There are many other ways to sell domain names, Caz. If you want to resell domains and not have to go through this extreme process and investment, I'd be looking into reseller platforms like VentraIP, NetRegistry, AussieHQ, etc.
So do these resellers allow instant creation of domains? Say I could check the au domain availability for more than the 20 an hour lots of companies say and when it pings available send a ref request through api to a reseller. Is this possible or does everyone use the drop web sites?
Not sure about the others are I've only studied the API Documentation for VentraIP, but you could easily create your own PHP script to check domain availability on a regular basis (I'm thinking cron job) then purchase it via API when it flags as available. However I doubt it will be as swift as something like Drop.
Caz, our domain name regos are instant.
@ ventraIP what trace times do your servers have to the au epp?
So how do companies that catch the domain and then sell to the highest bidder get away with it?