For many successful investors, expired domain name auctions are a key part of their acquisition strategy. Some months ago I got a request from a relatively new investor to write about domain auctions – where to buy, terms of service, pitfalls, strategy, tips, etc. It is a topic that has been under-represented in NamePros Blog articles, and I agreed to write a future article.
I am no expert on domain auctions, and at times it seemed writing a domain auction article was an overwhelming task. This article is step one, and covers the main places to buy domain names in auction. Future article will look at selling domain names in auction, and at acquiring names from closeouts. I may also write about auction strategy in a deeper way.
I was finally prompted to get this domain auction article out because a fairly new site has made it much easier to search for domains in auction – Domain360.
The Domain Name Expiration Process
If a domain name is not renewed, there is, for most extensions, an auto-renew grace period, during which the registrar is required to renew the domain name. The registrar is later refunded this charge if the name does not get renewed.
The auto-renew period is followed by a redemption grace period when the name can still normally be recovered by the registrant, but at a substantially higher redemption fee.
After that, the domain goes into a, 5 day for many extensions, pending delete period. If a name exits that period, it becomes available to be registered again at new registration rate.
Domain names that are about to expire are often placed in auction. Although technically they should be called expiring domain auctions, the term expired domain auctions is frequently used.
I covered the domain name expiration process a few years ago in Finding Expiring and Recently Expired Domain Names.
The Main Expiring Domain Name Auction Sites
There are a number of sites that have auctions for expiring domain names. Some of the major ones are:
There are other places that auction domain names, such as Sedo, DAAZ, DNWE, Atom, NamePros, a number of other registrars, etc., but I am in this article covering auctioning of expired/expiring domain names. I will cover in a later article how and where to auction your own domain names.
What Name Goes Where?
So you see a domain you want to bid on that is about to expire. How do you know which auction site it will appear on? Andrew Allemann of DNW (@DomainNameWire) has written an article Expired domains: where each registrar sends their domains.
NameSilo, Dynadot and Sav auction their own expiring inventory, while Namecheap auctions names registered at Namecheap, and I presume Spaceship, and possibly a few other registrars. GoDaddy has agreements with a number of other registrars in addition to their own large expiring inventory. NameJet/SnapNames have agreements with a number of registrars.
For example, a name registered at Fabulous or NetworkSolutions goes to NameJet/SnapNames, a name registered at Moniker or the Tucows network of registrars will end up at GoDaddy, and a name registered at Sav, NameSilo, Namecheap or Dynadot ends up at that registrar’s marketplace. I think there is at least one change since the time that Andrew’s article was published, with Porkbun expired names now going through the Dynadot expiration process, although also accessed from Porkbun.
Some Registrars Not Part of Expired Auction Ecosystem
It appears that some large registrars are not part of any of the expired domain auction services, including, please correct me if I am wrong, registrars like Alibaba, Hostinger and Squarespace with large numbers of registrations. If you are seeking a name registered at one of those registrars, it is best to either put in a drop catch order for the name, or manually catch it yourself the day it drops.
Finding What Is About To Expire
See the article Finding Expiring and Recently Expired Domain Names for guidance on how to set filters in ExpiredDomains.net to get lists of names about to expire or recently expired.
Drop Catch Auctions
Various registrars, and specialized services such as DropCatch, offer services to try to register an expired domain name the instant it becomes available. When more than one person requests the same name, it will normally go into an auction.
Auction Ending Times
Expiring domain auctions will have a stated end time, normally extended when new bids come in late in the auction. GoDaddy expired auctions are staggered, closing throughout the day. Namecheap recently announced a change of policy so that all auctions there will end at 11 AM ET, which is 3 PM UTC. Most sites allow proxy bids.
May Require Auction Membership
Some sites require you to purchase a domain auction membership for example, see the Join Auctions button at GoDaddy. Auctions, although the costs are usually minimal, a few dollars per year. Others, like Dynadot, don’t require a paid membership to access auctions.
Read the Terms of Service
Maintaining the integrity of auction sites is important for all. Be sure to read the terms of service carefully, so you will not break any rules, or have a surprise. Note that how bids are financially covered and deadlines.
Don’t Forget Registration Fee
When bidding on an expired domain name, don’t forget that the cost of a year, or two years in the case of .ai, registration added.
