Sure enough! Confirmed today by James Koole and the press release from Tucows, Tucows Collaborates With Namemedia’s Afternic.Com To Auction Daily  Inventory Of Expired Domain Names.

I think this is a great thing both for Afternic and Tucows! I hope Tucows allows ALL of it’s expired domains to hit the Afternic expired auction service system and keeps it’s hands out of the expired stuff. I see no reason why Tucows should get a free picking of it’s expired domains and should have to buy in the open market like others do.

Mr Koole says, "Tucows believes that the Afternic marketplace represents the best  place to give our expired domain inventory the most exposure and that  Afternic provides domain buyers with the best customer service and  overall experience." I couldn’t agree more! Yesterday only 9 domains were ending at Afternic’s auction. If you compare that to the XX,XXX at SnapNames and NameJet. Today, NameJet had 250,000 + domains in it’s auction listing. with SnapNames.com stating on their home page over 1,030,959 high quality expired and privately held domain names are available right now.

Tucows did their homework on this move, so I might just have to sign up now at Tucows and get an account! You can see the full Press Release below.

TORONTO – JUNE 12, 2008 – Tucows Inc., (AMEX:TCX, TSX:TC) a leading 
provider
of Internet services to web hosting companies and ISPs worldwide, has 
announced an exclusive agreement with Afternic to auction Tucows’ 
large daily inventory of expired domain names. Starting today, 
thousands of daily expired domains from Tucows are automatically 
available for auction on Afternic (www.afternic.com), where the public 
can bid on and purchase names through a simple and easy-to-use 
interface.

“Working with Afternic is a winning proposition for our resellers and 
for people looking to buy expired names,” says Bill Sweetman, General 
Manager, Tucows Domain Portfolio. “We have over eight million domains 
under management and thousands expiring every day, so this deal 
provides us with a great way to share revenue with our resellers while 
participating in Afternic’s popular secondary domain name marketplace.”

“We are thrilled to have such a huge stream of expired domain names 
flowing into Afternic from Tucows,” says Pete Lamson, NameMedia 
Marketplace’s Senior Vice President and General Manager. “This 
additional expired domain name inventory significantly enhances our 
ability to provide a wide range of domain options to small to medium-
sized business owners looking to purchase a great name.”

This collaboration for expired domain name auctions adds another way 
Tucows shares revenue with its Domain Service resellers. Fully 
integrated into the Tucows Domain Service, the expired domain auction 
program lets resellers receive a share of the gross sale price of any 
expired domain (that was originally registered through them) sold in 
the Afternic marketplace. There is no charge for Tucows Domains 
Service resellers to participate in this program.

In addition to expired domain name auctions, Tucows Domains Service 
Resellers benefit from a reseller-friendly domain name package that 
includes a large selection of popular TLDs; the ability to sell 
premium domain names from the secondary domain name market; a powerful 
domain name suggestion tool; free WHOIS Privacy and Managed DNS with 
each domain name sold; and a 50 per cent share of net domain parking 
program revenue.

About Tucows

Tucows provides Internet services for web hosting companies and ISPs. 
Through our global network of over 9,000 service providers we provide 
millions of email boxes and manage over eight million domains. Tucows 
is an accredited registrar with ICANN (the Internet Corporation for 
Assigned Names and Numbers). We hold a domain name portfolio of 
approximately 150,000 domain names that are available for sale, 
monetized through advertising and support our wholesale Personal Names 
Service. Our Retail division sells Tucows services to consumers and 
small business owners through Domain Direct, IYD (It’s Your Domain) 
and NetIdentity. Tucows.com remains one of the most popular software 
download sites on the Internet. For more information please visit: http://about.tucows.com
.

About NameMedia

NameMedia operates a leading targeted online media business and a 
leading online marketplace for premium domain names. Further 
information is available at www.namemedia.com.