A WebmasterWold thread has discussion on the strategy of buying domains, expired or soon to expire domains, to build links quickly.

A member of the forum asked if people still use this as a strategy. The SEO said:

There are many articles discussing how Google handles expired domains. Danny has a nice one with Google’s Matt Cutts over here, plus we have at least two pieces on this topic.

Wheel in the forum suggested, “that there are places where you can grab a domain as it drops (i.e. before it actually drops). That’s probably the way to do this.” Moderator, martinibuster, agreed but added:

This is an excellent thread on the topic of expired domains and link building.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWold.