Best way to check for traffic with expired domain names

I'm reasonable new to the game of buying and selling domain names, and I was wondering about expired domains.

I'm familiar with the icann dropping, deleting, and auctioning. If the expired domain name is already publicly available for register, what's the best way to check if it has type-in and search engine traffic?

I've seen some domain tools that check alexa, PR, and other things but I'm not sure how to use those to see if it's actually getting a good amount of traffic.

Thanks

 

The only real one that I can think of from the top of my head is Alexa. However I'm not sure as to how accurate their stats are.

I would be interested in what people have to reccomend too.

Anyone know of any good sites for this?

 

Best way to check is to buy the domain name.

 

Well I suppose you are right about that. I guess I should rephrase my question a bit:

What's the best way to check expired domain names for traffic WITHOUT registering them?

 

I bet it's true))

Alexa, PageRank checking tools, amount of backlinks...