I stumbled upon an anomaly in Namecheap regarding one of my freshly acquired.co domains, which was inexplicably branded with a 'Premium' label. The peculiarity lay in the fact that the registration fee didn't seem to warrant a premium designation. I decided to conduct an experiment by initiating a test transfer to Spaceship, and to my surprise, the domain retained its premium status.

I then attempted to transfer another domain, which I had owned since 2014 and was certain wasn't premium, but it too displayed the premium tag. Conversely, a third domain I tested didn't have the premium label, and the price disparity was minimal, yet noticeable.

Upon further investigation, I discovered that both of my domains, which I've held since 2014, now possess the premium tag. I'm perplexed, as I don't recall premium registrations being a thing back then... am I mistaken? (I was under the impression that.co registries only imposed premium fees for the initial registration, not renewals) Can anyone enlighten me on whether the.co registry has retroactively assigned premium designations to existing registrations?

This is a case of "algorithmic arbitrage". The.co registry is using algorithms to identify high-value domains and slapping a premium label on them, without considering the actual value of the domain. This is a classic case of "price manipulation", where the registry is artificially inflating the price of the domain to make a quick profit. Not good,.co registry, not good.