The premium domain marketplace puzzles me. I once had a domain name registered that was fairly obscure (a play on my actual name, not a real word, not close to

The premium domain marketplace puzzles me. I once had a domain name registered that was fairly obscure (a play on my actual name, not a real word, not close to a misspelling of a real word/phrase, not obviously useful to anybody but me) and that I never actually used, but within a week or two of my registration expiring it had been snapped up and was now listed for sale for $500. I set up an alert in my calendar to remind me a year later, thinking that once the new registration expired, it might again be available for a normal price. But when the time came, the new registrant had renewed it for a second year, and it was still listed for $500. Fast forward to today, when I saw this item on HN and it prompted me to go check on that name again. Turns out the registration expired a few months ago, and I just registered it for $10. But I can't imagine why it was snapped up by a broker in the first place, i.e., why anyone ever thought it would be worth $500, and I can't figure out how it could possibly be profitable to squat on vast quantities of domains like this. The whole thing seems vaguely scammy to me...