Catching semi-premium domains

David · Jul 26, 2012

Perhaps a bit of a newbie Q from someone with 6 years membership....

I've always wondered what would happen if I asked a drop catching company to catch me a semi-premium domain? By semi premium I'm referring to domains worth maybe £100-£300.

I may be wrong but I suspect no one would take me up on catching a 'premium' such as loans.co.uk as they would want to use the slots for themselves so what is to stop catchers thinking "actually that's not a bad little semi premium domain I will catch that for myself - thanks for the heads up".

If catchers are aware of all the good domains dropping (I suspect they are and go through the lists daily with a fine toothcomb) does it ultimately suggest that all the domains they catch 'on behalf of' are pretty worthless except from a brand perspective i.e. if it's the name of your company such as bobbuilderlondon.co.uk.

Essentially I'm thinking...If it's worth something, why catch it for someone else?

Interested to know

RobM · Jul 26, 2012

Most, if not all, catchers will catch for anyone. They would not be in business long if they cherry-picked lists or drops.

David · Jul 26, 2012

So If I asked you to catch me a domain worth approx £300 (and you could likely flip it to another domainer within a few weeks) why wouldn't you focus on catching this for yourself?

RobM · Jul 26, 2012

Because for that one domain you'd annoy if not remove all future potential customers.

Aaron Clifford · Jul 26, 2012

Speaking as a public catcher, my control panel lets people book names if they are not booked by somebody else, If you get in there first and hypothetically booked "loans.co.uk" then that's well done for you for getting there before anyone else did. You'll see the name in your account as booked and then as long as I caught it for you regardless of the quality of name it's just the same price.

I am only speaking from my own experiences I'm sure everyone else would agree, you'd quickly loose customers if not.

Also when booking a name with a private catcher who offers public catching, make sure you don't just come out with the name, either ask for them to send you a list of what they are going for or have booked on the day before you let them know what you are after.

RobM · Jul 26, 2012

I should add that in this industry reputation is worth *way* more than a few pounds.

David · Jul 26, 2012

Thanks guys.

I also suppose there is the auction format for people who accept more than 1 customer per domain.

Aiden Roberts · Jul 26, 2012

On from this and as I do not understand the mechanics of catching my question is this: is a public catcher less likely to catch a semi premium because thier script is polling for multiple names where as a private individual catching for themselves will be using all the polling for one name therefore increasing the chances of catching it or have I got this all wrong?

Blossom · Jul 26, 2012

You also have the benefit of getting well-known in the industry and listing examples of great domains you've caught to attract new customers. More of a long-term strategy than a quick flip, and no hassle with buyers.

redbird · Jul 26, 2012

Aiden Roberts said:
On from this and as I do not understand the mechanics of catching my question is this: is a public catcher less likely to catch a semi premium because thier script is polling for multiple names where as a private individual catching for themselves will be using all the polling for one name therefore increasing the chances of catching it or have I got this all wrong?

That is pretty much it except that public catchers may also only have one name in their list (e.g at 11.30pm when all others dropped) which puts them on an equal footing with private catchers (assuming all other things like script quality being equal).

Admin · Jul 26, 2012

Are any premium domains still dropping? The domain lists I have looked at lately the drop quality is very poor. I saw 44 domains caught yesterday and I would not reg any of them if they were available today.

Maybe my lists are just out of date but it looks to me like the days of decent catch possibilities each day are gone.

Admin

tifosi · Jul 26, 2012

Aiden Roberts said:
On from this and as I do not understand the mechanics of catching my question is this: is a public catcher less likely to catch a semi premium because thier script is polling for multiple names where as a private individual catching for themselves will be using all the polling for one name therefore increasing the chances of catching it or have I got this all wrong?

Depends on how many are loaded for a particular day and when during the day the domain drops. Potentially the system may be monitoring only one domain at the time.

We book on a first-come basis one per domain atm.

Stephen
DACr

RobM · Jul 26, 2012

Very simple:
As a buyer - backorder everywhere possibly. Private or public catchers or even get your own tag. Will most likely cost you £xx to catch an expensive domain.
As a seller - try to catch what is backordered and compete with many others. Pay £xxx per year tag and server hosting along with $xxx per month. Hope you can play with the others or you're wasting all you're moneyi if your script is too slow and/or you are too far from nominet's servers.

As a buyer it's really a no lose situation.
If you are worried about privacy get your own tag, write faster software, and reap your rewards. Just be prepared to invest hundreds of hours and thousands of pounds - and then if your software is slow be prepared to lose 99.9% of the drops

Remember : if you catch it then nobody else was chasing it - you aren't good

namealot · Jul 27, 2012

admin said:
Maybe my lists are just out of date

Admin

Rule of thumb is if it looks like above or is written on papyrus or stone its time you update

PoshTiger · Jul 27, 2012

On that note - where does everyone get their lists from - do you create them yourselves?

I just usually check domainview and domainlore but I'm guessing I'm missing quite a few.

Do Nominet provide anything?

D600 · Jul 27, 2012

A good drop catcher is in it for their drop catching business to succeed not look at stealing others domains.

PoshTiger · Jul 27, 2012

Not all drop catchers are public catchers..

RobM · Jul 27, 2012

@Poshtiger - Nominet don't provide any information. You have to make your own lists or use other peoples. It's hard to get every single domain registered so usually best to focus on the important ones of value.