Estimating potential value of expiring domains

Looking for thoughts on quick estimates

[bluntforce]

I've been looking at expiring domains and doing Y! backlink checks on those I think might have some potential, or possibly could be developed into something with potential.
That's fairly slow and time-consuming so I'd hate to turn it into a regular "job".

There are various bulk PR checkers available, but even if I find some domains still retaining some possible PR, their backlink profile isn't something I'd be interested in.

While we can't mention individual tools, has anyone tried a set of procedures to reduce the mind-numbing practice of individually going through manual domain checks? I don't really want to hit any of the search engines with a huge amount of automated requests, but I'm thinking the only possible way to accomplish my objective is exactly that.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

[Insomniak]

Kind of hard to answer without mentioning specific tools since there are ones that do exactly what you are looking for.

There is a free website that lets you check backlinks, PR, age, google results and more.

If we can't say it here maybe you can google it.

[minnapple]

I have had custom bots built to perform such operations.
But even then I still need to evaluate each domain to determine its true value.
My best performing domains are the ones that I first selected a target market, and then searched for openings.

[Webwork]

Ya, there's all sorts of free tools available and all it takes is a search query to find most.

The problem is that everyone else is using the publicly available tools, so the competitive advantage and/or utility of using them is undermined.

The folks who really know what they are doing, and who will beat most others most of the time, build their own tools + have a depth of knowledge.

Succinctly put, free tools are mostly for digging through trash. A big reason we don't allow folks to post about most tools is that the highest and best value of most "free tools" is realized not by the user but by the person(s) promoting the tools in forums and then attempting to up-sell users or otherwise bury users in CPM ads.

[edited by: Webwork at 9:13 pm (utc) on Nov. 16, 2008]

[bluntforce]

Per multiple suggestions, I re-visited sites I'd been to where various "bulk" type tools were offered. Bought one, started running checks yesterday, then got S.E. blocked around 2 a.m. Restarted this morning with a throttled down version and although it's slow, it's doing what it's supposed to.

While there is still the feeling of digging through the trash looking for potential in a half dozen niches, at least it's not blind digging based on niche keyword in URL.

I'm sure I'll refine the process as I go along, but thanks for the replies pointing me back to what should have been very obvious in the first place.