Usually the previous registrar will hold on to the domain for 6-18 months in case the customer wants the domain back. After that it's automatically sold in bulk auctions. The companies, sometimes called domain squatters, buying those domains in bulk hold on to them often for years asking a premium price. The idea is once someone thought that domain name was valuable, it might be valuable again. They buy 1000 domains and maybe sell a dozen or so, but as operating costs are extremely low it's still somehow worth it. It's all highly automated at this point, so just a fact of life. I've seen domains being held for over 10 years.
this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2026
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I know a guy who was holding onto basically every variation of [state][marijuana reference].[tld] back in like 2015. Guarantee he made bank on that investment.
Basically many domain providers will hold onto domains for a little while after it expires.
Some like namecheap also advertise the domain names to peddle-man companies that will somehow buy temporary access to the domain after your extortion recall window expires.
To continue the namecheap example, when your namecheap domain expires, it gives you a lapse window where you can pay like double the cost of the domain renewal to reclaim it. If you don't reclaim it during that window they give it to a middleman whom will somehow buy a 2 or 3 months domain lease for it. They will put it on a "site for sale" broker page and will charge you easily 100x what you paid for the domain if you wanted it back.
I would recommend just keep checking on it every few days to see if it gets released.
Expired domains have "cooldowns" because this would be a security issue, if suddenly, overnight, because someone forgot to extend their domain, there is suddenly a new owner. This means, after the domain is expired, you usually have a grace period where you still have the chance to extend it before someone else "snatches" it under your nose.