Why do some premium domain owners leave it to last minute to renew their portfolio?

[vaporub]

As title says, why do some premium domain owners leave it to last minute to renew their portfolio e.g. last 1 week / couple days before drop date?

Can the domain be set up such that it is renewed automatically couple days before the drop date? If not, what if they fall sick (especially now) and have to go hospital or unable to access internet?

I understand renewing domains at last minute might get them some marketing as they will appear on drop lists but it seems like a very big risk to save a very small renewal amount?

 

[dee]

Can the domain be set up such that it is renewed automatically couple days before the drop date? If not, what if they fall sick (especially now) and have to go hospital or unable to access internet?

yes.....usually. Most registrars will auto renew an if you have your own tag there are various options

 

[newguy]

I always figured they also did it to draw a bit of attention to the domains (and get peoples hopes up )

 

[Lovekraft]

Yep, Quite a few of the larger portfolio holders have adopted this over the years, I guess to gain some free exposure having the domains published on droplists. It must work to some degree because they've been doing it for years!

 

[Ben Thomas]

The real reason is cashflow. Why renew until you absolutely have to. Most of the domains that investors buy don't have any nameservers, they're just sitting there on their tag. So it doesn't really matter when they're suspended, as they weren't using it anyway.

 

[namealot]

There is no reason to spend the money till you have too...