Dropcatchers

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I am curious to know exactly how the dropcatching companies like Pool, Snapnames, etc. work that snatch up those expired names then auction it off to the highest bidder.

Do they have to pay any fees for the privelage of becoming a dropcatching company?

Do they actually pick up those names at reg fee, then onsell it off to the highest bidder, while making thousands in the process for each name sold?

I have always wondered exactly how it works & am sure they are making a killing in the process.

 

[RegFee]

These articles are kind of old, but as far as I know, they are still correct:

http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2005/03/how-to-snatch-an-expiring-domain

Snapnames has an exclusive partnership with Network Solutions which allows them first shot at any and all expiring domains that are currently held by Network Solutions...

http://dnjournal.com/columns/cover080504.htm

�In a nutshell, at 2pm Eastern time (11am my time), Verisign starts changing the status of the list of pending-delete names for that day from pending-delete to available. They do this over the course of an hour or so - a little more or a little less depending on how many names are dropping that day. When this happens, the drop-catching software run by Club Drop or Pool or Snapnames (or whomever) starts pounding Verisign with requests for the name.�

 

[fonzie_007]

Domains are usually picked up at regfee (depending on the point of view). In the case of Pool and Snapnames, they pay a percentage of the final auction price to the partner registrar that captures the domain for regfee.

 

[DotWeekly]

Domains are usually picked up at regfee (depending on the point of view). In the case of Pool and Snapnames, they pay a percentage of the final auction price to the partner registrar that captures the domain for regfee.

I guess you can't really say "Capture", because 9 times out of 10 the domain does not really drop. As long as the domain does not go pendingdelete, and has a BO placed before that time, the domain just get's entered into snaps auction system. This is why most of the domains at snap's auction hold there age. The ones you see that lose there age when they go to auction, really dropped and snap keeps All the money (then BonkersTwo just gives them the money lol)

 

[fonzie_007]

Regardless of whether the domain actually expires or comes from a Pool/Snapnames partner, the registrar still has to pay regee (either to register or renew the domain). As Yofie said, many of the domains are already held by the registrar, however, Pool and Snap's partners do dropcatch domains from non-partner registrars.