If planning to buy many closeout or auction names at GoDaddy, the registration cost savings will make Discount Domain Club membership worthwhile. Note that membership includes the cost of a GoDaddy Auction membership, as well as Domain Academy and the associated tools.
Watch for Premium Renewals
If bidding on an extension that has registry premium renewal fees on some name, make sure that you check this for any name before placing a bid.
What Did That Name End At?
If your bid was unsuccessful, you often want to see how the name closed. NameBio covers the main auction sites, and, starting a few years ago, updates listings in real time, so you can look there. If you have a membership, you can even see names that closed below $100.
Featured Names Lists
There are a number of daily services that list names in auction or closeouts. A couple of well-known ones are DomainSmoke, run by Dennis Tinerino, and DSAD run by Shane Cultra and team. The domain discoveries at the NameBio Blog includes names from some of the auction sites.
Overwhelmed?
With so many auction sites, and a mammoth number of domain names expiring every single day, it seems pretty overwhelming. Remember there is no need to chase down every potential name, or use every auction service.
Domain360
Fortunately, the task of finding names on auction, and closeout, sites recently became much easier with the advent of Domain360.com, developed by Senthil Rajendren, @Domain360.com here on NamePros, @SenthilRajendrn on X.
As the screen capture below shows, Domain360 aggregates auction and closeout listings from GoDaddy, Dynadot, Namecheap, Sav, Sedo, Park.io and DropCatch.
Domain360.com shows auction and closeout listings from various sites, with the most active current listings at the top.
I like the symbol and color coding of the marketplace icons, so I can readily see where that name is listed. Also, in the second line of each listing it shows the number of bids, current price and time until the auction ends. Clicking any name takes you to a fuller rundown at the marketplace.
Domain360 is free to join (and you can access some features as a guest). I’ve been trying it out for the last few weeks. Below is a quick rundown of some of the features.
Once you have set up an account, if you click the star beside any domain name it will be added to your Watchlist.
The real power of Domain360 is in the filtering capabilities. You can filter according to a terms that the name starts, ends or contains, the marketplace, extensions, length, number of bids, age, etc.
An example illustrating filtering capability in Domain360.com. Here I set it to look for names starting with ‘my’, in auction at GoDaddy, Dynadot or Namecheap, in the .com or .org extensions. I unchecked numbers and hyphens, so only names with all letters. To reduce to a more manageable list, I required at least 3 years aged and no longer than 10 letters. I also set a minimum appraised worth value of $2000.
You can filter based on many other extensions than the ones shown in the graphic, selecting from a long scrolling list, although after the most important extensions the ordering seems random making it challenging to search for some extensions.
Note that valuation seems to be according to the valuation metric used by that marketplace, for example GoDaddy valuator at GoDaddy, but Dynadot Appraisal value at Dynadot.
I played some with the words setting, but it seems to be according to terms, not just actual dictionary words.
I was not looking for formerly developed names, but there are a number of filter items related to that including number of backlinks, traffic, and also the year the name was first archived on Archive.org, as well as the number of times the site was archived.
There is a checkbox for Geo Domains or not.
To make changes in the filtering, you set new values then hit the Apply Filters button on bottom right.
If you have a long list of names, it is handy to be able to use the Sort pulldown menu to order the list by age, length, valuation, auction end time, traffic, or number of bids.
Keep in mind that Domain360 will show you all auction listings at a site, not only expired auctions, for marketplaces like Dynadot that contain a mix of auction types.
If you have an account at Domain360, they send out a daily list of the most active auctions. It will also include any auctions from your watchlist that are closing that day.
The Domain360 site is responsive, and presentation attractive. Senthil Rajendren @Domain360.com is rapidly developing the site, and has already incorporated a number of features requested by early beta users.
Domain360 is also helpful for browsing closeouts, and I will cover that in a forthcoming NamePros Blog article on purchasing closeout domain names.
I urge any domain investor who buys at auctions or closeouts to try Domain360. I love the name he selected – it is a 360 degree view of the world of domain auctions and closeouts. Thanks to Senthil Rajendren @Domain360.com for producing this great resource for the domain community.
Updates:
Apr. 3, 2025 I deleted the sentence about the Age value updating problem, as the developer has now fixed that.
