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Last updated: 2026-11-13
Version: 2.34

# A backorder does not guarantee you the name

A backorder gives you a chance at the name, not the name itself. If the catcher wins and yours is the only order, the name is yours. If others ordered too, an auction decides.

Course: Buy names that sell
Chapter 9 of 13, 13 min read
Published 2026-11-10, reviewed 2026-11-13.

You want an expired name. A catcher, a service that tries to register a name the second it is released, offers you a backorder: an order you pay for only if it catches the name. That reads like a reservation. It is not. Before that release, called the drop, the holder can still renew. At the drop, several catchers compete for the same name, and none is promised a win.

By the end of this chapter, you can read a name's stage in WHOIS and say where it will be sold before any drop. You can place orders where they have a chance, before each deadline, and delete the old ones that still bid for you. And you can follow the name to its drop with a Watch, while the order stays yours to place.

## What you will be able to do

- You can read a name's stage in WHOIS and say whether its holder can still renew it.
- You can find where a registrar sells its expiring names before they ever drop.
- You can say what a single order wins, and what happens when two people order the same name.
- You can order at several catchers before their deadlines, and clear your old orders.
- You can follow a name to its drop with a Watch.

## Two phases: the holder's, then the registry's

An expired name passes through two phases, and an order means something different in each. In the first phase, the registrar holds the name and sets how long its holder may renew it. ICANN's 2013 recovery policy lets a registrar delete an expired name at any time. ICANN's deletion policy, in its 2020 text, requires the deletion within 45 days, outside special cases.

Deletion opens the second phase. On generic endings such as .com, the name spends 30 days in a stage called redemption. Under the 2013 policy its site stops working, and only the holder can restore it, through the registrar. The policy gives that right for those 30 days only. Then the registry, the company that runs the ending, marks the name pending delete.

Pending delete lasts five days. Andrew Allemann gave this as one reason for searching for names and backordering them every five days (Domain Name Wire, 22 May 2024). When those five days end, the registry releases the name to anyone, and that release is the drop. Dynadot's help page, archived in December 2024, puts most drops 75 days after expiry.

The drop is a contest between catchers, each trying to register the name first. More registrars give a catcher more connections to the registry, and so a better chance at each drop, which is why catchers hold many. Domain Incite reported on 3 September 2026, from ICANN's records, that DropCatch's owner controls over 1,500 registrars, almost 47% of the 3,323 that ICANN lists. SnapNames' owner holds over 500.

## The registrar's auction comes first

Andrew Allemann listed, for each registrar, where it sends its expired names before deleting them (Domain Name Wire, 23 October 2023). Many go to GoDaddy, many to NameJet and SnapNames, while Dynadot, Namecheap and NameSilo sell their own. The article notes that this list is always in flux.

In a direct transfer, which Allemann explained on Domain Name Wire on 18 March 2021, the name goes to the auction's winner without passing through the registry's full deletion cycle, and it keeps its original registration date. So a name held at a registrar with such a programme goes to that auction first. The catchers at the drop get what is left.

The venues differ on who can still take the name back. At GoDaddy in 2017, Allemann wrote, no backorder was needed, anyone could bid, and the holder could still renew after the auction was won. At NameJet, only the people who had ordered by a deadline joined a three-day auction, and the holder could no longer renew once that auction was won.

GoDaddy has since ended backorders. Allemann reported on 8 August 2024 that GoDaddy was ending the product, which had lost its purpose years before. Under the rule the 2024 report describes, a credit left over from the product placed a $25 first bid on a name with no bids; if nobody else bid, you paid $15 more and took the name.

Those credits could be used until 7 October 2025 (Domain Name Wire, 25 June 2025). So, before you order, find the registrar that holds the name. If that registrar's partner auctions the name, bid there, because a catcher's order only waits for what that auction leaves.

## One order takes the name, two start an auction

A backorder reserves nothing. If the venue gets the name and nobody else ordered it, you get the name at the order's price. If several people ordered it, the venue holds an auction, and your order gives you the right to bid in it. The bidding, not the order, then sets what you pay.

