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This is a difficult one to answer, as Google as explicitly stated that if you use 301 redirects to do this, your ranking will not be affected. On the other hand, I have heard 1-2 SEO professionals say that they have found otherwise. Hope this is helpful! Zack

If you're able to score just as many links as you think you can over time the top-level domain shouldn't matter. Overall you're likely better off picking a .com name as it's more common but in itself the impact or difference in a TLD is minimal. It surely shouldn't be the only reason in my opinion on why you would want to switch TLDs as that process will likely hurt SEO more.