of the largest domain name registrars, and he recently launched a sister registrar platform, Spaceship.
This morning, the Wall Street Journal reported some massive news as it relates to Namecheap. A private equity company is reportedly close to acquiring a majority stake in the company. Here’s an excerpt from the article with the gist of the deal.
In January of this year, I won Pinwheel.ai in an auction held at Namecheap. My winning bid was $541, as archived by NameBio. The total cost I paid was $726.96 with the $185.96 renewal fee tacked on to the total. I have been under the assumption that the renewal fee charged for .AI domain names adds two years to the registration.
Michael Sumner from NameBio mentioned an unexpected uptick in sales closed via Sedo over the past couple of weeks, and he asked about whether a major registrar began prioritizing Sedo listings:
We've mirrored our Afternic listings to @Sedo for a few years without using their landers.
In the first five months of 2025 we only had two sales through Sedo, but in the past 12 days we've had four.
Did some major registrar(s) start prioritizing Sedo's MLS over Afternic's DLS,…
— NameBio (@NameBio) July 5, 2025
In response to the question, Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall confirmed that happened. Namecheap is now prioritizing Sedo listings when a domain name is listed on Sedo and Afternic:
I use ExpiredDomains.net every day to search for domain names coming up for auction. It’s a free tool that helps me scan Namecheap, Dynadot, and GoDaddy platforms for expiry auctions. It also helps me find domain names in pending delete status that I want to back order at DropCatch and NameJet.
This morning when searching for upcoming expiry auctions at Namecheap, I did not see any .AI domain names listed in my search. This was unusual since there are generally dozens if not more .AI domain names that are listed according to my preferences.
