Someone is selling a parked domain that has a PR of 5. The starting bid is only $300, so it sounds like a good deal doesn't it? Maybe it is, but it's only when you do a little digging around that you discover that you'd have to do some work to keep that PR5 if you bought it.

Using Yahoo! Site Explorer, we can see that there are 16 links to the domain itself.

These inbound links are links that Yahoo! has found to this URL only - i.e. links to the domain. If we change the "to" drop down list to be "Entire Site", we can see that there are now 60 inbound links to the site.

That means that there are 44 links to internal pages of the site that aren't the home page. All these links contribute to the PR of the hompage, as internal links usually link back to the homepage (we'll assume this to be the case). That means that without those 44 links, the PR is likely to go down at the next public Google toolbar export. The problem is that the seller is selling the domain only - there is no site attached and so those 44 links are to pages that are now missing. These links need to be addressed. If you simply buy the domain and leave it as it is, the chances are that it won't be a PR5 for long.

There are two ways to deal with those valuable links to missing pages, and the first way is preferable:

1. Create new pages with the same URLs as the missing pages. In effect, you are reinstating the misisng pages and retaining the value of those links. There is more than just a search engine benefit to be had in doing this, though. Visitors who click on those links will expect to arrive at the page described by the link, so if you reinstate the missing page you will keep them happy. The reinstated page needn't be an exact word for word replica, but it's a good idea to keep the "purpose" the same. That is, if the missing page was about vacuum cleaners, don't put a page about pecan pie recipes there. Even if you reinstate missing pages, it may be difficult to keep the URLs the same, especially if you're using a content management system. If you end up with different URLs, you wll have to redirect the old to the new.
2. Redirect all of the 44 links to the home page. This is the clumsy but quick way to deal with those pesky links to pesky missing pages. You will retain the PR, but your visitors may be disappointed when they click on one of those links and arrive at a page that doesn't satisfy their needs.

Whichever method you choose, there is still work involved to implement it, the cost of which should be factored into your valuation. There is also the risk that even after addressing those links, the PR goes down.