[Ask] No BLs to the page, many to domain & domain age WTF?

2 questions here

1) I am trying to rank for a keyword where there's some big sites at the top like scribd and FB. They have 0-3 backlinks to the page but obviously a shit load to the domain, will backlinks to the domain make a significant difference?

2) I just put my domain into MS and it said it's 9 years old. I regged it like 3 months ago. Did someone have it before me? If they did, will that domain age carry over to me and it'll do better in the serps?

Thanks

P.S. new to SEO

1. Authority sites like Wikipedia, Scribd etc will rank high even if they do not have any backlinks to the particular page.
You can beat them if you have enough backlinks.

2. If they domain was dropped you will not get the benefit of domain age. But if you have bought it from a domain market place where the domain are sold during the grace period you might still get the benefit of domain age.

-Neo

Thanks neo great answer. Unfortunately I don't think I snagged it during the grace period but who knows.