Buying parked domain ?

[oneill33]

I would like to buy this domain ".com" that is parked, the owner is from US. (The name is compound of two words, general words, and so the domains with hyphen are free all, but nobody was interested)
There is the same name domain ".org" that is used as a newspaper's home site, the owner is another person from US same region, I dont know if they know each other.

1. I'm in Europe and I want to buy the ".com" domain, develop a business, it is possible to make a newspaper in the future but my goal is to build a portal website mainly.

2. I want to know how much should I maximum pay and when, after I develop a business and see if it's succesful or now ? Should I contact the owner or use domain agencies to aquire it for me ?

3 If he doesnt sell it or asks too much, should I use a european country domain and not having a ".com" is that bad ?

4. <Edit>How should I explore trademark issues?</Edit>

Thank you for your time

[edited by: Webwork at 3:14 pm (utc) on Mar. 20, 2008]
[edit reason] Please see Charter regarding trademark discussions [/edit]

[superclown2]

The owner will probably ask for an outrageous fee but only one in hundreds or thousands ever gets sold so reserve it through one of the domain grabbers and wait until it gets dropped - it happens to a lot of parked domains.

[Laker]

I want to know how much should I maximum pay

No one in this forum can advise you on how much you should offer :-¦

That said, I would offer the maximum amount you can invest in this domain name (and also the maximum you can afford ;-)

I receive numerous offers to buy domain names -- many are in the USD $5.00 - $100.00 range -- and I don't reply to any of them.

Without knowing what price range you are considering, it's difficult to give definitive advice -- so my suggestion, above, is meant to try to get the registrant's attention. IF you are prepared to make a significant offer of say, USD $5,000 or more, I might offer different advice.

If you are successful in obtaining the domain name, you may have some form of "buyer's remorse", and think "gee! I could probably have paid less for it ...". On the other hand, if you offered less, you might not have been successful in obtaining the domain name!

Should I contact the owner or use domain agencies to acquire it for me ?

If you have a means of contacting the registrant, I would probably do that. You might consider including in your email that the amount you are offering is the maximum you can offer.

If it were me, I would probably call the registrant, if I could.

Using a domain broker for the transaction may or may not be helpful -- it depends on the situation and the broker. If it makes you more comfortable to let someone else handle the transaction, then that is also an important consideration.

Using a broker may lend more credibility to your offer -- and more security to the seller (as well as you).

On the other hand, using a broker is going to cost someone money ...