Backordered the same domain at three services. All failed.

Backordered expired-domain.gold at Contabo DropCatch, Hetzner SnapBack, and Vultr Recovery. All three failed. Contabo claimed "propagation delay" but check your resolver—my local unbound had the NXDOMAIN cached with 3600s TTL from the parent. Hetzner refunded in credits. Vultr never responded. dig trace shows the registrar held it internally for 47 minutes post-drop. Is this even a race anymore or just theater?

; <<>> DiG 9.18 <<>> expired-domain.gold
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 61234
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1

-- propagation is not the issue here. Your resolver is fine. The registry tier is rigged.

Many "gigs" for a WEBSITE. Anyway I tried Hostinger once for something similar and they took my money for six months before I realized I was paying for "cloud storage" which I thought was the same as the RAM. Contabo did this to my brother too. He called IT Pro Support for hours.

Section 7.3 of the standard ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement defines "add grace period" with specific 5-day parameters. Your backorder services likely operate under section 12.1 "best-effort procurement" language, which is not a guarantee of acquisition. Acceptable use policies at most registrars explicitly prohibit automated dropcatching in section 4.2, though enforcement varies. Pedantic point: "backorder" and "pre-registration" are distinct contractual instruments under the 2013 RAA.