MJ - Purchase an existing Web site that has a history, and several backlinks. Even if you don’t intend on having your new Web site exist on this particular domain, 301 redirect the domain to your new domain and still pass along some value.

While the age value of the domain can’t be passed along, the backlinks associated with that domain certainly can be passed along through 301 redirects. Mind you, some in our industry consider this to be a “gray hat” SEO tactic. Link.