I am no expert on domain auctions, and at times it seemed writing a domain auction article was an overwhelming task. This article is step one, and covers the main places to buy domain names in auction. Future article will look at selling domain names in auction, and at acquiring names from closeouts. I may also write about auction strategy in a deeper way.
I was finally prompted to get this domain auction article out because a fairly new site has made it much easier to search for domains in auction – Domain360.
The Domain Name Expiration Process
If a domain name is not renewed, there is, for most extensions, an auto-renew grace period, during which the registrar is required to renew the domain name. The registrar is later refunded this charge if the name does not get renewed.
The auto-renew period is followed by a redemption grace period when the name can still normally be recovered by the registrant, but at a substantially higher redemption fee.
After that, the domain goes into a, 5 day for many extensions, pending delete period. If a name exits that period, it becomes available to be registered again at new registration rate.
Domain names that are about to expire are often placed in auction. Although technically they should be called expiring domain auctions, the term expired domain auctions is frequently used.
I covered the domain name expiration process a few years ago in Finding Expiring and Recently Expired Domain Names.
The Main Expiring Domain Name Auction Sites
There are a number of sites that have auctions for expiring domain names. Some of the major ones are:
- GoDaddy
- NameJet and SnapNames–these offer the same expired name inventory.
- DropCatch
- Namecheap
- NameSilo
- Dynadot
- Sav
- Park.io
There are other places that auction domain names, such as Sedo, DAAZ, DNWE, Atom, NamePros, a number of other registrars, etc., but I am in this article covering auctioning of expired/expiring domain names. I will cover in a later article how and where to auction your own domain names.
What Name Goes Where?
So you see a domain you want to bid on that is about to expire. How do you know which auction site it will appear on? Andrew Allemann of DNW (@DomainNameWire) has written an article Expired domains: where each registrar sends their domains.
NameSilo, Dynadot and Sav auction their own expiring inventory, while Namecheap auctions names registered at Namecheap, and I presume Spaceship, and possibly a few other registrars. GoDaddy has agreements with a number of other registrars in addition to their own large expiring inventory. NameJet/SnapNames have agreements with a number of registrars.
For example, a name registered at Fabulous or NetworkSolutions goes to NameJet/SnapNames, a name registered at Moniker or the Tucows network of registrars will end up at GoDaddy, and a name registered at Sav, NameSilo, Namecheap or Dynadot ends up at that registrar’s marketplace. I think there is at least one change since the time that Andrew’s article was published, with Porkbun expired names now going through the Dynadot expiration process, although also accessed from Porkbun.
Some Registrars Not Part of Expired Auction Ecosystem
It appears that some large registrars are not part of any of the expired domain auction services, including, please correct me if I am wrong, registrars like Alibaba, Hostinger and Squarespace with large numbers of registrations. If you are seeking a name registered at one of those registrars, it is best to either put in a drop catch order for the name, or manually catch it yourself the day it drops.
Finding What Is About To Expire
See the article Finding Expiring and Recently Expired Domain Names for guidance on how to set filters in ExpiredDomains.net to get lists of names about to expire or recently expired.
Drop Catch Auctions
Various registrars, and specialized services such as DropCatch, offer services to try to register an expired domain name the instant it becomes available. When more than one person requests the same name, it will normally go into an auction.
Auction Ending Times
Expiring domain auctions will have a stated end time, normally extended when new bids come in late in the auction. GoDaddy expired auctions are staggered, closing throughout the day. Namecheap recently announced a change of policy so that all auctions there will end at 11 AM ET, which is 3 PM UTC. Most sites allow proxy bids.
May Require Auction Membership
Some sites require you to purchase a domain auction membership for example, see the Join Auctions button at GoDaddy. Auctions, although the costs are usually minimal, a few dollars per year. Others, like Dynadot, don’t require a paid membership to access auctions.
Read the Terms of Service
Maintaining the integrity of auction sites is important for all. Be sure to read the terms of service carefully, so you will not break any rules, or have a surprise. Note that how bids are financially covered and deadlines.
Don’t Forget Registration Fee
When bidding on an expired domain name, don’t forget that the cost of a year, or two years in the case of .ai, registration added.
