Buying Domains Before They go to Auction

what was your method of calculation or rationale that you used to value the domain @ 4k?

It was one of the original domains with information about SEO (from like 1995). It has thousands of links from authority sites. Those pages linking at it probably rank for lots of queries and send significant real traffic.

QUOTE:
"and that the PageRank was already stripped (which happens to most expiring domains anyhow)"

Really? At what point will Google strip page rank from a site due to an expiring/expired domain? I have many websites whose domains I renew every year... and sometimes I don't renew them until I get the 30-day notice from GoDaddy. Is this bad?

Hi Kevin
Google is really good at detecting the change in ownership coupled with it expiring. I think PageRank is probably usually stripped somewhere in the deletion cycle AFTER the person who originally owned the domain no longer has the right to purchase it for whatever the reregistration fee is.

If it is an old domain, as you say, and has a lot of links pointing to it, then would it really matter if the PR went down to 0? I mean, the backlinks are still there, am I correct?

Well, Google does some weird stuff just to keep quality.

I have backordered domain whow.com on godaddy auction (www.tdnam.com) before it was deleted. This domain is inactive for years but there are many links to it and the PR is 4.

I did this and "won" one name straight out as no-one else was bidding $60

I got into a bid battle with someone else and bailed at $500 I note the dom name is now for sale at $5000

the domain name is peninsulaliving.com - it would be a hot dom name around me as the Peninsula is expensive $$$$s

I bought a big auto dealers lapsed dom name years ago and the owner was SO pi$$ed he won't give me a dime for it - hey they cream us....

David

So, you're not going to tell us which name? Some of us were around in 1995 and may remember! Just curious.

I'm curious about this page rank issue. I found a domain that fit in with some of the other things I'm doing so I contacted the owner. I was able to pick it up for $250. It has some back links and a PR of 5. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it but I figured for $250 I'll figure that part out later ;-)

So I managed to pick one up as Aaron suggests, before it expired. I have also picked up a couple via backorder. These domains have PR 0 and no old back links. I'm buying them for what I plan to do not what was done. That being said I'd love to hear some suggestions on how to best take advantage of both scenarios, ie timing. Does it really matter that it expires? The site was probably dead, or even killed by the SE long before it expired.

Personally I just wanted the dom names and wasn't bothered about the PR -

What is the domain? Just curious since you paid $4000 for it, I never really cared about the pr if the domain is useful to me.
Like www.okayblog.net PR0, I like the domain so I bought it and added some content to it.

I don't think it is a wise business decision for me to state the URL. Not that the purchase is shady or manipulative in its intent, it is just that there is not much value gain in me pointing it out and having people digging in and questioning this or that.

Of course I knew people would ask when I made this post, but as a hint, this guy was never mentioned on the URL I bought.

I don't like "this guy" at all!

Ummm.. I should have never clicked that link O_O

Mental note do not click on any pics which have hairy in the name. We have found the missing link.

I guess it would still rank pretty well in yahoo and msn. Also, the natural traffic from those thousands of links would be useful.

But I don't know if the $4000 price is worth it. Depends on the name though.

aaron,

aargh!!!! i shouldn't have clicked on that link to 'this guy'...

btw, i use godaddy domain expiration service. anyone using a similar service or know of some open-source or freeware to monitor registrars?

-nick

AAron was it : northernwebs.com ? If it was we were going fot this one too, but your bid was too high so we dropped in the end.

That domain's redirecting to seobook.com now.

northernwebs.com

Registrant: wall, aaron
Record expires on 26-Apr-2007
Record created on 25-Apr-1997
Database last updated on 05-Jun-2006

Looks like this is the one :)

Marc

Hi,
Last week i got 2 domain names from auction. I have not paid 4K or that kind of money but few $ for those domain names. Is any web site where we can test whether they are genuine or blocked domain name by google.
Any help on this will appreciated.
Ran

Hi,
Last week i got 2 domain names from auction. I have not paid 4K or that kind of money but few $ for those domain names. Is any web site where we can test whether they are genuine or blocked domain name by google.
Any help on this will appreciated.
Ran

Hi,
Last week i got 2 domain names from auction. I have not paid 4K or that kind of money but few $ for those domain names. Is any web site where we can test whether they are genuine or blocked domain name by google.
Any help on this will appreciated.
Ran

Hi Aaron, I've been looking at buying up an existing domain name, can you suggest reputable auction sites to check out?

Gaz

I really want buy this one domain, so i would love if you, someone that has bought an existing domain could advice me, etc.

Msn: Shiftguru@hotmail.com