Is there a free way to "catch" a domain BEFORE it drops?

[JasMate]

Sorry for the noob question :P BUT is there a cheap or even free way to aquire a domain prior to it being dropped?
I understand there are catching services available BUT what i am asking is this, i see domains all the time that i like
but are of no real value to other people generally speaking. They are domains that i can use to either set up a business
or slap on my own style of branding. In other words the likelyhood of someone else wanting the domain is slim. Catching
the domain before it dropped would allow myself to retain the age of the domain which is important to me.

Thanks :loveyou:

 

[mrjohn]

Nope. If you want to retain age and PR, you gotta buy before the drop day.

Because of the way domain ownership works, the original registrar owns that domain until it drops. And they always want their cut. The cheapest you're going to get is GoDaddy auctions, somewhere between $5 (if you're lucky) and $10 bid plus the registration fee.

 

[JasMate]

Nope. If you want to retain age and PR, you gotta buy before the drop day.

Because of the way domain ownership works, the original registrar owns that domain until it drops. And they always want their cut. The cheapest you're going to get is GoDaddy auctions, somewhere between $5 (if you're lucky) and $10 bid plus the registration fee.

Thanks for the reply. Is there a way of knowing if a domain will go throught godaddy auctions or not?
I mean is it only goadddy registered domains?

 

[mrjohn]

The big three are Godaddy, SnapNames and NameJet.

Godaddy pretty much handles its own expirations. Snapnames and Namejet are companies contracted by other registrars to do the auctions for them. There should be a list somewhere on the forum of which registrars use which one.

 

[bobguindon]

You can search for expiring domains at name.com. I believe that they are listed for 5 days prior to deletion. The price of these domains begins at $29.95 and is reduced each day until it reaches $9.95 on the last day. If you check 'Deleting within 24 hours', you can search only domains priced at $9.95, including one additional year of registration (from the original expiration date). There's a lot of garbage, but a few decent names, too. I bought 'streetmapsonline.com' there on January 28th for $9.95 and have received 507 unique visitors to date at parked.com. Now I just have to figure out the best way to develop it for revenue...