On occasion, an exceptional domain name will expire and enter pending delete status. Most often (from my perspective), one of the leading auction websites, like NameJet or Snapnames, will catch the domain name, and it will be entered into an auction with many bidders.
Sometimes, neither one of these large auction houses will capture the domain name, and it will be caught by another auction house, by a private company, or by a drop catching service that awards the domain name to the first and only backorder. This happens when the registrar doesn’t have an agreement with a specific auction house for its expired domain names.
PetSitters.com expired in August, and it dropped last week. NameJet and Snapnames weren’t able to catch the domain name, but Pheenix did have luck catching it, and you can read more about the result at Mike’s Blog. If you haven’t heard of Pheenix.com, you can read more about it here, although the company now allows multiple bidders and an auction format.
If you really want to have a chance at a deleting domain name, you should place backorders at as many venues as possible. In addition to the aforementioned NameJet, Snapnames, and Pheenix, there are a number of other venues to place backorders, including:
- Name.com
- Go Daddy
- Dynadot
- Pool
- Domain Monster
At some of these venues, there are fewer bidders than others. Some have better luck than others at catching dropping domain names, but it’s best to have all your bases covered.
Congratulations to Pheenix and Tran on catching PetSitters.com. It’s an exceptional domain name and will probably drive significantly more interest in Pheenix.
That’s right. One must place backorders with all places if he really wants to secure the name.
Have you seen Mouthwash.com was caught by Sun Mountain which is operated by Name.com and they take backorders on first come first serve basis and the lucky guy paid less than $100 for that domain. This shows Name.com is catching some great names as well like other big boys.
Hi Elliot
No doubt it’s a good idea to place back orders with as many companies as possible to give yourself the very best chance of catching the domain.
We’ve snapped some really good names over the years, would be great if you could add our service to your list of backordering services.
Thanks again for consistently posting good advice.
I know a lot of our customers enjoy your blog as much as we do.
I added it – thanks for letting us know.
I thought Protrada was going to handle doing everything from one platform? I haven;t heard much about them of late. Do You or others You know use them often?
I use them for backorders and other research.
I was in the Pheenix auction but decided not to chase the price because I was not sure if the bidders were qualified or not. i.e. can they close the deal? We’ll soon find out. There needs to be a proof of funds verification process in place for bids over $5k IMO.
Are there any other examples of major domains being lost to a auction house other than Namejet and SN??
Whois already changed.
There seems to be many drop catchers. Can someone list all the ones that don’t charge and then list them by success rate. I am happy Pheenix got the name its nice to see when the little dogs can go up against the big dogs and win. Can someone list what equipment is needed to run a personal drop catch system that can beat out Snapnames, Namejet, Reberry etc….. It doesn’t have to be a system that gets thousands of names a day but one that can focus on about 20 per drop and succeed in getting around 10. Would love to know someones thoughts on this.
I think anyone who has that information would rather keep it close to vest than to share it. It’s like a fisherman who knows where to go to catch the best fish.
Hi rj,
I do not consider myself a domainer, but I do acquire domain names for the purposes of future projects. In the past I have used NameJet.com, SnapNames.com, and Pool.com. I have only had luck with NameJet.com and SnapNames.com acquiring domain names for me.
DomainMonster.com (I just added it today and free until acquired, but two people cannot backorder the same domain.)
Dynadot.com (I could not find the backorder service after signing up.)
GoDaddy.com (There appears to be a $20 initial payment per backordered domain name. If GoDaddy fails to catch it, you can shift that credit towards another domain name. I would probably use their service after I find a service that emails me when a domain name I am watching is about to renew, expire, change, etc.)
Name.com (I am locked out of my old account, but in the process of recovering it and it looks like free until acquired.)
NameJet.com (Free until acquired.)
Pheenix.com by FreshDrop (I just added it today and free until acquired).
Pool.com (Free until acquired.)
ProTrada.com (I like the description of the centralized service, but to expensive for my goals.)
SnapNames.com (Free until acquired, but some domain names may not qualify for backorder with them under certain scenarios.)
-Khody
Hi Khody,
Thanks for signing up for Dynadot! I’m sorry to hear you couldn’t find our backorders. They are located under our Domain Market tab. Here is the direct link: http://www.dynadot.com/drops. I hope this helps! Feel free to contact our customer support team if you have any questions. We also have some great help files on our backorder system here: http://www.dynadot.com/community/help/section.html?category_id=43.
Best,
Robyn
Team Dynadot
Thanks Robyn. I think figured it out finally.
BackOrderZone.com (It appears to be similar to Godaddy where they require funds up front.)
Dynadot.com (I was only able to backorder domain names that are pending deletion soon.)
Name.com (Similar to Godaddy, where they require funds upfront.)
I don’t mind putting funds up front, but not at every single website. It would be nice if there was a website that had a service that I could deposit funds at and leverage at all of these websites.
It is there – DomainMonster.com but seriously I have never seen them catching any good .com but I will admit that they have caught some really nice .cc domains for me through backorder and beaten 1API, Name.com and others on that but for .com domain I wouldn’t suggest. However, you can backorder with them because there is no loss as you don’t need to pay any upfront fee to them.
Petsitters.com is indeed a desirable domain but no where worth the price paid for it.
I like to play in the “pets” category as well but would be a fool three ways to Sunday to lay out that kind of dime.
I have considerable experience in that space with DogWalker.com, DogPark.com, DogGroomers.com, and CatSitter.com all being profitable including domain acquisition and development costs (I think DogGroomers.com is in the black by now, but I am not 100% certain).
That said, I think it was a good price for the buyer, although I didn’t bid aggressively for a few reasons, with the primary reason being the amount of time I think it will take for a website to become profitable. I think there’s a lot of money in that vertical, and nearly all of the 400+/- current paying advertisers on DogWalker.com offer pet sitting services, too.
I wouldn’t be shocked if one of the major pet sitting organizations like NAPPS, Pet Sitters International, or APSE would pay $50-75k range for that name. Not saying they would, but I wouldn’t be shocked if they did.
If I really wanted to buy the name, I would have bought it specifically for development rather than re-sale, so even a $75k offer would have been turned down.
The buyer is a serious well known player with an outstanding portfolio of 8,000 names. I think he knows what its worth.
My thoughts:
Snapnames – absolute best. Beats all the others 90% of the time.
Namejet – 2nd best, sometimes beats SN.
Backorderzone – 3rd best, sometimes beats NJ and SN.
Pool – used to be good, but doesn’t catch domains at all anymore. Maybe 2% success rate.
Godaddy – Worst of the 5, but only $20 backorder (prepaid beforehand) so it’s good for low competition domains
I haven’t tried any of the others mentioned.
Thanks for sharing that insight.