Snapnames: the second best pool of expiring domains

Recommended Snapnames auctions

We analyze more than 100,000 domains every day. These are the very best domains among the domains that can be exclusively backordered at Snapnames.

Domain backorder

Snapnames is a domain marketplace specialized in expiring domains. This field is dominated by the two giants, Namejet and Snapnames. Having more great domains in the portfolio is as “easy” as developing exclusive partnership with more big registrars or even registries. Currently Namejet has a stronger partner list, therefore they have more great names in their auctions but Snapnames is also one to watch. Find below the exclusive list of Snapnames partners – any domain expiring at these companies will be auctioned (prereleased) at Snapnames.

Snapnames Registry, Registrar and Reseller partners

And some more smaller registrars.

One of the latest exclusive partnership was signed by Club Registry, so all dropping .club domains are auctioned at Snapnames. At the moment, there are 7434 .club domains on this list. They recently changed their process to not show the bids to improve value for domain investors. Before they did that there were almost 250 names with a large number with multiple bidders.

Although exclusive partners can provide a constant flow of great domains, often non-exclusive domain names are the bests. When such a domain name goes to pending delete status, all companies involved in dropcatching will try to get the domain in the prefect millisecond when the domain is deleted. Snapnames is one of the best company in securing non-exclusive pending delete domains, they are competing mainly with Namejet and Dropcatch here. So without doubt, any pending domain that you want to secure must be backordered with Snapnames, too.

Backordering domain names at Snapnames

Top 20 sales on Snapnames this year (01/01/2015-01/09/2015)

Snapnames top sales are not public so this is the top list of our own backorders and the list is not complete (although we try to bid on the best names to have as complete statistics as possible). Maybe the most interesting domain on the list is projects.com, which was a pending delete domain and Snapnames won the dropcatching challenge. This was maybe the best pending delete domain this year and the auction finished over 80,000 USD. While the winning bidder did not pay, the domain was bought by the second highest bidder. As it turned out the new owner of the domain is Namerific, which is a brandable domain marketplace and projects.com is listed for resale with a price tag over 300k there.

Being a bit less popular than Namejet, sale prices are often slightly lower than elsewhere. At least the number of bidders are less, which might have a consequence on the sale price. This is not always true, howevever, great names will always have a bidder who will pay almost any money to win the auction. Backorder cost is the highest on the field with a minimum fee of $69, so Snapnames is not recommended for bulk backordering of low quality pending delete names.

Selling domain names with Snapnames

Although private sales are not the focus of Snapnames, it is possible to list your names at Snapnames. They have monthly showcase auctions, where anyone can submit domain names. Unfortunately a domain must be hosted at Network Solutions to submit it for sale. The auctioned names will be chosen by Snapnames brokers and domains that worth above $500 USD will qualify for auction according to my experience. These 30 days auctions don’t get too much promotion and most of the names are unsold. The monthly showcase auction is not the best place to maximize the sale price, additionally there is a 20% success fee, so it is not an ideal marketplace for sellers. Since most of the private names have an extraordinary high reserve price in the auction, it is also not common to buy a great name for low price in showcase auctions.

Final notes

Snapnames is a great marketplace for buying exclusive prerelase domains and one of the most successful company for domain backorders, therefore it is one of the most important portal for domainers.