Verisign just announced on their blog they will extend the wholesale redemption fee waiver for .com and .net domain names until August 1, 2020. They will also add .TV and .CC and their other TLDs starting June 1.
From their post:
…we are announcing today that the waiver of the wholesale restore fee for .com and .net domain names is extended until August 1, 2020 at 03:59:59 UTC.
We are also expanding the waiver of the wholesale restore fees to include the .cc, .tv,…
Source:VerisIGN Blog 5/28/2020
So this means that names that have survived any pre-release auctions that actually go to redemption can be “restored” only to the original registrant. There are two components of the restoration or redemption fee – the registry portion and the registrar mark-up. Verisgn has and will continue to waive their portion, about $65 its estimated.
Its not clear whether a restored domain will reverse a pre-release auction. As I mentioned earlier, this sets up the industry for some bad press in some visible instances where owners lose their names due to Pandemic delays. For my book, I still think auctions should be delayed for the 60 day period. No one loses, just benefits delayed.
For .com these fees in total were usually priced from under $100 depending on your relationship with certain registrars, to the toasty $240 with Enom (still the least domainer friendly registrar out there in my book).
So Verisign has waived the registry portion, and many registrar have also waived their normal mark-up (Thank you Namebright, Epik, Uniregistry and Dynadot – although $10 late fee still applies-, along with many others.
Pages Pro Tip – Want to try outbound with no risk. Do emails or messages on social networks on one or more of your names in redemption at friendly registrars. You have not paid the renewal, and don’t have to. So if you can sell the name for above the redemption fee, now $10-15, its all profit.
You only have the chance to make money, cant lose. So welcome the fear of rejection, overcome laziness, stop saying “its too hard”, or not worth it – what have you got to lose. And you will be selling names that others have to wait til they drop to buy. Sell them now pre-drop.. and practice outbound – learn things and get better to sell your more valuable names.
Good luck and Happy Domaining.
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