Ask HN: Purchasing a "Premium" Domain

1 points by devld 120 days ago | 2 comments

I looked up a domain and it turns out it's a premium one. On both NameCheap and GoDaddy I can supposedly add it to cart for $2250. I look up who.is and it turns out it's owned by NameSilo. I look it up on NameSilo and I can "start bidding" at $300. Do you have any experience purchasing premium domains? Does NameCheap guarantee that price or is it only a bid that can be rejected? I would rather spend $2k if it was guaranteed "buy now" experience, not sure if I should try that or start bidding at the source.

Edit: I read about cases where people were refunded money after a month, because obviously NameCheap does not own this and if they fail to acquire it, you don't get the domain. So bidding for it at NameSilo seems like the best bet.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Domains/comments/1ghsfib/namecheap_refunded_my_purchased_premium_domain_25/

7777777phil 120 days ago |

The thing I would look out for is the "follow up price" i.e. you might be able to get it for the minimum bid of let's say $300 but that's only for the first year. The second year might be some astronomical price. On NameCheap and GoDaddy etc it's usually disclosed like that.

arwt 120 days ago | |

Is there anything stopping you from transferring it to a different registrar before renewal, who might not charge you as much?

Or is the renewal price for "premium" domains controlled by the registry (e.g. Verisign)?