I know it's my fault and I take all responsibility for this mishap. NameJet were clearly entitled to buy the domain after it expired, and I should have checked the grace period before saying "oh, it's about a month."
Now, with that said, what are my options?
I have the $69 to shell out in the bid, and I'm pretty sure I'll be the only bidder. The problem is I've read about a lot of people having problems with the company. I don't want to pay $69 for a possibility to have my domain back. If I'm paying that much, I want to be assured beyond a reasonable doubt that the name is going to be mine again.
What I have done so far is buy out the .net domain name (it was previously .com, but I let it expire). This shouldn't be a problem, as the site was having no traffic at the time. However, I want the .com domain back anyway. In their FAQ, they state that "...after 14 days, [if] no bids are placed, the domain will be placed into a holding account."
How long will the holding account thing last? Will they keep it indefinitely? Or will they simply get rid of it after a year?
Has anyone had good experiences with them? It just sounds kind of gimmicky right now.
Sorry if I am kind of hard to follow. My mind is in five different places right now.
Thanks,
Lindholm

Personally, I'd place the bid, and hope you are the only bidder.

I have the $69 to shell out in the bid, and I'm pretty sure I'll be the only bidder ... If I'm paying that much, I want to be assured beyond a reasonable doubt that the name is going to be mine again.
What I have done so far is buy out the .net domain name ...
First, never assume you're the only bidder. And since you have placed your bid, the name now jumps to the foreground, alerting other, mostly professional "snappers".
And to be honest, $69 is NOT that much a spending on an expired domain.
But what I'm more curious is, how do you know it's "bought" by NameJet? Is it in public auction, or pre-release?
By the way, you have made a mistake by registering the .net NOW, which basically tells the world that its .com counterpart is indeed valuable.
Anyway, good luck.

if it's not a hot domain, leave it expired and register again

Personally, I'd place the bid, and hope you are the only bidder.
First, never assume you're the only bidder. And since you have placed your bid, the name now jumps to the foreground, alerting other, mostly professional "snappers".
I haven't bid on it yet, and I think nameslave has the right idea. Right now, it's hidden in a triple-digit page number. In fact, I got tired of clicking "Next" and I'm the one that is interested most in it right now.
If I bid on it, it would bring it closer to the first page, which would mean it would be more exposed to people interested in this sort of thing. Also, 95% of all domains listed have no bids. I'm really thinking I have a better chance of keeping it "hidden" by not bidding on it. There's also been cases of people artificially raising prices of domains, and then not paying if they come out on top. That sort of thing just boils my blood.
And to be honest, $69 is NOT that much a spending on an expired domain.
It is if you're a broke college student. It would be a good chunk of what I have in the bank right now.
But what I'm more curious is, how do you know it's "bought" by NameJet? Is it in public auction, or pre-release?
I get linked to the auction page from the .com page now. It's a parked "Stuff you might be interested in" style of page. It's currently listed as Pre-Release, which is weird since own it. Or, well, Enom Inc is listed when I preform a whois on the domain, but they also own NameJet.
By the way, you have made a mistake by registering the .net NOW, which basically tells the world that its .com counterpart is indeed valuable.
I was afraid it could be interpreted as that. I thought it would be more likely that people would interpret it as a "I don't care" and lose interest as well. My registrar hasn't actually gone through with it, so I might see if I can tell them to pause the order until I get this sorted out.
The name itself is probably of no value for any business-related interests, though. It's actually kind of anti-capitalistic. I could see someone using it for a personal blog or a forum, but that's really all the useful value a person could get out of it. It wasn't anything major like "buygames.com" or "freexxxporn.com" or anything like that.
if it's not a hot domain, leave it expired and register again
That's one of the things I was prepared to do, but I was just wondering how long that would take. A year? I'm willing to wait that much, but I don't know about much longer. I'm wondering how permanent their "holding account" is.
Anyway, good luck.
Thanks. It's not anything business-critical right now, though, so if the fecal matter hits the fan, I'm sure I can learn to live with it. :)
Again, thanks to nameslave, stub, and vorbis, as well as anyone else who decides to post on this page.
-lindholm

you have made a mistake by registering the .net NOW, which basically tells the world that its .com counterpart is indeed valuable.
Does that apply to those people who registers the .com, .net, .me, and other extentions? :confused:

Does that apply to those people who registers the .com, .net, .me, and other extentions? :confused:
I'm not sure if I understand your "question" correctly, but when more TLDs are registered, the more valuable is the name (before the dot). And .com is always the first beneficiary.

I haven't bid on it yet ...
I get linked to the auction page from the .com page now. It's a parked "Stuff you might be interested in" style of page. It's currently listed as Pre-Release, which is weird since own it. Or, well, Enom Inc is listed when I preform a whois on the domain, but they also own NameJet.
Thanks for the clarification.
Your best "recovery" strategy is to wait till the last minute of the "backorder by" timestamp (realistically, last few minutes or 15 - 30 minutes if you have not used NameJet before; but make sure you have already created an account there and filled out your credit card info).
And prepare to pay more than $69.

if it's not a hot domain, leave it expired and register again
That's one of the things I was prepared to do, but I was just wondering how long that would take. A year? I'm willing to wait that much, but I don't know about much longer. I'm wondering how permanent their "holding account" is.
Don't do that, lindholm. Many (just too many) people lost their domains FOR GOOD exactly like that.

IMO you have to act now or never. The domain may be lost forever if you don't snag it now.. Wait till the last 30 minutes or so and put a bid in.
I dunno how much money you have or how much it's worth for you, but in either case do not let it drop or let this auction pass, you never know what's going to happen to it after..
$69 is imo a good price for a domain like this, many domains get sold and put up for a lot more when the previous owner let it expire and wants it back, and like NS said a lot don't even get their domains back at all..
Good luck

Don't do that, lindholm. Many (just too many) people lost their domains FOR GOOD exactly like that.
IMO you have to act now or never. The domain may be lost forever if you don't snag it now.. Wait till the last 30 minutes or so and put a bid in.
I dunno how much money you have or how much it's worth for you, but in either case do not let it drop or let this auction pass, you never know what's going to happen to it after..
$69 is imo a good price for a domain like this, many domains get sold and put up for a lot more when the previous owner let it expire and wants it back, and like NS said a lot don't even get their domains back at all..
Good luck
Hmm. Sounds like I don't really have a choice but to bid on it, then. I'm going to go register on NameJet and wait until the last 10 minutes to place my bid. Again, I don't feel comfortable doing this without anyone telling me they had a good experience with them, but beggars can't be choosers, etc. I'll make sure to come back here and post my experience with them.
If everything goes to plan, I'll probably just post here with a brief summary of how things went. If all hell breaks loose, though, I plan on starting another thread with as much detail as possible so that it can get more exposure as well as being more likely to be spidered by google.
However, for now it's just a waiting game. Thanks again, everyone.

Good Luck.