So a registrar can hold a domain for as long as they want?
Couldn't GoDaddy's or Enom's drop service turn into a a WLS for GoDaddy/Enom domains?
Say affordablehosting.com was registered with GoDaddy, but is scheduled to drop. Someone decides to "backorder" it with GoDaddy. Instead of letting it drop after the customary 45 days, GoDaddy keeps it on hold and transfers ownership to the backorderer. The backorderer would get a 320 day registration for $XX.
This way, we wouldn't have this huge mess of backorder services getting $5000 bids for domains. Revenue from drops would stay with the registrars- and they might use some of the revenue to attract newer customers (and potential future drops) by lowering registration costs and transfer fees.