" (2) the domain transfer market is terrible and ripe for someone smart to wreak havoc on the existing players."<p>The only thing that could wreak havoc on the existing system (which has multiple players) is hiring a consultant who is knowledgeable about this in order to help you navigate the obvious bullshit that anyone will encounter when purchasing a domain name.<p>For people who deal with this type of thing all that the OP has described is often anticipated and is worked around.<p>For example I had a case recently with buying a name (for someone) where the seller told me that "the transfer has to be done with godaddy that's the only way that escrow.com works". For someone who doesn't know "how it works" unraveling (and getting the seller to change their opinion) would take many phone calls to get to the point of being able to simply get the auth code to transfer the name to the registrar of their choice (which is not godaddy).<p>There is not a technology answer to this issue. It's a knowledge and people answer.<p>That said if anyone thinks they have a way to disrupt this I would be glad to hear about it and tell them what I thought about it (based on my 18 years approx in this business.)
Not to be mean but not understanding how domain name transfers work doesn't make things "a mess". This is "a mess" because you dealt with a big slow company as a middle-man. If you had contacted the seller directly you could have moved the domain between two GoDaddy accounts in a matter of minutes or off to another registrar within a few hours using the standard ICANN transfer method.
>> I immediately submitted my information, thinking that I’d get the domain name pushed to my account later that day. Instead it took twenty days.<p>There's no way that it should taken 20 days, that's just totally unacceptable. And as someone who buys and sells lots of domains on a regular basis, I can tell you that this is not the norm, it's unusual for it to take this long.<p>One thing that you probably didn't check was whether or not the domain name was listed for sale at other venues. If the domain you wanted (based on a whois lookup) was at GoDaddy, then most likely it would have been listed at GoDaddy as many sellers will list their domains on several sites.
The problem with this kind of stuff is that it's a middleman business, much like selling a house. You're working with sedo, thinking they have control over the domain, but all they're doing is selling it for the owner. It's up to the owner to make the actual move and sometimes an interest in a domain just brings up a reluctance to sell.<p>Other times I've had great, easy service with sedo and other sellers.<p>Last domain I sold was notify.me, which was I thought an amazing domain. Wonder what will happen with it.
The story would have been far more interesting if the OP had shared details of what his business was, what words they tried and the domain they eventually settled on and bought. What would the downside be? the domain has already been acquired.
Regardless of the actual product, I can't help but think the $495 dollars he spent purchasing a domain name would have been better spent by picking an available domain name (..what $20) and putting the other $475 into Google Adwords , SEO, etc.<p>It's just a name, if your idea is really that great, just make up a verbish type name that doesn't exist and use it.
Instead of looking up domain names on Domain Tools I would recommend something like <a href="https://instantdomainsearch.com/" rel="nofollow">https://instantdomainsearch.com/</a>. It's using DNS queries so sometimes a taken domain name without any DNS records will show as available but that's a small trade-off considering the speed gain. It also enables you to do some invaluable brainstorming which is impossible using a submit-and-wait lookup.<p>Another tool I'm using frequently is <a href="http://www.leandomainsearch.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.leandomainsearch.com/</a> (originally a Show HN) where you put in a word and it will look up thousands of popular pre and suffix combinations in a second. The same DNS constraints applies but it's easy to click the domain name to see if it's really available.
I'm amazed that this provocative title hasn't thrown up any discussion about the truly broken part of this system - the fact that people who buy and sell domains with no intention of ever using them even exist. It's a modern day tragedy of the commons - a public resource that anyone lacking a moral compass can profit from at the expense of the people who actually want to produce something valuable with it.
Our site is too WIP for any publicity but I can't help but plug this here... Domain namespaces should have automatic global price discovery: <a href="http://dotp2p.io" rel="nofollow">http://dotp2p.io</a>
flippa.com is also a great place to get some good domains:<p><a href="https://flippa.com/buy-domains" rel="nofollow">https://flippa.com/buy-domains</a><p>However because it is an auction site, they may not currently have listed what you are looking for. They also recently started a domain "catalog" which is not auction-style, but there aren't many listings yet:<p><a href="https://flippa.com/domain-catalogs/listings" rel="nofollow">https://flippa.com/domain-catalogs/listings</a>
yes, sedo and afternic suck - I have had transactions stalled and abandoned there, also.<p>The best way to buy domains is to do it directly. After negotiating a deal, I have used escrow.com many times and it works great.