I found a domain with no match on Whois, but registrars all say unavailable

[domsaller]

They all seem to say for sale for xx,xxx, but whois is definitely saying no owner. What gives? Does that mean a registrar bought it and is selling it to the public?

 

[creataweb]

Premium?

 

[hxp]

Did you try different whois services?

Try the one provided by the registry of that tld and see what happens.

 

[Acroplex]

Most likely a reserved keyword or reserved by the registry.

 

[domsaller]

Yes, it says it's premium... but no one owns it, but it's for sale . Even the registrars own whois says no match. Weird.

As for the whois, I've tried on different services as well as querying myself and it says it's available. Interestingly enough, googling the domain name has a cached result saying "this domain has expired".

 

[WeSell-Domains]

It's a premium domain being held in reserve by the registry controlling the domain extension and is only for sale for the premium price and through sellers authorized to sell the premium domain. Ran into that one a few times myself. Many registries of the new gTLDs reserve their best names that way. Doesn't seem quite right but that is the way it is.

 

[Acroplex]

Which registry?

 

[domsaller]

It's a premium domain being held in reserve by the registry controlling the domain extension and is only for sale for the premium price and through sellers authorized to sell the premium domain. Ran into that one a few times myself. Many registries of the new gTLDs reserve their best names that way. Doesn't seem quite right but that is the way it is.

Ah that makes sense. That's pretty shady. So I guess it would be impossible for the public to get premium names that expire.

 

[WeSell-Domains]

So I guess it would be impossible for the public to get premium names that expire.

Only if you are willing to pay premium price which I am usually not willing to do. Personally I think ICANN should prohibit that practice but that's just my opinion.