I'm so glad I don't have to be in this game anymore. I bought my domain 5 years ago; my name. It was free, clear, and a .com. I was surprised it even happened at all because my name is a pretty common chinese name. Unfortunately, when facebook was handing out aliases last year I was unable to secure my name or any variation of my name that I liked.<p>I've been trying to secure the .com domain of a friend for the last few years. They are currently using the .biz, .net TLDs. Just when it expires it is snatched from my grasps and the owner hasn't responded to my emails. I believe this is because they are in the same business in the same geographic area so are competitors.<p>I actually had a scare where I was on vacation when the domain expired, blog, and all emails were stopped. I finally got it back after 2 weeks of wrestling with my registrar. After that I pay in 5 year blocks. Cheers, until 2013!