Renewing an Expired Domain

[liban]

My brother had a website for his business, and let the domain name expired this past June. The registrar is charging him $200 to reactivate it. They wouldn't tell him how soon it would be back in the public market. He wants to know his options - other than paying the $200. Can/should he try to wait until he sees it available? Any suggestions are appreciated.

[Dan C. Rinnert]

Originally Posted by liban

My brother had a website for his business, and let the domain name expired this past June. The registrar is charging him $200 to reactivate it. They wouldn't tell him how soon it would be back in the public market. He wants to know his options - other than paying the $200. Can/should he try to wait until he sees it available? Any suggestions are appreciated.

If it's important, pay the $200.

If he wants to wait, he may want to sign up with someone like SnapNames and some of the other services that try to grab expired domains the instant they are available. I'd suggest signing up with at least two different ones.

If the domain is of any value, he might end up paying more than $200 to get it back. Or he could take his chances that no one else will want it and get it back for $10 or so through the normal registration process once it's available.

Even if it isn't of much value, someone else might grab it first. If it had any kind of incoming links, it could be in demand.

If he waits, he could end up grabbing it for much less than $200, or he could lose it forever. That's the risk he would take in waiting.

[davezan]

Originally Posted by liban

and let the domain name expired this past June.

Something's rather odd here.

Especially if this is a .com domain name, its "life cycle" works like this: it stays
expired up to 45 "calendar days" (based on date/time stamp), then it changes
to Redemption Grace Period for 30 days (which can be "redeemed" within that
time), then 5 days Pending Delete (point of no return), then available on the
"6th" day at about 1-2PM Eastern Standard Time. (which I checked hasn't yet
changed DST or not...)

All in all, it can take anywhere from 36-86 days before it becomes available to
the public. Other extensions can have their own rules, of course.

One thing the registrar can do within that 45-day expiration period, though, is
either renew it for themselves (as Tucows usually does) or sell it to someone
else. My guess is either one happened, then your brother is being billed $200.

Check the domain's current expiration date. If it's paid for a long period, then
unfortunately your brother might have to pay that fee if it's that important to
him but can maybe recoup that soon after.

[liban]

"My guess is either one happened, then your brother is being billed $200.

Check the domain's current expiration date. If it's paid for a long period, then
unfortunately your brother might have to pay that fee if it's that important to
him but can maybe recoup that soon after. "

This is what happened. And now it makes sense, because when I initially checked, the registrar (register.com) told me it had an expiration date in the future. When we dug a bit, they backed up a year. Now I get it.

Thanks for all the advice!