I’m Mostapha. I buy and sell names from Morocco. I used to wait until a renewal email in January, then pay because the card was already there. The honest close is in the autumn, while you can still drop a name without a redemption fee. This is not a forecast for 2027. Forecasts are how leftover folders get a new costume: there is no secret niche list. The daily rule is already written: drop vs renew. This page is the afternoon you do it for the whole book.
Three piles, one spreadsheet
Export every name, expiry, and registrar. One row, one decision. The Domain Value Checker is the first column, not the last. How we score.
- Renew. You would buy it today. You can name a buyer or a city. Inquiries, or a comp you can point at. Pay early so a dead card does not do the dropping for you: renew keepers early. Lock and mail: the account.
- List, this quarter. The letters are fine, and nobody wrote. One lander, one ask, then a date. If the date passes with silence, it moves to drop, not to “maybe 2027.” Window: for-sale lander. Price room: wholesale vs retail.
- Drop. Hyphen, stuffing, a suffix you bought because the .com was gone, a country code with no city: a ccTLD is a local product. Auto-renew off. Do not rescue it in redemption. The map of that pain is ICANN’s gTLD lifecycle.
zenpay.com is a renew-or-list. best-ai-tools-online.com is a drop even if you have owned it since spring. Three pastes: live valuations. Books that skip this afternoon: why they fail.
What December is not for
Not a shopping spree because a headline said “AI names in 2027.” An AI score is still not a bid: not a reason to buy. Not five new panels for coupon pricing. Not raising asks to a Voice.com fraction: record sales are a museum. If you need neighbors, filter NameBio and throw out the outlier: how to read a comp.
History and marks still apply to names you are “giving one more year.” Snapshots: history first. A colliding leftover is not a hold: UDRP. Who is on the account: ICANN Lookup. I am not your accountant. Renewals are a cost whether or not anyone in your country lets you deduct them. Do not keep junk for a deduction you have not checked.
The afternoon
- Export. Sort by expiry, nearest first.
- Checker. Insult first (hyphen, length, ending). Those go to drop without a story.
- Keepers: one-sentence buyer, or they are not keepers. When the box was kind and the past is not: believe the past.
- Write the three counts on the top of the sheet. If “drop” is tiny and the folder is huge, you are still collecting.
After the close, stop buying for a few weeks. The next invoice is the test, not a new article about trends.
Decision
A year-end review is a shorter list. Renew what you would buy today, list what might still sell this quarter, drop the rest before grace turns into a fee. Keep the Google row. January is too late to be brave.