what is the best way to try to purchase a domain name that is just set up with a directory. I had a domain name about 4-5 years ago that I setup while i was in college. I actually put together a pretty decent site, and just for fun, but it provided a service to people. anyways when i graduated I just let the domain expire and didn't care.... Now I've found DP and have really been thinking about trying to resurrect the site to actually earn from... but it has been registered by the reputed texas international property associates... the guys that register all of the typo names and get sued by exxon etc.... How should I go about trying to acquire it back from them? It was set to expire this month...and I had snapnames ready to go...but i just saw that it was renewed... should i just email the address in the registrar? or is there a more official way to try to go about it...their reputation sort of makes me nervous about it.... I don't really think there is any value to the domain as far as keywords or anything... it is full of hyphens, really long, and has nothing to do with the service it provided...I almost want it back just because of sentimental value...I would bring it back to offer the same service or even better...just because... any tips?
Contact the current owner and make an offer. Sometimes they respond, though they may quote a high price.
If you contact them you will probably get a high asking price quoted. Far better to register a new domain name and put up your site.
not it was not a directory site, it was a site with a specialized service. I just checked my 2yo traffic stats that i setup but never really looked at and I used to get 8k uv a day to front page...I'd just like to get it back and reinstate it just for nostalgia's sake...probably a dumb idea to bring up in a forum of hungry webmaster wolves on an unrelated note, i was thinking of some other domains and was doing some whois lookups... is it common practice for registrars to monitor searches and then register domains they think sound good?.... there was another domain i had in college, it was decent 2 word that a friend bought. we used it for some random things and when i graduated i pointed it at a free angelfire page... then it expired and I'm pretty sure it was available when i searched in the last few weeks (since i'm on the hunt again) and i just searched it again and it was registered at register.com through their discreet domain about 10 days ago (probably around the time i was searching)... the site was originally registered at register.com and now it seems it has been reregistered in the last week or 2, but the strange thing is, if you type the domain in a browser it points at the free angelfire page from like 4 years ago....
Yep, It is a massive problem at some registrars (like the one with the cute Nascar chick). The overall domain authority, ICANN, is supposed to be looking into it, but don't expect progress anytime soon. It is also rumored that data on non-existant domains that are typed into browsers is being sold. So if you are interested in a domain don't type it into a browser or search on a registrar until you are ready to buy. (Although I have not had that issue with Moniker or Whiz.in). If a name is grabbed that way often it is released in 4 or 5 days (tasting) but in your case they have held it longer than that.