Who may bid depends on the venue and the year. In 2021, Allemann wrote, only the people who had ordered in advance could bid at NameJet and SnapNames, while DropCatch let anyone bid. There, other bidders benefit from the research behind your order. Dynadot's help page of 2024 gives the opening bid to the first order placed, at the backorder price.

The right to bid is worth having even on a name others ordered. Elliot Silver often backordered such names at NameJet to keep the option to bid after more research (DomainInvesting, 2 May 2012). The same post carries a warning: if the others delete their orders before a delayed auction, yours can end up as the leading bid on a name you no longer want.

A caught name is a new registration, and it lands at the registrar the catcher picks. Names won at NameJet and SnapNames land at various registrars, Allemann noted in 2021. And ICANN's transfer policy of 2016 lets a registrar refuse a move to another registrar in the first 60 days of a registration.

## Case: Ordered at three catchers, caught by one

- Caught by DropCatch in the test: 2 of 6
- Caught by SnapNames: 2 of 4
- Bespoke.com auction, May 2014: $18,805
- DropCatch fee on a catch, 2014: $59

Andrew Allemann ran a week's test of DropCatch, then in a limited beta, and reported it on Domain Name Wire on 12 May 2014. Of six names backordered there, DropCatch caught two. Four of the same names were also ordered at SnapNames, which caught two of them. The article calls the test far too small to be conclusive.

The same article tells of Bespoke.com, which had dropped the week before. Allemann had backordered it at DropCatch, SnapNames and NameJet, and DropCatch caught it. Its auction had just ended at $18,805. DropCatch charged $59 when it caught a name, the same fee as NameJet and $10 less than SnapNames. Any DropCatch customer could bid in its auctions, not only the people who had ordered the name.

Here is the arithmetic. Two names caught of six is one in three, and two of four is one in two. Neither catcher caught every name, and DropCatch itself advised ordering at several services. As for the money, the $59 fee came to about 0.3% of the $18,805 that the bidding reached.

The lesson is that an order at one catcher covers only that catcher. For a name you want, order wherever it may be caught, and budget for what the auction may cost, not for the fee.

Source: Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, "DropCatch.com enters the expired domain business with a bang", 2014-05-12, https://domainnamewire.com/2014/05/12/dropcatch-com-expired-domains/

## Order at several catchers, before each deadline

For a name you want, order at every catcher that may catch it. Each catcher works with its own registrars, and none wins every drop. On .com and .net, the hour of the drop has changed: from 1 October 2026, Verisign, the company that runs both endings, starts their drop around 12:00 UTC instead of in the evening (Domain Name Wire, 9 September 2026).

For that drop, SnapNames and NameJet encouraged orders no later than 15 minutes before it begins, and DropCatch asked for 30 minutes. On 8 September 2026, Elliot Silver relayed DropCatch's notice of an 11:30 UTC cutoff, and noted on 1 October 2026 that each platform may have its own deadline. So read the deadline at the venue where you place your order.

A NameJet order tipped off other investors, Allemann wrote in 2017, so rivals gathered at the backorder deadline. Ordering close to the deadline leaves those rivals less time to follow you, which is our inference, not a venue's rule. As far as Silver knew in 2026, DropCatch did not reveal how many orders a name had, so the timing of an order there should not matter.

## Case: Ordered in 2010, won at auction in 2014

- Order placed at NameJet: 2010
- Renewed by the holder: 2010 to 2013
- Won at auction, 2014: $2,598

Konstantinos Zournas backordered DNSHost.com at NameJet, along with a few other people, after the name expired in March 2010, and told the story on OnlineDomain on 24 April 2014. The auction never came, because the name was renewed. The same happened in 2011, 2012 and 2013, though the article recalls, without being sure, an auction in 2011 before that year's renewal.

In 2014, the name finally entered a NameJet auction. Zournas won it for $2,598 and moved it to another registrar at once, to be sure the name was won for good and would not be renewed months after its expiry.

The arithmetic is brief. One order, placed in 2010, waited through four renewals and won in the fifth year. The price, $2,598, came from the auction, not from the order.

The lesson is that before the drop, the holder decides. An order placed in that phase can wait for years, and it buys the right to bid in an auction, not the name. Keep such an order only on a name you would still buy.

