Hoping someone with a bit more expertise can help me out. I want to purchase a domain and I'm not sure who owns it, other than ownership expired in feb.

If someone would be so kind to point me in the right direction, I would be most grateful. Google search didn't pull up anything I already knew, godaddy ect sites didnt show it listed.

Thank you in advance, a PM would be fine.

They usually get put in a purgatory situation for a month or so after expiration (so the registrar can charge $50+ to "rescue" the doofus that forgot to renew it). Keep checking daily. If you want it bad enough, put a backorder on it somewhere like GoDaddy so that you get it the instant it's available again.

A lot of speculators will try to grab anything that's expired by putting one of those backorders in on domains near to expiration to force absentminded owners to pay them for it back, they usually hold them for about 3 months.

Doesn't GoDaddy ninja your ideas though, and if you don't register with them they buy it anyway to sell it to you at a much higher rate? One of my buddies (Wedri if anyone remembers him) works for GatorHost and has had nothing but awful things to say about GoDaddy.

I've used Dotster for that kind of thing for as long as I can remember.

I've seen theories like that about all the major registrars. I've often checked availability on a few dozen domains and then registered one of them like a week later though.

Thank you everyone for your feedback. I'm planning on purchasing some of my dead,dieing competitors websites to redirect traffic to me. Im sure they are going to love me.

Buy some AdWords ads targeting their business names as keywords, so when people Google for them they'll see an ad for you (first, if you bid enough to get in the top section). That's always fun.