Are Expired Domain Firms Selling You Out?
My friend is upset regarding a recent experience buying his fullname.com in a drop. He has a point.
A couple months ago a good friend emailed me regarding his fullname.com since it expired. He stated he had placed a backorder at GoDaddy and wondered what else he needed to do to capture the name. The name was at a no-name registrar, so I told him to place backorders at SnapNames and NameJet.
When the domain went into pending delete he emailed again to see if there was anything else he needed to do to make sure he didn’t lose the domain. Although it’s not very relevant anymore, I told him he ought to backorder the domain at Pool.com since they sometimes get domains that actually drop (as opposed to direct transfer).
Later that night my friend called and he was angry.
Friend: These Pool.com people sold me out!
Me: What do you mean?
Friend: They just sent out an email blast titled “Hotlist” and there’s fullname.com on it.
Me: Oh yeah, they do that.
Friend: Don’t you think that’s a bit shady? If I hadn’t backordered the domain they wouldn’t have advertised it to thousands of people in the email.
He had a point. He’s looking at the process from someone outside the domain industry, and it’s notable to consider that view. Think if you were a trademark holder and decided to backorder some expiring typos. Suddenly, they’d be published for the whole world to see.
I explained that all of the major expired domain sites publish lists of domains with bids. I asked him how he felt regarding that.
He stated it’s one thing to note on the web site — or include the domain in a downloadable list — when there’s a bid on it. That didn’t bother him much. What bothered him is that Pool actively promoted his name to its email list, and only since he backordered the domain.
He told me “it’s stuff like this that makes me leery of dealing with domain name firms.”
If you’re reading this post, you likely know by now how the expired domain game works. But I think he has a point, and I value his opinion as an “outsider”. What do you think?
