You know, I have paid for sevearl "backorders" on domains that i would not think would be overly popular such as small personal sites and such that were expiring... and i NEVER have been awarded a backorder. I'll see a domain that i like within 30 days of expiration and put in an order on it... then i'll start checking back and i'll see it go to expiration, then domain lock pending renewal or deletion....i'll get my hopes up..... and then one day i'll check back, and someone else will have picked up the domain from a firm that uses scanning scripts and repoints dead domain names to traffic sites that they control.

This has happened to me on many (probably 10) occasions and has left me very very frustrated with this service. I don't know how the domain accumulators get an edge on me on this ... but somehow they do.

And trust me, I am talking some pretty obscure domains sometimes, that are not even keyword domains....but domains that have filtered traffic for one of my markets....

So for me... I don't put much faith in them, but sometimes do it because the $20 crap shoot is at least a chance......following the "you can't win if you don't play" mentality.

JMHO

tom