Help - NameJet

[DnFever]

So far I have been registering domains for 10 bucks and only sold few of them.

Now, I have decided to buy a good domain. My first encounter is with NameJet.com

I have few questions about this website's mechanism

1 - What is the difference b/w Pre-Release, Pending Deletion and Public Auction? What will happen if I bid on any domain falling in the above 3 categories?

2 - What is 'order by'?

3 - As I have seen on sedo if there are 4 bids, then each bid will be greater than the previous bid, whereas here I have seen a domain having 145 bids and the highest bid is only $75? How is it done?

Looking forward for answers.

Thanks
DnFever

 

[Erdy]

1. What is the difference b/w Pre-Release, Pending Deletion and Public Auction? What will happen if I bid on any domain falling in the above 3 categories?

It is explained here:
http://www.namejet.com/Pages/FAQ.aspx
I also wrote a long Pre-Release, Pending Deletion description on my website on this page. You can read both and decide which was more informative.

2 - What is 'order by'?

The last day you need to place a backorder before the auction starts. If there are no backorders on the domain you might want to wait until near the end to avoid rising attention. Namejet doesn't show how many days, hours or minutes are left. If you want to see this you can check the time left on my site. This is better than calculating time zones.

3 - As I have seen on sedo if there are 4 bids, then each bid will be greater than the previous bid, whereas here I have seen a domain having 145 bids and the highest bid is only $75? How is it done?

The auction has not started yet. Some people just like to show off and place a higher bid then necessary even before the auction starts. Don't worry about the highest bid. You should act as if doesn't exist. Always enter the minimum bid.

By the way, there are also expired domain auctions by Dynadot and Godaddy which are much cheaper than Namejet pre release.
There is also Godaddy Closeouts which is expired domains with fixed price buy now option.

 

[StonePillar]

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1 - What is the difference b/w Pre-Release, Pending Deletion and Public Auction? What will happen if I bid on any domain falling in the above 3 categories?

I have some questions about this matter too:

When a domain name is in pending delete status, you can backorder the name, but you don't have to. You still may be able to get the name when it drops without first having to backorder the name. You can sometimes simply hand register it.

Can someone knowledgeable about hand registering dropped names explain the difference between hand registering just-dropped names and backordering names that are in pending delete status? When is it necessary to backorder the name? What are your chances of getting a just-dropped name when you hand register it?

Thanks!

 

[Erdy]

When a domain enters pending delete it will drop and become available after 5 days. About 50.000 dot com domains drop every day. If I remember correctly about 16 domains drop every second when they start dropping.

Domains drop in the order they were created. Dropcatchers like snapnames and namejet canculate the exact time a domain is going to drop in milliseconds. This calculation is complicated and requires to compare yesterdays zone file with 90 million com domains to todays zone file. Because the exact dropping time calculation is so complicated and requires working with huge lists, only few companies can do it. Then they assign 30 to 60 different registrars to try to register that domain in the millisecond it drops.

Dropcathing is far more complicated then it looks. For instance Godaddy backorder can't beat snapnames or namejet because either they don't correctly calculate the exact time of each dropping domain or they don't assign enough registrars for trying to register the domains simultaneously.

Except dropcatcher sites there are also a few thousands domainers who run their own scripts. These scripts continuously try to register the domain during the drop window which lasts about two hours.

You have zero chance of hand registering a domain if any dropcather or any domainer with a script is trying to catch the domain.

However, I'm not suggesting that you should backorder pending delete domains. I'm not even suggesting that you should be interested in pending delete domains. I suggest that you focus on pre release domains. You can get a pre-release domain for as cheap as $13 USD from Godaddy closeout section. This is where expired godaddy domains go 40 days before they even reach pending delete and 45 days before they drop.

Let's assume %2 of all expired domains are worth re-registering. This makes 1000 domains 50.000. Because 64% of all pending delete domains were already auctioned once during pre-release it means 640 of those quality domains will be bought during the first auction (the pre-release auction). Only the remaining 360 quality domains will enter pending delete.

Here are a few dropcatcher sites that I know:
1. snapnames.com
2. namejet.com
3. pool.com
4. goaddy.com
5. name.com
6. intrustdomains.com
7. global.gabia.com
8. hexonet.net
9. premiumdrops.com

Let's say there are also about 2.000 domainers who run their own dropcatching script.

The question is do you want to compete with 9 different sites and 2000 domainers to get one of the 360 quality domains among 50.000 that drop today or do you want to buy one of the 640 quality domains among the 50.000 from a single pre-release auction site where the domain is already in their system and doesn't need to be caught?

Pending deletes are very overrated.

Here are a few pre-release auction sites:
1. snapnames.com (they call "pre-release" domains "expiring")
2. namejet.com
3. dynadot.com http://www.dynadot.com/marketplace/expired/
4. godaddy.com https://auctions.godaddy.com/?ci=13335 (Godaddy has two pre-release sections, expiring and closeouts. Closeouts domains are those that are not sold in the auction and are now available to with buy now option.)
5. name.com http://www.name.com/expired_domains.php

The first four categories out of these five are available on my site in case you are looking for a place to search multiple sources at once.

Erdinc

 

[Name Trader]

I've had 2 instances recently where a godaddy hand-reg beat both my godaddy backorders. That's how good a godaddy backorder is.

 

[StonePillar]

When a domain enters pending delete it will drop and become available after 5 days. About 50.000 dot com domains drop every day. If I remember correctly about 16 domains drop every second when they start dropping.

