[Newbie] Advice on buying old domains please?

Hi guys,
when it comes to buying old domains, I'm quite a newbie.
Yes I have bought and used old domains (I have PR power shot) but I don't think I know the best way to get good domains.Some help/advice would be appreciated.

(1)
I have only used the "buy now" with Godaddy. Is it better to use bidding auction?
If so, How competitive can it be? I don't want to stick to the auction all the time...

(2)
Other than PR Powershot which I already have, are there any (other) "must have" tools or subscription I should get?
I have found some tools etc. but the hold back for me is that I don't have many money sites and wouldn't buy old domains all the time, so subscription fees seem a bit pricey for what I do. I might buy a few domains per month but that's it. If you recommend something, is it still worth the money with my situation?

(3)
If you have any other advice, I would appreciate that too

Thank you.

Hi, Looks like PR powershot is a simple and useful tool. For most people if your not extremly fickle about the domains you buy this is good enough, especially considering its a 1 time fee. The downside (although i could be wrong) is it only gives you godaddy domains. This is probably good enough for anybody that doesn't buy a lot of domains. If your in the process of building a network of aged domains and plan on buying 10 or more domains, maybe there are better options.

1) If you find a buy now thats great. Its all about your valuation of the domain. If its a good price for what your getting then buy it. From my foggy memory godaddy has a highly irritating process that it seems many sellers use (havent looked into this in a long time) but when i would find a GEM of a domain that had a MAKE OFFER button, if i ever make an offer all it does is kick the domain into the auction process, witch takes a week or so. This is very irritating because you cannot bypass the auction competition. This lead me to stop looking for good value and just heading right to the auction process of godaddy. Whenever possible, to avoid wasting tons of time and getting let down a lot I would suggest not using the auction process. It also seems like the prices of most auctioned domains are inflated. Having said that I have gotten some good domains at godaddy auctions, but I did pay a premium. PR 5 paid 1200$ for one time, but it was extremely high quality.

2) I suggest you stick with PR powershot, but if you feel you want to build a network and need a lot of domains quickly (10 or more) than you might want to sign up at a service for 1 month then get all your spending out of the way. I'm pretty sure PR power shot is a very limited tool compared to whats out there. I use registercompass but because its $37 a monthly, I subscribe and unsubscribe pretty often over the past 3 years. So when im in the buying mood I'll sign up for 1/2 months and get my domains then cancel. This will expand your options of available domains because the focus isn't solely on godaddy.


3) Finding good domains isn't rocket science but there are some tricks that can be learned only with experience, or a very in depth guide. There are a lot of scums selling domains or making them appear better than they truly are. If its an expiring godaddy domain your more safe because no private party has had thier hands on it sense the original owners (although possible the original owners let it expire because they spammed the domain, so you always need to inspect the domains reputation and backlinks), but once you buy from a private party some of these characters are up to no good and fake the PR or inflate the DA/PA of the domain. I suggest you look around the internet for a comprehensive guide, then follow the guide and check off each item you looked into. If your spending 50$ for domains this may not be something you should spend your time doing, but if your spending 100s or 1000s on a domain you will want to inspect things with a fine tooth comb. One of the fastest ways to weed out weak domains (although dont rely on it solely) is using DA as a measure of its strength. You can read up on this someplace else as I dont have time to create a guide.

Good luck

I really like checking out domains before I buy them with ahrefs.com and you can use the free trial like
3 times a day but it is limited.