When I started blogging and decided on a "Name" I was unpleasantly surprised to find that whatsupwiththat.COM and whatsupwiththat.NET were both taken. So I settled for whatsupwiththat.INFO.
Back in January, I checked godaddy.com to find out who owed .com and .net because neither were being used for anything. I found that .NET was coming up for renewal in July. I decided to do a backorder thru godaddy.com and have them keep tabs to see if it was renewed. They have been sending me emails each week with updates on what was happening. First I got an email notice saying that the renewal date had changed to 2005. DAMN! those losers, renewed!
Well, I never changed my backorder so I have continued to get a weekly email telling me there was no change. Then last week I get my weekly email and it says "Domain status has changed. Pending delete" What the hell does that mean? So I ignored it. Next weekely email says, "We will be attempting to secure whatsupwiththat.net for you" (that is part of the backorder service) What?! Maybe they decided not to renew.
Skip to today's email . . .
"CONGRATULATIONS! The following domain name that you backordered:
WHATSUPWITHTHAT.NET
was successfully captured.
Woo Hoo! I am the proud owner of a new domain extension. Soon you will be able to visit me at .NET and .INFO
YAY FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!! I think people buy up domains just hoping that folks will pay big money for them. I'm so happy for you though!
Wow..that's like being famous! Yay for you! (but poor Karen on BB5!)
I had also sent an email to the owner of whatsupwiththat.com. He has a page up that says, "Premium domain name for sale - Serious inquires only." I got a reply that basically said, I have "BIG PLANS" for alot of high level domains that I OWN. Tell me what your maximum price is. "MY price is a good penny after Howard Stern's people already have contacted me about this, needless to say they were pretty cheap in their proposal for a company with deep pockets."
Which basically tells me that he IS one of these guys who buys up alot of domains and then tries to sell them to people at an inflated price, just like turtlemama said.