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I let 3 domains drop and watched the aftermarket

Domain Names by wendy 5 replies 341 views
wendy

Member OP

#1

Experience report, to be fair. In April 2024 I let three domains drop intentionally to study the aftermarket. All were .coms, 8-10 characters, no trademarks, generic tech-adjacent words. I had owned them 4-7 years, minimal traffic, never developed. What happened:

  • Domain A: Caught by Contabo backorder service. Appeared at Vultr auction 14 days later. Sold for $340. Now a parked page with Chinese casino ads.
  • Domain B: Three catch services competed (Hetzner, InterServer, GreenCloudVPS). Hetzner won. Sold via private broker to "AI startup" that never launched. Still holding page.
  • Domain C: No catch service got it. Registry held 30 days, then general availability. Registered by Time4VPS as part of a 500-domain package. Redirects to their main site.
The efficiency is... questionable. Two of three produced zero value for the ecosystem. The third just fed a host's SEO farm. I wanted to see if drop-catching served actual users. Mostly, it serves middlemen.

Have you tried restarting it?
JA

Member

#2

So you watch. You wait, the vultures circle. Nothing beautiful happens, just parking, redirects. The same old hunger, dont it make you tired, I let five drop once, they all became ghosts with popups, not even ghosts with stories, just empty

LichunLars

Member

#3 
Drop to auction: 14 days (A), 0 days (B, private), 30 days (C)
route via Vultr adds 12ms to TTFB vs direct registry
route via Hetzner adds 8ms

Interesting that B never hit open market. Route via private broker hides price discovery. For that money you get opacity. C is most efficient path but least valuable outcome. Market structure favors insiders.

1ms or I don't want it
WO

Member

#4

> sold for $340
> Now a parked page with chinese casino ads
"this"

> Sold via private broker
> Never launched
"this"

> Registered by Time4VPS
> Redirects to their main site
"this"

> Mostly it serves middlemen
"this"

ZE

Member

#5

JokoNord vos read the post or only the title?

hankels

Member

52 VPS and counting

#6

Which registrar did you use for the drops

seedbox, NAS, tape, and three offsite

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