Editing Domain name speculation (section)

== Secondary market speculation ==
{{more citations needed|date=October 2010}}
{{see also|Domain aftermarket}}
The secondary market for domain names covers previously registered domain names that have not been renewed by registrants or are available for resale.<ref name="nominet1"/> Sometimes these ''dropped'' domain names can be more valuable due to their having had high-profile websites associated with them. They will have links from other websites and could still have users searching for the websites because of these links. Others can be valuable because of the generic nature of the domain name or the length of the domain name, with two and three character names being the most sought after.

The business of registering the domain names as they are deleted by the registries is known as ''[[drop catching]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Drop-Catching|url=http://icannwiki.org/Drop-Catching|website=ICANNWiki|access-date=24 November 2015}}</ref> It is a highly competitive business. The main operators in this business typically set up a number of front companies as registrars. [[VeriSign]], in the case of TLDs [[.com|COM]] and [[.net|NET]], allows each registrar a slice of the resources that may be used to register dropped domains. VeriSign drops domains in a random order, giving registrars only a vague idea of the particular drop time of a particular domain. Sometimes a group of [[drop registrar]]s often work in confederation to increase their possibility of registering a dropped domain immediately after it is deleted by the registry.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Jackson|first1=Ron|title=Inside a Drop Catcher's War Room: How eNom Arms Maker Chris Ambler Is Turning The Tide for Club Drop|url=http://www.dnjournal.com/columns/cover080504.htm|website=Domain Name Journal|access-date=24 November 2015}}</ref> If the domain is caught by a confederation of registrars attempting to fulfill a domain backorder, then whichever domain registrar caught the domain will register it to the entity who backordered the domain. If the newly reregistered domain is captured by a company that has no customers who backordered it, the domain may be auctioned to the highest bidder by the registrar who captured it or an auction intermediary. The time between a drop and a capture is often measured in seconds or fractions thereof.

Some registrars do not allow domains to drop in the normal fashion, instead introducing an intermediary (e.g., Snapnames and Namejet) that auction the domain prior to their deletion. If nobody buys the domain at auction, it will pass through the normal deletion process.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Cole|first1=Mason|title=The Domain Name Secondary Market|url=https://archive.icann.org/en/meetings/lisbon/presentation-secondary-snap-25mar07.pdf|website=ICANN|publisher=SnapNames|access-date=24 November 2015}}</ref>