Hugedomains and registrars are not letting much slip through their fingers...I spend more time at GD close out now than at expired list. The quality at closeout is annoying, just slightly better. I do go more Than 2 weeks before seeing something worthy. I recently registered signslondon, fastestbusinessloans, riderbike from the closeout.
Huge domains alreddy catches everything, and sells it for crazy prices, so many of their auctions the past month were restarted as they were not paid for at dropcatch.
Then about 1.5 years ago they entered Godaddy auctions, and I have seen them pay close to $2k for some domains, at one point they jumping onto last minute bids with a $97 proxy.
Subpar name with some potential used to sell for about $102-$107, now you have to go over $200 to win them, as someone upped the floor.
That is just to much to pay, as some names take years, and others never sell. Stupid money is bidding on some names, some don't even make sense in English, and seeing non English speaking countries win them is not uncommon, just shows they have no clue what they are doing.
Other day at Godaddy within a few hours of the auction close, I was presented with a second chance offer as high bidder was disqualified, the next day the domain was redeemed. This could be that the domain owner was manipulating bids, I don't know, but I have never seen a same day disqualification of the high bidder.
That is why I say anytime you support drop catch, namebright you are proving huge names profits to come bid you up. If you like paying more, keep paying them more money, because clearly they are out for it all. They don't want to share with you, they are playing against you with your own money.