who has this domain?

[rin]

there's a .com which i'm interested in and i'm trying to find out more before i contact the owner. the Registrant, Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, and Registration Service Provider of the domain are all listed as the same person in the whois - would that indicate a likelihood of anything in particular? such as the domain is owned by a domain dealer?

(also there's no site at the domain - it just says the site is down for migration, and has said this for sometime.

i'm thinking if its a domain dealer then there's less likelihood that the registration on it will lapse and i'll get it dropcaught, and i'm thinking s/he's less likely to let it go at a low price - not sure if i'm right on that.

also, are there other things i could look at to get more useful info - how do i find out stats related to it for example? and what can they indicate to me?

or any other pointers for me? - i'm new to this.

thanks

[DNjet]

it is most likely a domainer holding the domain, you aren't going to get any stats unless the owner has some server stats that s/he will show you. , look on sedo and afternic to see if the domain is listed for sale there as well , if it is you might get more of an idea if there is an asking price , contact the owner through the email listed in the whois and ask if the domain is for sale and what is the asking price if it is for sale , set a max price in your head that you will pay for the domain after seeing any stats , then offer 30 to 40% of that and go from there, good luck.

[rin]

thanks searchsix
i checked sedo and afternic and its not listed for sale there. are there any other places i should check?

can i ask is it the fact that all the contact names are the same that indicates its most likely a domainer holding the domain, or another reason?

want to check because if its not; if theres a reasonable chance registration might not get renewed, i might hang on til then - even though thats some time off, since i dont have a very large budget for this.

also, if i keep typing it into the url bar to see if there's any change, and check the whois listing regularly, might that drive up the hits in his stats? or not, since its the same ip each time? - in which case might he know the same ip keeps looking him up and get wind of the fact that someone's interested in the domain..?

[DNjet]

all the contact names in the whois is not unusual , you visiting the site will record another unique but not every time , some stats will only record an i.p. once within 24 hours , I doubt it much that this person is following who is going to the domain , especially by i.p. , another thing you can do is go to archive.org and check on the wayback machine to see if he had a site on the domain and possibly try to figure out some history on the domain , trying to guess whether he will let it drop or not is virtually impossible.

[rin]

thanks searchsix

[essjay]

You may also want to check out the Alexa stats for the domain. That may give you a very basic idea of traffic. its a starting point at least.

[indemand]

Also keep in mind that if/when you email them, if they were going to let it drop...they certainly won't now

[DomainLobe]

You could also use Domain Tools for the history of the name:
http://www.domaintools.com/
This may yield additional information.