Source: Konstantinos Zournas, OnlineDomain, "How I won the domain DNSHost.com 4 years after I backordered it…", 2014-04-24, https://onlinedomain.com/2014/04/24/domain-name-news/how-i-won-the-domain-dnshost-com-4-years-after-i-backordered-it/

## An old order is still a bid

An old order can stay live for years. Elliot Silver described, in a DomainInvesting post of 29 November 2009, being the second to order a name at SnapNames and yet becoming the leading bidder. The first order was two or three years old, the card behind it had expired, and SnapNames had suspended that account.

Konstantinos Zournas described letting a name drop, then winning it back through a NameJet order left in place since the year before (OnlineDomain, 21 August 2014). NameJet refused a refund. Its support replied that a pending delete order could be removed only while the bid stood at the minimum and the name was not in a pending auction.

Dynadot's help page, archived in December 2024, allows deleting an order only while at least 24 hours remain before the drop. By ordering, you agreed to pay, the page adds. An order left in place requires payment, and without payment you risk a ban from Dynadot's auctions. So clear your list of orders before every week of drops.

## The rule

A backorder is a bid, not a claim. Before the drop, the holder can still renew, and the registrar's partner auctions the name first. At the drop, no catcher wins every time, and two orders start an auction. So order at several catchers before each deadline, and delete every order you no longer want.

## What WHOIS and a Watch tell you

We track drops, not catches. WHOIS reads one name's registry record and states its stage in plain words. For a name that is expired, in redemption or in pending delete, WHOIS offers to watch the name for the drop, and it names DropCatch, NameJet and SnapNames as backorder venues. We place no order anywhere.

The drop day follows a rule of ours. WHOIS prints an exact day only on endings where the scanner has measured the five days of pending delete, such as .xyz and .dev. Even there, it prints the day only after seeing the name move from redemption into pending delete. On .com, .net and .io, it shows only the stage, because a day we have not measured would be a guess.

A Watch mails you when the record changes, unless the Within ten minutes mail is off in your settings. On an ending where we give a drop day, the mail comes when the name enters pending delete and gives that day. Otherwise it comes once the name is free to register. Watched names dropping within ten days also gather in the Dropping soon card of Watchlists, with their backorder price.

The order itself is a hand-off: you place it at the venue. In Watchlists and on the Drops tab of Auctions, a dropping name carries Backorder. Its sheet names the venue with the lowest backorder quote we hold, and its price, paid only if the name is caught. Pressing Place the backorder opens that venue in a new tab. After the drop day we ask whether you caught it.

Before you pay for an order, look for the name in Auctions. Auctions reads GoDaddy, Dynadot, Namecheap, NameSilo and SnapNames, among other venues. So a name we track, sold at one of them before its drop, shows in Auctions with its deadline. DropCatch and NameJet are not among the venues it reads.

## Before you place an order

- Read the name's stage in WHOIS: it is expired, in redemption or in pending delete.
- Find out where the name's registrar sends its expiring names, and bid there first.
- Look for the name in Auctions before you pay a catcher.
- Order at every catcher that may catch the name, not at a single one.
- Note each venue's deadline for orders on the drop day, in UTC.
- Read who may bid at each venue: only the people who ordered, or every customer.
- Write down the most you will bid before you order.
- Watch the name, so that news of its drop and its release reaches you by mail.
- Delete the orders you no longer want before every week of drops.

## Ask a catcher how its order works

Send this message to a catcher's support before you place your first order there.

> Hello,
>
> Before I backorder [name], could you confirm in writing:
>
> 1. Whether I pay only if you catch the name, and how much I pay if mine is the sole order.
>
> 2. Who may bid when several people have ordered the name, and what my order counts as in that auction.
>
> 3. Your deadline for orders on [ending] names on [drop day], in UTC.
>
> 4. Until when I can delete the order, and whether an order I leave in place stays active in later years.
>
> Thank you,
>
> [your name]

Keep the reply with your order. A venue's rules change, and the reply puts a date on the rule you relied on.

