The expired domain business with a bang — DropCatch.com enters

As it expands its private beta, DropCatch.com is off to a fast start: it caught and auctioned off Bespoke.com for $18,805 today.

When the team behind HugeDomains launched its domain name registrar NameBright last year, it quickly became clear that a lot of people felt animosity toward the firm’s expired domain business. Here’s just one of the comments submitted on Reglike:

When they stop taking all the decent domain names on the drop I may consider using them. As of now I feel like I would be competing with them and have no chances at all against them…

Now the firm is opening up its expired domain drop catching business at DropCatch.com. Even better, it won’t compete against the domainers that use its fresh system.

DropCatch.com works similarly to NameJet and SnapNames when it comes to fully expired (aka pending delete) domain names. The names drop and the firms use their own domain registrars (as well as partners) to quickly ping the registry and pick up expired domain names.

The software behind DropCatch.com has been used to capture over 1 million domain names since 2006, counting much of the HugeDomains portfolio.

Conflict of interest?

Some people are frustrated regarding competing head-to-head with HugeDomains. With the private beta launch of DropCatch.com, people no longer have to compete if they pay to use the system.

HugeDomains and a number of bulk clients continue to use the software to capture expired domains. But users DropCatch.com are assured priority over any of these other clients, counting anyone associated with HugeDomains.

How DropCatch.com compares.

There are a number of apparent advantages to DropCatch vs. the competition.

One is easily quantifiable: DropCatch charges $59 when it’s successful, the same as NameJet but $10 less than SnapNames.

From a user interface perspective, DropCatch.com is very simple. It’s not cluttered with additional auctions and ads, making it easy to use.

Another nice perk is that all domains backordered at DropCatch.com go to NameBright.com when captured. Whenever you win pending delete domains at other services you have to manage them at obscure registrars, often with limited functionality.

As with competing services, if more than one person backorders the same captured domain then it heads to auction. It’s notable to note that any DropCatch.com client can participate in auctions, not just those that backordered the domain.

How it performs.

Saving $10 is nice, but it’s only worth it if the system is good at snagging domain names.

So does DropCatch.com win?

Sometimes. Even DropCatch advises you to backorder domains at multiple services for the best odds of getting them.

I ran a brief test over the past week and concluded that it’s definitely worth backordering domains at DropCatch.com.

DropCatch caught two of the six domains I backordered through the service. I backordered four of the same domains at SnapNames and it won two of the four. (It appears one of the domains both firms missed was captured by rival service Pheenix.)

While SnapNames had a better win ratio than DropCatch.com on this modest test (way too modest to be conclusive), DropCatch.com caught the big fish.

The domain name Bespoke.com, worth tens of thousands of dollars, dropped the prior week. I backordered it at DropCatch.com, SnapNames, and NameJet. DropCatch.com got it.

In fact, an auction for Bespoke.com just ended at DropCatch.com for $18,805.

That’s a big league catch.

DropCatch.com is in a limited beta sign-up right now. You can request an account here. It’s worth checking out if you participate in the pending delete expired domain business.