Redemption period (day 45-ish)
We have previously talked about the expiry date and how many registries operate under something called "auto-renewal" (this is a different context from end-user auto-renewal; we'll cover that shortly).
It means when the domain hits the expiry date, the registry automatically renews it and bills the registrar. The registrar has paid for, and is out-of-pocket on this domain name until they issue a "delete" command to the registry.
If the domain is nearing the end of the registrant grace period (up to 45 days), and if the domain looks of marginal value, meaning that nobody has expressed an interest in buying or bidding on it, and the domain isn't earning enough in pay-per-click to cover its renewal fees, then the registrar will issue that "delete" via an Extended Provisioning Process (EPP) call to the registry, and then they get their money back from the earlier auto-renewal.
The domain then enters the next phase of the expiry cycle: the redemption period. This lasts for an additional 45 days.
During this period, the domain can still be "redeemed," but only by the original registrant from before the domain expired. The registrar must not direct transfer it to another party, and they must not change the owner or registrant details aside from those which were in place before expiry. The ship has sailed on the registrar's ability to "direct transfer" it to another party.
The registry charges the registrar a "redemption fee" typically much larger than the normal renewal cost. If a domain has a wholesale cost for renewal by the registrar of $9, a redemption can cost the registrar $80 or over $100. Of course, that elevated cost will be passed back to the registrant and then some.
You can recognize the redemption period on a domain from the DomainStatus field of the WHOIS record. Take a look at this code:
Domain Name: EXAMPLEEXPIRY.COM Registrar: EASYDNS TECHNOLOGIES INC.
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 469 Whois Server: whois.easydns.com Referral URL: http://www.easydns.com Name Server: DNS1.EASYDNS.COM
Name Server: DNS2.EASYDNS.NET
Name Server: DNS3.EASYDNS.CA
Status: redemptionPeriod https://icann.org/epp#redemptionPeriod Updated Date: 25-apr-2017
Creation Date: 15-mar-2011 Expiration Date: 15-mar-2017
This period is the "last-ditch" chance to renew a lapsed domain. It would be extraordinary for a busy production domain to get to this stage. Too much infrastructure and too many dependencies would be broken for too long (we're up at about 90 days of total nonfunctional DNS by this point). I have seen it happen, but more typically this affects domains that people have but aren't actively using. That doesn't prevent some pretty monster names from going the way of the expiry cycle, however.