There's a domain name that I'm interested in that just expired on May 5th 2006 with godaddy.

From what I have read on forums on net, the original owner of the domain had already packed his bags in 2005, shut his site, and left.

I am not trying to purchase this domain for reselling or for profit. A couple of friends and I have recently spent weeks without sleep creating a website. This domain name represents us perfectly as it is an acronym of our full name.

Anyways, I've been "Whois"ing this domain name often for the past 3 weeks. Just 2 days ago, a whois result came back saying that the domain name was in a "redemption period."

I had no clue what this meant so I immeadiatly phoned godaddy to inquire about it. I don't know much about domain names and I thought perhaps they were in the process of purging it off their records or something.

I was told by the woman on the phone that a "redemption period" is a 90 day grace period that the TLD allows for the original owner to register. She told me that if I wanted the domain name, I would have to use their backorder option to grab it.

I told her that I would think about it and hung up. I'm not desperate enough to backorder because I'm pretty sure no one would take that domain. It's just random letters spelled into a meaningless acronym.

Anyways, at this point I went to ICANN's site and I was reading on redemption periods. It said something about:

"Registrars are given 45 days to attempt to secure a renewal paymeny from the current registrant. If the current registrant does not pay a renewal fee, the registrat explicitly deletes the registration. If the registrar deletes the registration within 45 days after the auto renewal, the registry opreator credits the auto renewal fee back to the registrar."

I'm wondering, is this what's happened or what is happening? The domain name expired on May 5th. It's almost been 45 days since it expired. Would this domain name be released soon for purchase? Did godaddy lie to me?

Assuming the domain name's indeed on redemption period, it'll stay that way for
30 days. That's to give the last registrant one last chance of getting it back, but at
a higher cost.

If not redeemed within that period, it'll switch to pending delete for 5 days. That's
to notify all registrars what domain names are going to become available.

Also assuming we're talking about a .com here, ideally it'll be available roughly at
1-2PM EST. But in reality, all .coms are being registered once released from the
master .com database called the Registry.

It's a "popular" (some even dare say "shady") practice among registrars to reg a
domain name and "taste" whatever traffic it can get for 120 hours (5 days). If the
domain name doesn't return the desired result within the 120-hour window, then
the registrar will ask the Registry to delete the name and be refunded for it.

(Yes, all registrars are charged the minute the domain name's regged. But as I had
mentioned, they can cancel and get a refund.)

So based on what I added above, don't query the domain name using a registrar's
search engine yet. If there's one site that's reliable for doing "clean" WHOIS, it's
www.iwhois.com.

If the name's registered, give it 5 days/120 hours. Don't visit the site.

Then check via iwhois.com after 5 days. If it's available, register it right away with
your favorite registrar!

if you really want it, do what godaddy said. use their backorder system.

I agree with CD Burnt. A backorder is something like $18 and a new registration something like $9. So for the sake of an additional $9 you practically guarantee to get the name which "domain name represents us perfectly". It's a no-brainer. Nothing is guaranteed, but you chances go into the stratosphere.

I'd recommend a backorder esp. if the name is short and if it is .com or .net

cheap backordr company like godaddy is not trusting. I hear snapnames cost more but is better

You have much more chance of success if you can backorder where it's registered. In this case, GoDaddy.