domain suspended should i contact the owner?

[goldmercury]

I believe the owner is not going to renew a .co.uk domian which is 6 years old and was never developed into a site. I was just going to catch the domian however the niche the domain belongs to is quite competitive.

I am now in 2 minds, should I contact the owner and ask if he'd transfer to me? The domain is 6 years old which means google will put some good weight on the age.

Or should I just catch it when it drops? Problem is the weight of the age in google serps will be reset, but if I contact the owner it might alert them to the domain becoming dropped....

What would you do?

 

[aZooZa]

Book it for when it's supposed to drop. Also call Nominet and ask them if they know of any reason why it shouldn't drop as normal.

 

[fish]

What would you do?

Forget the 'weight' google might give it, age on it's own won't rank it ( & until you own it, it's immaterial ).

Step 1 is to acquire it, if you 'must have' the domain then by whatever means is necessary.

 

[wb]

From experience, a lot of the time people who are letting domains drop don't realise they are expired and will want to renew them if they find out. They will then either a) not want to sell or b) want a price far exceeding market value.

This is a big generalisation of course, and it's difficult to predict without doing some investigating into the domain. How good is the domain? Are you familiar with the tags of some of the main domain holders and catchers? It may have been left to expire deliberately to create interest before getting renewed.

 

[aZooZa]

The main question is whether you think a domain will drop (or has not dropped) according to the Nominet guidelines. If under certain well-known tags, best forget it.

 

[mat]

I once emailed/rang a company offering to buy their expired domain name for £500. Was told they were keeping it and to not waste my time...

Then to my horror I watch as it drops and gets caught by "ONE OF YOU ON THIS HERE FORUM" who now is holding it at ransome

 

[Rob_F]

I once emailed/rang a company offering to buy their expired domain name for £500. Was told they were keeping it and to not waste my time...

Then to my horror I watch as it drops and gets caught by "ONE OF YOU ON THIS HERE FORUM" who now is holding it at ransome

Go on, who was it?

- Rob

 

[wb]

Then to my horror I watch as it drops and gets caught by "ONE OF YOU ON THIS HERE FORUM" who now is holding it at ransome

Happened to me with the fairly recent 'traders' drop - I had made a good offer as well

 

[aZooZa]

Mat tell all. What's the domain? Nobody here with a grain of integrity would care? I can tell you that we (DS) have xxx unclaimed domains - some of which we are renewing. Getting sick of it. Just had one bitching about an Oct 2010 domain (booked/caught) not transferred lively. Go figure.

 

[mat]

Its fine. It was my initials, so a three letter .co.uk

I wanted it, but not for the kind of money the catcher wants for it now.

Just a shame that the company dropped it in the first place (It was their companies initials aswell) and didnt sell it to me before it dropped if that was their intention.


Makes me feel like hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del

 

[aZooZa]

Its fine. It was my initials, so a three letter .co.uk

I wanted it, but not for the kind of money the catcher wants for it now.

Just a shame that the company dropped it in the first place (It was their companies initials aswell) and didnt sell it to me before it dropped if that was their intention.


Makes me feel like hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del

Make sure it's a £30 catch. All else is bullshit. A catcher offers a service for a stated fee, regardless. We had ifo.co.uk booked and caught it - how much did we charge? Why £30 of course. (Stated with permission). We also have many lll.co.uk caught publicly. No often, but more so with our hosted clients. I hate it with a passion when people get ripped off.

 

[wb]

The way I read it was that Mat didn't have it booked with a catcher, it just happened to be caught by one after the company didn't renew it even though he offered £500.

This is reminding me I really need to get set up with catching on my own tag once my DAC finally gets activated...

 

[aZooZa]

The way I read it was that Mat didn't have it booked with a catcher, it just happened to be caught by one after the company didn't renew it even though he offered £500.

This is reminding me I really need to get set up with catching on my own tag once my DAC finally gets activated...

Pick an ethical operator with a track record over years

Good luck.

 

[mat]

Sorry if I'm being confusing! The domain name wasn't caught for me, it was just caught and is now for sale, but more than I would like to pay. That is why I offered the company who dropped it 500 in hope that they wouldn't let it expire.

 

[wb]

Pick an ethical operator with a track record over years

Think I have one sorted when the time comes Mr Hubbard

By the way, was just about to email you about some drops I added last week to my DS account. There are some where I forgot to add the '.co.uk' extension onto them - I've added them again correctly though, so the ones I've got booked in which don't have an extension just need to be removed. Cheers!

 

[aZooZa]

Think I have one sorted when the time comes Mr Hubbard

By the way, was just about to email you about some drops I added last week to my DS account. There are some where I forgot to add the '.co.uk' extension onto them - I've added them again correctly though, so the ones I've got booked in which don't have an extension just need to be removed. Cheers!

Email me directly: [email protected]

You need to book the correct name and extension. I will check and amend as necessary. I will make any necessary changes.

 

[ABCV]

I had a similar experience a month ago.

Domain was about to drop, contacted owner (in the USA) and owner agreed to sell for £500 but then owner stopped all communication having been warned of the time constraints and drop date, domain dropped and got caught by "someone here!!!" and then the owner contacts me with payment details. What is the point of that????!!!

It's really frustrating!!!