Domains drop in the order they were created. Dropcatchers like snapnames and namejet canculate the exact time a domain is going to drop in milliseconds. This calculation is complicated and requires to compare yesterdays zone file with 90 million com domains to todays zone file. Because the exact dropping time calculation is so complicated and requires working with huge lists, only few companies can do it. Then they assign 30 to 60 different registrars to try to register that domain in the millisecond it drops.

Dropcathing is far more complicated then it looks. For instance Godaddy backorder can't beat snapnames or namejet because either they don't correctly calculate the exact time of each dropping domain or they don't assign enough registrars for trying to register the domains simultaneously.

Except dropcatcher sites there are also a few thousands domainers who run their own scripts. These scripts continuously try to register the domain during the drop window which lasts about two hours.

You have zero chance of hand registering a domain if any dropcather or any domainer with a script is trying to catch the domain.

However, I'm not suggesting that you should backorder pending delete domains. I'm not even suggesting that you should be interested in pending delete domains. I suggest that you focus on pre release domains. You can get a pre-release domain for as cheap as $13 USD from Godaddy closeout section. This is where expired godaddy domains go 40 days before they even reach pending delete and 45 days before they drop.

Let's assume %2 of all expired domains are worth re-registering. This makes 1000 domains 50.000. Because 64% of all pending delete domains were already auctioned once during pre-release it means 640 of those quality domains will be bought during the first auction (the pre-release auction). Only the remaining 360 quality domains will enter pending delete.

Here are a few dropcatcher sites that I know:
1. snapnames.com
2. namejet.com
3. pool.com
4. goaddy.com
5. name.com
6. intrustdomains.com
7. global.gabia.com
8. hexonet.net
9. premiumdrops.com

Let's say there are also about 2.000 domainers who run their own dropcatching script.

The question is do you want to compete with 9 different sites and 2000 domainers to get one of the 360 quality domains among 50.000 that drop today or do you want to buy one of the 640 quality domains among the 50.000 from a single pre-release auction site where the domain is already in their system and doesn't need to be caught?

Pending deletes are very overrated.

Here are a few pre-release auction sites:
1. snapnames.com (they call "pre-release" domains "expiring")
2. namejet.com
3. dynadot.com Expired Domain Auctions - Dynadot.com
4. godaddy.com https://auctions.godaddy.com/?ci=13335 (Godaddy has two pre-release sections, expiring and closeouts. Closeouts domains are those that are not sold in the auction and are now available to with buy now option.)
5. name.com Expiring Domains - Name.com

The first four categories out of these five are available on my site in case you are looking for a place to search multiple sources at once.

Erdinc

Wow! Thanks so much for taking the time to provide this very helpful information. I'm checking out all the information and links now. Because of what you said, I'm focusing more on pre-release auctions.

:wave:

 

[Erdy]

Hi StonePillar,

I'm glad you liked the information. I will provide a little more information and numbers and I will explain with an example to make it easier to understand.

Let's say example.com has expired and it was registered with Godaddy. What would happen to that domain?

Day 0: example.com has expired. It was registered with godaddy. About 35% of all .com domains are registered with Godaddy. The day the example.com expired it was auto renewed by the registry Verisign for free for 45 days. The same is done for all .com domains.
Day 24: example.com is put up for auction at godaddy.com with a starting price of $12 plus reg fee. This makes $20 with coupon codes. The auction will last 12 days. Godaddy calls these auctions "expiring", while I call them "pre-release" to keep consistency. The auctions are run here:
https://auctions.godaddy.com
You need to select the "expiring" category. These are freshly expired domains that have expired 24 days ago. They are still under control of Godaddy because of the auto renewal which was originally planned to give the previous owner a chance to renew his domain after expiry.
Day 36: example.com auction closed without any bids. Godaddy has now pushed the domain to "buy now" section which they call "Closeouts". The domain will stay here 6 days. Each day the price will drop by one USD. Today the domain is available to purchase for $10 plus reg fee which brings the total to $18 with coupon codes.
The link for Godaddy Closeouts is the same https://auctions.godaddy.com. However you need to click select "Closeouts" on the menu.
Day 37: The buy now price is now $9 plus reg fee
Day 38: The buy now price is now $8 plus reg fee
Day 39: The buy now price is now $7 plus reg fee
Day 40: The buy now price is now $6 plus reg fee
Day 41: The buy now price is now $5 plus reg fee. Total price is now $13 with coupon codes. Nobody bought the domain.
Day 45: The auto renewal by the registry has expired and there was no payment. Now the renewal is cancelled and the domain will continue dropping. At this point the whois will show the expiry date correctly. Until today (between day 0-44) whois was showing the domain as renewed.
Day 75: Example.com enters pending delete. It shows in the snapnames and namejet pending delete search results with a date next to it. The date is 5 days later from today which is the dropping day, auction start day and last day to backorder (these 3 are the same day). Backordering at snapnames or namejet costs $69.
Day 80: Example.com has now dropped and is now available to register.

Godaddy's website does not give any numbers on how many domains they have in the expiring section or in the closeouts section. They also limit search results to 40.000 domains. Therefore you can not calculate the total number of domains from number of pages. However domains from both categories are listed on NameCatch and there is also a stats page where you can see how many domains are coming from what category. You can also see the numbers by extensions.

For instance, right now there are 169.556 .com domains in Godaddy pre release and 26.744 .com domains in Godaddy Closeouts. These lists are updated daily. I don't get any commission from Godaddy for referring customers to them.

Happy domaining
Erdinc

 

[main]

One thing about the pre-release names at all Godaddy, Namejet, and Snapnames is that if you place a bid on them, it draws attention to the fact that you bid on them. Anyone would be able to see your bid, right?

 

[Name Trader]

Correct. That is why you should only bid on the domain at the latest possible time (to leave your interest in the domain to the last minute or so).