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Something weird’s going on at .sucks
Ever heard of a domainer or cybersquatter putting their freshly-registered domains up for sale at cost?
Me neither, but that’s what seems to be going on at .sucks right now.
The sudden appearance of many hundreds of .sucks domains — many of them matching very famous trademarks — at Sedo and Uniregistry comes as the registry unveils plans to open up a secondary marketplace of its own.
.sucks registry Vox Populi, a part of the Momentous group of companies, wants to open its own marketplace, according to a letter it recently sent to ICANN.
The registry told ICANN it plans to launch a service “whereby a Registrant of a .sucks domain name can list their domain for resale with the Registry”, saying it will “allow our Registrars to show the domain as available for purchase by third parties at the price set by the current Registrant.”
It’s taking a somewhat confrontational approach from the outset, telling ICANN that it does not believe the service would constitute a “registry service” that would require ICANN’s approval under the Registry Service Evaluation Process.
It points to the fact that registrants can already list their .sucks names on existing marketplaces such as Sedo as proof that it’s not a “product or service that only a registry operator is capable of providing, by reason of its designation as the registry operator” requiring the RSEP.
This interpretation strikes me as open to debate, but I’m not going to get into that here.
What’s more interesting is that the vast majority of the domains listed on these competing platforms appear to have been registered relatively recently, in bulk, all via Momentous-owned registrar Rebel, and quite possibly by the same registrant.
What’s weird is that the majority of the .sucks names listed at Sedo have a buy-now price of $199. Some are priced higher. Some priced at $199 at Sedo are priced at $599 at Uniregistry.
$199 is the absolute cheapest you can buy a .sucks domain name anywhere. It’s Rebel’s retail price, and I believe it’s also Vox Pop’s wholesale price. Even the cheapest unaffiliated registrars slap a $50 markup on the registry fee.
The domains started being listed on the aftermarkets after a sharp spike in .sucks sales back in June, where my data shows that over 2,000 names were registered, via Rebel, in the space of about 24 hours.
The .sucks zone file has been growing ever since, swelling from 7,347 — where volume had been flattish and under 8,000 names for years — to 11,255 since June 16, the date of the first spike.
Almost every .sucks listing I spot-checked on Sedo has three things in common: the $199 price-tag, a recent registration date, and a seller who signed up for the service in 2020 submitting their home territory as Turks and Caicos.
Turks and Caicos, which is also where Rebel is legally based, is a British island territory in the Caribbean with fewer than 38,000 inhabitants. It’s often used for offshore company registrations.
Whois records for the domains I checked with June reg dates use Momentous privacy service Privacy Hero, while other more-recent regs list the registrant as Honey Salt Ltd, a company apparently also based in Turks and Caicos.
So what we seem to have here is a registrant willing to invest half a million dollars or more in .sucks domain names, a great many matching famous brands, and then list them for resale at the exact same price he paid for them.
Why would a cybersquatter pay $199 for jackdaniels.sucks or dolceandgabbana.sucks or unitedinternetmedia.sucks and then put them up for sale for $199? It makes no sense to me.
And it comes at a time when Vox Pop is trying to persuade ICANN that there’s a thriving aftermarket for .sucks domains.
I put all these observations to the CEOs of Momentous and the registry earlier today, and Vox Pop chief John Berard got back to us to say:
With regard to those 2,000 registered names, that was most welcome. I don’t know much more than that about Honey Salt… I am certainly not going to speculate on their plans.
That they are in the Turks and Caicos is interesting, for sure. But you know as well as I that the Caribbean is a hotbed of domain name innovation and investment.
He later added: “Yes, take it to the bank that VPR [Vox Populi Registry] is not behind the registrations.”
On the issue of the registry’s own secondary market plans, Berard said:
we are trying to catch up to others in the domain name industry who first saw the customer value of fostering a secondary market. I think we may be the first registry to do it, but we, i am sorry to say, weren’t the first to market.
If I receive more information or commentary on this weirdness I shall provide updates accordingly.
You would probably know, aren’t registries limited to owning 300 public tld for their personal use?
I imagine that rule is there for a very good reason. Wouldn’t this be a beach, if such rule existed?
Also very difficult to enforce if such a rule exists. As registries simply have friends
.
It’s not like favored parties haven’t gotten away with zone stuffing in the past, you know. Idk why they even ask! Everyone else gets away with such things
I’m sure the whole thing is corrupt. Bet your ass someday alt DNS will take this all out.
Im sure all the registrars with aftermarket LOVE this idea. They’ll collect phat commission!
Such things help everyone that rolls around on the icann bed! Think about it. Registries flood out domainers domains. No one sees yours! But registrars get a big pc of this HUGE registry pie!
U domainers always get shit on.
Got any examples of those 2000 domains that are registered recently?
I mention a few in the article.
Or you could go to Sedo and do as broad a search as possible (perhaps for a single letter) limiting your results to .sucks domains. Most of the domains listed, particularly those at $199, will have registration dates in June or later this year.
You missed the fact that once you pay the $199 “purchase” this doesn’t include the premium registration fee which for brands could be up to or exceeding $2,000/year… This is their way out throwing out the hook.