Well, it appears that DN Registries, such as Network Solutions, have the right to try to find a buyer for a domain after a grace period upon expiration of the domain's current registration... and this can be apparantely without regard to backorders.... and they call it a direct transfer... they appear to seek out those who might be willing to pay for domains and give a percentage to the original owner and keep the rest for themselves. This may very well defeat the whole backorder process. It appears that using this process, the only time a domain might go to a backordered buyer, is when they are not able to find a buyer for the domain to do a direct transfer, and thus settle for just a new customer renewal fee.

Here is an excerpt from the user agreement for NS that gives, in my opinion, the guidelines for this..


If an expired domain name registration is not renewed during any grace period provided by us, pursuant to our Service Agreement, rather than delete the domain name registration, we may, in our sole discretion, attempt to find a third party who is interested in registering the domain name, and then renew and transfer the domain name registration to that third party on the customer’s behalf. This renewal and transfer process is called a “Direct Transfer.” We will not attempt to complete a Direct Transfer of a domain name registration after expiration if the customer to whom the domain name is registered has notified us by e-mail at [email protected] stating that he or she does not want us to proceed with such a transfer. In this case, the domain name registration will be deleted. A customer’s failure to notify us that they do not want us to complete a Direct Transfer constitutes that customer’s consent to the Direct Transfer. As described in our in our Service Agreement, customers are eligible to receive between fifteen and twenty percent (15-20%) of the Net Proceeds generated from the Direct Transfer.