Also called drop · dropping domains · domain drop
The drop, explained
Names reach the drop after the owner fails to renew and nobody buys them in an expiry auction. For .com that typically means a registrar grace period, a 30-day redemption period and 5 days of pending delete. Because the pending-delete stage has a fixed length, the day a name will drop is predictable, and drop lists publish each day's batch in advance. Investors also use the word loosely, as in a name that dropped. From October 1, 2026 the .com and .net drop starts around 12:00 UTC, according to Domain Name Wire; before that, names dropped in the evening UTC.
At the drop, the first valid registration request wins, which is why drop-catching services compete with many registry connections; a name worth having is rarely still available to a normal registrar a minute later. Names that pass through the drop unregistered can be hand-registered at the standard fee, and now and then a good one slips through in a niche the catchers ignore. Country-code registries run their own deletion processes, so check each registry's rules.
Example. An investor reviews the list of .com names scheduled to delete in five days and places backorders on the two worth catching before the drop.
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Education, not financial, legal or tax advice. Domain investing is speculative and most domain names never sell. Read the disclaimer.