Spoiler alert: skip to the part in bold if you want to cut right to the chase.
Thank you to the multiple people who made me aware of this on the first beautiful weekend we've had here in Seattle so far this year
I've looked into this, and the issue is pretty clear.
The name expired and went the full 30 days of grace period before it made it to our internal expiration queue. As you know, we give the full 30 day expiration period (unlike some registrars who shorten it). After 30 days, an automated system looks at the domain to verify its data and decide if any automated actions are taken. That's why this domain was dealt with on the deadline. Computers are efficient. The value of the name meant that was, indeed, moved into a holding account after it was fully expired. The other two names did not meet this threshold, so they were allowed to move into the account that will place them into NameLiquidate in about three days after expiration. We have those three days to be absolutely sure a domain is handled properly. I should note that by the rules that ICANN and even Verisign put down, there is no "day zero." The clock starts at day one, so "day 30" is correct. We did not act early. The time math is pretty straightforward.
If the name goes to NameLiquidate and sells, the original owner gets the proceeds, less a 9% commission, as a credit. As far as I know, we're the only registrar that does this (if someone else does, I apologize, but last time I looked, it was just us). We feel that's the ethical thing to do, and it also lets you have a little scratch from names you let drop anyway.
In this case, this name would not go to NameLiquidate as we feel it has value. If the owner intended to let it drop, we would retain it. This is something pretty-much every registrar does.
Now the good news here is that $#!& happens. The name went past the grace period and wasn't renewed in time, but I (and we) understand that this can happen sometimes. The name is in our holding account, and we can easily return it to the original owner along with a reminder to please not wait until the last minute to renew your domains. Next time, if the name went to NameLiquidate and sold, we might not have this latitude.
If the original owner can email me at I'll connect you with a customer support representative on Monday who can help get it back to you. We'll ask that you pay the renewal, of course, but since it hasn't hit RGP (nor would it), there's no registry fee involved.
You could send me a donut, if you want
Now, time to go back outside and plant my cucumbers!
Christopher
