My autopay failed and I lost a web address I really like. Now it's for sale for over $4k. It seems like it was auto-purchased by a bot. Is there any way I can get it back? I mean, besides buying it again. Is there a service that assists with this issue?
Without knowing if his was for a business, or a service mark or trademark, or even some just-well-known name, AND without knowing your location, it’s hard to say more. In the US you could (IaNaL) pursue small claims court, at the cheapest, and try to make an argument that they registered it in bad faith; if they fail to show up I’d guess an order from the court to transfer the domain back to you in exchange for compensating the purchaser for a year of registration would be your best possible (but who-knows how likely; courts are fickle things) outcome.
Outside the US, your local laws might be nicer to you legally.
Thanks, I'm in the US. The site was used as my attempt to learn web dev. I didn't think I had any options, but now it looks like it might be worth looking into further.
As per usual, the answer is lawyers. There's a procedure where you can make a claim on a domain and take it over from the current owner... but I'm not sure that "I didn't renew it in time" is a good enough reason. You'll have better luck if this is a commercial related domain and you have some sort of legal claim (ie: trademark) over the name.
Without knowing if his was for a business, or a service mark or trademark, or even some just-well-known name, AND without knowing your location, it’s hard to say more. In the US you could (IaNaL) pursue small claims court, at the cheapest, and try to make an argument that they registered it in bad faith; if they fail to show up I’d guess an order from the court to transfer the domain back to you in exchange for compensating the purchaser for a year of registration would be your best possible (but who-knows how likely; courts are fickle things) outcome.
Outside the US, your local laws might be nicer to you legally.