NSI Offers Domain Secondary Market Service.

Network Solutions Inc said yesterday it has launched a service that facilitates the resale of already-registered domain names.

Certified Buyer Service kicks in when a customer has checked the availability of a domain they want and found it is already registered. At that point, they can choose to make an offer to the existing registrant.

For a $19 flat fee, NSI forwards the offer to the registrant, who can then choose to accept it or make a counter-offer. If and when a deal is agreed upon, NSI bills the buyer for the purchase price and passes it on to the seller, who pays no commission.

For NSI, the company not only gets the $19 fee, but in instances where the original registrant was a customer of a competing registrar, Certified Offer means management of the registration, and the $35 annual recurring revenue, is transferred to NSI.

CEO Champ Mitchell said he doesn't expect the service will have a huge impact on NSI's market share, which at over seven million domains is the strongest in the industry. He does expect thousands of customers, however.

NSI, when it was part of VeriSign, once had its own secondary-market service, GreatDomains.com. Mitchell said the GreatDomains business remained with VeriSign when NSI was spun out last November.