Grabbing A Domain Name That's Already Registered By Someone Else?

5 replies
Howdy!

I'm in that situation, if you could call it that, were I'd like to grab my own name .com domain. The only trouble is that someone else currently owns it, and they aren't actually doing anything with it.

Now, in my eyes that's a good sign, because they will possibly be more likely to sell it to me. I currently own my name with a hyphen, but I would like to grab it without, even if it takes time. (Slow and steady wins the race!)

I checked the domains details, WHOIS, and found an email address in which I sent off an email. Only to get it returned 2 minutes later telling me that it isn't available. On closer inspection, I believe this person has WhoisGuard enabled and therefor the emails are auto-generated too.

But still, should it still not forward any information send to that particular address onto the domain owner?! You'd think that was law or something, at least I do anyway!

As I mentioned further up, if it takes some time to aquire the domain then it's not a problem. If I can't get the domain, then it's not a *real* biggie, althought it would be quite nice to own it!

While I won't lose any sleep over it, do any of my fellow warriors have any advice/ideas, in which I could use to start the ball rolling? I've never even tried something like this, so anything anyone can contribute is very much appreciated.

Thanks
Mark
(With the hyphen!)
#domain #grabbing #registered
  • Profile picture of the author zerofill
    if it's MarkMcWilliams.com Then You also have on top of buying it probably about 9 years of reg fees they will want too heh...expires in 2017

    I would try calling the number in whois or taling to someone at dotster.com to see if you can get them to forward your request to the owner...
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  • Profile picture of the author Darth Executor
    I have an alternate suggestion:
    1. Find a domain consisting of one first name and one last name that isn't taken and register it.
    2. Change your real name to the name of the domain.
    3. You now have your name as a domain name. Congratulations.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gerry Humphrey
    Mark McWilliams,

    There are many things you can try.

    Usually the one big issue is that if you alert the 'owner' of the domain that you are interested they price can jump high.

    In this case, the domain is registered until 2017, so you probably don't want to "just wait it out."

    The domain is privacy protected, and the email address associated with his account should work and deliver an email provided it doesn't set off spam filters. The domain registrar that is in use is Dotster and they run the PrivacyPost (privacy protect for domains) and NAMERESOLVE, the domain name servers, for the domain.

    If you cannot get through to the 'owner', you might contact Dotster and ask them for assistance as ICANN requires proper information to be attached to a domain (no 5551212 stuff, etc) so that the 'owner' can be contacted.

    The domain registration has a note, but honestly, I thought that they were required to also have a valid email address.
    "This listing is a Whois Privacy Customer. Mail correspondence to this
    address must be sent via USPS Express Mail(TM) or USPS Certified
    Mail(R); all other mail will not be processed. Be sure to include
    the domain name in the address."
    Another thing is checking for domain and whois history, such as using the following tool:

    http://domain-history.domaintools.com/

    It seems to have changed 'owners', but it looks like it was unprotected but under the current registratnt at one time.

    It might be possible to locate the current 'owner' via the domain registration history.

    You are looking at least $200 (as it has about 9 years left on the domain and based upon the registrar's current pricing, they spent $229.40 (159.50 reg +69.90 privacy for 10 years.)

    Good luck and be thankful that your parents didn't name you "Google" =P
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    Gerry Humphrey
    Business Consultant, Technical Support Rep, Developer, Trainer
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    • Profile picture of the author Mark McWilliams
      Well I'm just heading off to bed, so I thought I'd stop by and see what kind of responses had been made.

      Zerofill, yeah that's one 'big' problem that I had spotted too! But then, at the end of the day, unless I'm missing something, I'd be registered until then! Strangely, contacting Dotster hadn't crossed my mind!

      Darth, it's certainly an alternative, but I'd rather keep the name I have at the moment! LOL

      Gerry, I know what you're saying if you were to 'alert' the owner of the domain. But then, how else would you et ahold of them?! I'll probably give Dotster a try tomorrow, and see what happens after that. (Although I still appreciate suggestions from fellow WF members!)

      As I mentioned in the OP, it's strange about them not having a valid email address. Thanks for the link to the other tool on DomainTools, I've never seen that before so off for a look!

      Is the registration fee really that much at Dotster, I've never used them, so don't know! NameCheap is a lot cheaper! And LOL at calling me 'Google' cause I don't know what I'd do there!

      Thanks
      Mark
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      On mark.mcwilliams.me or @markmcwilliams you'll find me!
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark McWilliams
    Little Update: Having just sent off the email about 30 minutes ago, I guess it's a waiting game until I get a reply.

    It also amazes me, after taking a look around the Dotster site, how anyone would pay $16 a year for a .com domain. (And there are some people who complain at NameCheap raising their price by $0.80!)

    Anyway, back to business!

    Thanks
    Mark
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    On mark.mcwilliams.me or @markmcwilliams you'll find me!
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