The domain aftermarket has a big problem
The domain aftermarket has a big problem
Domain aftermarkets need to clean up their inventory. Let me start this rant with some good news. This month, I sold a domain name for $6,500 that I found through Domain Academy’s Afternic advanced search tool. I bought the domain for less than $100. Now for the bad news: I spent a lot of time […]
Here's my take:
The domain aftermarket has a big problem... it exists. This market shouldn't ever be allowed to exist in the first place. ICANN should've blocked this bullshit a long time ago and forced registrars to just let domains expire and free the space. Also add a few provisions about unused domain names and about selling them.
The author has no idea how to get his audience on-side! He starts with bragging about his 6400% profit margin on domain he resold, in a market where there's no customer value for middlemen.
At least antique dealers will identify pieces as rare, clean/restore them and put them for sale in a more visible place. Whereas domain reselling is about as ethical as ticket touting.
Domain squatting is incredibly scummy, but I have no idea how it would be possible to have any other system.
My understanding is that domains do expire unless you pay the fee to renew for another year.
Regarding unused domain names, how would anyone know if a particular name is being unused? Domain names are used for more things than browsable websites. You'd have to have a system that could determine if traffic is going to those names, which seems bad from a privacy standpoint and also pretty easy to script around.
My understanding is that domains do expire unless you pay the fee to renew for another year.
The problem is that this isn't what happens today. If you register a domain and never pay for it again then providers will often renew the domain and keep it to themselves and try resell it later. This is one of the biggest issues in the domain name market and GoDaddy is one of the worst offenders.
Regarding unused domain names, how would anyone know if a particular name is being unused?
Yes that's a good question but I'm sure that ICANN with all it's wisdom and infinite resources and teams could define something reasonable. I believe the first step could be to simply make sure registrars can't do what I describe before.
I accidentally let my personal domain expire because I was using PayPal with my registrar but they couldn’t use that for auto renew. Someone else bought it but they’re not doing anything with it. I can’t see who owns it because they’re doing a private registration with the same registrar I used, so as far as whois is concerned it’s the same registration it’s always had. This happened once before to me years ago and the people who bought it that time put up a fake YouTube clone in French but I just waited them out and they abandoned it a year later. This has been going on two years now and it still hasn’t been abandoned. It’s not critical to have but it’s annoying that someone’s squatting on it hoping I’ll pay a premium to get it back. It’s not that valuable to me.
I can’t see who owns it because they’re doing a private registration with the same registrar I used, so as far as whois is concerned it’s the same registration it’s always had.
Maybe it isn't another person, it's more likely to be your registrar holding the domain to sell on auction later on. This is the typical GoDaddy behaviour.
how would anyone know if a particular name is being unused?
I have a couple of nice domain hacks and I use them for email and random services I run so the root domain appeared to be abandoned. I received so many messages from people wanting to buy them I just started pointing them at other sites so they would stop hassling me. I've had one of these domains for nearly 20 years and it's my main email address. I'm not selling because it would be a year long full time job just to update all my services 😅
I'm not an economics major, but maybe something like a blind auction every year, and if you owned the domain last year, you also have the option of matching the highest bidder to keep the domain.
The biggest flaw with a system like that is that it would still discourage trying to buy an already owned domain, since you could pay for it, but not actually get it if the owner exercises their matching right. But it would definitely discourage domain squatting since the more other people want your domain, the more you have to pay to keep it.
That sounds ripe for abuse. Say someone has a problem with me - if they wait long enough, they can now pay over the odds and effectively take over my website. Or get their friends to enter a bidding war and potentially cost me a lot of money.
This would turn the Internet into a hell scape if only because corporations could throw huge amounts of money around.
There would be incentive for the Pizza Huts and the Walmarts of the world to just assume control of the websites for any local competitors.
So your solution to capitalism running its dirty fingers into the domain name system is… enabling corporate style hostile domain takeovers? Good lord no.
Oh no, speculators' third party products don't work. Anyway... get a real job fuckface.
And while we’re at it, so-called “premium” domains are a load of bullshit. My last name .net(which is not a common last name, by the way) is $2795 for the first month, because somebody with a solid gold dildo up their ass decided it should be so.
“premium” domains are usually domains that were registered by someone at some point and then the registrar kept it because some of their automated analysis decided your last name is shared by xyz people and the domain could be valuable.
I even recall a time I negotiated back and forth on Sedo to buy a domain name, and it turned out the seller didn’t own the domain.
I'm sorry, how is this NOT fraud?
I agree with OP. Domains should just expire if they're not renewed.
And honestly, I'm against the hoarding and resale of them too. They're a finite resource and should be limited to a fixed number per human being. And only transferred for free not resold.
They’re a finite resource and should be limited to a fixed number per human being. And only transferred for free not resold.
While I don't agree with the free transfer I agree with the the other part. ICANN should fine and obliterate registrars that keep domains for themselves and individual hoarders.
Even if they are finite, the number would be so impossibly large that for all practical purposes this would not be the case.
While you're technically correct (the best kind) I'd still argue that the subset of finite addresses that are human readable and relayable is significantly smaller. If you disagree just fill out a form on my website:
complaints.dng8jeispqo9rjrjejqkfns6gusjehrjrow7pwjqlqejtbdkwo0118999 8819991197253fja3k1wjri55foem8wms.co.biz
Does anyone know of a list of TLDs that don't allow reselling? I'd prefer to buy/lease one of those and let domain sharks play their own games.
Well ya, look at it, it's a moldy loaf of bread!!!
IWONTT
Too easily gamed I think.
This is way to ranty. If you don't like your domain provider get a new one. Additionally there are effectively a infinite amount of domain names so you can just buy one that is still cheap.
Hey, I'm not the one who typed it... but it's annoying to see when a name you want is taken on all the major tlds because registrars are holding domains in hopes of selling them.
That's fair but you can always choose something similar