If planning to buy many closeout or auction names at GoDaddy, the registration cost savings will make Discount Domain Club membership worthwhile. Note that membership includes the cost of a GoDaddy Auction membership, as well as Domain Academy and the associated tools.
Watch for Premium Renewals
If bidding on an extension that has registry premium renewal fees on some name, make sure that you check this for any name before placing a bid.
What Did That Name End At?
If your bid was unsuccessful, you often want to see how the name closed. NameBio covers the main auction sites, and, starting a few years ago, updates listings in real time, so you can look there. If you have a membership, you can even see names that closed below $100.
Featured Names Lists
There are a number of daily services that list names in auction or closeouts. A couple of well-known ones are DomainSmoke, run by Dennis Tinerino, and DSAD run by Shane Cultra and team. The domain discoveries at the NameBio Blog includes names from some of the auction sites.
Overwhelmed?
With so many auction sites, and a mammoth number of domain names expiring every single day, it seems pretty overwhelming. Remember there is no need to chase down every potential name, or use every auction service.
Domain360
Fortunately, the task of finding names on auction, and closeout, sites recently became much easier with the advent of Domain360.com, developed by Senthil Rajendren, @Domain360.com here on NamePros, @SenthilRajendrn on X.
As the screen capture below shows, Domain360 aggregates auction and closeout listings from GoDaddy, Dynadot, Namecheap, Sav, Sedo, Park.io and DropCatch.
Domain360.com shows auction and closeout listings from various sites, with the most active current listings at the top.
I like the symbol and color coding of the marketplace icons, so I can readily see where that name is listed. Also, in the second line of each listing it shows the number of bids, current price and time until the auction ends. Clicking any name takes you to a fuller rundown at the marketplace.
Domain360 is free to join (and you can access some features as a guest). I’ve been trying it out for the last few weeks. Below is a quick rundown of some of the features.
Once you have set up an account, if you click the star beside any domain name it will be added to your Watchlist.
The real power of Domain360 is in the filtering capabilities. You can filter according to a terms that the name starts, ends or contains, the marketplace, extensions, length, number of bids, age, etc.
An example illustrating filtering capability in Domain360.com. Here I set it to look for names starting with ‘my’, in auction at GoDaddy, Dynadot or Namecheap, in the .com or .org extensions. I unchecked numbers and hyphens, so only names with all letters. To reduce to a more manageable list, I required at least 3 years aged and no longer than 10 letters. I also set a minimum appraised worth value of $2000.
You can filter based on many other extensions than the ones shown in the graphic, selecting from a long scrolling list, although after the most important extensions the ordering seems random making it challenging to search for some extensions.
Note that valuation seems to be according to the valuation metric used by that marketplace, for example GoDaddy valuator at GoDaddy, but Dynadot Appraisal value at Dynadot.
I played some with the words setting, but it seems to be according to terms, not just actual dictionary words.
I was not looking for formerly developed names, but there are a number of filter items related to that including number of backlinks, traffic, and also the year the name was first archived on Archive.org, as well as the number of times the site was archived.
There is a checkbox for Geo Domains or not.
To make changes in the filtering, you set new values then hit the Apply Filters button on bottom right.
If you have a long list of names, it is handy to be able to use the Sort pulldown menu to order the list by age, length, valuation, auction end time, traffic, or number of bids.
Keep in mind that Domain360 will show you all auction listings at a site, not only expired auctions, for marketplaces like Dynadot that contain a mix of auction types.
If you have an account at Domain360, they send out a daily list of the most active auctions. It will also include any auctions from your watchlist that are closing that day.
The Domain360 site is responsive, and presentation attractive. Senthil Rajendren @Domain360.com is rapidly developing the site, and has already incorporated a number of features requested by early beta users.
Domain360 is also helpful for browsing closeouts, and I will cover that in a forthcoming NamePros Blog article on purchasing closeout domain names.
I urge any domain investor who buys at auctions or closeouts to try Domain360. I love the name he selected – it is a 360 degree view of the world of domain auctions and closeouts. Thanks to Senthil Rajendren @Domain360.com for producing this great resource for the domain community.
Updates:
Apr. 3, 2025 I deleted the sentence about the Age value updating problem, as the developer has now fixed that.
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