The domain Home.nyc was registered for $30 because of a glitch and the owner get’s to keep it

The domain name home.nyc is now not part of the .nyc auction as it was registered for $30 because of a glitch.

Yesterday it was announced that there is going to be a .NYC premium domain name auction at Namejet.

I took the list of 20 domains from the auctions.nyc website. The list included the domain home.nyc. The domain is no longer part of the auction. The domain name that is going to be auctioned off is homes.nyc.

The Neustar press release that came after I took the list from auctions.nyc corrected the domain with the replacement domain and includes homes.nyc in the list and not home.nyc. Neustar is the official .nyc backend registry.

The Namejet webpage featuring the auction only includes 19 domain names. It has neither home.nyc or homes.nyc. That is probably because they were informed for the problem and they took out home.nyc. Homes.nyc should be added in the list soon.

Now the most interesting part is that home.nyc was registered yesterday by someone from Staten Island at Hexonet. The registration and renewal price of the domain is about $30 per year.

Now this is what I think happened:

  • The original 19 domains including were registered in the city’s name on August 26 in anticipation of the auction.
  • Home.nyc was not registered at the time and somehow it got out of the reserved list yesterday.
  • The owner noticed the domain was available after the auction was announced and registered it.
  • 6 hours later Neustar registers homes.nyc to fix the problem and replace the domain in the auction but the damage had already been done. Home.nyc was gone.

Here are the creation dates of the domains involved:

Domain Name: LIVING.NYC (+ all other 18 domains)
Creation Date: 2016-08-26T20:41:37Z

Domain Name: HOME.NYC
Creation Date: 2016-09-22T12:46:14Z

Domain Name: HOMES.NYC
Creation Date: 2016-09-22T18:38:02Z

OnlineDomain talked with Neustar they said that they won’t take away the domain from the current owner:

“Regarding home.nyc, you are correct that the domain name was registered by someone in Staten Island, New York, yesterday morning.  As such, it will not be a part of the .nyc auction, and has been replaced by the premium domain name homes.nyc. The domain name was released into general availability as the result of a glitch during the auction set-up process. Since the registrant meets the nexus requirements, we will not be taking steps to take it back. We wish the registrant well, and are looking forward to a great auction!”

I have contacted the owner of the domain name Home.nyc and will update this story if I hear back.

Sold.Domains

About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

21 comments

  1. Kudos to Neustar. Rightside will gladly steal domains from registrants.

    • In this case it was a clear programming error, i am not sure who steals from whom. The registrant in question just had quick fingers, but the domain was allocated for the auction, hence Neustar could have taken it back as it was a real error. Where is Rightside probably could back track by few weeks. Kudos to Neustar not to dinging the fast finger register. But it certainly not a credit to the person who took advantage of error loop hole.

      • DK – Not sure if you intended, but your comment is condescending with unethical accusations regarding the registrant. The story is still breaking with little information. Don’t you think it’s kind of early to accuse the registrant as someone who, “took advantage of error loop hole.”?

      • Unethical? no, all was fair and square. I was just responding to Adam about Rightside, but it might have sounded that way.i was just saying that there is two sides, Neustar could have taking it back, they choose not too, but it would be in their full right in thise case. While Rightside will bend any rules from what we have seen, if they want domain. As far as registrant getting it, its more personal. Since the registrant who did get it, was very aggressive bidder two years ago on the auction…. so i just didnt like their tactics. And accidentally they were also first on the domain…. I would prefer almost anyone else getting it but the registrant in question.

      • DK – Gotcha….I understand if you know of, or have a history with the registrant. From my perspective I was partially assuming it could have been a wholesome ‘home’ body Grandma just randomly searching for domains when she landed on that one…Regardless, there will be varying opinions on this registration. Best to you!

      • Rightside stole a domain name from me. They do not care about registrants.

  2. Safe to say the registrant hit a ‘HOME’ RUN!

  3. Why would that be the Registrant wrong doing? Is it the registrant responsibility to secure .nyc registry system? If there were errors, anywhere and everywhere etc, so is the registrant fault. He registered the name and pay for it. It is unethical business practice to take the domain back after paying for it. It sometimes can constitute to switch and bait and false advertisement.

    It was a good decision making not to take the domain back from the new registrant; and hopefully the other registries and registrars will make a good note of this situation and follow this ethical business practice. Just my opinion.

    • Talkiah, the issue is, almost all registries will and are bending rules. Especially when it comes to super premium, which Home is certainly is. So holding one registry to a higher standard, while all others is pretty much unethical is not way to go either. It was more then good decision for them not to take it, it was unusually fair. Since most of registrars would probably take it back and wouldn’t even say sorry. Props to Neustar for letting it go, regardless of my issues with person who actually got it 🙂

      • As far as registries go, I have to give credit where it’s due. Donuts has honored my registration of Home.Services without a premium renewal. To verify this I just threw down another year of renewal at $24.00….

      • Oh!! thats a great catch. Haha, Home as well.

      • DK – Thanks!…You can see why this subject hits ‘home’ for me.. 🙂

      • Yes and yes; taking back a domain from a registrant after paying for it not cool and it will never be an ethical business practice. This kind of activities probably happened a dozens of times. Some registries and registrars does acknowledge what it is mean by the right thing to do. For this situation, the “.nyc registry did fair and reasonable conclusion.

        As far as the other registrars and registries that still practicing this kind of business behavior, I don’t know what to tell them. Their own conscience can only confront them; this if they have any conscience.

  4. Rightside is up to more naughty behavior at namejet, they have auctions up for deals.live, yet they do not state, or make the buyers aware of the $720 annual renewal, usually names that are bid in auction, they standardize the renewal, sneaky stuff

  5. Sad that domains getting registered at a normal price is news. However props to Neustar for having some ethics unlike sleezy unethical Rightside

  6. huge coincidence ? how many times per day ‘home.nyc’ is typed in/sought ?? inside information ??

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