Set up once. Then every pick is one click.

The five rules that save you money

• Open the live listing before every bid. Our numbers are from our last pull, up to fifteen minutes old, and the last twenty minutes are where the price moves.
• Set a maximum, not a bid. Every venue here runs proxy bidding: you enter the most you will pay, the system bids the minimum needed and raises only when someone outbids you. Decide the number before you look at the clock.
• Know the increment. A $12 name at GoDaddy needs a $17 bid; a $59 name at DropCatch moves in $5 steps; Namecheap moves $1 under $50. Odd maximums ($61, $127) beat round ones because they clear the other proxy by one step.
• The close is not the close. Namecheap, DropCatch and Dynadot each add five minutes after any bid in the last five minutes, with no limit; GoDaddy says late bids may extend. A noon close can run past one.
• Know what you owe before you win. The bid is not the price: Namecheap and Dynadot add the renewal fee, GoDaddy adds a year's renewal plus the ICANN fee, DropCatch's $59 is the price for a single backorder. Every venue bans you for not paying.

Namecheap Market (most .ai names, many .com)

Our .ai lane lives here. $15 openers with zero bids are normal.

• Account: a free Namecheap account, then a Market username (it can be set only once) and a phone number verified by SMS code.
• Approval: a Market subscription of $5 a year, non-refundable, auto-renewing (you can turn renewal off). Onboarding requires an account balance of at least $100. That $100 is yours; it is not a fee. It pays for your first wins.
• Big bids: new users need $1,000 in account funds before any bid of $10,000 or more. Select high-value .ai auctions run as Secure Bids, which need a balance of 10% of the bid, in $5,000 tiers.
• Bidding: proxy. Increments $1 to $50, $3 to $100, $5 to $500, $10 to $1,000, $25 to $2,500, $50 to $5,000, $100 to $10,000, then $200 and $500. Equal maximums: the earlier bid wins. A maximum cannot be lowered.
• Extension: a bid in the last five minutes resets the clock to five minutes.
• If you win: pay within 72 hours from the Invoices tab or the email; the listing shows the renewal fee that is added (about $18 for a .com). The name then shows as Marketplace Sale Pending Verification in your Domain List until Namecheap approves the transfer by hand.
• If you do not pay: the listing is cancelled and re-auctioned, and you can lose the right to bid.

Source: Namecheap Auctions Bidding Guide.

DropCatch (aged .com drops, the $59 names)

Our wholesale seats live here. These are names whose owner let them expire; DropCatch catches them at the registry and auctions them when more than one person wants them.

• Account: free, no subscription. A credit card on file is required to use the platform at all.
• Approval: your account must be verified before your first bid. Verification takes up to 72 hours and is at DropCatch's discretion; new accounts have been asked for proof of funds or payment history. Start this today.
• Money: card, PayPal, or a funded NameBright balance (DropCatch's registrar). Funding by card or PayPal costs 3% and that fee is not credited back.
• Bidding: every bid is a proxy bid and the winner pays the second-highest bid plus one increment. Increments $5 under $100, $10 to $199, $20 to $499, $50 to $999, $100 to $4,999, $250 to $9,999, then $500, $1,000, $2,500.
• Clock: auctions run 3 to 5 days and end at 1:00 PM Mountain, which is noon Arizona in winter and 1:00 PM Arizona in summer; our tapes already show Arizona time. They never end on a weekend. A bid in the last five minutes resets the clock to five minutes.
• If you win: DropCatch charges your default card or balance automatically at about 2:00 AM Mountain the next night. Pay by hand before then if you want a different method. Four days unpaid suspends the account; ten days closes it.
• A single $59 backorder with no competition is simply charged and the name is yours; backorders are binding after the 11:30 UTC cutoff on drop day.

Sources: How auctions work · Payments · Backorders.

Dynadot (expired .com auctions, paid edition)

• Account: free. You must have spent $5 with Dynadot before you can bid; prepaying $5 counts, and it is applied to your first win.
• Deposits: bids of $2,000 or more lock 10% of the bid in your balance until you are outbid or you pay. Win and fail to pay and the deposit is kept.
• Bidding: proxy. A bid in the last five minutes extends the auction five minutes, without limit. Bids cannot be withdrawn.
• If you win: 48 hours to pay, bid plus renewal fee. The name reaches your Dynadot account in about four days and then sits in Auction Lock for about fifteen days. Not paying bans you from auctions and backorders; the second-highest bidder gets the order and 24 hours to pay it.

Source: Dynadot: what is an expired auction.

GoDaddy Auctions (expiring .com, rare in our lists)

• Account: a GoDaddy account plus a GoDaddy Auctions membership, listed at $4.99 a year on GoDaddy's own auctions page; offers do not need it, bids on expired names do.
• Approval: an unverified auctions account may place only two bids for a total of $1,500. Verify before you need to.
• Bidding: proxy; a $12 name needs a $17 bid, an $1,100 name needs $1,125. Proxy bids are binding. Late bids may extend the auction.
• If you win: the bid plus a one-year renewal and the ICANN fee are due within 48 hours; GoDaddy's terms say the card on file is charged on the third day. The prior owner can still reclaim the name up to 30 days after expiry, in which case the auction is cancelled and you are refunded.

Source: Bidding on GoDaddy Auctions domains.

After you win

• The name lands in an account at the venue's registrar: Namecheap, NameBright for DropCatch, Dynadot, GoDaddy. You can leave it there or transfer it to your usual registrar once any lock ends; a registrant change starts a 60-day transfer hold at most registrars.
• Renewal is on you from day one. Set auto-renew or a calendar note; letting a name you just won expire is how it ends up back on our list.
• For a client project: buy in your own account, build, then push or transfer to the client at handoff. Most venues can push a name to another account at the same registrar for free.

Questions we get

• Why does Namecheap want $100 before I can bid? It is a balance, not a fee. Namecheap added it in 2023 to stop no-pay bidders. It pays for what you win.
• DropCatch will not let me bid. Your account is not verified yet. It takes up to 72 hours and sometimes a message to support; a card on file and a small NameBright balance speed it up.
• I was the high bidder at the close and lost. Someone bid in the last five minutes and the clock reset. Set a maximum you are happy with and let the proxy fight for you; do not sit and click.
• The price on your list was $15 and the auction is at $300. Our bid is as of our last pull; the final hour of a four-letter .com can multiply the price twenty times. The appraisal is a model, the close is the market, and our Sold page prints every close so you can see the pattern.
• Can you bid for me, or tell me what to bid? No. We never bid on a name we publish and we do not broker. The maximum is yours.
• Which venue first? Namecheap for the .ai lane, because setup is a phone code and a $100 balance and names open at $15. Then DropCatch, once verified, for aged .com with real backlinks.