Aftermarket reference tables and terms

Aftermarket vocabulary is inconsistent and often deliberately vague. The same word can describe two different things depending on whether a registry, a registrar, a marketplace or an investor is using it. A listing that mentions a redemption period, a transfer lock and a premium renewal is describing three separate mechanisms, each with its own timetable and cost, and none of them obvious to a first time buyer.

This section defines those terms and sets out the characteristics that differ by extension: which body runs the registry, how a transfer is authorised, whether registration is restricted, and how actively names in that extension change hands.

Records, metrics and risk

Two other kinds of reference sit here. The first concerns evidence: where public sale records come from, what they systematically leave out, and how to use them without drawing conclusions from a biased sample. The second concerns measurement: sell through rate, renewal rate, holding time and inbound offer rate, each defined by how it is calculated rather than by a target value.

The last piece is legal screening. A domain that reproduces a registered trade mark is a liability regardless of what it cost, and the categories to avoid are recognisable before any money changes hands. Screening belongs before purchase, not after an enquiry arrives from a brand owner's representative.

Using the reference material

The tables are meant to be read alongside the analysis. The extension characteristics make more sense after the TLD landscape, the sales record notes after comparable sales, and the metric definitions after the portfolio discipline described in portfolio and renewal discipline.

Registry rules change. Eligibility requirements, verification duties and lifecycle timings have all been revised in the last few years in several European country codes, and any figure that matters to a transaction should be confirmed with the registry before the transaction depends on it.