Buying a domain name already registered

Russell

Member
Hi all, I'm looking into a domain name that I really want (plan to be my company name in the future). Problem is both the dot.com and dot.co.uk are already registered (both currently have no content). I own the domain names for the same address with the words hyphenated (both co.uk and com) and have found out the owners details for both I'd like to acquire.

Wondering how you guys would go about this. The .com version has only just (Jan) been registered but it is a Hong Kong company and no translation on the site.

The co.uk version has been reg'ed since 2008 is up for renewal in July this year, so I'm not sure whether to wait to see if it comes available or contact the owner to try and get a price.

Any advice on how you would approach this, and how you physically go about go about transferring once a price is agreed would be a big help.
 
Hi Russell,

Do both the .com and .co.uk have sites up? or holding pages? or nothing at all?

If you want to PM me the domain I'll look into it for you, from my own trades and dealings with UK domains I now know quite a few names of domain traders so would be able to tell you if it's a trader, and also the likelihood of a queue forming to drop catch the .co.uk if & when it expires. Depending on the name it might be worth waiitng to see if it drops and to try and drop catch it, but like I say if it's popular then you may get a number of people trying to drop catch and then end up missing out on it all together.

Sorry for rambling on a bit!
Drop me a PM and I'll look into it for you :)

Cheers,
Greg
 
There are some domain brokering services around like sedo.com that will negotiate the purchase for you or you could just approach the owners direct and ask if they want to sell.

The problem is that as soon as they know you are interested in the domain, they might whack the price up.

Your third option of course is to wait for it to expire and then register it yourself if they don't renew. Note that domains don't tend to drop back into the pubic pool for about 60 days after they expire. If the domain is a reasonably good one, you might want to look at a domain catching service to ensure you get it. SnapNames.com is one I've used before.

Of course you could always just look for a variation of the domain...
 
I can recommend a few UK specific domain drop catching services both public and private if you're interested in that route Russell, and anyone else for that matter, just drop me a PM and I can pass on the details for those.

SnapNames are good, but if you get a decent UK drop catcher after the name chances are they will beat SnapNames and any of the other primiarliy US services that have added UK to their enoturage! But it all depends on the name and chances of others going after it to be honest :)
 
Thanks Greg that would be great, PMing you now.

For ref the .com just has hosting company details, the co.uk looks like it's linked to a Wordpress blog that just has the sample post you get when you first create it.

Of course you could always just look for a variation of the domain...
Thanks I'm pondering this now, only problem is I don't want to make the domain name too long, but shall get my thinking cap on.
 
Just replied to your PM Russell, as I mentioned in that if you're not in a rush to get the name I would wait until October for the drop on this one, if they don't renew I think chances are very high that you'll be able to drop catch that.

Guess it just all depends how soon you was hoping to get them..
 
Cheers for your input guys, really appreciated. I have reg'ed with a drop catch provider so I'm taking this approach initially to try and grab it come October. In the mean time I'm thinking of variants I can use as an interim but is there a max number of characters you would go to? Could add things like 'design' or 'studio' on the end but this would bring the characters up to 18, that too much?
 
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