Domain Auctions

Bidding on a domain instead of paying a fixed price. Two flavors: expiring auctions, where the registrar puts a name on the block because the previous owner stopped paying, and voluntary auctions, where the owner picks bidding over a fixed sale. Highest bid at close wins.

Eight: GoDaddy, NameJet, NameSilo, Dynadot, Namecheap, Sedo, DropCatch, and SnapNames. Bid counts and prices refresh every 30 minutes. Recently ended auctions stick around for a few days so you can see what cleared.

Timing on the registration calendar. Expiring auctions run during the 30-day grace window where the original owner could theoretically still come back and renew (it rarely happens). Pre-release drops are later, after redemption closes, when the name is days away from going public again. GoDaddy and NameJet run the expiring kind. DropCatch and SnapNames run pre-release backorders.

About 75 days after expiration. The clock breaks down as 30 days of auto-renew grace, then 30 days of redemption period (the last window for the original owner to pay and recover the name), then roughly 14 days of pending delete before the registry releases it. Drops run daily at registrar-specific times. The /drops page tracks upcoming ones by date and TLD.

The winning bid is what you pay. The auction house takes its cut from the seller, not on top of your bid. Buyer extras are the small print: GoDaddy and NameJet charge no buyer premium; DropCatch and SnapNames bill a $59-79 backorder fee, but only if you actually win. Fee comparison matters more on the selling side, where Sedo and Afternic take different cuts on voluntary auctions.

On the aftermarket, where owners list names at a fixed price or take offers on marketplaces such as Afternic, Sedo, Atom and Dynadot. Guide: Domain marketplaces compared.

When several people backorder the same dropping name and a catch service registers it, the name goes to an auction among them; at Dynadot that auction runs 7 to 10 days. Guide: Drop-catching services compared.