The stages
| Stage | Length | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Grace period | about 30 days | Normal renewal price |
| Redemption | about 30 days | Registry restore fee, often ninety dollars or more |
| Pending delete | 5 days | Nothing can be done |
| Released | - | Whatever the registration costs, first come first served |
The site stops before the name does
Most registrars stop the DNS on the expiry date itself. So the site goes dark on day one even though the name is recoverable for another two months. Panic usually arrives here.
Waiting for someone else's name to drop
It rarely works. Valuable expiring names are caught by drop catching services within seconds of release, and most are renewed during grace anyway. If a name matters, ask the current holder rather than waiting for a lapse.
The boring prevention
Set reminders further out than the registrar does, and keep the administrative email on a mailbox that outlives individual employees.