Your marketing strategy must also include branding, :-| the domain name help your visitors get to the site easily and help them remember the site address if it is simple. ;)

I think the domain name that relates with your subject and field should be given priority.

Yep, to determine fair price of your domain sedo is good place, you can park your domain there as well.

namepro and namefourms, have relevant section for domain appraisal.

Getting hosting from the same registrar where you've registered your domain name is always a mess. Secondly I would suggest one should register domain name independently for your good control on it...

I don't think that the domain is useless without history. If you've unique and rare domain name even without an operational website, you can get a good price.