ExpiredDomains.net - A cautionary tale

[Edcy]

ExpiredDomains is a great tool and one I use everyday but I ran into an issue yesterday that was completely my fault and avoidable but something you should be aware of...

I've been using the SnapNames PreRelease Domains list for a couple of weeks and have been backordering/preordering a number of 4L names everyday figuring I might be able to acquire a great name for $200 or so.

The other day, I backordered about 6 4L names and I figured I figured I would be happy to get any 4L name for the $69 or $79 backorder price if I got lucky.

Yesterday I received an email from SnapNames that I acquired one of the 4L names that I backordered. I'm thinking, great, I won an auction where I was the only bidder.

NOPE!

I received an email shortly afterwards that said:
"Congratulations! You have successfully acquired the domain name xxxx.com. We have debited your account $3488.00."

YIKES!!!

So, apparently, in the SnapNames PreRelease Domains list, there are a few names with a "buy it now" price built in so if you're not careful you could end up with a purchase at full price.

The name was in my account when I woke up and the money was already paid out to the seller. The fastest transaction I've ever seen as it takes me 1 to 2 weeks to get paid by other services.

Happy to have my first 4L name but not at the price I paid.

I'm just glad it wasn't a $35,000 name...

Moral of the story: Make sure to double-check any price that might be on the names you're backordering....

 

[RogueWriter]

“Ouch” doesn’t quite cover it!

 

[D Haynes]

Yeah the Snapnames UI is ruthless with no room for error. Never register a bank account with them, only ever register a credit card that you can disable should you make a mistake and for the love of God don't make a mistake on the weekend because you won't be able to reach their customer service until the Monday. They are a great platform for backorders and auctions though. You live and learn and hopefully you can recoup or make a profit on the name. Good luck.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

ExpiredDomains is a great tool and one I use everyday but I ran into an issue yesterday that was completely my fault and avoidable but something you should be aware of...

I've been using the SnapNames PreRelease Domains list for a couple of weeks and have been backordering/preordering a number of 4L names everyday figuring I might be able to acquire a great name for $200 or so.

The other day, I backordered about 6 4L names and I figured I figured I would be happy to get any 4L name for the $69 or $79 backorder price if I got lucky.

Yesterday I received an email from SnapNames that I acquired one of the 4L names that I backordered. I'm thinking, great, I won an auction where I was the only bidder.

NOPE!

I received an email shortly afterwards that said:
"Congratulations! You have successfully acquired the domain name xxxx.com. We have debited your account $3488.00."

YIKES!!!

So, apparently, in the SnapNames PreRelease Domains list, there are a few names with a "buy it now" price built in so if you're not careful you could end up with a purchase at full price.

The name was in my account when I woke up and the money was already paid out to the seller. The fastest transaction I've ever seen as it takes me 1 to 2 weeks to get paid by other services.

Happy to have my first 4L name but not at the price I paid.

I'm just glad it wasn't a $35,000 name...

Moral of the story: Make sure to double-check any price that might be on the names you're backordering....

Thanks for sharing your experience. I've been using SnapNames for more than a decade now and I sometimes get almost trapped with their poor UI so yes one needs to be careful while placing backorders.

Good luck!

 

[ecomslice]

yes thank you for sharing so others can avoid. I hope you get good karma and a great sale on said domain.

 

[pokainc]

@Edcy "Moral of the story: Make sure to double-check any price that might be on the names you're backordering...."

How do you exactly go about doing this? When I put a backorder at SN it says $79 and I press accept and that's it... There's an extra verification check to do somewhere else / on another page?

 

[ecomslice]

@Edcy "Moral of the story: Make sure to double-check any price that might be on the names you're backordering...."

How do you exactly go about doing this? When I put a backorder at SN it says $79 and I press accept and that's it... There's an extra verification check to do somewhere else / on another page?

He did it in bulk, copy paste, assuming he was safe from any bin listings. assuming was an accurate list, but unfortunately not, a mistake, a lesson. and kindly he shared.

 

[pokainc]

also ive noticed sometimes when you search a name let's say .com for a BO, the first link instead of it being the .com sometimes is the .net that shows up with a buy now price.

 

[Edcy]

@Edcy "Moral of the story: Make sure to double-check any price that might be on the names you're backordering...."

How do you exactly go about doing this? When I put a backorder at SN it says $79 and I press accept and that's it... There's an extra verification check to do somewhere else / on another page?

My assumption (obviously wrong) was that names in the SnapNames PreRelease Domains list had only $69 and $79 names but that's not the case. If you go to the Snapnames PreRelease Domains list on ExpiredDomains and sort it by price you'll see a few (7 today to be exact) names that have a "pre-order" price of over $1,000 (out of 164,518 names in the list)

If you click on one of the names (BE CAREFUL HERE!), you'll see the screen looks IDENTICAL to the sale page for the 164,158 names that are priced at $69 or $79 except for the price.

When I've looked at the ExpiredDomains site over the past couple of months, I NEVER remember seeing any name over $79 and assumed all names were $69/$79. I just went into auto-pilot and back-ordered 5 or 6 4L names that day without looking at the price and one of them happened to be priced at $3,488.

 

[kostaki]

I really do not like it when companies throw in aftermarket domains into "droplists"... Namejet did this a while back and now it seems Snapnames does it as well, because see what that leads to...
They put stuff that does not belong into a list and now I have to explain myself for it. Also now there is a "cautionary tale about MY WEBSITE" thread out there...

So... are you sure what you bought here is a buy now / aftermarket domain? What I import into the snapnames prerelease list is named "All expiring domains - These expiring domain names are expected to begin auctioning soon. To participate in these auctions, you must add them to your shopping cart and check out prior to the deadline indicated."

I and everyone else expect these to be expired domains and not aftermarket domains.

 

[Edcy]

@kostaki - Are you the owner of ExpiredDomains? If so, thank you for the great resource as I use it everyday!

What I did was click on the links in the Snapnames Pending list for all 4L names that day (about 5 or 6) and added them to my cart on SnapNames never bothering to look at the price.

SnapNames told me it was an "auction" which obviously it was not and that I had to click on a buy-it-now link or enter $3,488 as my bid (which I did not do).