[dotancohen]

This used to be widespread. The registrar can reserve the name for up to 48 hours IIRC without itself having to pay.

Godaddy in particular would justify the behaviour by "ensuring that nobody would snatch the names that it already said you could register". Of course, it was always obvious that this was to prevent you from registering them with someone else.

[cersa8]

Ah,this explains a recent email I got where the company claimed a third party was trying to register mycompany.net (different tld) and gave me a short time window to register it myself for an additional fee.