One thing I have found very useful is looking at foreign domain discussion sites. With google translate now you can get a decent sense of what they are talking about (although don't rely too much on the translations).
Domain.cn (Chinese)
Demene.com (Spanish)
Domenforum.net (Russian)
Domainforum.info (German)
I was interested in NNNNN.com so I used google to find discussions about them in foreign language forums. It was interesting to see how excited the Chinese were about numeric domains, and it gave me an interesting perspective on how the Asian market is going to be a driving force of demand for numerics over the next few years. For example, if you are interested in LLLL.com I would say type in "llll.com" and "domenforum.net" into google to see threads where they talk about it in the Russian forums (make sure you select translate if you don't know the language). It's interesting and potentially very valuable information in this truly global business of ours.
Good luck!