Brand Name Domain About to Expire

[papeter]

I find myself in a strange situation.

I was researching a domain auction site
and happen to come across a strange
domain name totally unrelated to my search.

I don't know why, but I looked further into
this domain as I saw it had a high
monthly search. I put this name into the search engines
and found it was part of an international brand.

I entered the details into Estibot and
the appraisal results were returning 5 figures. Now I
don't rely too much on these automatic appraisal bots but
if they give me a high appraisal then I feel
more investigations are probably needed.
Also Google searches are in excess of 20K a month
for this keyword domain.

It's obvious the company has forgotten to renew
this name and will expire in a few days time.
My dilema is, should I snap up the name by bidding for it
when it expires and then contact the company to ask them
to buy it back from me, or should I just let it expire?

What would you do? Your input is much appreciated.


Thanks

 

[pjb1978]

If it's an international brand, there is a good chance there is also a trademark attached. If that is the case, it probably isn't worth the risk, as your plan could backfire on you.

 

[DomainGnome]

Be the good guy, buy if for them if you can, then offer it back for free, or for the reg fee if you like. If it's a great company like apple, maybe they'll send you an ipad as a thank you. If not, you'll feel good for a minimal investment of $2 with the latest godaddy coupon (see that thread). Send the story to Andrew Alleman when you're done, he loves stories like this.

 

[urlurl]

just send an email reminding them its about to expire