{"id":1293,"date":"2026-06-11T08:53:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T08:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.domcop.com\/blog\/?p=1293"},"modified":"2026-06-11T08:53:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T08:53:48","slug":"expired-domains-under-100-case-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.domcop.com\/blog\/expired-domains-under-100-case-study\/","title":{"rendered":"I Reviewed 69 Expired Domains Under $100. Only 3 Made the Cut\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Many expired domain guides make the process sound easy. Find a domain with good metrics, check the backlinks, and buy it before someone else does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after spending real time in the expired domain space, I can tell you it\u2019s never that straightforward. A domain can have hundreds of backlinks and still be a terrible purchase. It might have been abandoned for years, repurposed multiple times, or tied to a history you want absolutely nothing to do with. Metrics tell part of the story, but they don\u2019t tell you everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So instead of relying on theory, I decided to run a simple experiment: find quality expired domains for under $100 and see how many would still look attractive after a closer inspection. Let\u2019s walk through the full expired domain under $100 case study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 1: Building a List of Affordable Expired Domains<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first challenge in this expired domain case study was finding domains worth reviewing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without filters, expired domain databases contain thousands of listings. Going through them manually would take forever. So I turned to DomCop<\/a>, an expired domain search engine that pulls authority scores, backlink data<\/a>, and pricing into one place. It\u2019s not free, but for anyone serious about finding quality expired domains, it\u2019s absolutely worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019d rather start without spending anything, expireddomains.net<\/a> is a solid free alternative. It won\u2019t give you the same depth of data, and you\u2019ll need to jump between different tools to vet each domain properly, but it\u2019s a perfectly reasonable starting point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to DomCop. From the dashboard, I selected \u201cExpired Domains\u201d and clicked \u201cAdvanced\u201d to open the full set of filters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot<\/a>
Screenshot of the DomCop dashboard showing expired domain listings and advanced search filters\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Filters I Used<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My goal at this stage wasn\u2019t to find perfect domains. It was to cut out the obvious junk without making the results so narrow that I\u2019d have nothing left to work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot<\/a>
Screenshot of the DomCop advanced filters used to narrow down expired domain search results<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here are all the filters<\/a> I set and why:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maximum price: $100.<\/strong> This felt like a realistic budget for most people looking to buy expired domains<\/a> without going overboard. No point spending more when the goal is to find affordable options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extensions: .com, .net, and .org only.<\/strong> These three extensions have the broadest appeal and recognition. Filling the results with niche TLDs like .io or .co would have made it harder to find domains with universal utility, so I kept it simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minimum Domain Authority: 10 and Page Authority: 10.<\/strong> These are intentionally low numbers. Setting the bar too high would have wiped out many affordable domains before I even had a chance to investigate them. Ten is just enough to filter out the truly weak options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minimum referring domains: 10.<\/strong> Domains with fewer than 10 referring domains usually don\u2019t have enough backlink history to make the analysis worthwhile. Ten is the floor, not the goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHOIS age and Wayback Machine age: 3 years minimum.<\/strong> A domain that has been registered and actively used for at least three years is far more likely to have a real history worth investigating. Fresh domains or ones with gaps in their Wayback Machine records often turn out to be thin or unreliable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minimum Trust Flow: 8 and Citation Flow: 10.<\/strong> Trust Flow measures the quality of links pointing to a domain, while Citation Flow measures the volume. Setting both at a low minimum was enough to cut out the weakest candidates without making the search too tight. I didn\u2019t want to miss affordable gems by setting these too high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listing types: Bargain Bin and Counter Offer included.<\/strong> At first, I removed these and focused only on straightforward buy-now listings. The results became too limited. Once I added Bargain Bin and Counter Offer back in, the pool grew to a much more workable size. Worth knowing if you run into the same issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After applying all of these DomCop filters<\/a>, I exported the results to a CSV file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot<\/a>
Screenshot of DomCop search results displaying expired domains that matched the selected filters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The final list contained 69 domains. On paper, many of them looked promising. Decent authority scores, years of registration history, and some with hundreds of referring domains. But expired domains<\/a> have a habit of looking far better in a spreadsheet than they do in real life, and that\u2019s exactly why the next step matters so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 2: Digging Into the History of Each Domain<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With the spreadsheet ready, I moved on to the part that I find most interesting about this whole process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Numbers help narrow a list, but they can\u2019t tell you what a domain has actually been used for over the years. To uncover that story, I used two tools: Ahrefs Backlink Checker<\/a> for backlink analysis and the Wayback Machine<\/a> for domain history<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve never used the Wayback Machine before, it lets you view archived snapshots of websites from different points in time. In other words, you can see exactly what used to live on a domain long before it expired. That matters more than most people realise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think about it this way. You find a domain with strong authority metrics and hundreds of backlinks. It looks like a bargain. But then you pull up the Wayback Machine and discover the site spent several years as a gambling redirect before the owner abandoned it. Those metrics suddenly look a lot less impressive, don\u2019t they?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For each domain, I checked snapshots across multiple years rather than just looking at a single point in time. I wanted to answer a few simple questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n