[nondeveloper]

Same happened to me recently. One day the .com was $12, the next day it was a premium domain available for a cool $2,200. Used Namecheap. Now I use ICANN’s whois search and buy the domain if it’s cheap and there’s a greater than 50% chance I’ll use it.

It would be great if someone wrote a script to query random domains at a dozen registrars to bilk these front-runners into wasting money on worthless domains.