## Try it in WHOIS

1. Open WHOIS and type an expired name you want, or one from the Dropping soon card of Watchlists. Write down its stage in plain words and its registrar.
2. If WHOIS offers to wait for the drop, write down the drop day, or note that none shows, then write down the backorder venues it names.
3. On the Investor plan, press the Watch button with the name on it, so that a mail reaches you when the record changes. If a drop day shows, press Add to my calendar.
4. Open the Drops tab of Auctions, an Investor-plan page, which lists names with a drop day in the next ten days, and find the name or its ending. Where Backorder shows, open its sheet and write down the venue and the price, paid only if the name is caught, before you place anything.

Do this in Unique Domains: Open WHOIS. The public page: https://unique.domains/whois

## Sources

- ICANN, "Expired Registration Recovery Policy", 2013-02-28, https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/errp-2013-02-28-en
- ICANN, "Expired Domain Deletion Policy", 2020-01-01, https://www.icann.org/en/contracted-parties/consensus-policies/expired-domain-deletion-policy/expired-domain-deletion-policy-01-01-2020-en
- Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, "Expired domain hunting: daily or less frequently?", 2024-05-22, https://domainnamewire.com/2024/05/22/expired-domain-hunting-daily-or-less-frequently/
- Dynadot, "Dynadot Help", 2024-12, https://www.dynadot.com/community/help/backorders
- Kevin Murphy, Domain Incite, "DropCatch acquires 300 more registrars", 2026-09-03, https://domainincite.com/31912-dropcatch-acquires-300-more-registrars
- Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, "Expired domains: where each registrar sends their domains", 2023-10-23, https://domainnamewire.com/2023/10/23/expired-domains-where-each-registrar-sends-their-domains/
- Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, "Comparing expired domain name platforms", 2021-03-18, https://domainnamewire.com/2021/03/18/comparing-expired-domain-name-platforms/
- Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, "Comparing the GoDaddy Auctions model vs. NameJet model", 2017-10-23, https://domainnamewire.com/2017/10/23/godaddy-auctions-vs-namejet/
- Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, "GoDaddy sunsets backorders", 2024-08-08, https://domainnamewire.com/2024/08/08/godaddy-sunsets-backorders/
- Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, "GoDaddy extends backorder deadline by 60 days", 2025-06-25, https://domainnamewire.com/2025/06/25/godaddy-extends-backorder-deadline-by-60-days/
- Elliot Silver, DomainInvesting, "Delete Old NameJet Backorders", 2012-05-02, https://domaininvesting.com/delete-old-namejet-backorders/
- ICANN, "Transfer Policy", 2016-06-01, https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/transfer-policy-2016-06-01-en
- Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, "DropCatch.com enters the expired domain business with a bang", 2014-05-12, https://domainnamewire.com/2014/05/12/dropcatch-com-expired-domains/
- Andrew Allemann, Domain Name Wire, "Verisign changes drop time for .com and .net domains", 2026-09-09, https://domainnamewire.com/2026/09/09/verisign-changes-drop-time-for-com-and-net-domains/
- Elliot Silver, DomainInvesting, "DropCatch: Backorder Time Changing", 2026-09-08, https://domaininvesting.com/dropcatch-backorder-time-changing/
- Elliot Silver, DomainInvesting, ".com/.net Pending Delete Backorder Time Changed Today", 2026-10-01, https://domaininvesting.com/com-net-pending-delete-backorder-time-changed-today/
- Konstantinos Zournas, OnlineDomain, "How I won the domain DNSHost.com 4 years after I backordered it…", 2014-04-24, https://onlinedomain.com/2014/04/24/domain-name-news/how-i-won-the-domain-dnshost-com-4-years-after-i-backordered-it/
- Elliot Silver, DomainInvesting, "Being Bidder #2 on Snapnames", 2009-11-29, https://domaininvesting.com/2-bidder-on-snapnames/
- Konstantinos Zournas, OnlineDomain, "Namejet Refuses To Refund Backorder Made Last Year (Just Won A Domain I Dropped)", 2014-08-21, https://onlinedomain.com/2014/08/21/domain-name-news/namejet-refuses-to-refund-backorder-made-last-year-just-won-a-domain-i-dropped/

This course explains how the trade works. It is not legal or financial advice.

## Related pages

- Look up a name’s registry record, status codes and drop date: https://unique.domains/whois
- See how investors find names worth holding: https://unique.domains/solutions/investors
- Read every domain word in plain English: https://unique.domains/glossary