If you have the chance to buy from someone who doesn’t know the full value of his/her domain, this is your best case seller.  When it comes to IDNs, Afternic is an excellent place to “steal” a domain for cheap.  There are thousands of IDNs.  I just combed through the lists and found a number of premiums that are unpriced or are in the $1k-$3k range.  Currently, you should take a look and capitalize while the pricing inefficiencies still abound.

My favorite way to buy an IDN is to do a whois search for the domain (whois.sc), and look for owners that only own a few domains rather than domainers.  They are less likely to know a domain’s true value and more likely to give you a deal.  Then email them politely with an offer.  As a recipient of many of these requests to price my domains, a few tips could go a long way in not turning off a seller:

1. Never send automated emails, that is spam, and your emails should be personalized listing the domain name, the owner name and your suggested offer (which should be reasonable, not an insult).

2. Always praise the value of the domain (never say stuff like: “XYZ.de isn’t such a good domain because of the extension but I’ll be glad to take it off your hands for $100…”).  Remember you don’t want to offend the domain owner.

3.  Never ever say that you see the domainer isn’t properly using the domain, or your kid has the same name as the domain, so therefore the seller should give it to you for cheap.  This doesn’t work because the seller wants to feel like he/she is getting a fair market price.

Bottom line: look at Afternic, BuyDomains (can be hit or miss), and other large portfolio holders for a great IDN for cheap — since they have so much and are focused on English names that their IDNs aren’t yet properly priced.  Also, send a few whois based emails to IDN holders of smaller portfolios who are not necessarily in the domain industry and don’t fully understand their domains’ value.