<b>Expired, pending delete, dropped — the words matter</b>

<b>Expired, pending delete, dropped — the words matter</b>

Newcomers conflate these and miss windows. A clean glossary of the lifecycle:

<b>Expired</b>
— Owner missed renewal; grace + redemption period still lets them reclaim it (often at a fee)

<b>Pending delete</b>
— Past redemption, ~5 days from release; this is when backorders fire

<b>Dropped / available</b>
— Back in the open pool; first hand-reg or the catcher who won it

<b>Why it matters</b>
— You can't hand-reg an "expired" name yet — it's not free. Backorder it, don't refresh-spam the registrar.

📌 Pick of the day: know which stage a name is in before you act — half of beginner frustration is acting at the wrong phase.